Voci dell’Ombra (Voices from the Shadow) The madrigals of the Renaissance composer, Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, have interested me for some time with their articulate mode of expression and their rich and mysterious musical textures. I have chosen six madrigals from the composer’s fifth book of madrigals to set for piano and solo soprano voice. Above all, my goal was to capture
the expression and drama of text found in Gesualdo’s five part vocal writing, selecting freely from the each of the voices to construct my recomposition of the music for a single voice. I also desired to create a piano accompaniment that orchestrated the harmonic and rhythmic contrasts that are so prevalent in these Madrigals. The end result, stylistically, spands the pre-reanaissance and post-reanaissance periods of music with my own predilection for complex textures and sonorities found in my own orignial music. These pieces were composed in collaboration with the Italian
soprano, Anglea Nisi, who was so generous with her comments regarding the setting of the Italian words and vocal technique required to perform the pieces. Finally, I am appreciative of Nick Ceramella for his translations of the texts into English and his assistance in interpreting the meaning of the Italian words.