Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
The Gesualdo Hex : Music, Myth, and Memory - Glenn Watkins

The Gesualdo Hex

Music, Myth, and Memory

By: Glenn Watkins

Hardcover | 1 January 2010 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


$69.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $17.50 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

In this vivid tale of adultery and intrigue, witchcraft and murder, Glenn Watkins explores the fascinating life of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo--a life suffused with scandal and bordering on the fantastical. An isolated prince, Gesualdo had a personal life that was no less eccentric and bewildering than the music he composed; his biography has often clouded our perception of his oeuvre, which music scholars have periodically dismissed as a late Renaissance deformation of little consequence. Today, however, Gesualdo's music, once deemed so strange as to be unperformable, stands as one of the most vibrant legacies of the late Italian Renaissance with an undeniable impact on a host of twentieth-century musicians and artists. The incendiary details of Gesualdo's life recede, and his grip on our musical imagination comes to the fore. Watkins challenges our preconceptions of what has become a nearly mythic persona, weaving together the cumulative experience of some of the most vibrant artists of the past century from Stravinsky and Schoenberg to Abbado and Herzog. Beyond questions of mere influence, however, The Gesualdo Hex offers a profound meditation on cultural memory and historical awareness: how composers attempt to shape the legacy they will bequeath to the world, and how music and history inevitably take on a new guise as they are revisited by subsequent generations and reinterpreted in light of contemporary experience. In examining Gesualdo's life, music, myth, and memory intertwine with one another to reveal an uncanny affinity with our own time. With his elegant and engaging prose, Watkins asks us to grapple with our understanding not only of art and the artists who create it but also of history itself.
Industry Reviews
"With his second wonderfully illuminating book on Gesualdo, Watkins reconfirms the extremely significant role he has played in the further understanding of this remarkable prince's life and work." -- Brett Dean "[A] brilliant look at how cultural influences propagate through time in strange and unpredictable ways..." -- Library Journal

More in Music

You Only Live Once : The Little Guide to Drake - OH
Every Valley : The Story of Handel's Messiah - Charles King

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Even the Good Girls Will Cry : My 90s Rock Memoir - Melissa Auf der Maur

RRP $36.99

$32.99

11%
OFF
In Love and Death : The Lost Notebook - Bert McCracken

RRP $99.99

$71.75

28%
OFF
Hal Leonard Guitar Method: Book 1 (Second Edition) - Will Schmid
My First Piano Adventure Lesson Book A - Nancy Faber

RRP $22.95

$17.99

22%
OFF
Pop Songs For Kids : Sheet Music Book for Piano / Keyboard - Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
The Book of Daniel : From Silverchair to Dreams - Jeff Apter

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Piano Course - Level 2 : Lesson * Theory * Solo - Willard  Manus  Palmer
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

Paperback

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Just Kids - Patti Smith

Paperback

RRP $26.99

$21.75

19%
OFF
Willie's Bar and Grill - Rob Hirst

$32.99

How to Write One Song - Jeff Tweedy

RRP $22.99

$20.75

10%
OFF
Faith, Hope and Carnage - Nick Cave

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Average at Best : A memoir from the creator of Pub Choir® - Astrid Jorgensen
Only God Can Judge Me : The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur - Jeff Pearlman
David Gilmour - Luck and Strange - Studio/Live - Polly Samson

RRP $90.00

$79.75

11%
OFF
Night People : How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City - Mark Ronson
Wings : The Story of a Band on the Run - Paul McCartney

RRP $79.99

$58.99

26%
OFF