Mo(nu)mento di Carlo Gesualdo

Igor Stravinsky culminated his own visitation of Gesualdo with the completion of three motets of the "Sacrarum cantionum liber primus" (1957 and 1959) for six and seven voices and with the re-composition of three madrigals in the "Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD Annum" (1960). The article is based on documents conserved in the Igor Stravinsky Collection of the Paul Sacher Stiftung and the Library of Congress (Washington). First, we go back to the occasions of the composers's encounters with Gesualdo and his music, and the sources and the literature that engaged him. Then, we analyse Gesualdo-Stravinsky's works and the writings on Gesualdo, signed or co-signed by Robert Craft and Stravinsky.