Cheap Studies for the Tuning of the Sea (Music) (Sciarrino) Price

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Customer Reviews of Studies for the Tuning of the Sea

An extraordinary work
Sciarrino's Study for Tuning the Sea was written to celebrated the restoration of the earthquake-damaged cathedral at Citta di Castello in Umbria. Evidently, Sciarrino felt an extraordinary event required an extraordinary score, since this piece is scored for contraltino voice, 104 flutes, 104 saxophones and a percussionist (though the number of flutes and saxophones was reduced for acoustic reasons in this performance).

The vocal line--based on texts by Thomas Wolfe--is lyrical, mournful, full of grace notes, but arguably the weight of the music is carried by the "orchestral" writing. This varies from reiterated notes against traceries of percussion to delicate two and three-part counterpoint--often melodic lines counterpointing themselves against clicking sounds from keys--up to enormous, dense chords at dramatic points. All of it is striking, memorable, and sounds like no other work I have ever heard--even by this composer. The sixth section includes one of the most extraordinary moments in all of music, a rainstorm conjured up by the whole orchestra tapping away at the keys on their instruments, swelling as the performers come in one by one until the contraltino's voice joins them.

This really is a work like no other, and may well be Sciarrino's finest composotion to date. Despite the measly playing time (only 35 minutes of music, and no coupling) I have to give this a very strong recommendation.

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Great New Music
ciarrinos,s music is one of the more interesting new music . He combinates an high degree of formal sofistication with and nuanced timbral care. Everything treated in and ecological maner