The 20th Century composer Giacinto Scelsi wrote works for a great variety of instrumental forces. He is mainly known for his "one-note" works, whose basic idea is to base all of the pitches of a work on a single sonority and create drama through microtonal glissandi, timbral development and various layering techniques. His earlier works are more Bartokian (to me at least), and his larger orchestral works have a very dramatic "epic" feel to them.
One of the most interesting aspects of Scelsi's work technique is that he composed by tape recording an "improvisation" on an ondiola (an electronic keyboard-like device, with pitch-bend, etc...), and eventually a assistants would transcribe these tape recordings. Works for non-solo ensembles were recorded one part at a time, and fitted into a full score. His improvisations seem to be quite different from the kind found in jazz, however. From most appearances, these sessions came from long periods of conceptualization, and only after some time were the parts recorded "extemporaneously". After the tapes were transcribed, Scelsi went over the scores and made additional changes to further refine them in order to get the contours that he was looking for. Much more information can be found on Todd McComb and Frances-Marie Uitti's sites.
Todd M. McComb has written very thoroughly about Scelsi and describes his four "periods" as follows:
- Somewhat more "conventional" works.
- Works immediately following his crisis/breakthrough, most of which have a "searching" sort of quality to them, and a more improvisational feel featuring wide motion.
- Scelsi's most characteristic music, expansive & elegant, following on the landmark exploration of single notes in the Quattro pezzi. Here is the real structural role for timbre, with a more minimalist orientation in other areas.
- A time during which Scelsi's music became more severe and ascetic, so that many of these works are very short. They can also be more melodic in some sense, and represent something of a return to the improvisational style of the 2nd Period, but from within the new timbral perspective.
In the descriptions below, I coined the word "monotonal" to mean that the work is based on "one-note". In reality, these "monotonal" works are actually closer to the idea of "bandwidth" in electronic music, in that a cluster of pitch frequencies may fill the space between upper and lower limit frequencies. Monotonal harmony means that there are multiple "bandwidths" (or central pitches) being manipulated. The "nutshell" descriptions below are obviously biased by my own musical tastes and impressions (and yes, criminally brief), but I think this resource may be useful as a "map" for plotting one's own journey through Scelsi's works.
Jump to:
2nd Period: More exploratory works.
3rd Period: The classic works.
4th Period: Ascetic works, sometime incorporating more melodic elements.
| 1st
Period: These are the more "conventional" works before Scelsi went through his crisis and radically altered his compositional stance. |
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| Year | Title | Instrumentation | Musical Texture/Basic Impression |
| 1929 | Rotativa | Symphonic poem w 3 pianos, winds
and percussion version for 2 pianos and percussion 1938 |
rhythmic, almost Gershwin-esque, repeated rising, building phrases (inspired by Futurism) |
| 1930 /34 | Suite No. 2 "The Twelve Minor Prophets" |
piano | Late Romantic, Scriabin |
| 1930 -40 | 40 Preludes | piano | Everything from Bartokian explorations to 12-tone (excellent liner notes) |
| 1933 | Tre canti di primavera | voice and piano | Late romantic |
| 1934 | Poemi (4 Poems) | piano | Late Romantic, improvisatory |
| 1934 | Sonata | violin and piano | little bit like Ravel |
| 1935 | Suite No. 5 "Il Circo" |
piano | 10 rhythmic "dances", between Debussy and Bartok |
| 1936 /40 | 24 Preludes | piano | Everything from Bartokian explorations to 12-tone (excellent liner notes) |
| 1938 /39 | Suite No. 6 "I Capricci di Ty" |
piano | 15 parts, Rhythmic phrases in irregular bursts, more usage of tremolo, circular forms, generally darker than previous Suite |
| 1939 | Hispania (Triptych) | piano | Some monotonal elements, but with influence of Debussy and Bartok |
| 1939 | Sonata No. 2 | piano | post-Romantic, some Bartok, Prokofiev |
| 1939 | Sonata No. 3 | piano | some Debussy, some Bartok, Schoenberg |
| 1941 | Sonata No. 4 | piano | post-Romantic, some Bartok, chromaticism but rhythmic |
| 1943/45 | Ballata | cello and piano (or orchestra) |
Like Bartok (Bluebeard…) or Berg |
| 1944 | String Quartet No. 1 | string quartet version for string orchestra 1962/72 |
Motivic, early 20th C. (Bartok, Grieg, Shosty, etc..) |
| 1946 /48 | La Nascita del Verbo | Cantata mixed choir and orchestra | dramatic, filmic, gothic |
| 1950 | Trio | vibraphone, marimba and percussion | starts rhythmic, colorful, later section becomes more polyrhythmic |
| 2nd
Period: These are the works immediately following on the crisis, most of which have a "searching" sort of quality to them, and a more improvisational feel featuring wide motion. |
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| Year | Title | Instrumentation | Musical Texture/Basic Impression |
| 1952 | Suite No. 8
"Bot-Ba" (Evocation of Tibet with its monasteries on high mountain summits: Tibetan rituals, prayers and dances) |
piano | ornamentation, ostinati around limited pitches, slow harmonic movement |
| 1953 | Cinque incantesimi | piano | late romantic but much more chromatic |
| 1953 | Piccola suite (Suite for Flute & Bb Clarinet) | flute and clarinet | Playful dialogue/duet, similar language to Stockhausen's Amour |
| 1953 | Quattro Illustrazioni ("Four illustrations of the metamorphoses of Vishnu") |
piano | ornamental and rhythmic around tonal centers, M2 infl. By futurism |
| 1953 | Quays | alto flute | long held pedal tones are ornamented in different registers (somewhat Asiatic) |
| 1953 | Suite No. 9
"Ttai" (A succession of episodes which alternatively express time -- or more precisely, time in motion and man as symbolized by cathedrals or monasteries, with the sound of the sacred 'Om') |
piano | ornamentation, ostinati around limited pitches, slow harmonic movement |
| 1954 | Preghiera per un ombra ("Prayer for a shadow") | Bb clarinet | playful, lots of register leaping |
| 1954 | Pwyll | flute | central tones w different tails, trills, ornamentation |
| 1954 | Suite No. 10 "Ka" |
piano | circular examinations on short motives, Bartokian |
| 1954 | Tre Pezzi (Three studies) |
Eb clarinet | I: central tones w different
tails, tremolo octave leaps, ornamentation II: wailing w microtones III: looping arpeggios with variations, tremolo octave leaps |
| 1954 -58 | Yamaon | bass voice and alto sax, baritone sax, contra-basoon, double bass, percussion | 3 parts, rhythmic and polyphonic, ornamentation around central tones w tremoli, etc…nonsense syllables/slow recitative/rhythmic, jazzy, less polyphonic, dramatic |
| 1955 | Action Music | piano | monotonal but sometimes circular, clusters, driving and percussive |
| 1955 | Coelocanth (I-III) | viola | changing tonal centers with ornamentation, somewhat religious feel in I and II |
| 1955 | Divertimento No. 3 | violin | melodic, sometimes ethnic (Gypsy), sometimes religious |
| 1955 | Divertimento No. 4 | violin | melodic, virtuosic, sometimes ethnic (Gypsy) |
| 1955 | Hyxos | alto flute in G, 2 gongs and cow-bell | lyrical, ritualistic, pastoral |
| 1956 | Quattro Pezzi for Trumpet alone |
trumpet | melodic, nostalgic |
| 1956 | Ixor | reed Bb clarinet, oboe, saxophone | playful, patient, tremoli and ornaments around central tones |
| 1956 | Suite No. 11 | piano | circular examinations on short motives, Bartokian |
| 1956 | Three Studies | viola | changing tonal centers with ornamentation, somewhat Hungarian, some ferocious moments in II and III |
| 1956 | Tre Pezzi (Three Pieces) | sopr. saxophone or bass trumpet | lyrical, virtuosic, based on thematic elements but also central tones |
| 1957 | Rucke di guck | piccolo and oboe | playful dialogue, sometimes like bird calls, III is somewhat triumphant |
| 1957 | Tre Pezzi (Three Pieces) | trombone | variations on single notes, but with rhythmic and melodic ornamentation, II has mute, III has most melodic ornamentation |
| 1957 /65 | Trilogy: "Triphon, Dithome, Ygghur" |
cello | These use special resonators
attached to the bridges. Triphon - virtuosic, microtonal, Dithome - more central tones, Ygghur - more monotonal w gliss, almost ethnic |
| 1958 | I presagi ("The Omens") |
9 brass instruments and percussion (or 11 instruments) | fanfare of polyphonic ornamentation around a central harmony/slow, monotonal swells/ominous trilling fanfares w perc. |
| 1958 | String Trio | string trio | slow, monotonal, contrapuntal microtonality, textural |
| 1958 | Tre canti popolari | 4-voice mixed choir | ornamentation around limited pitches, semi-polyphonic long tones |
| 1958 | Tre canti sacri | 8-voice mixed choir | ornamentation around limited pitches, semi-polyphonic long tones, bending harmonies |
| 1958 /66 | Elegia per Ty | viola and cello | slow, monotonal, contrapuntal microtonality, textural |
| 1959 | Kya | Bb clarinet (or saxophone) and seven instruments | ornamentation around a center tone, then monotonal, then lyrical but around a central tone |
| 3rd
Period: This is Scelsi's most characteristic music, expansive & elegant, following on the landmark exploration of single notes in the Quattro pezzi. Here is the real structural role for timbre with a more minimalist orientation in other areas. |
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| Year | Title | Instrumentation | Musical Texture/Basic Impression |
| 1959 | Quattro pezzi su una nota sola
("Four pieces each on a single note") |
chamber orchestra | monotonal harmony, glissandi, intermittent climaxes of different textures |
| 1960 | Hô: "Five Songs" | soprano voice | ornamentation around limited pitches, octave leaps, various dialectical styles |
| 1960 | Hurqualia ("A Different Realm") |
large orchestra, with amplified instruments | slow harmonies but with driving rhythms and fanfares, epic, foreboding, violent |
| 1960 | Wo-Ma | bass voice | ornamentation around limited pitches, moderate tempo |
| 1961 | Aiôn (Aion): "Four Episodes in One Day of Brahma" |
orchestra | slow, epic, ancient, regal, mystical, massive, monotonal harmony, some microtonal cluster harmonies and percussion bursts |
| 1961 | String Quartet No. 2 | string quartet | monotonal harmony, rising pitch center, staccato elements |
| 1962 | Khoom "Seven episodes of an unwritten tale of love and death in a distant land" |
soprano voice, horn, string quartet & percussion | wide vibrato, microtonal voice w drone brass/strings, perc accents, sometimes fiery, pizz rhythms, each episode a different arrangement |
| 1962 | Lilitu | female voice | dynamic vibrato, siren-like |
| 1962 | Riti ("Ritual March") |
version for Achilles (3 or 4
percussionists) version for Alessandro Magno (Alexander the Great) (tuba, double bass, contra-bassoon, electric organ & percussion 1963) version for Carlo Magno (Charlemagne) (also ver for cello and 2 percussionists 1967) |
ritualistic |
| 1962 | Taiagarù ("Five Invocations") |
soprano voice | melodic, dialogue, sometimes like a game |
| 1963 | Chukrum | string orchestra | slow, sustained clusters and chords w microtonal glissandi, changing central tones, some foreground staccato bowing, pizz, etc… |
| 1963 | Hymnos | organ and 2 orchestras | slow, sustained w microtonal glissandi, changing central tones, big chords, quiet middle section w reduced voices, huge, gothic ending |
| 1963 | String Quartet No. 3 | string quartet | monotonal harmony, clusters, glissandi |
| 1964 | String Quartet No. 4 | string quartet | monotonal harmony, often tremolo, a few plucks, changing register shapes |
| 1964 | Xnoybis | violin | monotonal w pizz., double-voicing, microtones, octaves, etc…(qrtr tone trills) |
| 1964 | Yliam | female choir | monotonal held harmonies, with individual solo noises surfacing, creepy like Ligeti |
| 1965 | Anagamin | 12 strings | monotonal, mostly sustained harmonies/harmonics, w over-bowing textures, low swells |
| 1965 | Anahit: "Lyric Poem on the name of Venus" |
violin concerto (1 + 18) | monotonal harmonies (sometimes diatonic), changing central tones (more than usual), microtonal violin solo, various trilling, etc... |
| 1965 | Duo (2 movements) | violin and cello version for violin and double bass 1977 |
monotonal duo, tremolo, harmonics, etc… |
| 1965 /67 | Elohim | 10 strings | low swells alternating with high sustained harmonies, middle section monotonal, later wall of harmonics |
| 1966 | Ko-Lho I & II | flute and clarinet | held microtonal harmonies, interrupted by brief melodic excursions |
| 1966 | Ohoi: ("The Creative Principles") |
16 strings | held microtonal harmonies, glissandi, different rates of tremoli, 1st half quiet, then more dynamic |
| 1966 | Uaxuctum: "The Legend of the Maya City which destroyed itself for religious reasons" |
4 vocal soloists, ondes martenot solo, mixed choir and orchestra | slow, epic, ancient, primal, mystical, massive |
| 1967 | CKCKC (2 parts) | voice and mandolin | semi-rhythmic mandolin attacks on an open chord with knocks, whispering, string slapping, chanting, vaguely American Indian-like |
| 1967 | Ko-Tha: "Three Dances of Shiva" |
guitar version double bass 1972 version six-string cello 1978 |
attacks on an open chord with
knocks, string slapping, etc… bass version dramatically rearranged, features bowing, prepared strings also |
| 1967 | Manto I, II, III | viola and voice | microtonal double-voicing, harmonics, tandem voice in III, generally lamenting feel |
| 1967 | Natura renovatur | 11 strings, adapted from String Quartet 4 | monotonal harmony, often tremolo, a few plucks, changing register shapes |
| 1968 | Okanagon | harp, tam-tam & double bass | prepared harp strings (rattling), slow even attacks, increasing in pulsations, "knocking" dialogues |
| 1968 | TKRDG | 6-voice male choir, electric guitar and 2 percussionists | polyrhythmic, ritualistic, based on a central chord shape, sometimes Morricone-western-like, sometimes African, 3rd part is irregular rhythms, octaves, polyphonic |
| 1969 | Konx-Om-Pax | mixed choir, and orchestra | somewhat similar in mood to Uaxuctum , monotonal, tight sliding harmonies, quiet layer of high pizz in I, dramatic climax in II, chorus in III with short "OM" pulses, a few isolated percussive attacks, intense ending |
| 4th
Period: This is a time during which Scelsi's music became more severe and ascetic, so that many of these works are very short. They can also be more melodic in some sense, and represent something of a return to the improvisational style of the Second Period, but from within the new timbral perspective. |
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| Year | Title | Instrumentation | Musical Texture/Basic Impression |
| 1962 - 72 | Canti del Capricorno (20) | soprano | "jagged chant-like monody that resembles glossolalia (speaking in tongues)", w perc. Overtone singing, sax, perc., etc., folk melodies |
| 1970 | Antifona "on the name of Jesus" | male choir | slow and even melodic refrains, call and response |
| 1970 | Le grand sanctuaire: "Il est grand temps" & "Même si je voyais" |
2 pieces tenor voice | patient, melodic |
| 1970 | Three Latin Prayers: "Ave Maria, Pater noster, Alleluia" |
voice or choir also for clarinet solo |
slow and even melodic refrains |
| 1972 | Pranam I ("In memory of the tragic losses of Jani and Sia Christou") |
soprano voice, 12 instruments & tape | monotonal, sustained microtonal (sometimes sliding intervals), gong-like percussion hits |
| 1972 /1977 | Nuits: "C'est bien la nuit" & "Le Réveil profond" |
double bass | monotonal sustained on 1 chord |
| 1973 | Arc-en-ciel | two violins | monotonal, sustained microtonal |
| 1973 | L'ame ailee | violin | monotonal, sustained microtonal (sometimes sliding intervals) |
| 1973 | L'ame ouverte | violin | monotonal, sustained microtonal (sometimes sliding intervals, performer counts note beating) |
| 1973 | Pranam II | nine instruments | sustained polyphonic layers based on a central harmony |
| 1973 | Sauh I & II ("Liturgy") |
two female voices | ornamentation around limited pitches, semi-polyphonic long tones, sometimes w vibrato |
| 1973 | Sauh III & IV | four female voices | ornamentation around limited pitches, semi-polyphonic long tones, sometimes w vibrato |
| 1974 | Aitsi | electronically prepared piano | isolated clusters with different resonance decays, some single tones intruding |
| 1974 | Et maintenant c'est à vous de jouer | cello and double bass | monotonal, sustained microtonal, dramatic and sometimes fiery |
| 1974 | In Nomine Lucis | electric organ, 2 pieces | sustained polyphonic layers based on a central harmony, harmony becomes more complex, generally epic and profound |
| 1974 | Manto "per quattro" | voice, flute, trombone and cello | siren-like, wailing, enigmatic vocal over static monotonal harmony |
| 1974 | Pfhat: "A flash... and the sky opened!" |
mixed choir and large orchestra | sustained tones and clusters, ethereal ending |
| 1974 | To the master | cello and piano | melodic, Asian scales, yearning but with abrupt tonal changes |
| 1975 | Dharana | cello and double bass | monotonal sustained harmony |
| 1975 | Kshara | two doubles basses | monotonal sustained harmony, sudden dynamic shifts in I, tight microtones in II, harmonics in III |
| 1976 | Maknongan | low-voice instrument: double bass, contra-bassoon, contrabass clarinet, etc. | ornamentation around a pedal tone |
| 1962 /76 |
Riti | I Funeral di Carlo Magno (Charlemagne) for cello and percussion | monotonal sustained harmony, rolling background thunder |
| 1978 /88 | Un Adieu | piano | slow gong-like chords with melody like Debussy |
| 1985 | String Quartet No. 5 | string quartet | adapted from Aitsi, monotonal sustained harmonies fading from plucked attacks |
| 1986 | Krishna and Rada (Radha) "Improvisation with Carin Levine" |
flute and piano | rolling piano harmonies with leaping, active flute |
| 1987 | Mantram | double bass | ethnic folk melody |
Links
Wiki Entry
Todd McComb's Scelsi Reference Site
Frances-Marie Uitti (cellist and Scelsi expert)
"Bringing a Reclusive Composer to Light" (Paul Griffiths)
"UNA NOTA SOLA: GIACINTO SCELSI AND THE GENESIS OF MUSIC ON A SINGLE NOTE" (Gregory N. Reish)
"Scelsi's Approach to the Third Dimension of Sound" (Elezovic)
"Scelsi, De-composer" (Tristan Murail)
