STEFANO SCIASCIA

Article by Vito Liuzzi

Translated by dr. Beppe Andreoni

“Mantra 22:22” doesn’t mark a definitive passage of Stefano Sciascia to a new conception of perceiving the sonorous phenomenon of double bass, in more abstract and descriptive way. Simply, it’s a real need of the compositor, which results to be more “visual”, and meantime, shows a philosophy, a world, in a wise and excellent way. A different approach to common hearing, absolutely innovative and strong, in its primordial essence: it’s the Indian way of thinking.  

From here, the ability to reproduce, through the cavernous and sometimes threatening sound of a Double bass, the depth of Indian philosophy, its natural tendency to a fixity of a time that never roll. Sometime pedantic, but that bring the man back to his real nature, to his old roots, to the power of his thought. It’s a tool to think, or a way to think at the tool ? It’s no easy to give a final answer, neither an answer worthy of further considerations. Maybe the answer is included only in the heart of this artist, that create (in this case the verb “to create” isn’t used in improper way) a real metaphor of a earliest time, fixed, immutable, but that everyone would like to live, in a life that often rolls in the opposite direction of time.

The feeling is that the Stefano Sciascia’s double bass has been transformed in a real “mantra instrument”. This whistling, this deep search of a absolutely atypical timbre for this instrument (now no more relegated to second leading role), this large vibrato, that become a wave that sweeps away everything, this careful and sage use of a technological sagacity that suit so well to beloved mastodon, render this work unquestionably innovative, that sometimes remind to a softly and suffused atmospheres, that the occidental people could admire, but that don’t correspond anymore to our phrenetic and deafening rhythms. The feeling is that you are not to listen to a double bass, but a totally different “instrument”, atypical, unusual, as ancient as the Indian culture. It’s possible that even a expert can not fully perceive the double bass timbre which become coloured, and extremely variegated, thanks to the hands of the “Maestro”. This conceptual characteristic, out of common places of traditional interpretation, demonstrates the extraordinary sound of Mantra 22:22. The successful of conceiving the time, the meditation, the mental liberation of daily anguish, in a unique and coherent musical speech.

It’s the music that become thought, or the thought that become music. Personally, I’ve always appreciate the Stefano Sciascia’s virtuoso technique, Never without a purpose; His phrasing with a thousand of colours that follow one another, like an idea of naturalistic paint description; his personal way to interpret the big of the past. Under an totally different situation from the usual one.

However, in this situation, his breathlessness panting, the wish to create a magic atmosphere (together with a proposal of old instruments using the bow in particular positions, and extremely calibrated glissando), the careful using of a vibrato that delay to appear, but then opens and closes as he likes, make this musical thought not more modal, no more linked with the temperament of mathematic logic of numbers, but clearly non-modal or maybe pluri-modal. Some years ago, someone could change this sonorous conception like a philosophic thought linked to new-age world, authentic and genuine.    

Considering this a new-age music is not a big mistake, if you think to the real essence of this kind of music that, due to more demanding but less prestigious market, lost its deeper essence: the holistic conception of the world. When the men, the spirit, the nature and the gods become all in one, a vital flow with no division. I have to tell him Bravo!! Even thought would seem a little word. Above all is extremely clever because has succeeded proposing a new “sonorous subject”, almost like a platonic demiurge that mould it as he likes. I think that Sciascia succeeded, with a simple and modest double bass, to re-create a sonorous world completely different, heir to way of thinking of Indians, of the Tantra and “de relato” of the Mantra. This obstinate pedal, very long, this soft phrasing, this devastating singing, these small but intense participations, almost like a canon. This sonorous spin that remind the fixity of a time that floats among past, present and future with a single reference point, renders this work extremely original. Placing the artist to a dimensional and sonorous levels of great value. A double bass, a bassist that talk like a philosopher, a new western Siddharta. For the first time, a classical double bass work with a cause-effect continuity can be listened where the numerical division is only symbolic. After this Sciascia’s “invention, even the word “classic” seems not to correspond totally to this composition, or better, is not suited in such a way to render justice to a new instrumental timbre which has been created with wisdom, shrewdness and visual intelligence, avoiding that the technological element overhangs the natural instrument expressiveness. An extremely charming and far-sighted sonorous theatre, but also brave, and, under a certain visual, even surprising.

“Mantra 22:22”: the fixity of a time that flows in a constant way, but that squeaks with a western world conception, where it has assumed a uniform accelerated speed, without respect of nature rhythms. A totally new, brilliant and innovative dimension, under a pure experimentation profile. Without to forget the aspect linked to the CD material realization, where recording quality, stereophonic effects, channels level and reverberation depth, are optimal, with the constant idea that the final result has to be well calibrated, never overflowing. 

Vito Liuzzi

News: INTERVISTA AL MAESTRO "STEFANO SCIASCIA"

a cura di Vito D. Liuzzi

" Il suonar' cantando "

*** ... Serge Koussevitzky and .... Stefano Sciascia !!!

STEFANO SCIASCIA INTERVIEW (English version)

thanks to dr. PIETRO SPANGHERO (translator)

1) Maestro Sciascia, how did your passion for the double bass begin? Was it merely by chance, as it often occurs, or is there any anecdote that might be of interest for our readers?

My passion for the double bass came long after my enrolment at the conservatory.

There were two free places: one for bassoon and the other for double bass. I had big hands; therefore everyone agreed I should become a double-bassist. So it was by chance. I still remember my first years as a student and those sounds that were anything but nice. I wondered if that was really the sound of the double bass… And there were no frets!

The first idea that led me to the passion for Music was “If only I could play as I sing”. It happened shortly before I got my diploma, but the big leap came after that.

 2) Let’s talk about your interpretative technique, the leitmotiv of our interview. Your international fame probably came after your performances as a soloist at the annual meetings held by the International Society of Bassist.

Many listeners greatly appreciated your technical and interpretative qualities, which are quite far from traditionalist musical standards. How did you get the idea of making the double bass sing?

I said earlier that the idea came from the need of expressing the Music that dwells in the Heart. When we sing everything is easy, playing becomes natural. I just modified the technique that I had learnt; I had to play exactly as if I were singing.

About the Phrasing: a sentence is made by words and every word has its inflection. I had to learn to play with every inflection of the human voice.

The bow is our voice: there I built my vocal technique. The vibrato shapes the Sound of the air that vibrates.

The starting point is the air that vibrates, before and after the silence.

Two years spent practicing madly and desperately brought me on the right path. Then, many years later, I fulfilled my dream. It is beautiful be able to express exactly what I feel; it was, and still is, my mission.

In this fast and often loud world, the culture of silence and of communication between men has to be kept alive; it is our only hope if we want to remain human.

I was first invited at the ISB convention in Indianapolis in 2001, year of the memorable Gary Karr’s farewell concert.

Then I played in Richmond, VA, in 2003, in 2005 in Kalamazoo-Michigan and in 2007 in Oklahoma City. The conventions are held at the Music Universities.

Before that I had recorded four CDs as a soloist for Rivo Alto records. Then the Japanese label King Records included my music in the compilation “The King of Bass II” together with S.Koussevitzky.

The invitation to my first ISB convention followed shortly after.

 3) Your activity of adapting music pieces for the double bass makes you one of Italy’s most prolific transcribers. You follow certain precise thematic criteria, yet you showed great versatility by recording a large number of records. There is something new almost every year.

Where do you get the musical ideas that eventually translate into your soloist works?

Bottesini was my first love. The record was conceived in 1993, when I recorded a demo tape with pianist David Giovanni Leonardi (with whom I have recorded practically every record so far). I began to look for a recording label, with my nice cassette, ah the good old days…

I found two labels, but they both wanted 10 million liras (about 5000 euros) for the production of the CD. I thought that was the only solution, but then I stumbled across a catalogue of the record label Rivo Alto, from Treviso. I met Robert de Pieri who decided to include Bottesini in a series of records dedicated to Italian composers.

So far we have released six CDs together.

My ideas spring from a single musical piece that sneaks into my mind and I can’t help playing. Then an infinite list of pieces follows and eventually I have to choose which pieces I want to record. Before releasing Songs of the World I played about 300 pieces from all the cultures of the world, but only 20 of them ended up on the record.

Some recordings, such as “Quella Fiamma” were born from the idea of playing with the double bass some Italian soprano melodies of the 18th century. I transcribed all the piano parts as well. The record is in one key only: E minor; it sounded good. Every record has its story. The most incredible is that of “The Kingdom of Ibbi Obbi”. The creation of the fairy tale originated from the music that created the images… What an exciting experience!

Laura Menegozzo made sixteen oil paintings to illustrate the story. Annalisa Consolo narrated the story and the whole team of our production company worked excellently.

 4) Let’s talk about the famous Dragonetti Concerto that you were the first to record worldwide. When and why did you decide to visit the British Museum to look for the original scores? Why do you think they made us believe for years that the A minor concert was written by Dragonetti and not by Nanny? 

I’d start from the last part of the question. We are often led to believe untrue things and this is done in order to hide the Truth that Music brings There can be various reasons to do that: money, the desire for fame and power. Time is a gentleman and it’ll always let the light of Truth shine.

The manuscript of Dragonetti’s Concerto is part of a series of concerts and other pieces, which are kept at the British Museum in London.

I examined the manuscript near Venice, where there was a musician who had brought from London the microfilms of all Dragonetti’s manuscripts and who had published them. 

Then I recorded this concert exactly as it is written. I think it is a beautiful piece; while playing it, it has the power of bringing one back in time.

Before choosing this concert I read all of Dragonetti’s concerts; I liked this one a lot… Moreover it began with G D B and Nanny’s concert begins with G B D it was easy to see who had copied form whom.

5) Let’s take a step back! Bottesini and Sciascia. In your CD Adagio, melanconico e appassionato you totally subverted some interpretative canons that nevertheless have been appreciated at an international level.

Your phrasing is always expansive and wide and only an excellent pianist can understand and be in harmony with your musical thought. How did you come to this idea of interpreting the “Paganini of the double bass”?

I’d say that it’s those who have not realized that Bottesini was a man of the Opera who have actually subverted his Music. The Maestro played, conducted and composed Operas; he lived in the theatres and the meaning of his Music can be clearly seen by looking at the titles of pieces like : " Fantasia su la Lucia di Lammermoor " by G.Donizetti "Fantasia sulla Beatrice di Tenda " by V.Bellini and many more.

The tempo is very important. The third beat of a 3 /4, for example, will always be different and it will follow the melody, which will sound at the right tempo. It will not be the right tempo because I say so, but because the difference between one interpretation and the other is so obvious… Breathing becomes unconscious and the Music itself is playing.

 When we listen to an Opera, to an aria, what do we have to imitate in order to play Bottesini’s music the way he performed it? It is not difficult! It’s the singer, soprano or tenor. All Bottesini’s themes are splendid imitations of the sounds of the human voice. And we should also read the newspapers of the 19th century where we can find the narration of Bottesini’s deeds and of his concerts: his sound is described as extraordinarily sweet and his bowing is said to be wide and endless.

It’s plain to see that Bottesini’s virtuosity was conceived for an audience who knew the Opera and who, in a time when there were no TV or cinema, went to the theatre to listen to their favourite arias. 

Bottesini skillfully inserts themes from the most popular Italian operas of his time in his double bass fantasies. It’s the themes that people used to whistle in the streets. Then he plays the soprano part with harmonics and makes the tenor sing on a lower octave, the bravura variations do the rest.

The Maestro even played during the intermissions of the operas: that is how he became famous! So famous that the audience went to the theatre to listen to him perform during the intermissions, rather than pay attention to the Opera. 

We cannot think of his performances as mere instrumental pieces; he made his instrument talk and sing and the people loved him for that.

 6) Maestro, one more technical question for young students. You hold the bow exactly like Bottesini did (even though there are many other performers who follow the so called French bow hold). Isaia Billè revolutionized this technique simply by placing the hand further back on the stick and placing the thumb on the upper portion of the “U” part of the frog (“Italian bow hold”). Is it your opinion, since you are also teacher, that a young student should follow one technique instead of the other? Or do you reckon that, all in all, it doesn’t make that big a difference as far as the technical aspects of a musical piece are concerned?

 Isaia Billè and Italo Caimmi have tried to decode in their methods a certain kind of school that still exists in Italy today.

Italo Caimmi’s renditions of Bottesini’s music and in particular of his Metodo per Contrabbasso represent a succesful attempt to erase the school and the thought of Giovanni Bottesini.

It should be remembered that all the first pages of the Metodo, those containing pictures and information on how Bottesini used to play the double bass have been removed and do not appear in Caimmi’s Ricordi edition.

However Bille and Caimmi’s techniques are now surpassed and there is a newer technique that makes it possible to play today’s repertoire, which has expanded considerably.

If we consider that the double bass was for years the only bowed instrument on which J.S.Bach’s solo instrumental music was not played, we will have a clear idea of the musical taste that has ruled for years among double bassists.

One had to play forte and on time, always. Phrasing? Never heard about it! The beauty and the colours of the Sound were utterly unknown. The old school created generations of frustrated double bassists who could not feel the joy of expressing their sensibility. These prejudices have hurt many in the past and they still do. Hundreds of musicians are pushed in the shadow by the arrogance of those who thought their school was the best.

What we should do, instead, is communicate our Music, open the Hearts of those who listen. The world is a better place only if we spark a new light in every person. Art is the true goal that the real Musician wants to reach.  

This is the most important message for young students.

As for the bow hold: the bow is our voice. With the Bottesini bow hold the transmission of the Sound is immediate and it allows one to play with every colour, from ppp to FFF, on every section of the hair.

A young student should realize that the double bass is not an instrument of its own, different from al the others. We can listen to a violin or to a singer and then we can surely make equally beautiful sounds. The limit comes from the old technique that is still taught. Technique should be a means to free the Music that is inside everyone, and not a limit or a torture. Personally I never do technique exercises, because I think they’re useless.

7) Your instrument. Great dynamic possibilities, an incredibly warm tone and a vibrato that emerges in all its breadth. Could you tell us something about the qualities of this double bass? Does it have any weakness? Would you ever part from it?

Never would I part form it; also because I have no other instrument.

I chose it for its Sound, the beauty of its tone, its unique voice. However it’s us who create the Sound. The Sound is personal; even if we change the instrument it remains the same. Of course an ancient instrument brings within itself a wide range of musical colours and harmonics.

It is an Italian instrument of the 18th century, presumably a Ruggeri.

8) Maestro is it still possible, in the third millennium, to talk about ”philological interpretation”?

Today’s trend, all over the world, seems to be that of making the classical double bass appear as an instrument similar to the cello, a sort of “double-cello”. Increasingly fast tempos and quasi-double-bass tones; as if it were a mirror of the frenzied reality in which we live. Do you think that the “Authentic Voice of the Double Bass” is now lost? Tell us what you think about it.

I think the voice of the double bass is maybe the most beautiful among bowed instruments. The extension is incredibly broad. I don’t think we can speak of a lost voice; rather we could speak of a never-found sound.

Tempo is not a personal choice. The unconscious breath gives us the measure of the tempo; the silence at the end of the piece tells us if the tempo is the right one. This is very important.

Silence is as important as Music. Pauses and breaths let us see the door that the sound opens to take us to the world of Art. The Tempo is the ruler of these spaces. When the Music is playing everything is right and perfect.

Just like the Earth moves together with the Universe, we have to find the speed that puts us in Harmony with it. Music is a part of this.

 9) What does “interpreting” a musical piece mean for you?

Being transpierced by Music and communicate as if we were a radio, to be a sort of medium between the Music and the listener. That is how Art is born, from the unconscious breath. The entrance door can be opened with just one key: the Sound. The colour of the Sound can open horizons that the mind will ride until it meets absolute peace. Breathing becomes regular, the air changes, the distance between the player and the listener vanishes. The smallest part of the Sound, the one we call ppp or pppp, the secret lies there, between the last perceivable sound and the Silence.

10) One last question. You have recorded a lot and you never refuse to give live recitals. What do you really have in store for the near future?

I will take part in the next ISB convention at Penn State University U.S.A., where I will perform live Mantra 22.22, and I will teach some master classes abroad.

I’m working on two studio projects. One is the music of J.S.Bach and the other is just at the beginning and it actually deals with the interaction between the human voice and the instrument, I’m really getting involved in it.

11) Maestro, tell us the truth! Do you feel more appreciated here in Italy or abroad?

I’ve told the truth during the whole interview!

I love to give Music to all those who want to listen, anywhere they might be. I play. The people leave my concerts with their eyes full of light. I thank the Music and I hope it will always come to visit me.

 Thank you for this interview, Maestro Sciascia.

Thank you for conducting this interview in such a professional way and for touching the cornerstones of Music.

by VITO LIUZZI

English translation  PIETRO SPANGHERO

"Adagio Melanconico e Appassionato"

... during a recital

"Il Regno di Ibbi Obbi"

http://www.geocities.com/stefanosciasciafanclub/

STEFANO SCIASCIA -International FanClub

During ISB Convention

STEFANO SCIASCIA LINK

http://www.stefanosciascia.it

THE KING OF BASS II (with STEFANO SCIASCIA)

ALL TOGETHER

Sciascia in the globalization ...

STEFANO SCIASCIA in Penn State University (ISB Convention)

But give a look at here ... are you ready?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-WfFYfSxT8

For the hole video go to Maestro's site.

http://www.stefanosciascia.it

Enjoy.