endlessly playing the same note

giacinto scelsi - oeuvre intégrale pour choeur
et orchestre symphonique
accord - 1988, 1989, 1990
direction jürg wyttenbach et orchestre et chœur
de la radio-télévision polonaise de cracovie


quattro pezzi (1959), anahit (1965), uaxuctum (1966)

hurqualia (1960), hymnos (1963), chukrum (1963)

aion (1961), pfhat (1974), konx-om-pax (1969)

scelsi had already composed about thirty pieces, when, towards the end of the war, he underwent a serious crisis, calling for years of hospitalisation. whilst in the nursing home, he found his own therapy: he would spend hours at the keyboard, endlessly playing the same note and immersed in concentrated and intense listening, thus renewing experiences going back to early childhood. this saved him, and from 1952 onwards he started composing again, but in the entirely new and different language which allowed him to create about a hundred works within thirty years.
- harry halbreich - notes for release