Writing
The Disappearance of Sound: Phenomenology of Sound and Silence in Sciarrino's Perduto in una foresta lontana
1 June 2025
Sciarrino's 1990 work read phenomenologically, technically and politically: how sussurando and flautando build a phenomenology of breath, and how silence becomes musical material rather than absence.
This study examines Salvatore Sciarrino’s Perduto in una foresta lontana (1990) from phenomenological, technical and political perspectives. Sciarrino’s work marks a radical departure from traditional composition by transforming silence into musical material. Through techniques such as sussurando and flautando he creates a phenomenology of breath that ties sound to the physiological limits of the body.
The work is also read against the political context of 1980s Italy, where radical leftist voices were silenced: the sussurando technique stands for silenced voices, and the final silence for irreversible loss. Combined with Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body schema and Heidegger’s concept of anxiety, this produces a musical language that turns the listener from passive observer into active participant.
The title — Lost in a Distant Forest — is not merely metaphorical but a condition placed at the centre of the listener’s experience: an invitation to leave the security of the concert hall and enter an unknown space.