Gesualdo, Carlo (1560-1613), Prince of Venosa, was an Italian composer. He was one of the greatest composers of madrigals,songs with parts for several voices (see Madrigal). His settings of poems by the Italian Renaissance poets Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso express the inflections of the spoken verse with exquisite refinement. Gesualdo wrote six books of madrigals (1594-1596, 1611) that were far ahead of their time in harmonic complexity. He also composed religious choral works called motets and other religious songs. Gesualdo was born and died in Naples. He became an outstanding lute player (see Lute).