Scodanibbio's "Voyage That Never Ends"

I started Sunday with a very interesting “soundscape” by a composer I just discovered, Stefano Scodanibbio.

He was born in Italy in 1956 and died of ALS in Mexico in 2012. Beginning in the 1980s he became known for his performances on the contrabass. Several composers like Xenakis wrote works for him, and he wrote his own works as well. According to his website bio, “He has created new techniques extending the colours and range of the double bass heretofore thought impossible... He collaborated for a long time with Luigi Nono... and with Giacinto Scelsi. He regularly plays in Duo with Rohan de Saram and... with Markus Stockhausen...Of particular important is his collaboration with Terry Riley and with Edoardo Sanguineti.” Scodanibbio was also active with choreographers and with the authors in the theatre.


After reading a review of a CD of Scodanibbio’s “reinventions” of Bach and others, I downloaded a 45-minute piece called “Voyage That Never Ends” on the New Albion label. A reviewer on Amazon writes, “The music is hard to describe--imagine Hovnanian's ‘The Bass as a Frum’, Bottesini's ‘Tarentella’, Adams' ‘Nixon in China’, Bartok's SQ4, Hendrix's ‘Star Spangled Banner’, and Bach's ‘Chaconne’ for unaccompanied violin, all rolled into a cohesive whole.”

Here is the second movement of “Voyage”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNwOENV3kBQ