Giacinto Scelsi

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Giacinto Scelsi

Giacinto Scelsi [dʒaˈtʃinto ˈʃɛlsi] (born January 8, 1905 in La Spezia , Italy , † August 9, 1988 in Rome ; full title and name: Conte Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi d'Ayala Valva ) was an Italian composer and poet .

Life

Scelsi himself always tried not to let any details about his life leak to the public (for example, there is hardly a single authentic picture of him) or even deliberately falsified. The following key data can be considered certain:

Giacinto Scelsi, Count of d'Ayala Valva, came from the old southern Italian nobility. His early years are only partially known. As a child he learned to play the piano (presumably autodidactically ) , in his late youth he studied composition and harmony with Giacinto Sallustio in Rome. In the second half of the 1920s he went to Paris , led the life of a dandy in Paris and London and married an English noblewoman who was related to the British royal family who separated from him at the outbreak of World War II . Scelsi had close contact with the circle of French surrealists around Paul Éluard , Salvador Dalí and Henri Michaux . In the early 1930s he studied with the Skrjabin supporter Egon Köhler in Geneva and in 1935/1936 twelve-tone technique with the Schönberg pupil Walter Klein in Vienna . He made numerous trips, including a. to Africa and the Far East .

In the second half of the 1940s, Scelsi had a psychological crisis that led to a long stay in a Swiss sanatorium. Between 1947 and 1952 he stopped composing. In 1952 he finally settled in Rome and his creative power returned. Now, around fifty years old, he began to develop his personal style. He lived a secluded life, his music initially received little public attention. It was not until the 1980s that the number of performances increased, and his music was now widely received and discussed. His piano music was u. a. premiered by Frederic Rzewski , Marianne Schroeder and Ivar Mikhashoff.

The Giacinto Scelsi Foundation is now located in his Roman house.

Scelsi was a follower of the doctrine of reincarnation - for him his life began accordingly long before 1905. According to his own account, he was first born in 2637 BC. Born in Mesopotamia in BC , lived as an Assyrian on the Euphrates and was killed together with his wife at the time at the age of 27. Scelsi dated a second reincarnation to the time of Alexander the Great , on the occasion of whose funeral he claims to have participated in a funeral music.

music

Scelsi created a very idiosyncratic work that does not fit into the contemporary trends of modernity . His compositions contradict the European tradition of a composition practice that is based on clear authorship, and they are neither based on traditional composition techniques nor are they close to concepts of modern music. He developed an idea of ​​the “spherical” sound, which he endeavored to implement in his music through microtonal elements. He also hated clay setting. A large number of his works were therefore created in a kind of intuitive improvisation that he played on the piano or an ondioline (an early electronic musical instrument). Scelsi recorded these “improvisations” on tape and then had them transcribed in musical notation by (mostly unknown) composers. More than 900 such tapes were found in his estate, most of which have not yet been examined. Scelsi's exploration of Eastern philosophies, especially those from India, is influential in his compositions . In 1953 he wrote his "Quattro Illustrazioni", four "enlightenments" about various figures of Vishnu , the individual parts of which he called " avatars ".

In the 1980s, Scelsi became relatively well known, especially in France and Germany. During the Darmstadt summer course in 1982, the Paris composer group L'Itinéraire , which was in opposition to Pierre Boulez and the Center Georges-Pompidou , declared Giancinto Scelsi to be the progenitor of a new avant-garde.

Works (selection)

  • Rainer Riehn : Catalog raisonné. In: Giacinto Scelsi . Music Concepts, ed. by Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn. Volume 31. Edition text + kritik, Munich 1983, pp. 112–116.
  • Action Music No. 1 - piano cycle (1955)
  • Tre pezzi (1956)
  • Quatro pezzi su una sola nota - four pieces on a single note for orchestra (1959)
  • Aion - orchestral work dedicated to the deity Brahma (1960)
  • Uaxuctum - composition for choir and orchestra (the title refers to the city of Uaxactún , which, according to legend , was destroyed by the Mayans themselves)
  • Konx-OM-Pax for choir and orchestra (1969)
  • Pfhat for choir and orchestra (1974)
  • Pwyll for flute solo (1954)

Publications

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The WDR claims to have a picture on which Scelsi can be seen (WDR3, Passagen, August 22, 2012)
  2. ↑ Carl Dahlhaus : Discovery. In: Die Zeit , No. 46/1983, p. 12.
  3. ↑ After Gabriel Josipovici was allowed to use the archive of the Scelsi Foundation, the author published a biographical novel on Giacinto Scelsi with the fictional composer Tancredo Pavone as protagonist.
  4. ↑ Manuscripts of two programs broadcast by Hessischer Rundfunk on April 13 and 20, 1982.
personal data
SURNAME Scelsi, Giacinto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Conte Giaconti Francesco Maria Scelsi d'Ayala Valva
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH La Spezia , Italy
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1988
Place of death Rome