Xenakis: Architect of Sound

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.

A couple of things to mark the centenary of Iannis Xenakis, whose remarkable life is summarised in the following Guardian guide to his music, although the film – in French, w/ English subtitles - has more on his architectural, electronic & multimedia works:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017m17 (36:25 - 53:35) [...] a performance of his work for harpsichord and chamber orchestra, "A l'île de Gorée" [...]

***flashing lights / strobes*** are used in the film’s second half (especially during the percussion pieces & the first two tape pieces that follow them – please see below for their approximate start times). This is from https://manifeste.ircam.fr/agenda/polytopes/detail/: “Warning: The performance Polytope has been identified as a potential seizure trigger for people with photosensitive epilepsy (strobe or flashing lights)”

https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/103998-000-A/xenakis-revolution/ 
Xenakis Revolution: The Architect of Sound [...] a fascinating portrait of the composer, engineer and architect Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), a leader of the avant-garde and a pioneer of sound and light shows, who turned contemporary music upside down by bringing art and mathematics together.

^ excerpts of pieces for tape (T), orchestra (O) or percussion (P), & footage / stills of architecture (A) include:

03:25 Diamorphoses (1957, T), 15:40 Metastasis (1957, O), 19:20 Philips Pavilion (1958, A), 20:35 Concret PH (1958, T), 26:45 Jonchaies (1977, O), 29:00 Nomos Alpha (1965-6, solo cello), 31:15 Pithoprakta (1956, O), 34:50 Pléiades (1978, P), 36:30 Rebonds B (1987-9, P), 38:25 Terretektorh (1965-6, O), 42:00 Polytope de Cluny (1972-4, T), 43:25 La légende d’Eer / Le Diatope (1977-8, T / A), 46:30 Mycènes Alpha (1975, T), 50:00 Polytope de Mycènes (1977, O), 53:00 O-Mega (1997, O +/- A)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/apr/23/contemporary-m...

https://www.iannis-xenakis.org/en/ has more info
 

 Rob Davies 08 Jun 2022
In reply to Robin Montaigne:

For some strange reason no-one has yet produced an album entitled "Xenakis's Greatest Hits".

I heard one of his pieces, Pleiades, at the Proms a few years ago, sandwiched between Holst and VW.  The audience scoffed at the start but there was enthusiastic applause by the end, though that may have been in appreciation for the musicians who had the skill to play something so obviously difficult.  The sheer impact of all that percussion letting rip (unamplified) about 20 feet away was amazing - a CD I tried later seemed feeble in comparison.

In reply to Rob Davies:

> For some strange reason no-one has yet produced an album entitled "Xenakis's Greatest Hits".

Ha, ha – yeah, I guess he isn’t that popular, is he, although I was surprised by how many went to his multimedia installations. Jean-Michel Jarre – who probably does have a greatest hits LP – cites him as a significant influence in the film (they worked at the same studio)

> I heard one of his pieces, Pleiades, at the Proms a few years ago, sandwiched between Holst and VW.  The audience scoffed at the start but there was enthusiastic applause by the end, though that may have been in appreciation for the musicians who had the skill to play something so obviously difficult.  The sheer impact of all that percussion letting rip (unamplified) about 20 feet away was amazing - a CD I tried later seemed feeble in comparison.

Sounds pretty cool – thanks for sharing. An interesting choice, given the rest of the programme – I can understand the initial response, but good that the audience were won over, by the end. It doesn’t always turn out so well ...

I didn’t realise Xenakis had invented some of the instruments used in the piece (according to the film)


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...