i’m turning today to an enigmatic piece by Giacinto Scelsi, one of the last he ever composed. Maknongan dates from 1976, just a year before Scelsi would cease composing altogether. At this time, his attention had become focused on low sounds. Dharana, composed the previous year, is for cello and double bass, and Le réveil profond, from 1977, is for double bass. For Maknongan, Scelsi simply specified it should be performed by “a low instrument … or bass voice”, allowing for many possibilities of realisation. The titles of all these works demonstrate Scelsi’s lifelong engagement with spiritual thought; Dharana is a notion pertaining to Ashtanga Yoga, Le réveil profond translates as “The Deep Awakening”, suggesting some form of mystical new beginning, whereas Maknongan, most esoteric of all, refers to the supreme deity of the Ifugao people of the Philippines. However, there are no specifics; Scelsi makes these allusions to assorted superstitions but goes no further, allowing the music to speak in a way that is highly abstract.
This performance of Maknongan, the first of two i’ll be including in this year’s Advent Calendar, is by Estonian keyboard and electronician Taavi Kerikmäe, the only time i’ve heard the piece realised with electronics. The piece centres around three pitches, G, G-sharp and A, and here the music emerges as a throbbing, slithering, contorting fug of sound, occasionally emitting growl-like modulations and buzzes. It has a primordial quality, raw and ancient to the point of sounding alien, only later calming somewhat into what seems like an elemental form of nascent song. Small rhythmic swells and pulsations emerge, and these are answered by a period when the music turns inward, becoming vague. Here and earlier there’s a palpable tension, as if the material were writhing in a confined space, only quietening (to a quasi-drone) in the work’s closing moments.
The performance took place at the Arvo Pärt Centre in September 2020.
[…] some of the most powerful performances i’ve experienced in recent years (Kerikmäe’s rendition of Scelsi’s Maknongan was featured a fortnight ago; Eller’s is coming next week). They utterly outdid themselves on […]
[…] 3 December i explored a performance of Giacinto Scelsi‘s enigmatic late piece Maknongan on electronics. This second performance, which comes from the same concert, uses the kannel – the Estonian folk […]