SALVATORE SCIARRINO - BIOGRAPHY

Music of the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino (1947, Palermo) can be probably best characterized by the following oxymoron: “acoustic theatre of night sounds.“ It evokes a tension, the mystery of night rustles, sudden creaks of old furniture, distant sounds of the sea and those of night insects. In his associations, Sciarrino uses highly psychological and deliberately mannerist, even decadent means – in his compositions there is the permanent feeling of “something hanging in the air,“ as if they anticipated a dramatic action that, however, usually stays only implied or completely suppressed. Sciarrino prefers extreme dynamic changes, mostly very soft sounds at the very edge of silence with a suggestive repetition of several simple elements that is typical for him. He is a proud autodidact and he found his musical language – original and almost unchanged over some forty years – very early. He wrote a many compositions (including more than ten large-scale operas) and for many years he has been among the biggest “stars“ of contemporary art music. He has the considerably enriched the palette of instrumental sounds and extended techniques.