Program #88, January 24 2002: Featured composers series, part IX: Works of Giacinto Scelsi.

I've wanted to do a program on Giacinto Scelsi, one of my favorite composers, for quite a long time. Nevertheless, I decided to wait until this date, more than halfway through the second year of this program. In part this has to do with the limited availability of some of Scelsi's materials -- go ahead, try routinely finding a copy of the complete string quartets compilation from Salabert, in print just a few years ago -- so I held off for a while, just accumulating a critical mass of Scelsi's works. More importantly, I think I felt a bit daunted by the task, because I appreciate his genius; because I wanted to tell his personal story, and describe some of his many idiosyncrasies, in a way that would help others appreciate his genius; because there are many subtleties and cross-currents in his work, and even within the historical approach I used, it would have been possible to trace out many different narratives descriptive of (at least parts of) Scelsi's musical evolution.

In the end, I chose to concentrate on his early and middle-late compositional phases, with a kind of fanning-out from piano works through solo works for other instruments to orchestral works. This enabled me to two of the main things I had in mind. First, I could at least gesture at Scelsi's connections to previous traditions and innovations (Baroque counterpoint, Bergian approaches to dodecaphony, the mystical post-chromaticism of Scriabin), then show how he developed these influences into his own unique voice -- particularly as regards his growing interest in exploring the universe of possibilities inherent in single tones, and general shift toward instruments that would afford his related interests in exploring microtonal variations. Also, I could focus on some of Scelsi's lovely works for orchestra, among the very best of his entire œuvre, and build the show so that it would culminate in those pieces.

Unfortunately, that meant there just wouldn't be time to wedge some things into this particular show -- most notably, a reasonably good sampling of Scelsi's wind, vocal, and string works. I did a few of each, but not enough. (It does occur to me, though: A review of the string works could actually make a fine show all its own, and given that I've already done a program like that on Bartók, I may very well present you with Scelsi part II: The Strings sometime soon.) But any program that ends up with the brilliant Uaxuctum, Konx-Om-Pax, and Pfhat most definitely cannot be sneezed at. Overall, I had an excellent time sharing the music of Scelsi -- it will be one of my favorite programs for a long time.