7/29/2019 'a Volcano Viewed From Afar'- The Music of Salvatore Sciarrino'a Volcano Viewed From Afar'- The Music of Salvator

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'A Volcano Viewed from Afar': The Music of Salvatore SciarrinoAuthor(s): Nicolas HodgesSource: Tempo, New Series, No. 194, Italian Issue, (Oct., 1995), pp. 22-24Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/944607Accessed: 07/07/2008 06:06

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7/29/2019 'a Volcano Viewed From Afar'- The Music of Salvatore Sciarrino'a Volcano Viewed From Afar'- The Music of Salvator

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NicolasHodges'A volcano viewed from afar':the Music of Salvatore SciarrinoWith the exception of a few small-scalepiecesprogrammedby the more adventurouscontemp-orary music ensembles, the music of SalvatoreSciarrinohas not been performedfrequentlyinthis country;BBC Radio 3 has given occasionalairtimeto largerworks, but we have yet to hearmuch of his most importantmusic in any form.This article should act, I hope, as a pointer toreaderswho mightwish to explore his output ondisc,which currently s reallythe only way to doso in this country.Sciarrinowas born in 1947 in Palermo, andstartedcomposing at the age of 12. Biographiesdisagreeover hiseducation:somedescribehimasanautodidact,while othersmentioncompositionstudieswith Antonino Titone and TuriBelfiore,and later work with Evangelisti on electronicmusic at the Accademia di S.Cecilia. Sciarrino'sprecociousness is beyond doubt, though, and isevidenced by the exposure given him by thePalermoInternationalNew Music Week at thetender age of 15. By the age of 22 Sciarrinohadput in place many of the fundamentals of hismusical explorations to date, most notably hisinterest in marginalized ounds in often densely-wrought textures, and his fascination withrelatingto pastformalmodels.Moreover, he wasalready considered the youngest leader of thenew music in Italy. Since then his enormousoutput has had no lack of performances in hisnative country.Sciarrinoonce describedhis music as 'like theeruption of a volcano viewed from afar'.1Thisimage describes several interrelatedaspects ofSciarrino'swork. Firstly, he surfaceof the music,though often quiet and highly detailed, is nevermerely lightweight or pretty: the composer'scharacterizationquoted above is an explicitcontradiction of such a view. As well as apreferencefor low dynamic evels, Sciarrinoalsohasa predilectionfor a fully integrateduse of thewhole continuum between unpitched sound andpurepitchedtones.This is particularlynoticeablein the musicforsolo instruments,nsuch worksas1Anon: 'Entretien avec Salvatore Sciarrino', in Entretempsno.9. Paris 1991, p.137.

the SeiCaprices1976)for violin andthe solo flutepiece Comevengonoprodottiglincantesimi?(1985).2He sharesthis predilection with Luigi Nono, inthe latter's late works, although their otherconcerns differ considerably. It may not be acoincidence, however, that they have bothworked extensively with a specific circle ofItaliannew music virtuosi which has the flautistRoberto Fabbricianias its best-known member.What Nono andSciarrinodo share,though, is aninterest in new levels and types of listening asdistinct from a purely capricious use of suchmaterial. Nono's other concerns are oftenprojected more strongly, but with Sciarrino, ifone stops to think, one becomes awareof beingconsciously drawninto the experience in a waywhich suggestsa hidden agenda. This agenda isSciarrino's highly developed and idiosyncraticsense of form.Sciarrino's moment to moment progressthrough a piece often has particularcharacter-istics which emphasize his attitude to theresourcesoffered both by solo instrumentsandensembles. Eachpiece strikesan unstablebalancebetween continuous states and their disruption.Typicalof the formerwould be tremolandi,trillsand ostinati(suchas string-crossingarpeggiosinthe Caprices),while their disruptionrangesfromstorms of entirelydistinct material o the subtlestchanges of colour. The effect is of someoneexploring the sonic resources of an instrumentthrough mprovisation.In the Capriceshe closinggesture - the strummingof the open strings-emphasizesthis. In ensemble or keyboardworksSciarrinooften uses the contrapuntal apabilitiesof his mediumto providefurtherenergy throughsaturationof the texture with ostinato. A smallmotif mightbejuxtaposedwith itself in a myriaddifferent ways in a very small space of time,producinga streamof seethingdetail whichcoulditself be disruptedas a large scale gesture.In parallelwith Sciarrino's nterest in formalreferences, alluded to above, his textures often2 The former is available on Accord 202862, the latter (alongwith itscompanionCanzonadiringraziamento)n KochEuropa350-229, performed by its dedicatee, Roberto Fabbriciani.

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'A volcanoviewedfrom far': he Musicof Salvatore ciarrino 23evoke other composers or genres. An obviousexample of this is his First Sonata for piano,which consciouslyevokes Liszt.3The texture asawhole has remarkablesimilaritieswith passagesfromjeuxd'eau laVillaD'Este,while the openingof Feux Follets is quoted almost intact, andextended seamlessly before being transformedinto the Jeux d'eau-on-speed texture whichdominates the main part of the piece. ClaudioTempo has also suggested that the muted,fragmentary ndingof the FirstSonatarefers to afurther work of Liszt's, the B minor sonata.4While this may be true it has to be said thatthe ending is entirely typical of Sciarrino,particularlybearing in mind its formal function.Another example of this occurs in the music-theatre work Vanitasfor soprano, cello andpiano.5The function of the piano in the textureconsciously evokes the German Lied tradition.Similarly, the other textual references inSciarrino'smusic never deflect the music awayfrom the composer's own identity; rathertheyprovide clues to meaningful ormalreferences.6Sciarrino's mage of the volcano quoted abovebringsto mind anotheraspectof his work whichis remarkable. Formally his music has moreprecision and intention than one might expectfrom a superficial observation of the incan-descent nature of his textures. The breadthandcomplexity of his palette is necessitated by hisfunctionaluse of texture. Sciarrinohas writteninsome detail about this with respect to the flutepiece Comevengonoprodottiglincantesimi?(1985).7The piece describes a curve which grows indensity and solidity throughout, starting withunblown key tapsandbecoming denserthrough,at first, the intensification of movement andwidening of harmonic range, and then theintervention of blown notes, becoming moreand more prominent in the texture. Sciarrinomentions in connexion with this the tradition offinal movements which represent a virtuosic3 Sciarrino'scomplete piano music up to 1992 is available inauthoritative performances by Massimiliano Damerini onDynamic CDS 2. Sciarrino has only written one piano worksubsequently, a Fifth Piano Sonata for Maurizio Pollini.Following its premiere (Salzburg,24 August 1994) the workwas withdrawn for revision and has not reappeared.4 In the sleeve note to the above-mentioned CD.S Availableon RicordiCRMCD1015. The same company havealso released a recording of Lohengrin n CRMCD1001.6 The extraordinaryAnamorfosi1980) for piano is made upalmost entirely of material by Ravel. The piece opens with'I'm singing in the rain'as a descant toJeux d'eau(Ravel'sthistime, not Liszt's),while the close is furnishedby uneBarqueurI'oceanrom Miroirs!The effect is charming,ironic andentirelySciarrinian.7 'Entretiens avec Salvatore Sciarrino', p.136.

culmination - a tradition which can be tracedthrough late Haydn and late Beethoven (apreoccupationof Sciarrino's) o Liszt- andmanyothers of his works bear an active, consciousrelationship with this tradition. In the presentcase the piece confounds expectations of a finalpyrotechnic display: it completely loses itsconfidence, and retreats into mournful tremolowarbles. There are a few brief attempts at arepeatedintensification- which fail, leaving thepiece to end unresolved.This is an explicit formal reference, not forreference's sake, but to make a point aboutperception. Sciarrinonotes that 'in order to holdthe attention t is necessaryalwaysto escalate;andthat is what the piece contradicts'.8A similarpoint is made by the First Piano Sonatamentioned above. After a profusionof materialthe music suddenly pauses,and one is forced tolisten to nothing but resonance for a full 30seconds before the piece haltingly continues,never regaining its momentum and repeatedlystalling, leaving only resonance again in theforeground. My principal objection to ClaudioTempo'sconnexion of thisendingwith that of theLisztSonatais that in the latter, the ending is areturnto the materialof the prologue, and is not,like the ending of Sciarrino'sSonata,9a contra-diction of the nature of the whole of whatprecedes it.Sciarrino frequently inverts this process inorder to place emphasis on an often extremelysudden climax. Perhaps he most telling exampleof this is in his huge Un'Immagine 'Arpocrateorpiano, chorus and orchestra (1974-79). As theonly large-scale work currently available onCD,10 it is perhaps worth giving some back-ground as the long gestation of the work isexplained in part by the circumstancesof itsinception.11 The Italian pianist Dino Ciani, acolleague of Sciarrino's, had asked him for apiano concerto early in 1974. Tragically thatprovedto be the lastyearof Ciani'slife, and afterhis death work on the piece ground to a halt.8 ibid.9It is interestingo note, however hat Liszt's ndingwasoriginally he same virtuosicculminationwhich Sciarrinomentionsn connexionwith the flutepiece.The processofrevision can be seen in the facsimileof the manuscriptpublished y HenleVerlag.10Accord 202862, performed by Massimiliano Damerini,withthechoirand orchestra f RadioSudwestfunk aden-Baden,conductedby ErnestBour. The performancendrecording reexemplary.II Ihavebased hefollowingmaterial n a small ssaybythecomposerabout the composition f the work which wascontainedn the sleeve notesfor the originalLPrecording(FonitCetrataliaTL 088),butomitted rom heCDbooklet.

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24 'A volcano iewedromafar': heMusicof Salvatore ciarrinoSciarrino had planned three movements (in a'traditional' fast-slow-fast scheme - which nodoubt would have been put to ironic use), andhad scored a few pages. When he managed toresumework, however, he found that the piecestarted o change.The middlemovement (Adagio)became the centre of attention while the outermovements (Allegroappassionatond Allegroconfuoco) became two tiny frames, later to bedropped altogether. Sciarrino thought of theAdagio as 'a kind of timeless zone, veiled bylarval apparitions' and found that the idea of'deathstrippedof rhetoricand linked to a limbo-like more thana nocturnalatmosphere' roadenedthe dimensions of the piece.The resultis strangelymore thanthe sum of itsparts. Most of the piece consists simply ofunidentifiable sustained low sound of greatcomplexity (producedwithout the use of elect-ronics). Essentially there are two outbursts, ashort one about 10 minutes in and a longer onejust before the end (the piece lasts over 40minutes). The expectation set up by the firstoutburst is drawn out for the rest of the piece,intensified by the muted flurries of piano andpercussionmaterialwhich haveappeared egularlyfrom the start. When the final climax suddenly

comes, the effect is both of greatrelief andtragicpain - though clearly a work of this scale andnature needs to be experienced rather than readabout.Sciarrino uses broadly the same formalprinciple in other works, although the overalleffect is of course completely different. Onegood example is the Second Piano Trio (1987)which spends much of its time exploring thestringplayers' harmonics, the piano very rarelygetting a look in, only to blossom rapidlyinto abeautifully florid stream of ornamentation.12One thing which these works and others inSciarrino's output do have in common is theremarkable integration between the differentlayers of each piece. While one can easily talkabout the great subtlety and intricacy of histextures,andthe articulacyof the formalschemeshe creates, it is emphatically not possible todescribe the total experience brought about bymusic which is bound together in all dimensionswith the mastery that Sciarrino displays in somanyof his works. Let'shope that we in Britaincanexperience more of his music at first hand inthe coming years.12 Unfortunatelyneither hisworknor hepowerfulFirstTrio(1975)have beenrecorded.