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Photo of Giacinto Scelsi

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Giacinto Scelsi

ジャチント・シェルシ / じゃちんと・しぇるし

Composer from Italy

January 8, 1905 – August 9, 1988 ・ Pitelli, Province of La Spezia, Italy

  • Province of La Spezia
  • composer
  • poet
  • musician

My Take

Giacinto Scelsi fascinates me precisely because he resists easy explanation. An Italian count who also wrote surrealist poetry in French, he spent much of his career on a single radical idea: that you could build entire works around one note, exploring its inner life through microtonal shifts and timbre. Pieces like Hymnos and Hurqualia feel less composed than excavated. For a long time he was a marginal figure, almost a rumor, and only later did musicians catch up to what he was doing. I find that arc moving. He died in 1988 having quietly anticipated where a lot of later music would go, without ever chasing recognition for it.

Overview

Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi, count d'Ayala Valva (Italian pronunciation: [dʒaˈtʃinto franˈtʃesko maˈriːa ʃˈʃɛlsi]; 8 January 1905 – 9 August 1988) was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. Profile

Name (English)
Giacinto Scelsi
Name (Japanese)
ジャチント・シェルシ
Reading
じゃちんと・しぇるし
Born
January 8, 1905 – August 9, 1988
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
Capricorn / Snake
Origin
Pitelli, Province of La Spezia, Italy
Blood type
Private
Height
Private
Agency
Private
Occupation
composer / poet / musician

2. Background

Elementary school
Private
Junior high
Private
High school
Private
University
Private

3. Relationships

Spouse
Private
Children
Private
Parents
Private
Siblings
Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

5. Works & records

CategoryTitleRoleYear
Notable workHurqualia
Notable workSuite nr. 10
Notable workHymnos
Notable workVier Stukken

Composer — see all → · Poet — see all → · More people from Italy →

7. About this entry

Tags

  • Province of La Spezia
  • composer
  • poet
  • musician
Last updated
2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.