8 for Giacinto Scelsi

for any number of microtonally capable instruments or sounding sources

J.-P. Caron 2008

Foreword
8 for Giacinto Scelsi is a composition for any number of player on any type of microtonal-capable sound sources. The piece consists on 4 lines designed to control different parameters of sound. Each performer should choose beforehand how many and which lines he will follow, and which parameter each line would control. For instance, if he chooses to control dynamics, the higher the line, the louder the sound should be. In the case of more complex sound parameters such as timbre, ad hoc strategies should be devised, with the only requirement the these are consistent troughout the piece. The upper and lower limits of each box represent the parametric limits of each performer. Frequency limits should be no greater than a major third between the upper and lower limits. This is the Scelsian feature of the piece, the concentration of high energy and information in small pitch limits.

Temporally, the piece is divided in 20 second chapters. Ideally the musicians shall not have constant access to a clock, for the delays between different performers are considered an additional feature to the complexity of the sounding result. They shall either have a conductor, to indicate the passage of the chapters, or have a sound click each 20 seconds in order to orientate them in the time-span of the work. If someone gets delayed, he should try to read his information more quickly in order to get to the right chapter.

Special signs are used sometimes, such as the fermata, for parametric pause and tremolo signs. These shall be approached creatively by the performers. They are an invitation for a responsible decision on how to interpret these in the context of the sound sources used. The piece lasts exactly 8 minutes, in a further hommage to the Italian composer, whom passed away on August the 8th, 1988. J.-P. Caron 2008