Someone uploaded Werner Herzog’s grisly 1996 documentary about Carlo Gesualdo, Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices, in six parts on YouTube.

Gesualdo was known for murdering his wife and her lover as well as composing madrigals with an unusual chromaticism for his time (the late 16th century).

My favorite part: a man goes through the castle, now overgrown with plants, playing music into the cracks of the building, to make sure Gesualdo’s spirit does not escape. Also, after the murders, Gesualdo apparently tried to cut down the forest near his castle all by himself. As a person in the film notes “It’s like something out of Macbeth.”

Oh, and he may have killed his infant son by having servants push him on a swing for three days straight while a choir sang next to him. Seriously Herzog-y stuff here.

The first part is embedded above; you can get to the other five through the YouTube page.

(via ted_gordon)