[Smt-talk] Music theory and the blind

[Giorgio Sanguinetti]

I'd want to pay hommage to my late composition teacher, Vieri Tosatti. When we met he was already completely blind, but he accepted to give me lessons in harmony, counterpoint, and composition. Our lessons took place at the keyboard; I played everything  for him (including 7 parts counterpoints) and corrected my homeworks by ear. He could detect parallel fifths in inner parts in a six voice counterpoint very easily, and discuss the more complex motivic and harmonic relationships in my attempts to  free composition. He even dictated me his own instructions in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration without any hesitation. 
For some years this amazing musician has been rumored for being the man who wrote the music of Giacinto Scelsi. Now, thanks to new researches on documents, manuscripts and sketches his decisive contribution to Scelsi's works is coming to surface. I hope that this reassessment of Tosatti's figure will soon include the music he wrote under his name too. 

Giorgio Sanguinetti


Giorgio Sanguinetti
Associate Professor of Music
University of Rome - Tor Vergata
sanguinetti at lettere.uniroma2.it
giorgio_sanguinetti at fastwebnet.it
tel. + 39 06 72595235 (office)
tel. + 39 06 32110265 (home)