Una Nota Sola: Giacinto Scelsi and the Genesis of Music on a Single Note
Gregory N. Reish · Journal of Musicological Research · 2006
In the 1920s German anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) and Franco-American composer Dane Rudhyar (1895–1985) each suggested that a single note might serve as ample material for musical composition. It was the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (1905–88), however, who realized the idea three decades later. Steiner's and Rudhyar's ideas exerted a strong influence on Scelsi and the formation of his monotonal style, which can be traced through his Piano Suites Nos. 8 and 9 (1952 and 1953), Triphon and Dithome for cello (1956 and 1957), and Quattro pezzi (ciascuno su una nota sola) for chamber orchestra (1959).