towards a grammatical analysis of scelsi’s late music

IAN DICKSON

TOWARDS A GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF SCELSIS LATE MUSIC

The late works of the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (19051988) have oftenbeen treated as if they were incompatible with the concept of musical grammar.First of all, they seem to lack unambiguous morphological unities, even discretenotes. Partly for this reason, it is also difficult to describe their syntax. Thiselusive quality of Scelsis music is generally associated with his use of improvi-sation, which, he believed, allowed him to avoid imposing any rational techniqueor system on his sound material. Almost any improvisation, however, presup-poses a potentially inferable system of rules, a model or referent,1 even if theimproviser is only vaguely conscious of this model or denies its existence. Thesyntax of Scelsis music is thus determined by (although not identical to) themodel on which he relied to create his most successful improvisations. In thisarticle I suggest some ideas towards describing this model. Although such adescription can never be proven accurate, this seems to me to be a promisingdirection from which to illuminate this apparently inscrutable music.

Scelsi was born into an aristocratic family, and the eccentricity of his atti-tudes and methods has often been associated with his noble origins.2 Althoughhe had some important performances in Paris and elsewhere, for most of hiscareer he was based in Rome and known mainly on that citys contemporarymusic scene, especially through his involvement with the group Nuova Con-sonanza. He gained international renown only in the 1980s, when his workswere featured in major festivals most important among them the 1987 Inter-national Society for Contemporary Music World Music Days in Cologne andtaken up by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet.

In his early music, culminating in La nascita del verbo (1948), Scelsi was tornbetween advanced techniques, including serial writing, and intuitive improvisa-tion, which he later said had been a natural inclination of his since childhood.3

This period came to an end in the late 1940s, when he suffered a psychologicalcrisis which led him unequivocally to reject the rational orientation of theWestern art-music tradition. Convinced that he had made himself ill by thinkingtoo much, he resolved to create his music (and poetry) without thinking.4 Inhis subsequent music, therefore, he proceeded through meditation and improvi-sation, cultivating automaticity, that is, the relinquishing of the consciouscontrol of decision making.5 The most successful improvisations were thentreated as sketches (abbozzi) and transcribed by assistants.6

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2249.2012.00336.x

216 Music Analysis, 31/ii (2012) 2012 The Author.

Music Analysis 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UKand 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

The main characteristic of these works is their focus on pivotal pitch centres.In the transitional works of the 1950s, which usually originated in piano improvi-sations and were therefore limited to the chromatic scale, the pivotal sounds arereiterated, blurred with clusters (especially in the piano suites) and embellishedwith oscillations and figuration reminiscent of Varse (as in the wind monodiesand Yamaon of 19548). In the mature works, beginning with Elegia per Ty andthe String Trio of 1958 and the more famous Quattro pezzi per orchestra (ciascunosu una nota sola) of 1959, the oscillations and figuration disappear, leaving amusical discourse based almost entirely on sustained sounds, which are varied bysubtle inflections of intonation, intensity and timbre and, intermittently, bychanges of register. This style was made possible by Scelsis adoption of theOndiola, or Clavioline,7 an electronic keyboard instrument allowing preciselythese inflections. Usually several of these gestures overlap in such a way as tocreate the impression of a more complex but still unitary sound object, which iseither fixed to one pitch class (as in the Quattro pezzi) or describes a gradualcomposed-out glissando (as in the movement of Xnoybis analysed below).

Scelsis general aesthetic stance, which he outlined in various dictated textsand interviews, was influenced by musical and philosophical traditions of Indiaand Tibet as filtered through Western mediators.8 His use of the drone was notmerely a superficial imitation of these traditions but was motivated by the idea ofan inner energy of sound. The true musician or adept was able to find thissound energy within single sounds, and specifically not by com-posing (that is,by putting sounds together or finding systematic connections between sounds).9

Sound had depth: it was like a sphere, and the enlightened musician was ableto penetrate to the centre of the sphere.10 The Western canon, on the otherhand, by relying on abstract systems of notes (points in relation to the twodimensions of pitch and duration), tended to be empty (vide) of soundenergy.11

Given Scelsis esoteric, anti-systematic stance, it is not surprising that hisstatements offer no rational explanation of his music. The only technique whichhe admitted using was meditation: through yoga, he believed, he was able to findwhat he called le son juste, or the right sound (not, he specifies, the rightnote),12 which allowed him to perceive cosmic sound and, thus, his music.Indeed, like many improvising musicians,13 he seems to have interpreted theautomaticity of his improvisations, and the resultant feeling that they werecreating themselves, as evidence of his communication with higher powers ratherthan of practice and the acquisition of skills. He viewed his music as a fragmentof an autonomous, cosmic sound,14 and himself as a passive vessel, a postmandelivering the music.15 Such beliefs have distracted attention from one of hismain innovations: the preservation in scored works of an element of automa-ticity, comparable to that of the surrealists in the visual arts.16

The literature on Scelsi has focused more often on his anti-constructivistphilosophy of sound than on his automatist working methods, for several reasons:the influence of Scelsis own statements, embarrassment at the controversy that

TOWARDS A GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF SCELSIS LATE MUSIC 217

Music Analysis, 31/ii (2012) 2012 The Author.Music Analysis 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

arose when the composerVieri Tosatti revealed his role in the creation of many ofthe scores and, above all, the fact that until 2009, when the Fondazione IsabellaScelsi made them available in digitised form, scholars had no access to the tapesof the original improvisations.17 Several authors have reflected Scelsis ownconviction that his music represented a fundamentally novel and exceptionalrelationship between sound and musical organisation that is, that sound was nolonger constrained by considerations of construction. Thus, for instance, Casta-net and Cisternino wrote: [A]n absolutely innovative aspect in the spectraldimension of sound in Scelsi is the absolutely a-constructive modality with whichsuch thinking takes form, substance, thus detaching itself so clearly from astructural way of thinking ... ; sound here is not conceived of as a material to betreated with more or less numerical-artisanal techniques and exercises, but ratheras a sound-Klang; a sort of primordial sound.18 In a similar vein, Martin Zenckargued that tone is understood not as a material with determined historicalsediments and compositional implications ... but rather as a matter whose owndynamism the composer emphasises.19 Some writers, seizing on Scelsis remarkthat he did not com-pose, have suggested that his musical process was insteadone of dissolution or de-composition.20

The notion of the irreducible, non-composite character of Scelsis music haslong been exaggerated. For some works he used overdubbing, and it seems thathe was able to play two keyboards simultaneously.21 His works are thus undeni-ably composite even when they are not polyphonic in the traditional sense.Moreover, from listening to the tapes one can clearly identify boundaries atwhich Scelsi performs specific mechanical operations at the Ondiola (glissandi,changes of timbre, and so on). Such boundaries are also inferable from the scoresand (less clearly) the performances.

Scelsis mature style is generally thought to require a new analytical approach,again because of its supposed seamless quality. Tristan Murail has said that [i]tis almost impossible to analyse most of Scelsis works in formal terms. Timeunfolds in continuous motion without a break.22 He has also suggested astatistical approach to Scelsi analysis:

Music always has a model, whether formal or natural. Even the most abstract artproceeds from models. What is Scelsis model how can one analyse his musicwithout resorting to a simple and useless description? The traditional tools ofanalysis are inappropriate, since there is neither material, nor combination, nor aclearly articulated form. There remains the study (perhaps with statisticalmethods) of shapes, densities, changes of register and thickenings, of their evo-lutions and relationships.23

The most thorough recent analyses of Scelsi have adopted the kind of approachsuggested by Murail. Christine Andersons work on Anahit attempts to pin downScelsis notion of sound as energy by studying the distribution of loudness,density, ambit and various types of rhythmical activity across the piece.24 Johan-nes Menke adopts a similar approach to the Tre canti sacri and Konx-Om-Pax,

218 IAN DICKSON


discussing first the whole work, then each movement according to variouscriteria (form, dramaturgy, proportions, and so on), and also giving a thoroughclassification of types of gesture.25

The underlying problem with analyses of Scelsis music is that they usuallyprovide a neutral analysis of the large-scale proportions, pitch structure andother features of the finished works, often focusing on the more polyphonic ones,such as Anahit that is, those with a relatively traditional pitch structure. GivenScelsis use of improvisation, this is an unduly architectonic, teleologicalapproach that neglects the most unorthodox and perplexing aspect of his style the redundancy and apparent irrationality of the musical surface and brings uslittle closer to understanding how these works were generated, precisely why aparticular inflection of intonation might be followed by a particular change invibrato, and so on. It seems to me that an analysis of a work by Scelsi ought toattempt what Jean-Jacques Nattiez calls the inductive move from analysis of theneutral level to the poietic26 in other words, that it ought to try to characterisethe logic of the improvisations. The answer to Murails question What is Scelsismodel? is the model of improvisation.

In the following discussion, therefore, I make some preliminary suggestionsregarding this model in the knowledge that the improviser is no longer avail-able to confirm them (not that it would be in character for him to do so). Iattempt not to reconstruct the precise mechanics of the improvisations (hisuses of keyboards and recording equipment), but rather to scrutinise his mosttypical strategies and configurations of gestures. My suggestions are basedmainly on the scores and assume that the transcriptions are accurate (in fact,the mediation of the person transcribing the improvisation is another essentialpoietic element of the music, although it is not always acknowledged as such).I focus on Scelsis most characteristic style, the one-note heterophony of theQuattro pezzi and the late chamber music for strings (instruments which areparticularly suited to this style). My examples are from Xnoybis (1964), forsolo violin, and the Duo for Violin and Cello (1965). I then relate these toother, less severely constrained works, using Dharana (1975), for cello anddouble bass, as an example of the way in which Scelsis model interacts withtraditional voice-leading patterns.

The theoretical stimulus for my analysis comes mainly from writings onmusical grammar and style by Mario Baroni, Rossana Dalmonte and CarloJacoboni, as well as Fred Lerdahl. I have also been influenced by the idea of theimprovisational model described, with reference to the music of oral traditions,in the work of the ethnomusicologist Bernard Lortat-Jacob and his colleagues,and by their approach to representing such models with diagrams. Lortat-Jacobregards the model as a stable reference, which can be of various kinds but is atleast implicitly known by the musician and perceived by the hearer in proportionto his or her familiarity with the genre, form or style of music;27 each improvi-sation constitutes a realisation of the model, although the realisations can alsoinfluence the model.28 Of course, an individual improvisation model is different



in status from communal, traditional ones; however, Scelsis attitude throughouthis writings encourages a quasi-ethnomusicological interpretation of his work.29

The Concept of Musical Grammar and Scelsis Morphology

I do not attempt here to formalise a comprehensive Scelsi grammar in the way,for example, that Baroni, Dalmonte and Jacoboni formalised a grammar todescribe chamber arias by the Italian Baroque composer Giovanni Legrenzi that is, by testing the rules using a computer programmed to compose in thegiven style.30 Such a formal grammar could never be fully authoritative withrespect to Scelsis relatively small, highly individual and varied output. However,the idea of musical grammar throws light on Scelsis work in several ways.Indeed, Scelsis own notion of the intuitive rightness of the son juste seems toinvite the comparison.

The concept of musical grammar implies that it is possible to describe exhaus-tively the systems of rules according to which pieces are generated and becauseof which they are recognised as belonging to collectively legitimated styles. Thisway of thinking is derived from Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky andpresupposes a shared historical langue that preceded the individual parole, as wellas an innate competence on the part of listeners for learning the langue explicitlyor implicitly (as in the case of untrained listeners who are nonetheless able todetect a mistake in an unfamiliar example of a familiar style). In general, it isdoubly problematic to apply the concept of musical grammar to avant-gardescored music, not only because the avant-garde composer aspires to invent thelangue as well as the parole, but also because, in practice (as a consequence of theever greater reliance on writing that Scelsi rejected), the new langues oftenchallenge perceptual processing to such an extent as to make this kind oflearning extremely difficult (the avoidance of pitch hierarchy in serial music isthe most obvious example). Lerdahl has argued that music can be cognitivelyopaque; when its compositional grammar is not constrained by a listeninggrammar, it becomes divorced from subsequent listening grammars. He sug-gests that it is possible for the composer, by imposing certain cognitive con-straints, to achieve cognitively transparent musical surfaces without relyingentirely on intuition (intuitive constraints) or resorting to existing norms andtechniques of composition.31 Incongruous as it may at first sound, it seems to methat this is what Scelsi achieved with his austere pitch constraints, although hewould never have expressed the matter in such terms. Not only do these con-straints favour the perception of smaller variations of pitch than would beperceptible in music with a richer pitch structure (indeed, Scelsis idiom resem-bles the ideal experimental conditions for investigating this area), but they alsoallow the listener to intuit the musics langue, its rules, and to experience eithersatisfaction with their fulfilment or suspense over their delay. For example, onesoon learns to expect quarter-tone dyads to converge into unisons. This elementof expectation and fulfilment can also be regarded as a traditional trait.

220 IAN DICKSON


Whereas Lerdahls attempt to recover a sense of grammatical communica-tion is that of a composer-theorist, Scelsis compositional grammar was condi-tioned by his use of improvisation and was thus constrained in minute detail bya listening grammar, a feedback system consisting of a real-time assessment ofhis own musical decisions. Therefore, intuitive constraints are also of unusualimportance. Moreover, it is significant that the gestures used by Scelsi areconventions of common-practice musicianship, at least for instruments withflexible intonation, that is, strings and voice (the main media used in Scelsis latework). Dissonances are often louder than their resolutions, leading notes are alittle sharp, vibrato is used to shape musical breaths, and so on.32 In theWesterncanon, because these conventions are only occasionally explicit in the score, theyare assumed to be extraneous to the core syntax of the work, to a system of notes(although they are understood to be necessary for a valid realisation of the work).In Scelsi, on the other hand, in the absence of such a system, these conventions(arguably because they are all that is left) seem to constitute that is, areexperienced as the core syntax. The fact that these performance conventionsare already familiar to Scelsis listeners reinforces the collectively legitimatedsense of expectation and fulfilment that I mentioned above. Perhaps the bril-liance of Scelsis overall artistic strategy is that the reduction of compositionalmaterial (as traditionally conceived) in his music discourages both the conserva-tive and the avant-garde listener from perceiving this underlying familiarity. Onlywhen these performance conventions are prescribed on paper is one invited tohear them as avant-garde compositional gestures.

At this point I should confront two possible objections to my use of the termgrammar with reference to Scelsi. First, one might be sceptical because of theeccentricity of Scelsis working methods (which combine automatist improvisa-tion, tape editing and collaborative transcription) and the difficulty of recon-structing them. However, as Baroni, Dalmonte and Jacoboni point out, it is notonly legitimate but necessary to distinguish structural rules from applicationprocedures.33 The importance of the distinction is demonstrated by the fact thata human composer and a computer can adhere to the same (or very similar)structural rules using completely different application procedures.

The other objection might have to do with Scelsis apparent avoidance ofdiscrete units. Musical grammar ought to include morphology, defined by Baronias the identification of different categories of musical structures, and syntax,rules connecting morphological unities.34 As I discussed earlier, Scelsi is nor-mally regarded as the composer to whom these terms are least applicable,because in his music it is difficult to segment morphological unities or distin-guish them from their syntactical relations. For example, would a tremolo in Scelsicount as a morphological unit or as a syntactical relation between adjacentpitches? When does vibrato end and tremolo begin? How can one establishrigorous criteria of segmentation in music that avoids even discrete notes?

In fact, however, this sort of ambiguity is not unique to Scelsis music.Discussing tonal music, Baroni points out that a familiar phenomenon (for



instance, a triad) may be experienced as either a syntactical relation (betweenthree notes) or, on a higher level, a morphological phenomenon.35 The samecan be said of Scelsis tremoli and glissandi. It would also be a mistake to assumethat Scelsis avoidance of discrete units implies the absence of morphologicalcategories. As to the note, Baroni writes:

The central morphological concept, common to many musical cultures, is that ofnote. It can be defined as central because many musical concepts can beconceived as micro-categories that are necessary in order to define a note (as traitsof a note), while other concepts can be conceived as macro-units formed by anumber of notes. For example the absolute and relative pitch of a note, its beinga particular degree of a scale, its duration, its metrical accent, and so on, aremorphological characteristics, or micro categories [sic], or traits, necessary todefine a particular note, while an appoggiatura is a morphological unit composedby two notes.36

All of this applies to Scelsi. The peculiarity of his music is that its discoursefocuses on the traits rather than on notes or configurations of notes; indeed, hemakes the abstraction of notes as difficult as possible. Even so, the concept ofnote retains its traditional centrality. After all, most listeners confronted withScelsis music will immediately remark that its all one note, although this is notstrictly true.

Scelsis Monotone-Based Heterophonic Style

In this style, Scelsi fuses parts together to create the illusion of a single,complex sound object; strong individuation of the parts is relatively infrequent.He achieves this effect of fusion to a certain extent by imposing global pitchconstraints harmony is based on unisons, octaves and quarter-tones,37 andmelodic motion is mainly by quarter-tone (or, less often, semitone) step orglissando and by using local disguise strategies. Pitch, dynamics, vibrato andregister consistently interact in ways that allow Scelsi to control and oftenfrustrate the listeners perception of independent parts and pitch motion.Without such strategies, it would be difficult not to hear the late pieces simplyas studies in oblique quarter-tone motion; yet this would be precisely the kindof interpretation, privileging pitch relations, which the composer disapprovedof and sought to discourage. These strategies of disguise involve the manipu-lation of various categories of perception, especially salience (generally definedas the probability of being noticed), grouping of simultaneous sounds andpitch centrality. Scelsi usually maintains a high degree of ambiguity andtension with regard to at least one of these categories. I shall discuss each inturn, beginning with salience.

The music is segmented as follows: a new cell starts each time a sound gesturebegins or ends, and each time there is any notated fluctuation of pitch or anychange in the relative loudness, relative extent of vibrato or timbral relationship

222 IAN DICKSON


of parts. I assume that cell durations are partly contingent on Scelsis psycho-logical process of finding the next right sound and partly manipulated fordramatic purposes, usually with an increase of harmonic rhythm in the middle ofeach movement.

Salience

In the following analyses, salience is associated with asynchrony (a single, distinctinflection is more salient than one disguised with another, simultaneous inflec-tion), increments of texture (a newly introduced part will tend to be more salientthan a continuing part), distinctness of pitch, changes in pitch, changes in extentof vibrato, loudness and brightness of timbre.38 In other words, almost anyfluctuation in any of the traits characterising Scelsis music affects the relativesalience of the parts.

With regard to changes in pitch, salience will tend to be greater when theinterval between an incipient pitch and the nearest continuing pitch is wider(with the exception of octaves and fifths), not least because wider intervals areless frequent than quarter-tones and semitones; however, I do not attempt torank these intervals here.We should also note that an increase in extent of vibratonot only is a salient trait in its own right but also constitutes a marginal changein pitch; at the same time, however, it limits the distinctness of the pitch.

One of Scelsis main strategies is to distribute salient traits among the parts sothat they compete for attention. For instance, one part may be salient in pitch,another in loudness, and so on. The balance is, of course, affected by the degreeto which each trait is emphasized (a fortissimo may intuitively be felt to outweigha subtle change of pitch, for instance). However, it would be difficult to quantifythese traits or justify any hierarchy. Ex. 1 shows the opening of the third move-ment of Xnoybis. In this work, the violin is tuned fg1b1d2, to allow unisonsand quarter-tones to be played more easily among the upper strings, and dis-torted with a special mute. The score, characteristically, uses a separate stave foreach string. Xnoybis allows us temporarily to disregard the perception of group-ing, as it is rarely in more than two parts. This particular movement also has nooctave doubling.

Fig. 1 highlights the distribution of salient traits in the same passage. Each rowcorresponds to a cell, each unbroken vertical block is a gesture and each newgesture begins a new column moving from left to right, allowing us to compareScelsis treatment of onsets. The number of the gesture (in square brackets) andthe bar and beat numbers are shown in the left margin, with timbre indicationsin the right margin.Vibrato is indicated with bold italics, the relative loudness ofthe parts is indicated with arrows (the arrow points towards the louder compo-nent; double-headed arrows indicate equal loudness), pizzicato with + and glis-sando with . All pitches are in the d2 register.

This diagrammatic representation allows various observations. First of all, wecan see how Scelsi treats changes in pitch. More often than not these coincide



Ex. 1 Giacinto Scelsi, Xnoybis, for solo violin (1964), third movement, bars 116.Copyright 1985 ditions Salabert Paris, France (SLB 2257). Reproduced bykind permission of MGB Hal Leonard, Italy

3

3

ALLA TAST.

molto 4+

NAT.

4+

3

g

4+

4+ g 4+4+

4+

9

4+ PONT.

g 4+

(non vibr.)

4+ 4+

(Pizz.M.S.)

g

5

III Corda(Sol)

mor.(quasi impercettib.) 4+

AL(non vibr.)

NAT.

II Corda(Si)

TAST.

4+

I Corda(R )

= 72

(lento vibr.)FLAUT.

4+ 4+

gg

g

4

13

224 IAN DICKSON


Fig. 1 Scelsi, Xnoybis, third movement, bars 116: salience relations

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

dd

d

d cc

c

c

c

c

c

d

d

ccccccc

c

c

c

d

+

d

d cccc

d

d

dd

cccc c

(2.1)(2.3)(3.1)

(4.1)

(4.3)

(4.4)

(5.3)

(5.4)

(6.2)

(1.1)(1.2)

(3.2)

(4.2)

(4.3)

(5.2)

(5.3)

(6.1)

[9] (6.2)(6.4)(6.4)

(8.3)(7.4)

(8.3)(8.4)(9.1)

tast.

al-

pont.

alla tast.

nat.

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

(12.4)

cc

c

cdd

dd

d ccc c

cdd c

cdd

d

ddd

d ddd

d

d

e

(10.1)(10.2)(10.3)(11.3)(11.3)(11.4)(12.1)(12.2)(12.3)(12.3)(12.4)(12.4)

[17](13.1)(13.1)[18]

[19](14.3)(14.4)

(15.1)(15.1)(16.2)(16.2)

(16.4)

(14.4)[20][21]

[22]

[23]

dd d

d

d

nat.

flaut.

+

(16.3)

e

(14.1)d

d d



with the onsets of gestures. However, he usually limits the salience of bothincipient pitches and onsets by making them quieter than the continuous sound.In the sixteen bars, only the onsets of gestures [9], [11], [14] and [16] are louderthan the continuous sound, and in each case the incipient pitch is lower; thismight be defined as another disguising factor, a factor limiting salience. He alsoblurs changes in pitch by following a general rule that either the continuous pitchor the incipient pitch should be performed with vibrato. In the central part of themovement he breaks this rule, introducing more salient onsets. The result is aform common in his music: polyphonic perception is blocked, then temporarilyencouraged (especially when the interval between parts stretches to a tone and aquarter), then blocked again.

Scelsis concern with onsets perhaps explains the occurrence of false starts:entries [3] and [4] are false starts in relation to [5]; likewise [6] and [7] inrelation to [8]. It is impossible to say whether these are traces of real hesitationor a deliberate rhetorical feature.

Another tactic for fusing parts is an exchange of traits, as occurs in bar 2 whenthe traits of relative loudness and vibrato are swapped between parts:

d c

d c

The aural result is almost indistinguishable from this:

d c

c d

So far I have disregarded the influence of the tone colour of the strings,which undoubtedly affects the listening experience significantly. For instance,the opening d2 is assigned to the softer third string, so that the lower auxiliaryappears on a higher, brighter string (the first movement also begins in thisway). This may have been Scelsis intention from the outset, or perhaps it wasmerely a practical solution to the problem which arises when the alternativedistribution forces the performer to maintain the same somewhat uncomfort-able hand position for a long time (between bars 6 and 12). In either case, Iam supposing that the underlying model preceded such fine points of instru-mentation and timbre, even if they were conceived before the particularimprovisation that was arranged into this piece. Indeed, many of the improvi-sations are significantly different in timbre from the transcriptions and also lessfinely grained in their variety of timbre. Some pieces, such as Maknongan(1976), exist in versions for more than one instrument or voice. In view of this,is it so narrow-minded to wonder whether timbre might be a secondaryparameter in Scelsis late style?39

226 IAN DICKSON


Grouping

Textures with more than two parts are exponentially more complex and difficultto represent, since each part interacts with all the others in the ways describedabove. Indeed, it may be that these more complex works were generated in amore haphazard way that Scelsi could not have processed (automatically orotherwise) all of these interactions as finely as he does in Xnoybis. Some dynamicdetail may also have been lost in the transcription process.The analyst thereforeneeds to be even more careful not to introduce arbitrary or misguided interpre-tations into such works.

The works with several parts introduce a new perceptual element: thegrouping together of simultaneous sounds (not to be confused with groupingin the diachronic sense). Again, this can be associated with several competingcriteria: synchrony (grouping simultaneous inflections together), register(grouping clusters together), pitch class (grouping unisons and octavestogether), uniformity of loudness and timbral uniformity. In other words, thereare several kinds of similarity or proximity that the ear may privilege from onemoment to the next. In live performance, the spatial separation of instrumentswill influence perception, but this does not necessarily reflect the originalmodel.

The complexity of grouping in Scelsis textures is illustrated in Ex. 2, from thefirst movement of the Duo for Violin and Cello.40 The opening two bars can berepresented as shown in Fig. 2. However, in bar 3 the question of grouping ariseswith the introduction of a third part, the bass pedal. Two groupings are plausible:either the two Gs form a unit distinct from the f , or the cluster material in theviolin forms a unit distinct from the cello pedal.Which is more likely to have beenScelsis intention? Of course, there can be no clear answer and the ambiguity isintentional but there are several reasons to favour the latter suggestion: (1) thepedal G is the unprecedented element, (2) the vibrato of the g1 distinguishes itfrom the bass G (it is not a clean octave) and fuses it with the auxiliary, (3) thebass is quieter and (4) the fact that the bass is quieter makes it likely that theperceiver will notice it fractionally later than the quarter-tone motion. Thisinterpretation is reinforced by the fact that the cluster material and the bass pedalare subsequently inflected independently: the cluster is inverted to the quarter-tone above the pitch centre (bar 6), and the pedal is doubled at g1 (bar 4) and thenagain at g (bar 8).

A similarly detailed consideration of these categories is required each time anew gesture begins. In Fig. 3, which describes bars 113, brackets are used tosuggest possible groupings. One can see how Scelsis attention and the focus of hisdecision-making process shift from one part of the texture to another, usuallyallowing one group to continue unchanged while he inflects another. Changes inthe overall grouping are less frequent than adjustments to the relative salience ofparts within groups. Most of the activity between bars 3 and 9 is nested withinwhat we might call a middleground level. From a structural point of view, the



passage could be reduced further (Fig. 4); there is an interesting similaritybetween this and Fig. 2.

Sometimes grouping is influenced directly by salience, in the sense that aparticular gesture is so salient as to seem extraneous. Such events create a senseof expansion, a sudden move to a higher level of grouping, so that the previousgroups are suddenly reinterpreted as subgroups; this multiplicity of impliedlevels may also correspond to Scelsis concept of depth. In the passage shown inEx. 2, the most extraneous element is the vibrato d , especially because of its

Ex. 2 Scelsi, Duo for Violin and Cello (1965), first movement, bars 122. Copyright 1988 ditions Salabert Paris, France (SLB 2364). Reproduced by kind permis-sion of MGB Hal Leonard, Italy

4a c.

3a c.AL NAT.

1a c.

56 6 6 6 6

Vlc.

4a c.

3a c.

TAST. poco cresc.

4a c.

5 5

Vln 3a c.

2a c.

= 72Intenso, vibrante

{

AL NAT.

TAST.

228 IAN DICKSON


pitch class (which suddenly reveals that this is not a one-note piece), but alsobecause of its register and timing (it occurs after a relative relaxation of activity).In performance, the bright timbre of the open E pizzicato also marks it out. Thef3 in bar 9, similarly, is considered extraneous in register, pitch class (it is not aquarter-tone sharp and thus not in octaves with the cello auxiliary), loudness andtiming (it seems to cut off the vibrato); the only other possible grouping wouldbe with the harmonic g1 in the cello, but that is masked. Sometimes, on the otherhand, new gestures seem to emerge not from the outside but from within aparticular group, such as, for example, the cello f in bar 9, which grows out ofthe cluster group.

Grouping is even more elusive in the second movement of the Duo, as can beseen in Ex. 3. The opening, again, is representative of the general rhetoric. In thethird beat of bar 1 there are two possibilities: to group together the violin g 1 andthe harmonic a1 in the cello on the grounds of simultaneity and register, or togroup together the two G s on the grounds of pitch class and vibrato. This is a

Ex. 2 Continued

(3 a c.)

2a c.

1a c.

TAST.

{

91a c.

TAST.

Fig. 2 Scelsi, Duo, first movement, bars 12: grouping

[1][2]

[3]

(1.1)(1.3)(2.1)(2.2)(2.3)

ggg

1

1

1

f

g

g

g

1

1

1 gg1

1

1



more ambiguous and difficult case (and therefore particularly successful, fromScelsis point of view); it is clarified only when the a1 ends, inviting the listenerretrospectively to group together the vibrato octave. Indeed, part of the ambi-guity is that the criterion of simultaneity holds only momentarily, so that one maygroup the simultaneous onsets on the third beat together and then reinterpret thesame texture, hearing the vibrato octave as a unit.

The passage continues in a similar vein (Fig. 5). The cello a on beat 3 of bar2 can be grouped with the quarter-tone auxiliary, which now describes a tremolowith the same a and is thus no longer so closely tied to the sound an octave

Fig. 3 Scelsi, Duo, first movement, bars 113: grouping

[1][2]

[3]

(1.1)(1.3)(2.1)(2.2)(2.3)

ggg

1

1

1

f

g

g

g

1

1

1

1

1

[3][4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

(3.1)(4.1)(4.3)(5.1)(6.1)(7.1)(7.4)(8.1)(8.2)(8.4)(9.2)(9.4)(9.4)(11.1)(12.1)(12.2)(13.1)(13.2)(13.4)

((( 1g f 1) g1)((((((((((((((gg

f

f

a

a

a

g

g

g

g

g

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 ff

1

1

))

g1)(f /1 g1)) G

Gg )

fffggg

1

1

1

((((((((((

1

1

1

//

gg1

1))

ggggg

1

1

1

1

1

)))))

1)

((ff

1

1

//

gg

1

1

))))

G((GG

g)g)g1)

g(

g1

fff

((

(

gggg

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

/// g

gg

1

1

1))))))

((

((((

GG

GGGGG

ggggg1

1

1

1))))

ffff

))

ff(

3

3

3

3

3

3

gg 3

3

))

( dd 2

2 e )

))

)/ g1)

+

tast.

al-nat. (Vn)

al-

nat. (Vlc.)

tast. (Vlc.)tast. (Vn)

g +)

2

)1

Fig. 4 Scelsi, Duo, first movement, bars 113: grouping (reduction)

(1.1)(1.3)(3.18.4)(9.4)(11.1)(12.1)(12.2)(13.1)(13.4)

((((gg

gg 1

1

1

1

f

ffffgg

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

(((

((((( /

/gg 1

1))

(f 1 ))/ g 1 Gggggg

g 1) 11

1

1

1

)))))

fffffg

3

3

3

3

3

3

))

(( dd e )+

)

2

2

2

230 IAN DICKSON


above. However, the sudden doubling of the A in bar 3 again shifts the groupingso that the cellos g is suddenly extraneous.

A comparison of Figs 3 and 5 highlights the contrast between the two move-ments. In the first movement, grouping is influenced above all by register (so thatclusters tend to be grouped together); in the second, it is influenced alternatelyby register and pitch class (so that octaves are grouped together), with the resultthat a single component of the texture can be grouped differently from onemoment to the next. Scelsis improvisational model has the virtue of allowing thiskind of effective contrast in spite of the uniformity of the material. The contrasthas nothing to do with sound itself, however.

Ex. 3 Scelsi, Duo, second movement, bars 14. Copyright 1988 ditions Salabert Paris, France (SLB 2364). Reproduced by kind permission of MGB Hal Leonard,Italy

Vlc. 2a c.

TAST.

(lento vib.)

NAT.

1a c.

AL PONT.

Vln 3a c.

TAST.NAT. AL PONT.

2a c.

Calmissimo, non espressivo

= 60

4a c.

3a c.

Fig. 5 Scelsi, Duo, second movement, bars 13: grouping

[1] (1.1)[2]

[3][4][5]

[6]

(1.3)

(2.2)(2.3)(3.1)(3.2)(3.3)(3.3)(3.3)(4.3)

g

g

g

gggga

((

(( // a)

a)

a((

(((

a

aaa)

1

1

1

g(g

g

g 1

1

1

1

) aa 1

1

)

aaaaa

2

2

2

2

2

))))

(

((((

a

aaa a

aa

a 1

1

1

1 )))

+))

a )g

+

tast.

nat.

al-pont.



Pitch Centrality

In a cluster, the pitch likely to be interpreted as central will usually be the onethat is continuous and thus stable; if several are continuous, the ear can beexpected to orientate itself to a pitch that is doubled at the unison or, moreemphatically, at the octave. The absence of vibrato may also encourage thisorientation. Other things being equal, the ear will probably orientate itselftowards the loudest pitch. The opening of the third movement of Xnoybis,discussed above, presents an apparently simple example (Fig. 6). Overall, thec 2 is predominant: it is not only more continuous (that is, less frequentlyinterrupted) than the d2 but also louder, except at the very beginning.

Although pitch centrality is the first notion that springs to mind where Scelsi isconcerned, it seems on reflection even more difficult to assess rigorously thansalience and grouping, not only because there are numerous situations of conflict

Fig. 6 Scelsi, Xnoybis, third movement, bars 111: pitch centrality

[1] (1.1)

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12][13]

[14]

(2.1)

(3.2)

(4.2)

(4.3)

(5.2)

(5.3)

(6.2)

(6.1)

(6.4)

(8.3)

(9.1)(10.1)

(11.4)

cc

c

c

c

c

c

c

cc

cccc

cccc

cccccc

c

c

d

d

d

d

d

d

d

d

d

d

dd

dd

d

d

d

d

+

(1.2)

(2.3)(3.1)

(4.1)

(4.3)

(4.4)

(5.3)

(5.4)

(6.2)

(6.2)

(7.4)

(8.3)(8.4)

(10.2)(10.3)(11.3)(11.3)

232 IAN DICKSON


(for instance, when one continuous pitch is octave doubled and another isrelatively loud), but also because it is inherently retrospective. There is no fixedpoint at which a pitch becomes continuous or established. Moreover, frequentlyrecurring pitches are likely to be retained in the listeners memory and willtherefore be virtually if not literally continuous. Thus Scelsi can control a sense ofpitch centrality directly only when one pitch class is obviously more stable than anyother; as soon as there is any doubt, matters of salience and grouping will interfere.

This can be seen by again comparing the two movements of the Duo. In thefirst movement the pitch centre is never in doubt: it is the almost unbroken g1,often doubled two octaves below by the cello and sometimes two or three octavesabove as a harmonic (neither doubling is ever marked vibrato).The pitch classG is interrupted only once, at bar 22, revealing an upper auxiliary in the cellostreble register, but after two beats it is loudly reasserted. As a result, there is amutually reinforcing opposition between the centrality of the continuous pitchclass G and the salience of the other, intermittent pitches, which appear inincreasingly complex and dramatic configurations. This creates the centrifugalrhetoric on the musical surface.

In the second movement, on the other hand, the pitch centre is much lesscertain, because the pitch class A and its quarter-tone lower auxiliary are usedalternately as pedals (often doubled, but with no bass anchor); furthermore,they are also frequently interrupted. Since there is no clear opposition betweencontinuous and intermittent pitches, the listeners perception of the pitch centreis likely to be influenced by other criteria, especially loudness. The uncertaintyof the pitch centre seems to be the rhetorical focus of the movement, its sourceof tension. In short, the relationship between salience and pitch centrality is oneof negative correlation each time a pitch appears (since the centrality of thecontinuous pitch is defined against the salient element, i.e. the incipient pitch)and positive correlation between such moments (when all pitches are continuous,the most salient part will tend to be perceived as the centre).

Tonal and Post-Tonal Allusions in the Non-Monotone-BasedWorks

Not all of Scelsis late work is in the idiom that I have analysed above. Somepieces are in its polyphonic equivalent that is, the overall harmonic con-straint is relaxed to include other sustained intervals (not only unisons andoctaves) and chords (often triads), even though the constraint on melodicmotion is usually sustained. This is the case in the violin concerto Anahit(1965) and the pieces for large string ensemble. These works consist of simul-taneous drones, each of which is elaborated using the peculiarly Scelsian strat-egies described above which, when combined, allude to Western harmony andcounterpoint.

For example, Dharana (1975), for cello and double bass (Ex. 4), is based onthe major third FA. Associations of F major are reinforced by the fact that thepitch class F is dragged down to its lower auxiliary, E (sometimes E , which can



be heard, at least by the Western listener, as an expressively raised leading note),while the A is dragged upwards to A (heard as a downward-leaning B), and bythe fact that these auxiliaries resolve inward again, like the E and B in thedominant seventh in F. It is hard not to suspect that Scelsi specifically tries tosoften this allusion at various points: for example, in bars 910, when the upperauxiliary relaxes onto a, the f in the cello also falls by a quarter-tone and increasesinto loudness.

A different association is prompted when the double bass doubles the E. Thisencourages one to reinterpret the tonality as A minor with a dominant pedal,especially when the A is then pulled up almost to B (Ex. 5). Here it is hard notto interpret the indication quasi (that is, Scelsis avoidance of the compoundperfect fifth Eb) as another attempt to attenuate a tonal reference.

Another well-known tonal allusion in Scelsis work is the progression froma G triad to a chord on F that occurs in the first and fourth movements of

Ex. 4 Scelsi, Dharana, for cello and double bass (1975), bars 114. Copyright 1986 ditions Salabert Paris, France (SLB 2421). Reproduced by kind permissionof MGB Hal Leonard, Italy

III c.

[ ] = 124

non vibrato poco

II c.

Vlc.

Cb.

portamento

poco cresc.

quasicrescendo

pi chiaro

( )

IV c. [sic]

5

9

sempre

( )poco mor.

( )

vib. veloce

( )lentissimo

234 IAN DICKSON


the Third String Quartet. Similar progressions abound in Anahit. In Anagamin(1965) he plays on the tonal implications of the seventh between C and B.Ohoi (1966) uses quartal harmony. These works manifest a delicate interactionbetween Scelsis individual procedures (regarding nuance) and received syn-tactical structures (regarding voice leading and other matters). He thus setshimself an interesting problem: preventing the (Western) listener from relegat-ing all the detail of nuance back to accessory status and the realm of perform-ing practice.

The stylistic echoes in Scelsi are not always tonal. There are works that sharetraits with Xenakis and other postwar avant-garde composers, including thepieces for choir and orchestra Konx-Om-Pax (1969) and Pfhat (1974), in whichdrones are opposed with clusters and untuned percussion. Julian Anderson hasnoted Scelsis debt to Nono in some of his vocal writing.41 The overtly melodic,modal and archaic style of Antifona and Three Latin Prayers (both 1970)

Ex. 5 Scelsi, Dharana, bars 5762. Copyright 1986 ditions Salabert Paris,France (SLB 2421). Reproduced by kind permission of MGB Hal Leonard, Italy

Cb.portamento lentissimo

Vlc.III c. III c.

stretto

quasisgradevole pi

stretto

e aspro

quasi

meno e pieno

( )

( )

poco cresc.

III c. (III c.)

IV c. non vib.

non vibr.Cb.

Vlc.

[ ]

mor.

( )( )

molto vibrato, caldo e sonore

II c.

57

60

[ ]



constitutes a third type of stylistic allusion (an eccentric one even by Scelsisstandards). Many of the late works, such as Ko-Lho (1966), for flute and clarinet,recall the oscillatory style of the transitional works of the 1950s.

Other late pieces are exceptional in that the original improvisations were madeon non-keyboard instruments or were collaborative. Certain performers hadsuch a significant input into some improvisations that they can be viewed asco-composers of the resulting works. The outstanding example is the cycle Cantidel Capricorno (196272), for which the soprano Michiko Hirayama effectivelyturned herself into the instrument of Scelsis improvisation. In such cases,Scelsis improvisational model is fused with that of another individual (even if thelatter is attempting to improvise in the style of Scelsi).

The thrust of my argument is that, in Scelsis music, the impression of a magicalemancipation of sound from any syntactical system is achieved by a manipulationof morphological traits that is so systematic as to constitute a kind of syntax.Thatis not to say that his music does not also, on another level, transcend thesyntactical, but it is not exceptional in this.

My observations are based mainly on a study of the scores and are intendedas preliminary suggestions, which could be refined by a more detailed compari-son with the tapes of the original improvisations. Such a comparison might alsoallow a more rigorous assessment of the mediation and contribution of thetranscribing assistants. Indeed, although the analysis of the tapes is a long-overdue step in Scelsi research, it is not certain that the tapes alone will allowscholars to reconstruct his working process in as much detail as they might wish.Even if such a reconstruction were possible, it would still not necessarily revealhis musics structural rules. It might also be fruitful to measure redundancy invarious aspects of the music, using the scores as well as the tapes, and to conductlistening experiments; perhaps in this way a listening grammar could bedescribed.

One of the most interesting and original aspects of Scelsis music is that, as aresult of extensive practice, he was able to realise his model or grammar auto-matically in the act of improvisation. Another is its relation to the grammar orgrammars of musicianship: those semi-explicit rules determining when to widenvibrato, when to sharpen the leading note, when to slow down, and so on. InWestern concert music, these nuances, which constitute such an important partof musical communication, are normally applied to an existing, written-downmusical structure. In Scelsi, however, the manipulation of this type of nuance iswhat generates the structure.

NOTES

An early version of this article was delivered during the Cardiff Music AnalysisConference in 2008. I would like to thank the staff of the Fondazione IsabellaScelsi for their generous assistance.

236 IAN DICKSON


1. On the term model, see Bernard Lortat-Jacob, Improvisation: le modleet ses ralisations, in Lortat-Jacob (ed.),Limprovisation dans les musiques detradition orale (Paris: SELAF, 1987), pp. 4559. The concept is referred toin several other chapters in this volume. For referent, see Jeff Pressing,Cognitive Processes in Improvisation, in W.R. Crozier and A.J. Chapman(eds), Cognitive Processes in the Perception of Art (Amsterdam: NorthHolland, 1984), pp. 34651.

2. See Eric Drott, Class, Ideology, and il caso Scelsi, Musical Quarterly, 89/i(2006), pp. 80120.

3. Franck Mallet (ed.), Conversations avec Giacinto Scelsi, in GiacintoScelsi,Les Anges sont ailleurs ... :Textes indits recuellis et comments par SharonKanach, ed. Sharon Kanach, trans. Sharon Kanach, Irne Assayag andFiorella Edel (Arles: Actes Sud, 2006), p. 64.This interview was originallybroadcast on Radio France, France Musique, in 1987.

4. Ibid., p. 66. Scelsi also claimed that, while recovering in a Swiss clinic, hehad developed the habit of playing single notes on the piano and meditatingon their acoustic depth. With this story he encouraged the interpretation ofhis later work as an extension of this therapeutic practice.

5. Pressing, Cognitive Processes, pp. 3579.

6. This is the most controversial element of Scelsis methods. It has oftenbeen justified on the ground that it was consistent with his overall attitudeof undermining the centrality of the written text. In his view the musicalwork was established during the moment of inspiration, and transcriptionwas a mechanical task that did not indeed must not contribute to thework. It is hard to imagine how Scelsi could have transcribed the musichimself without succumbing to the temptation to start editing it rationally.On the other hand, there is no escaping the fact that he did not credit hisassistants.

7. It appears that Scelsi used two Claviolines, confusingly inscribed with theword ondiola. Elisabetta Piras, Mario Baroni and Gianni Zanarini,Improvvisazioni di Giacinto Scelsi: il caso problematico dellondiola, Isuoni, le onde ... :Rivista della Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, 1920 (20078), pp.67.

8. Gregory Reish, Una Nota Sola: Giacinto Scelsi and the Genesis of Musicon a Single Note, Journal of Musicological Research, 25/ii (2006), pp.15060. Reish aptly describes Scelsis late aesthetics as sonorist.

9. Mallet, Conversations avec Giacinto Scelsi, p. 83.

10. Ibid., p. 64. See also Giacinto Scelsi, Son et musique, in Scelsi, Les Angessont ailleurs ... , p. 126.



11. Scelsi, Son et musique, pp. 1312. Scelsi observed that post-Webernianand even chance music was, like tonal music, conditioned by numericalsystems that preceded the sound itself , even when the artistic intentionwas to give particular attention to sound quality (this also applies tospectral music).

12. Ibid., pp. 1289.

13. Jeff Pressing, Improvisation: Methods and Models, in John Sloboda (ed.),Generative Processes in Music: the Psychology of Performance, Compositionand Improvisation (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988),pp. 13940 and 142.

14. Giacinto Scelsi, Force cosmique, in Scelsi,LesAnges sont ailleurs ... , p. 151.

15. Letter to Sharon Kanach, in ibid., p. 57.

16. Scelsi was well informed in this respect. He was a friend of Michaux andDal and co-founded an art gallery specialising in abstract expressionismand art informel. See Alessandro Mastropietro, Action music (1955) ...action painting: su un nodo della produzione pianistica di Scelsi e su alcuneipotesi definitorie della sua tecnica compositiva, in Daniela M. Tortora(ed.), Giacinto Scelsi nel centenario della nascita (Rome: Aracne, 2008),pp. 11944.

17. Vieri Tosatti, Scelsi, cest moi, Il giornale della musica, 5/xxxv (1989), pp.1 and 10. The release of the tapes has demystified Scelsi somewhat. Someprogress has been made in identifying and analysing them, above all by thecomposer and scholar Friedrich Jaecker. The first results of this researchwere presented at the conference Scelsi ritrovato: nuovi percorsi alla lucedelle fonti darchivio, Rome, 1112 November 2010. See also FriedrichJaecker, Funziona? O non funziona? Ein Streifzug durch das Scelsi-Archiv, MusikTexte, 128 (2011), pp. 511.

18. [U]n aspetto assolutamente innovativo nella dimensione spettrale delsuono in Scelsi la modalit, assolutamente a-costruttiva, con la qualesimile pensiero prende forma, sostanza, distaccandosi in tal modo cosnettamente da un pensiero e da una visione strutturale ... ; il suono qui non pensato in quanto materiale da trattare con tecniche ed esercizi pi omeno numerico-artigianali per dargli forme e pensiero, bens in quantosuono-klang; una sorta di suono primordiale. Pierre Albert Castanet andNicola Cisternino, Giacinto Scelsi, quasi una premessa, in Castanet andCisternino (eds),Giacinto Scelsi: viaggio al centro del suono (La Spezia: Luna,1993), p. 11. All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated.

19. [D]er Ton wird nicht als Material mit bestimmten geschichtlichenSedimentierungen und kompositorischen Implikationen verstanden ... ,

238 IAN DICKSON


sondern als Materie, deren Eigendynamik der Komponist zur Geltungbringt. Martin Zenck, Das Irreduktible als Kriterium der Avantgarde, inHeinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn (eds),Giacinto Scelsi (Munich: text+ kritik, 1983), p. 70.

20. Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Das Unbekannte in der Musik: Versuch ber dieKompositionen von Giacinto Scelsi, in Metzger and Riehn, Giacinto Scelsi,p. 14. See also Giulio Castagnoli, Suono e processo nei Quattro pezzi perorchestra (su una nota sola) (1959) di Giacinto Scelsi, in Castanet andCisternino, Giacinto Scelsi: viaggio, pp. 2467; and Tristan Murail, Scelsi,De-composer, trans. Robert Hasegawa, Contemporary Music Review, 24/iiiii (2005), p. 173.

21. Piras, Baroni and Zanarini, Improvvisazioni di Giacinto Scelsi, pp. 89.Scelsi would also exploit the possibilities offered by his recording equip-ment for example, by reversing the direction of the tapes.

22. Tristan Murail, Scelsi and LItinraire: the Exploration of Sound, trans.Robert Hasegawa, Contemporary Music Review, 24/iiiii (2005), pp. 1834.Murail describes this kind of time as temps lisse smooth or polished time.

23. Murail, Scelsi, De-composer, p. 179.

24. Christine Anderson, Klang als Energie: Anahit von Giacinto Scelsi:sthetischer Hintergrund und Analyse, MusikTexte: Zeitschrift fr neueMusik, 812 (1999), pp. 7282.

25. Johannes Menke, Pax: Analyse bei Giacinto Scelsi:Tre canti sacri und Konx-Om-Pax (Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2004).

26. Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Music and Discourse, trans. Carolyn Abbate(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), p. 88, n. 15.

27. [L]e modle, connu au moins implicitement par le musicien est [sic] perupar lauditeur proportion de sa familiarit avec le genre, la forme, ou lestyle de la musique, est une rfrence stable. Lortat-Jacob, Improvisation,p. 46.

28. Ibid., p. 52.

29. See Giovanni Giuriati, Suono, improvvisazione, trascrizione, autorialit,Oriente, ... e Scelsi: alcune riflessioni di un etnomusicologo, in Tortora,Giacinto Scelsi nel centenario, pp. 26379.

30. See Mario Baroni, Rossana Dalmonte and Carlo Jacoboni, A Computer-Aided Inquiry on Music Communications: the Rules of Music (Lewiston, NY:Edwin Mellen Press, 2003). Other important contributions to this fieldinclude Terry Winograd, Linguistics and the Computer Analysis of TonalHarmony, Journal of Music Theory, 12/i (1968), pp. 249; Mario Baroni



and Carlo Jacoboni, Proposal for a Grammar of Melody: the Bach Chorales(Montreal: Presses de lUniversit de Montral, 1978); and Kemal Ebci-oglu, An Expert System for Harmonizing Four-Part Chorales, ComputerMusic Journal, 12/iii (1988), pp. 4351.

31. Fred Lerdahl, Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems, inSloboda, Generative Processes in Music, pp. 231, 2334, 255 and 236.Lerdahls argument has been attacked as conservative; see, for example,James Boros, A New Totality?, Perspectives of New Music, 33/iii(1995), pp. 53853. Perhaps I should specify that I do not consider cog-nitively opaque music to be inferior. See also Mario Baroni, GTTMand Post-Tonal Music, Musicae Scientiae: Discussion Forum, 5 (2010),pp. 6993.

32. See Mieko Kanno, Thoughts on How to Play in Tune: Pitch and Intona-tion, Contemporary Music Review, 22/iii (2003), pp. 4951. As Kannoexplains, in works such as those of Scelsi, the performer still has muchresponsibility in this regard.

33. Baroni, Dalmonte and Jacoboni, A Computer-Aided Inquiry, p. 14 and pp.1516, n. 18.

34. Mario Baroni, Musical Grammar and the Study of Cognitive Processes ofComposition, Musicae Scientiae, 3/i (1999), p. 3.

35. Ibid., p. 6.

36. Ibid., p. 5.

37. The intervals that most encourage tonal fusion (i.e. are most likely to beinterpreted as comprising partials of a single complex tone) are theunison, octave and fifth hence their avoidance in polyphonic idioms. SeeDavid Huron, Tonal Consonance versus Tonal Fusion in PolyphonicSonorities, Music Perception, 9/ii (1991), p. 135.

38. Similar criteria are used in Fred Lerdahl, Atonal Prolongational Struc-ture, Contemporary Music Review, 4/i (1989), pp. 734.

39. This is the familiar term used in Leonard B. Meyer,Style andMusic: Theory,History and Ideology (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989),pp. 1416.Xnoybis requires special metallic mutes, but the score comes withan erratum explaining that one should find a suitable solution by personalexperimentation. Is it, then, the fact that the sound is altered which counts,rather than the particular character of the new sound?

40. This work is also discussed in Ian Dickson, Orality and Rhetoric in ScelsisMusic, Twentieth-Century Music, 6/i (2009), pp. 348.

41. Julian Anderson, La Note Juste, Musical Times, 136/1823 (1995), p. 23.

240 IAN DICKSON


NOTE ON CONTRIBUTOR

IAN DICKSON studied music at Kings College London and received his PhD inComposition from the University of York. He is currently studying towards aPhD in musicology at the University of Cambridge.

ABSTRACT

Giacinto Scelsi (19051988) is a problematic figure for musical analysis onaccount of his extreme anti-rationalism and devaluing of the score. By the 1950she was creating music through improvisation and delegating to assistants the taskof transcribing the results.The idiom he evolved was novel not only in its extremeeconomy of means, usually consisting of subtle inflections of continuous sounds,but also in its apparent rejection of any rational organisation.

Analysts of Scelsis work have tended to concentrate on large-scale musicalarchitecture, neglecting the apparently redundant, non-developmental gesturesfrom which, nonetheless, this architecture must be built up. Many of Scelsisadvocates have encouraged this by insisting on the musics irreducibility andexceptional rapport with sound. Such an argument stems from the composersown mysticism: he attributed the automaticity of his improvisations to the cosmicpower of sound, rather than to the long hours that he spent creating them.

This article explores the idea that Scelsis music is conditioned, if not by anexplicit grammar (traditional or avant-garde), then by the model of the originalimprovisations, and that his manipulation of nuance can be considered as a kindof syntax. It argues that a grammatical analysis accounts for the persuasivenessand variety of the improvisations more plausibly than statistical analysis ormetaphysical formulations involving sound itself .



towards a grammatical analysis of scelsi’s late music

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