Veni, Veni Emmanuel

January 17, 2015 4:10 AM

The Gesualdo Six is a new group of young undergraduates and recent graduates from Cambridge who specialise in singing renaissance polyphony. Hear them sing Veni, Veni Emmanuel, a traditional carol arranged by Philip Lawson.
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots (18 comments total)

What a lovely way to start my morning. Thanks! Makes me want to sing again.
posted by grimjeer at 5:17 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

We used to sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel at school. The melody was pretty much the same, though quicker, and with less Latin.
posted by Thing at 6:16 AM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

That was great! Is it just me, or was the audio slightly off from the video?
posted by oceanjesse at 6:46 AM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Is it just me, or was the audio slightly off from the video?

oceanjesse, looks fine here...
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 7:00 AM on January 17, 2015

Is it just me, or was the audio slightly off from the video?

It's slight, and I think that's the consequence of mic positioning, not a sync problem.

This was really beautiful, by the way. Thanks!
posted by sutt at 7:02 AM on January 17, 2015

Oh, that was lovely.
posted by suelac at 8:38 AM on January 17, 2015

Suck on that, Pentatonix.
posted by ReeMonster at 9:22 AM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Here's their soundcloud page.
posted by DGStieber at 9:42 AM on January 17, 2015

Gorgeous and powerful. Thanks!

I hope they do Moro, lasso, al mio duolo. One of my favourite things ever, since I heard it in a music history class years ago. (Despite Gesualdo's personal life. Yikes. Impossible to deny his brilliance though. Complicated.) Anyway - thank you, really beautiful.
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:59 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Very nice. When I was in high school I did a report on music in the medieval period. I thought it was hilarious that they had a word for a new style of music called "polyphony" where you play/sing two different notes at one time. Still kind of do.
posted by ropeladder at 10:47 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, so lovely. Thank you.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:40 AM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

This carol and Moro, lasso, al mio duolo are absolutely stunning. There's quite a few of his compositions on youtube. LastFM, also.

..Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer and murderer.

According to some sources, Gesualdo also murdered his second son by Maria, who was an infant, after looking into his eyes and doubting his paternity...

The relationship between Gesualdo and his new wife was not good; she accused him of abuse

Holy moly, cotton dress sock, he sounds an absolute right bastard.

Both wikipedia and the link below suggest he was murdered. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, apparently

How can such talent exist within such a person?

More: glorious music and grisly murder
posted by BlueHorse at 12:05 PM on January 17, 2015

Thank you for this, Hartham's Hugging Robots - always good to find a new ensemble, especially one which sets out its stall so clearly with its name.

And thank you Cotton Dress Sock, for pointing me at Gesualdo's life - my love of early music, although still growing in passion, is piecemeal. Five minutes ago, I had absolutely no idea, and now I'm writing the screenplay for the movie (in my head: no actual screenplay will be perpetrated). What a slab of passion and tragedy. And it's also sorted out this evening, which will mostly be spent catching up with all the Gesualdo lacunae I'm suddenly aware of.

Starting with the Tenebrae Responsories, which match my mood right now with serendipity so strong it shades towards synchronicity.

MeFi: where amorous androids and formal hose combine in spiritual enrichment.
posted by Devonian at 12:15 PM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

ropeladder: When I was in high school I did a report on music in the medieval period. I thought it was hilarious that they had a word for a new style of music called "polyphony" where you play/sing two different notes at one time. Still kind of do.

I tried to simulate that for myself a while back by trying to listen to (Western) art music chronologically (and nothing else). Gregorian, Ambrosian, and old Roman chants, eventually getting to Kassiani, von Bingen, and so on.

Reaching Leonin and Perotin and hearing polyphony was shocking; I had never appreciated what they were doing so much. (reaching von Bingen and hearing someone that took care to fit the music to the text was similarly wonderful).
posted by mountmccabe at 12:39 PM on January 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

And for the curious, there Herzog's quirky personal spin on the story: Death for Five Voices. It's not my favourite Herzog documentary, and not the best presentation of Gesualdo's music, but it does have some nice moments.
posted by ovvl at 2:39 PM on January 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Can I just say, looking at their home page, that there appears to be more than six of them?
posted by newdaddy at 3:51 PM on January 17, 2015

Six singers and one director, newdaddy!
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 12:49 AM on January 18, 2015

Gesualdo was so far ahead of his time, harmonically. A lot of groups, groups I've sung in included, have trouble keeping his work in tune just because the harmonic progressions are so unusual that you can't default to old habits, you have to really study the work and understand how you're moving both tonally and in terms of voice leading. It's like singing a Heironymous Bosch painting.
posted by KathrynT at 4:52 PM on January 18, 2015