Giacinto Scelsi facts for kids
Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi (born January 8, 1905 – died August 9, 1988) was an Italian composer. He also wrote surrealist poems in French.
Scelsi is best known for creating music using mainly one musical note. He would change this note in many ways. He used tiny changes in pitch (called microtonal oscillations). He also altered the sound quality (or timbre) and how loud or soft the music was (its dynamics). A great example is his "Four Pieces on a single note" from 1959. This piece is still his most famous work.
Most of Scelsi's music was not well-known during his lifetime. But today, some of his pieces are becoming popular. Works like "Anahit" and his String Quartets are gaining more attention.
Scelsi worked with American composers like John Cage and Morton Feldman. He was also a friend and mentor to Alvin Curran. His music inspired Ennio Morricone's group, the Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza. Other composers like Tristan Murail were also influenced by him.
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Scelsi's Early Life and Musical Journey
Giacinto Scelsi was born in a village called Pitelli, near La Spezia, Italy. He spent much of his childhood in his mother's old castle. There, a private tutor taught him Latin, chess, and fencing. Later, his family moved to Rome. He took private music lessons with Giacinto Sallustio, which helped his musical talent grow.
In Vienna, he studied with Walther Klein. Klein was a student of the famous composer Arnold Schoenberg. Scelsi was one of the first in Italy to use the twelve-tone technique. However, he did not continue to use this system for long.
In the 1920s, Scelsi became friends with important thinkers like Jean Cocteau and Virginia Woolf. He also traveled a lot. In 1927, he first heard non-European music during a trip to Egypt. His first composition was "Chemin du coeur" (1929). Then came "Rotativa," which was first performed in Paris in 1931.
Concerts and Challenges During Wartime
In 1937, Scelsi organized a series of concerts. He introduced music by composers like Paul Hindemith, Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky to Italian audiences. But these concerts did not last long. This was because of strict racial laws under the fascist government of Benito Mussolini. These laws stopped music by Jewish composers from being performed.
Scelsi refused to follow these rules. He slowly moved away from Italy. In 1940, when Italy entered World War II, Scelsi was in Switzerland. He stayed there until the war ended. During this time, he composed music and developed his ideas about it. He also married Dorothy Kate Ramsden, an Englishwoman.
Scelsi's Unique Approach to Music
After the war, Scelsi returned to Rome. His wife left him, which inspired his piece "Elegia per Ty." He went through a difficult time emotionally. This led him to explore Eastern spirituality. It also completely changed how he thought about music.
In this new period, Scelsi did not focus on "composing" in the traditional sense. Instead, he focused on pure improvisation. He would record his improvisations on tape. Later, his helpers would write them down under his guidance. Then, he would add detailed instructions for how they should be performed.
Scelsi believed that art could share a higher, spiritual reality with listeners. He saw the artist as just a link in this process. Because of this, Scelsi never wanted his picture shown with his music. Instead, he used a symbol: a line under a circle, which comes from Eastern traditions. Some photos of Scelsi have appeared since he passed away.
Collaborations with Musicians
One of the first musicians Scelsi worked closely with was the singer Michiko Hirayama. They met in Rome in 1957. From 1962 to 1972, he wrote a long series of songs called "Canti del Capricorno" just for her. He wrote them to fit her special and unique singing voice. This showed Scelsi's personal way of working: improvising, recording, and then writing down the final piece.
From the late 1970s, Scelsi met other important musicians. These included the Arditti String Quartet, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, and pianists Yvar Mikhashoff and Marianne Schroeder. They helped share his music around the world. This gradually brought his music to more people.
Scelsi was a friend and mentor to Alvin Curran. Curran's piece "VSTO" is a tribute to Scelsi. Scelsi also worked with other American composers like John Cage and Morton Feldman.
Frances-Marie Uitti, to whom all of Scelsi's cello works are dedicated, worked closely with him for over 10 years. She helped edit and record "La Trilogia." This is a large, three-part work that Morton Feldman called Scelsi's "autobiography in sound."
Alvin Curran remembered Scelsi attending his concerts. Curran said Scelsi was at his very last concert just days before he died. It was an outdoor concert in the summer. Scelsi was there wearing a fur coat and hat. He waved from a distance with his "beautiful sparking eyes and smile." That was the last time Curran saw him.
Scelsi passed away from a brain hemorrhage on August 8, 1988, in Rome.
Scelsi's Musical Impact
Scelsi was largely unknown for most of his career. But in the mid to late 1980s, a series of concerts finally presented many of his pieces. These performances received great praise. His orchestral masterpieces were premiered in October 1987 in Cologne. This was about 25 years after he composed them, and less than a year before he died. Scelsi was able to attend these premieres and helped with the rehearsals.
The musicologist Harry Halbreich described the big impact of discovering Scelsi's works later on. He said that a whole chapter of recent music history needed to be rewritten. He felt that the second half of the 20th century was "unthinkable without Scelsi." Halbreich noted that Scelsi had created a completely new way of making music in the West.
Scelsi was also admired by Ennio Morricone's group, the Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza. Their 16-minute song "Omaggio a Giacinto Scelsi" is on their 1976 album "Musica Su Schemi."
Millions of people heard Scelsi's music in Martin Scorsese's movie "Shutter Island." Parts of his works "Quattro pezzi su una nota sola" and "Uaxuctum" were featured. They were played alongside music by other modern composers like György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki.
Scelsi's original papers and works are kept at the Isabella Scelsi Foundation.
Works
See List of compositions by Giacinto Scelsi.
Images for kids
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Scelsi around 1935
See also
In Spanish: Giacinto Scelsi para niños
