PAX

“Pax” is a central concept in the work of Giacinto Scelsi. In the Tre canti sacri, the word is set to music in a striking manner within the context of the Gloria text; in Konx-Om-Pax, it reappears in the title. Furthermore, Pax stands for a mediating stance characteristic of Scelsi: between East and West, between improvisation and notation, between sound and construction, between transcendence and immanence.
This volume attempts to subject the scores of the two works Tre canti sacri and Konx-Om-Pax, as published by Scelsi, to a detailed analysis. The focus is on the fact that Scelsi’s contribution to music history manifests itself quite concretely in the development of his own formal conception, harmony, and compositional technique. Despite its individuality, this musical language and its semantics stand in a tense yet close relationship to the history and present of Western art music.

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