By BARTON BUND

Meeting the world's foremost expert on Composer Carlo Gesualdo is as intimidating as it might sound. The musicologist and author is almost singlehandedly responsible for reviving the work of the infamous murderer/genius chromaticist.

He and Stravinsky (yes, that Stravinsky) reassembled ancient scores, and made connections to fill in the missing pieces. Gesualdo's work was nearly buried after his death. His controversial murder of his wife and her lover, not to mention the extreme difficulty in performing his music, left the music unperformed for centuries.

Watkins hosted Jeanine DeLay and I in his home, and while he declined to record an audio interview with us, he was gracious in allowing us to write about the meeting. Now in his 80s, Watkins lives in Ann Arbor and has recently published The Gesualdo Hex, a reflection on music, genius, and history.

Music, he says, in itself, is just sound. And while music is used as a vehicle for many different messages (think of Wagner's antisemitism or Bob Dylan's protest songs), the music itself is beyond moral judgment. In Gesualdo, one can interpret the sound, and knowing the backstory of the troubled man, one could say that the music is full of pain and self-loathing. Take the lyrics away, even, and hear the music. It's a haunting, dark sound.

But Watkins points out that in his time, Gesualdo's crime was permissible. It was not uncommon for noblemen to kill their unfaithful wives, and in fact, it was the code of the time. It was expected, and the law could not stop him. He escaped his castle in Gesualdo and fled for Ferrar, where he took a new wife, and arrived in the city just as new musical forms were dawning. He was the right man at the right time, and his compositions were revolutionary, new, and altered the course of music forever. This was the dawn of opera. New music. His time in Ferrar was his most prolific and important.

Oscar Wilde said that from the point of view of form, all arts aspire to that of the musician. Music is, we discussed, quite possibly the highest art form. The perfection that musical composition can achieve is quite possibly unobtainable in other arts. From the point of view of emotion, continued Wilde, all arts aspire to that of the actor. Music requires a performer, and a good one, to make it successful. Gesualdo's compositions are known for their difficulty. They are demanding pieces of music, both from a technical and an emotional point of view. With modern recording techniques, the clarity and quality of a composition in the perfect moment of performance can be preserved and captured. Gesualdo's scores were scattered, the individual parts had to be collected, and it was not until the mid-20th century, through the passion and the divine timing of Watkins and Stravinsky, that we have the music as we know it now.

Watkins had two of the parts from a library. Another part was in a collection in Bologna. Stravinsky was due to arrive in Vienna, where he was always in a good mood, and they met, and still had parts missing. So they followed the music, tracked where the parts went, and created the missing parts. The music now is much like a Shakespeare folio, pieced together from individual parts. The full compositions were never collected together in one place. The handwritten parts were given to individuals, and a full score was almost impossible to find.

Watkins has an iPod. He has a piano, and a pair of reading glasses there, on top of a pile of old scores. He goes to the gym every day, keeps a tidy home, knows wine, and was more than happy to bring us in. Who are these people who love Gesualdo?, he wanted to know. He wished we had been able to bring conductor Ben Cohen with us. His musical knowledge, with Jeanine's ethics brain, and my curiosity made for the kind of discussion that I wish I had more often.

When talking to smart people, I try to listen as best I can. I try not to speak up until I know what I'm saying. This was not a place where bullshit would get you very far. We spoke of history, and I was glad to have gone in with a bit of background on Stravinsky, such as the riot after the premiere of The Rite of Spring.

The music and dancing was controversial at the time. A riot broke out and property was damaged, but perhaps the show had not found its audience yet. The four nights that followed were calm, and successful. The dancing was unconventional. The rhythms were strong. The music was new. New forms tend to upset people. Maybe the first audience had to be burned so that the true audience could come and enjoy it. The purist approach to music will leave you very disappointed. You have to listen with your ears. It is good to know history too, but when something new comes about, you have to be able to take it all in. The same is true of all art. Sound is amoral. It is not wrong, nor is it right. It is music, that is all.

I quoted Duke Ellington to Watkins: "There are just two kinds of music. Good music and bad music."

"Now you're talking about my music," Watkins said. This is a man who knows music first-hand.