Public awareness of the life and works of the Italian composer Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi (1905 - 1988)
developed only very late in the 20th Century. Indeed, for a long time, mere fragments about his life were known at
all. Despite this, many important composers of the recent past were influenced by Scelsi`s personality and work. In
Austria, programmes of Scelsi`s works at the Musikprotokoll Festival in Graz in the late 1980s were influential for
the reception and propagation of Scelsi`s work throughout the country and beyond.
The relationship between Scelsi and the Austrian musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries forms the core of
this research project, which is divided into two main parts:
1. Studies of Scelsi`s compositions and his ideas on music
2. The reception of Scelsi`s works at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
In the first part of the research project, studies of the life and work of the composer Giacinto Scelsi at the
Fondazione Isabella Scelsi in Rome (FIS) will form the basis and the starting point for dealing with Scelsi`s oeuvre.
In addition, particular aspects of Scelsi`s works will be investigated and compared with those of selected
composers, including Franz Schubert, Anton Webern Alban Berg and Olivier Messiaen.
In the second part of the project, Austrian composers and interpreters of contemporary music, as well as
programmers for the most important Austrian Contemporary Art Festivals will be interviewed about their
encounters with Scelsi`s work (or in some cases even with Giacinto Scelsi himself), and the influence of his music
and thoughts on their own creative work.
The research project is not intended to present a historicising retrospective, rather, aims to discover Scelsi`s
significance for the present. What do Scelsi`s "intercultural" thoughts and compositions mean in today`s global
world? Which role do myths, archetypes and metaphysics play for contemporary composers? Which aspects of
Scelsi`s music inspire young composers these days?