La musica di Giacinto Scelsi a Cagliari

This paper is the result of a conviction that, in the ambit of the response to the music of Giacinto Scelsi, the experience of Cagliari – a city whose importance in Italian musical life certainly cannot be compared to that of centres like Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, Turin – is indeed significant, and perhaps even unique in the Italian panorama.

Thanks above all to the intervention of Franco Oppo, a composer who has been interested in Scelsi’s music since the end of the Sixties and who also met Giacinto Scelsi himself twice at his Roman home (in 1965 and 1970), Cagliari has had the opportunity since the late Seventies to listen to Scelsi’s music at public concerts. In addition, questions relative to his music were examined and discussed during the Course of Nuova Didattica della Composizione (New Didactics of Composition) held by Oppo at Cagliari Conservatoire.

Utilizing some of the material contained in a degree thesis of which he was supervisor, the author of this paper follows three different but converging lines: reconstruction of the performances of Scelsi’s music during Cagliari concert seasons and festivals; list of seminar activities (conferences, seminars, university courses) dedicated to the figure of Giacinto Scelsi and to his music; verification of the influence of this music and of his musical philosophy traceable in the works of Cagliari composers, pupils of Franco Oppo.

Proof (or denial) of the uniqueness and significance of the Cagliari experience can only be decided when the study of the response to Scelsi’s music, both in Italy and abroad, is carried out systematically, verifying with the relevant data the performances of Scelsi’s music, the seminar activity dedicated to it and to his philosophy and the consequences of this experience apparent in the music of composers of subsequent generations.