Dos Abismos – part I

“Tu final no siempre es la vertical de dos abismos”
José Lezama Lima, Rapsodia para el mulo.

Dos abismos was composed between February 26 and July 5, 1992, during a period of itinerant residencies that spanned Mexico City and Cuernavaca (Mexico), Cadaqués (Spain), Náoussa (Greece), Hammamet (Tunisia), and Pollenza, in the province of Macerata (Italy). The title refers to the poem Rapsodia para el mulo by the Cuban poet José Lezama Lima (1910–1976), included in the collection La Fijeza, written in 1949¹. Scodanibbio dedicated the composition to Magnus Andersson, who gave the world premiere in 1992 at the Rassegna di Nuova Musica, held at the Teatro Lauro Rossi in Macerata². The first published recording of the work appears on the album Stefano Scodanibbio: My New Address, produced by the Stradivarius label and released on February 17, 2004. For this edition, Andersson recorded two sessions (October 24 and November 6, 1997) at the Saarländischer Rundfunk in Saarbrücken, Germany³.

In a recent testimony, Andersson described the work in the following terms:
“[Scodanibbio] knew exactly what he wanted from the guitar and sought to impart both sweetness and an atmosphere of immense mystery⁴. This means giving the guitar a sense of unresolved, astonishing enigma.” In other words, he recognizes in this music a poetics that situates perception on the plane of the almost “inaudible” (gentleness), on one hand, while evoking a magical and ritualistic imaginary (atmosphere of immense mystery) on the other: elements also present in other works from the same period. Regarding the compositional process, it appears to have been relatively brief: “I remember him telling me that he had written it very quickly and that it would not take me long to learn it,” from which Andersson infers the work’s “improvisatory” nature⁵.

For this analysis, we propose integrating the perspective of a performer who revisited the work more than thirty years after its premiere. Given that part of the repertoire from this period focuses on the exploration and development of “concrete” material—understood as the perceptual dissociation between the sound produced and the source generating it—and given that such material is conditioned by the performer’s experience with the instrument, this perspective proves particularly valuable. In this regard, in an interview conducted on February 8, 2025, the classical and electric guitarist Francesco Palmieri (b. 1996) offers a retrospective reading of the performance process of Dos abismos. The reference point for this reflection is the recording made on June 18, 2020, in the Grosser Konzertsaal of the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, as part of the completion of his Master’s degree, under the supervision of Elena Casoli⁶. It should be noted that this process took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

First of all, to understand the challenges posed by this music, it is necessary to recall the premise established by both Palmieri and Andersson as a starting point: for the composition of Dos abismos, Scodanibbio drew on the techniques developed for the double bass. However, Palmieri observes that, although the writing is based on the transposition of techniques that, due to their extensive resonance, work well on the double bass, they operate differently on the guitar. Beyond these observations, one may ask: is this truly a writing based on instrumental transposition? And, if so, what characteristics does this organological transposition assume?

Formal Aspects

Given the nature of the work, it is appropriate to begin by examining its formal aspects. A first observation reveals that the sections are clearly defined by the type of material and the manner in which it is treated. In this sense, the work could be divided into three progressively intensifying sections, which together constitute an overall crescendo culminating in a peak, followed by a brief cadential section. However, there are two ways to interpret these sections. The most evident is through the markings written in the score: svagato (apathetic, without energy), elastico (elastic), ondeggiante (swaying), and finally meno (slower). As will be seen later, these formal indications are themselves metaphors for behaviors related to the idea of the “materiality” of sound. The other approach consists in indicating the technical nature that produces the concrete object and from which, as Palmieri notes, the intrinsic virtuosity of Scodanibbio’s work emerges. From this perspective, the piece emphasizes the principle of independence of the hands to develop three specific techniques: legato, glissandi (left hand), and harmonics (right hand)⁷. This second reading allows focus on the action—that is, on the technical mechanism producing the material rather than on the material itself. In this same register, in Dos abismos, as Palmieri highlights, maintaining the form represents one of the greatest challenges, given the extended duration (between 11 and 12 minutes) and the limited material. On the other hand, variation—the principle on which the development is based—challenges the performer to maintain a constant continuum. The focus is on achieving this continuum while preserving micro-variations and avoiding situations in which “similar materials become the same, and different materials become similar.”⁸ Concretely, this involves managing time, pauses, and understanding the key moments in which to focus certain gestures. It is likely that the principle governing development is connected to the practice of improvisation, a procedure with which, as previously noted, Scodanibbio was closely associated.

Considering these preliminary elements, it can be provisionally highlighted that, both in Verano de suerte and in Dos abismos, Scodanibbio employs a similar formal strategy, consisting of linking contrasting sections, developing specific material, and concluding with a smaller cadential section. In short, the form of these works originates from an archetypal pattern of introduction, development, climax, and conclusion.

Sound Material

Before delving into the description of the “concrete” sound that constitutes the material, it seems necessary to highlight the historical condition of the work, linked to a particular mode of auditory perception to which its aesthetics are circumscribed. In Palmieri’s reflection, a premise emerges: there are key works in a musician’s path that compel one to confront a specific technique in order to elevate it to a higher level of mastery. In Dos abismos, this technique is the work with harmonic sounds. Palmieri also emphasizes an intrinsic element that provides insight into the musical writing of that period, within the context of the guitar: the latent contrast between the physical effort required by performance and the reduced sonic power resulting from the material. This observation is not secondary, as it updates a central issue present in guitar writing at least since the nineteenth century⁹; yet the historical difference is, from an aesthetic standpoint, subtle but significant. Beyond this condition, Scodanibbio suggested resolving the limitation of the acoustic object through amplification. It is therefore paradoxical that the “almost inaudible” quality, which constitutes the poetics of this repertoire¹⁰—whose interest lies in a different listening experience, situating the compositional problem in the realm of auditory perception—requires a mechanism to increase sonic power. It thus appears that Dos abismos belongs to a repertoire that positions writing within a domain of reduced amplitude, in contrast to a historical period conditioned by the omnipresence of amplified stereophonic listening. In other words, in the work, an instrumental acoustic necessity is linked with an aesthetic configuration of sound defined by the electroacoustic environment of our time. Palmieri considers it useful to study this repertoire taking this dimension into account as an interpretative parameter. That is, since amplification was not yet an element anticipated in the writing, it becomes a space for interpretation and exploration. A complementary element of the aesthetic context is the conception of musical sound. The materiality of the sound, encoded in the indications serving as markers in Dos abismos (svagato, elástico, ondeggiante, and meno), is not only related to the physical action required to produce the sound, but also to the ritualistic and “mysterious” aspect suggested by Andersson¹¹. Indeed, this idea is actualized in Palmieri’s discourse when he describes the behavior of the sound: “[…] ethereal, semi-transparent, creating levels of compression […].” For the performer, Dos abismos is not a delicate piece, but rather a collection of “dense,” “anxious” situations, with modulations of attacks that can be “violent” or distinctly “aggressive.”

Now, starting from the preliminary formal considerations and the historical context previously outlined, the description of the material allows us to specify certain aspects:

The prevailing logic in the svagato section (pages 1–4, bars 1–30) consists of consecutively presenting two independent materials, whose respective evolutions gradually “harmonize” — in the sense of coming into agreement — until forming a single, unified element; in other words, the two materials progressively merge to transition to the next section. These materials are of different nature and are executed technically in an equally distinct manner, producing a separation and independence of both hands. In the left hand, the material is melodic with defined pitches; in the right hand, it consists of harmonic sounds.

The material generated by the left hand is realized through legato playing, produced without any intervention from the right hand. It operates according to a modular principle in which the identity of each module depends on the number of components (pitches) and the register of the melodic groups. These modules are articulated with similar rhythmic motifs but grouped asymmetrically and organized irregularly within each measure.

The generating module (bar 1) consists of two pitches (G#–A) and gradually changes according to the logic of expansion and contraction. The result is a sort of asymmetric and irregular ostinato, confined to the note A, reinforced by the use of appoggiaturas, trills, and rhythmic groupings (2, 3, 5, 6, 7) that emphasize the movements of extension and reduction. In the following table, the number of components contained in each module, limited to one measure and with repetitions removed, is cataloged. As can be observed from the quantitative indicators highlighted in blue, the number of components increases or decreases gradually, yet asymmetrically,throughout the entire section.

Figure 20: Dos Abismos, modular melodic components

Although the piece is not constructed on a serial basis, by the end of the section all twelve notes of the chromatic scale appear, distributed across the different registers of the guitar. As shown in the previous table, the expansion and contraction are confined to the note A, occupying the middle and lower registers of the guitar—an area that allows for the execution of the second material, which remains in the upper register.
As already mentioned, the first section concludes with a transitional system in which the materials that had coexisted up to that point in a synchronous but separate manner merge. In this way, the piece moves into the second section. As can be observed in the following image, the sequence of harmonics that appear cumulatively and generatively in this passage recalls the “Brillante” section of Verano de suerte (see Figure 14):

Figure 21: Dos Abismos, bar 3, page 4

The second section of the work, elástico (pages 5–14, unmeasured area), contains the two sonic objects from the beginning now synthesized into a single one. When this composite material is examined, taking into account the repetitions of melodic components, what emerges is a continuum with zones of centrifugal stability, areas of expansion toward polar extremes, and contraction around a gravitational pitch. What initially appeared as a “non-calculation” in the way the sound was treated now emerges in this section as a work based on the antagonism between continuity and discontinuity, and on the use of probability as an organizational resource, as practiced by composers such as Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001) and Julio Estrada (b. 1943). There is no systematic use of probabilistic mathematics, but the tacit presence of a stochastic poetics, diligently applied in previous years, seems evident.

Systematically, the material produced almost exclusively by the right hand consists essentially of harmonic sounds. However, in the first section, the principle of organization and development is more heterogeneous compared to the previous material, as at least three different operations are present: isolated pitches, chord-timbres realized with asymmetric attacks and staggered resonances, and ascending or descending trajectories—executed with nail sound (sound-noise) in glissando and tremolo. But how far does he go with harmonics? Palmieri asserts categorically that Scodanibbio pushes further than anyone else.

To support this observation, it is sufficient to examine how harmonic sounds operate in the first section. Scodanibbio uses two types of harmonics: artificial harmonics—which he calls octave harmonics—and natural harmonics. Regarding the former, two are used at the beginning of the work and are maintained throughout the first two pages:

Figure 22: Dos Abismos, artificial harmonics

Regarding natural harmonics, Scodanibbio extends his exploration up to the 9th node on the sixth string, and up to the 7th and 8th nodes on the fifth and fourth strings, respectively.

Figure 23: Dos Abismos, natural harmonics

The third section of the work, marked ondeggiante (page 14), is distinguished from the others by its sonic density, which manifests as a gradual accumulation along the vertical plane. The concatenation of discrete points that outline the continuous line expands through the superimposition of two or more pitches, emphasizing the notion of physical matter in motion. In other words, without altering the principle of constant continuity, the continuous line splits as if it were a divisible body, fragmenting from within. This element suggests an affinity with the idea of exploration within the sound found in the work of Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988), clearly observable in C’est bien la nuit (1971) for solo double bass, where attack and simultaneity strategies are employed to broaden the spectrum of a single sound. In Scodanibbio, this vertical fragmentation occurs through:

Figure 24: Dos Abismos, page 14, bar 4, intervallic components

Third intervals (or augmented second):

Figure 25: Dos Abismos, page 15, bar 4, intervallic components

Three-note chords of 4th+3rd, 3rd+4th (intervals of major or minor 3rd, perfect, augmented, or diminished 4th):

Figure 26: Dos Abismos, page 17, bar 1, intervallic components

In the concluding section of the work (pages 22–23), this principle of vertical splitting of the sound is presented again, on this occasion between natural sound and harmonic sound, articulating and disarticulating, emphasizing a sort of resistance of the material to its unification (Figure 27). This material, composed of harmonic sounds, is employed according to the principle of barred arpeggio series of 2, 3, 4, and up to 5 components, executed in the same position. This approach provides an ergonomic action from a technical standpoint. These arpeggios had been evoked in previous sections and appear to return, with the difference that they occur simultaneously with the material produced by the left hand. In this way, the sequential logic of the two elements (real sound and harmonic sound), which had characterized the preceding sections, transforms into bursts of interval-timbre:

Figure 27: Dos Abismos, final section

NOTE

1. 1.  Marie-Christine Seguin, « Rapsodia para el mulo (Rhapsodie pour le mulet) de José Lezama Lima ou le destin incontournable de l’Art poétique », Colloque Cheminement, 2014. hal-03581858. ↩︎
2. 2. https://www.rassegnadinuovamusica.com/storia. ↩︎
3. 3. Mario Caroli, Elena Casoli, Jürgen Ruck et Magnus Andersson, Stefano Scodanibbio: My New Address, Stradivarius, 2004. ↩︎
4. 4. Andersson, op. cit. (note 42). ↩︎
5. 5. Ibid. ↩︎
6. 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVW0HoKZZsM ↩︎
7. 7.  Palmieri Francesco, Entrevista a Francesco Palmieri: la obra para guitarra de Stefano Scodanibbio, 2025, Videocall. ↩︎
8. 8.  Ibid. ↩︎
9. 9. It is worth noting the comment by Héctor Berlioz (1803–1869) regarding the limited sonorities of the guitar in his Grand traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration modernes (1844). ↩︎
10. 10. Gracco, op. cit. (note 34) ↩︎
11. 11. Andersson, op. cit. (note 42). ↩︎

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