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SAD CYPRESS, NO FLOWERS
This is a death portrait of chemist Hugo Schiff composed primarily of homemade Schiff bases, with cypress leaf and other cemetary notes.Schiff bases are chemical reaction products defined by the presence of a carbon-nitrogen double bond. They are often aromatic. The first documented discovery and organization of Shiff bases is credited to 19th Century German-born, naturalized Italian chemist Hugo Schiff.
In accordance with his lifelong socialist values, Schiff stipulated that his remains be brought to the cypress-lined Trespiano cemetary outside Florence in early morning with “no speeches, no flowers, in a coffin of raw timber...” the dramatic specificity of this request has a certain character of ineffable sentimentality.
In the fall of 2022 I delivered a somewhat vaudevillian scent-inflected presentation on the life and work of Schiff, speculating upon elements of his personal life (since not too much is known about it and he had no children of his own). I employed the ineluctable modality of excess narrative method to find synchronous stories, for instance the way Feste’s song from The Twelfth Night obliquely resonates with Schiff’s wishes for his funeral. I named the scent portrait “Sad Cypress, No Flowers” to connect these two poetic requests.