Giacinto Scelsi

See all 9 pictures

Play Radio

Listen to Giacinto Scelsi Radio, featuring artists like Sofia Gubaidulina, Luigi Nono, Gérard Grisey, Morton Feldman and more…

• 
  Search on Spotify

  Yes, it scrobbles! Learn more

327,135 plays (31,551 listeners)
In your library (0 plays)

Shop now at Amazon | Send Giacinto Scelsi Ringtones to Cell

More options

• Download
• Amazon
• Send Ringtones to Cell
• Tonefuse Search

Add to my Library

La Spezia, Italy (January 8, 1905 – August 9, 1988)

Giacinto Scelsi, Count of Ayala Valva (January 8, 1905 – August 9, 1988), was an Italian composer. He is best known for writing music based on only one pitch, such as “Quattro pezzi su una nota sola” [“Four pieces each on a single note”] (1959). He also wrote surrealist poetry in French.

Born in La Spezia, Italy, Scelsi studied music first in Rome, and later in Vienna, with a disciple of Arnold Schönberg. Subsequently Scelsi became one of the first adepts of dodecaphony in Italy.

At the end of the 1940s, he underwent a profound religious crisis that led him to the discovery of Eastern spirituality and also to a radical transformation of his view of music. He rejected the notions of composition and author in favor of sheer improvisation. Scelsi came to conceive of artistic creation as a means of communicating a higher transcendent reality to the listener. From this point of view, the artist is considered a mere intermediator. It is for this reason that he never allowed his image to be shown in connection with his music. He preferred instead to identify himself with a line under a circle, a symbol of Eastern provenance. Some photographs of Scelsi have emerged after his death.

Scelsi was a friend and a mentor to Alvin Curran and other expatriate American composers such as Frederick Rzewski who lived Rome during the 1960s (Curran, 2003, in NewMusicBox). Scelsi also “conspired” with other American composers including John Cage, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown who visited him in Rome.

Read more… Edit

Popular tags: contemporary classical, avant-garde, experimental, classical, italian  See more

Shouts: 93 shouts

Share this artist:

• Send
• Tweet

Top Albums

• Natura renovatur
  Giacinto Scelsi

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 Search
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes Search
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon Search
  • eBay Search
• Tre canti popolari, due componimenti impetuosi
  Giacinto Scelsi

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 $17.98
  • 7digital $11.99
  • iTunes $21.78
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon $20.01
  • eBay Search
• Quattro Pezzi/Anahit/Uaxuctum
  Giacinto Scelsi

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 Search
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes Search
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon Search
  • eBay Search
• Music For Wind Instruments And Percussion
  Giacinto Scelsi

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 Search
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes Search
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon Search
  • eBay Search

Top Tracks

• Last Week
• Last 6 months

1		Streichquartett Nr. 4 (1964)			64
2		Maknongan			48
3		Anagamin			47
4		Elohim			35
5		Sonate No. 4 premier mouvement			21
6		Duo for Violin and Cello, Part 1			20
7		Anahit			15
8		Uaxuctum: II.			13
8		Uaxuctum: IV.			13
10		Duo for Violin and Cello, Part 2			12
10		Uaxuctum V			12
10		Pwyll			12
13		Uaxuctum I			11
13		Uaxuctum III			11
15		Hurqualia I			9

Buy all tracks at Amazon MP3

See more