Krakow Radio-Television Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Jürg Wyttenbach.
I - (♩ = 52) - Mosso (♩ = 66) - Sostenuto (♩ = 58) - Tempo I (♩ = 52): 0:00
II - (♩ = 63) - (♩ = 56) - Tempo I (♩ = 63) - Di nuovo ritenuto (♩ = 56) - Tempo I (♩ = 63): 6:32
III - (♩ = 80): 10:36
IV - (♩ = 50): 13:16
V - (♩ = 66): 16:29
Scelsi's Uaxuctum was composed in 1961, being premiered much later in Köln on October 12 of 1987, performed by the Cologne Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Zender. It is subtitled "The legend of the Mayan city, destroyed by themselves for religious reasons" referring to a legend of a Mayan city that mysteriously disappeared in the ninth century: Uaxactun, located in which today is the Peten region, Guatemala. The city was originally called Siaan K'aan, roughly translated as "Born in Heaven".
Labeled as a choral symphony, despite having nothing at all with a traditional symphony, Uaxuctum is considered as Scelsi's masterpiece. It is scored for an unusual orchestra composed of woodwinds, six double basses, expanded percussion, ondes martenot, mixed chorus and four vocal soloists; two sopranos and two tenors. The chorus is written in ten and twelve parts, incorporating all variety of microtonal manipulations, as well as breathing and other guttural and nasal sounds. Uaxuctum is not an abstract piece, but a narrative one whose "story" remains the composer's secret.
The first movement is the longest, being divided in five sections. It opens in an ethereal manner, with the ondes martenot hovering mysteriously over the solo voices "mute" breathings and the infrachromatic sustained sounds of the low-keyed instruments. A tutti suddenly explodes, the chorus, divided into twelve parts, comes in and the tempo livens up. Then the opening atmosphere returns, the rhythms grow more articulate, the orchestra more "pointillist" as the ondes martenot slowly emerge from the depths on a long ascending line. Sistrum, vibraphone and ondes martenot dominate a short agitated interlude with their weird hues. The coda progressively recapitulates the opening mood, ending with the chorus' "mute" breathing.
The second movement is quite different, written in a single continuous flow. It opens focused on the sopranos' high F. It unfolds in a kind of D minor enriched with micro-intervals. It turns dramatic, violent, rapid, with an anguishing and strangely oriental incantatory character. The movement is speckled with swift percussion figurations recalling Hindu tablas.
The third movement is very short, but intensely dramatic with its brutal percussion outbursts and its jagged, almost convulsive delivery (most unusual of Scelsi). The successive tone poles (C, G, G#) are generally reinforced by the resonance of the fifth. The orchestra starts alone with tenebrous shades, and is at first only interrupted by a short choral intervention divided in twelve parts. It is only towards the end that the voices assert themselves, gradually dominated by the soprano's high G#. The four solo voices don't appear at all, as well as in the next part.
The fourth movement is the riches and most elaborated, so far as the chorus goes. It starts with the chorus a cappella, the orchestra only coming in a discrete and progressive manner, to ebb away towards the end, leaving the voices unsupported. The music unfolds in a kind of chromatic E flat minor, and we are reminded of the second movement's incantatory and haunting side, as well as the rapid percussion recalling the Hindu tablas.
The fifth movement fullfills the architectural symmetry of the whole work. The first half of the movement restores the beginning's unstable and "unfocused" mood, and now reaches the work's strongest dissonant tensions. The second half builds up links with the middle movements by its gradual assertion of E flat minor. Soloist and chorus remain constantly to the fore, the orchestra gradually rises to an intense climax. It remains in a sustained tutti, before slowly fading away in the mysterious ending, plunging Uaxuctum back into its original breathing noises.
Picture: "Conversations in Mayan" by the North-American painter Tania Williams.
Sources: bit.ly/3gIwfVI and bit.ly/3VtAbso
Score: bit.ly/3GV1yHw