Modal constraints and chromatism in Gesualdo’s late madrigals.

Abstract

the analysis of Gesualdo’s late madrigals allows an unusual approach of the question of
polyphonic modality. the analytical procedure is fourfold : 1) evidencing the recurrence,
even in the most chromatic madrigals, of characteristic schemes of the composer,
constituting the modal structure; 2) interpreting the harmonic foreground as a chromatic
defiguration of a harmonic structure defined by the important poles of the mode; 3)
establishing a hierarchy of the harmonics statements and evidencing a modal structure of
the madrigal as a whole; 4) reintegrating the mobile scale steps as factors in the harmonic
structure. the successive affirmations of the scale steps aim at establishing a coherent
hierarchy within the diatony, and the modes appear as terms of a differential system.