Scelsi - Piano Sonata No. 3 : III

Piano Sonata No. 3 (1939)

Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) was an extraordinary Italian composer whose important place in music history is not yet widely acknowledged. In his youth, he was one of the few Italian disciples of Schoenberg and an enthusiast of contemporary music. His early works from the 1930s/40s reveal a plethora of 20th-century aesthetics from dodecaphony, futurism, neo-classicism, to a kind of mysticism comparable to late-period Scriabin. From 1950 on, Scelsi explored Eastern, especially Tibetan, pantheism and theosophy, which greatly influenced his music. In some of his later works such as the Four Pieces for Orchestra (1961), he often focuses on reiterating single pitches while varying the rhythm, attack, timbre, and microtonal inflections. In other later works (String Quartet No. 4), his music is static and characterized by glissandi, trills, and microtonal harmonies. Much of his music was not composed on paper but improvised; it was left to assistants under his direction to transcribe the recordings and realize them as orchestral scores.

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[andyardeng]

gimme a break, the music might be challening technically, but has anybody tried to channel bill evans lately. much tougher!

[lovesGenet]

I really love scelsi .I thought Sciarrino was the cheese but this guy is great ! I love the narrative feel here .Their is one melodic voice with several others and hthey are all sustained this is nothing like webern or Boulez very romantic really. Kinda old fashioned really but I love this sound,This I would play on a recital before the Boulez sonata. It is entrancing and might get some listener's interest!

[lovesGenet]

I copied this music down note by time note and was then able to see the relationships &timings ,pedalings ,accents etc better.This is Berg like.I didn't feel expressionist music listening but this is very hyper romantic Ital music. It is amazing what a little analysis can reveal. I need to go back to school there is a lot of complexity here . duh.it sounds diff to me now .I love that about art, inner workings etc. the performer here really pays attention to the markings .

[lovesGenet]

I really like the rhythm of the sustained descending melody and the surrounding textures,clusters etc. What great ideas here . A Musical experience this is ! Definitely gonna use these ideas!!!