Giacinto Scelsi
 

Listening to The Orchestra Works 2 as performed by Peter Rundel and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and this is absolutely blowing my mind. I've had little to do with classical, modern or otherwise, outside of a bit of Rachmaninoff and sparing Scriabin, and neither one prepared me for this.

This is some of the most skin-crawling music I've ever heard. Where do I go with Scelsi after this?

I'm bumping this thread because I just remembered how ****ing sick Scelsi's work is, and a sample would probably help pique interest.

I've only heard the Orchestral Works 2 so far, which I've yet to find a copy of, so I've neglected the remainder of his work, but I get the feeling his piano and viola works are just as worthwhile.

Thank you for sharing this, that was definitely worth my time to listen to!

I was raised by people with disdain for twentieth century composers so I was never exposed to this stuff. I like it though so I hope those in the know will post some more here.

Child abuse!

As for Scelsi, I really like. Reminds me a lot of Ligeti's more out there works.

:laughing: Seriously! I thought my father would be proud when, as a kid, I tried to talk to him about Rites of Spring but he just kind of smirked and told me that Stravinsky doesn't count.

I found this, and think it's pretty great:

As fantastic as it is, I meant more stuff like this:

It's not bad but I'm a sucker for fast paced harpsichord music.
What you and Pedestrian have posted seems more like it belongs in the Post Rock thread.

Remember, also, they're doing this stuff with acoustic instruments. Which is an insane technical difficulty in comparison to making ethereal music by electrified means.

Especially when working with microtones which I believe is only technically achievable with stringed instruments, and electronics. Obviously, however, it's much easier with . Maybe it's possible with piano, but may require very fragile intricate tunings.

unless Scelsi invented his own instruments ala Harry Partch, it must have been a task alone to find string players who were willing, and able, to pull off that style of playing as it's only really possible on fretless string instruments.