Giacinto Scelsi - String Trio review | John Lewis's contemporary album of the month

The Guardian 80

London Contemporary Orchestra
(SA Recordings)
Scelsi, writing in the 1930s, influenced Ennio Morricone, using microtonal variations on a single note to make revelatory music

When I interviewed him in his Rome studio nearly 20 years ago, Ennio Morricone was generous in praise of his heroes, declaring his undying love for John Cage, Burt Bacharach and the AS Roma striker Francesco Totti. He also mentioned a more obscure idol: an Italian composer called Giacinto Scelsi. “I learned from him that a single note can be beautiful and shocking,” he told me. “And that, by repeating that note, in slightly different ways, you can do more than playing something complicated.”