Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)

Started by gomro, May 10, 2007, 01:54:54 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Mirror Image

What is everyone's favorite recording of Kraanerg? I bought the Drury on Mode several nights ago.

Mirror Image

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 07:35:06 AM
You jump to conclusions quickly without much thought don't you. There is little if any indication that the admiration ran deep or lasted at all. In the early youthful experimental days at Darmstadt he curiously admired a single piece according to a member here. It really begins & ends there.

Still in denial I see. ::) Boy, it's fun watching you squirm when you're wrong. :)

petrarch

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 07:35:06 AM
There is little if any indication that the admiration ran deep or lasted at all. In the early youthful experimental days at Darmstadt he curiously admired a single piece according to a member here. It really begins & ends there.

Check the literature, you can rationalize and repeat your view however many times you wish, but that still doesn't change reality. I don't know why I bother, really.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

petrarch

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 08:28:11 AM
What literature?

It's out there, search for it; Google is your friend.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Mirror Image

Quote from: petrarch on November 10, 2013, 10:05:22 AM
It's out there, search for it; Google is your friend.

He would, but he's simply too lazy to do that.

Mirror Image

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 10:13:00 AM
I was hoping you could back up what you were saying with something more specific but instead you've copped out. I doubt there would be very much. The interest was merely cursory & passing ..

Still in denial and so very WRONG !!!! Hahahaha.....

petrarch

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 10:13:00 AM
I was hoping you could back up what you were saying with something more specific but instead you've copped out. I doubt there would be very much. The interest was merely cursory & passing ..

HA! Keep at it, mate. The only thing worse than human ignorance is human pride in that ignorance.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

petrarch

Quote from: Mirror Image on November 09, 2013, 09:10:49 AM
What do we make of this set everyone?

[asin]B004MBP7KQ[/asin]

It does provide a nice cross-section of his works with good performances. I have a number of the original releases used for this compilation, so it doesn't appeal to me that much, not even for the few works I don't have yet. Any such sets are bound to leave a lot out, but might be a good way to start building a Xenakis catalogue and get hold of some OOP recordings.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Mirror Image

Quote from: petrarch on November 10, 2013, 10:44:53 AM
It does provide a nice cross-section of his works with good performances. I have a number of the original releases used for this compilation, so it doesn't appeal to me that much, not even for the few works I don't have yet. Any such sets are bound to leave a lot out, but might be a good way to start building a Xenakis catalogue and get hold of some OOP recordings.

Thanks, petrarch. Yeah, I didn't own any of these recordings, so this set appealed to me in that regard. The only other recordings I have of Xenakis' music are that orchestral set on Timpani and I have a recording of Kraanerg on the way (Drury/Mode).

petrarch

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 10:44:25 AM
How is asking you for source material that you are supposedly referencing ignorant?

The jumping to conclusions and dismissing contrary views certainly is.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Pessoa

Quote from: Mirror Image on November 10, 2013, 10:46:54 AM
Thanks, petrarch. Yeah, I didn't own any of these recordings, so this set appealed to me in that regard. The only other recordings I have of Xenakis' music are that orchestral set on Timpani and I have a recording of Kraanerg on the way (Drury/Mode).
La legende d`Eer is another haunting electronic work. Palimpsest and Dikthas I have in a Wergo release and it´s getting annoying to keep buying new releases with repeated works, even if in different recordings, just because there is a piece I don´t have.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Pessoa on November 10, 2013, 11:07:37 AM
La legende d`Eer is another haunting electronic work. Palimpsest and Dikthas I have in a Wergo release and it´s getting annoying to keep buying new releases with repeated works, even if in different recordings, just because there is a piece I don´t have.

Thanks, Pessoa. The complaint you make is a viable one but also one that I've read many other Xenakis fans state elsewhere.

Mirror Image

#372
Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 11:36:35 AM
I never outright dismissed what you said, or jumped to conclusions. I am suspicious though (which is natural), even more so now .. as you can't produce the source material so that I can have a closer look. Oh and btw, I tried Google and didn't find much .. I've been following contemporary music for a long time and never came across much (if anything at all) where Ligeti goes on about Xenakis to any great extent like other composers he admired .. if anything I think I remember reading somewhere that he didn't think that Xenakis actually heard the things he wrote, no inner musical ear, lacking or no contrapuntal training. Hence the "blobs of sound" approach.

I read that article and it was a waste of time, but it was written by a blogger and WTF do they know.

Here it is for those who want to read it:

http://etiennedeleflie.net/2010/11/17/xenakis-and-ligeti-how-to-compose/

Special note: It wasn't Ligeti who said any of those things about Xenakis but rather a doctoral student the blogger interviewed.

Mirror Image

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 12:45:55 PM
I never saw this one, there are some interesting points raised there .. I'm thinking about an interview I read or heard somewhere with some big composer, I do believe it was Ligeti, but it could have been Boulez or Carter .. I know they didn't think highly of Xenakis's thing either ..

Beating.....a......dead.....horse......

Let's get back to Xenakis shall we? In the end, who gives a damn what another composer thought of another one? This shouldn't change or alter our perceptions of the music.

Gurn Blanston

Well, I've tried to clean all residual fecal matter from the thread, although that is more time-consuming than I care to undertake, what with having a life and all. ::)

James, I fail to understand why you persist in posting in threads about which you haven't a single positive thing to say. A mature adult would move on to something that he DID like and stay there. It would distress me to have to force that to happen rather than having it happen by dint of rational decisions being made. Of course, I can live with being distressed.

MI, failing to engage in counter-argumentative rhetoric is not a sign of lack of fervor. When someone gets a big response to trolly behavior, it merely solicits more.

AMW, you left out the 'H', thus I had to delete your otherwise on-point post...  ;)

GB
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

petrarch

Quote from: James on November 10, 2013, 11:36:35 AM
I never outright dismissed what you said, or jumped to conclusions. I am suspicious though (which is natural), even more so now .. as you can't produce the source material so that I can have a closer look. Oh and btw, I tried Google and didn't find much .. I've been following contemporary music for a long time and never came across much (if anything at all) where Ligeti goes on about Xenakis to any great extent like other composers he admired .. if anything I think I remember reading somewhere that he didn't think that Xenakis actually heard the things he wrote, no inner musical ear, lacking or no contrapuntal training. Hence the "blobs of sound" approach.

Hoping to settle this matter, and forgetting for a moment how irrelevant and grossly extrapolated the above is of what I originally stated--sometimes age is not a measure of maturity; it really depends on how all those years have been spent--simply as a counter-example to the rampant black-and-white idolatry pervading your posts:

[asin]9963642225[/asin]
[asin]1555535518[/asin]

(both mention private correspondence between Ligeti and Xenakis, wherein said admiration for Pithoprakta was expressed)
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Mirror Image

Quote from: petrarch on November 10, 2013, 04:53:07 PM

[asin]9963642225[/asin]
[asin]1555535518[/asin]

I wouldn't mind owning those two books. Unfortunately, they're both OOP. :( Right now, I'm reading Polish Renaissance by Bernard Jacobson which is published by Phaidon. The book details the lives and times of Panufnik, Lutoslawski, Penderecki, and Gorecki. Pretty good read so far. I know this is off-topic, but oh well! :D

Mirror Image

I was listening to the work Hiketides awhile ago and I was surprised by how 'subdued' this work was for Xenakis. It also actually contains melodies! WTF?!?!? I guess Xenakis was stoned when he composed this work. :D

snyprrr

Quote from: James on November 09, 2013, 05:10:11 PM
Again, bringing this to the fore, the brand new release from MODE
(the reason why this thread has resurfaced) ..




Iannis XENAKIS
Ensemble Works 3 - Xenakis Edition 13


Palimpsest (1979) for piano & ensemble  12:11
Cory Smythe, piano

Echange (1989) for bass-clarinet & ensemble  14:43
Joshua Rubin, bass-clarinet

Akanthos (1977) for soprano & ensemble  10:39
Tony Arnold, soprano

Thalleïn (1984) for 16 instruments  18:31

O-Mega (1997) for percussion & ensemble  3:52
Steven Schick, percussion & conductor

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Steven Schick, conductor

Zythos (1996) for trombone & 6 marimbas  7:44
Benny Sluchin, trombone
red fish blue fish
FIRST RECORDING

An exhilarating Xenakis program, built around works for soloist and ensemble. Most of the soloists are from the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble led by their resident guest conductor, Steven Schick.

Zythos and O-Mega are among Xenakis's final compositions. In the Xenakis oeuvre these constitute a new and plaintive percussion music. Yet there is a strange power in these stark landscapes. In Zythos, long trombone lines are wound round the threading of six marimba parts. It receives its first recording here, featuring trombonist Benny Sluchin of Ensemble Intercontemporain. O-Mega, a fitting name for Xenakis's final work, is a short offering for percussion soloist and chamber group.

Palimpsest is essentially a piano concerto, but the piano along with a set of drums is placed behind a row of nine string and wind instruments. Thus a listener often needs to hear (and see) through the musicians in the front row to hear the soloist in the back. The title implies that what is nearer and more apparent is more recent than what is farther away.

Echange is a mysterious work exploring rhythm and texture. A solo bass clarinet spans a spectrum of textural possibility from the long, liquid tones of its low register to the percussive jolt of slap tonguing and key clicks.

Akanthos is music built by the rapid exchange of oppositions along with a supple line for female voice.

Thalleïn, a long work for large ensemble, echoes the theme of newness. From a basic rhythmic substrate multiple and complex layers of sound issue forth – each an elaboration of the previous one until the sounding space is saturated.

Liner notes by Steven Schick, Benny Sluchin and Kivie Cahn-Lipman.

Volume 13 of Mode's Xenakis Edition is also the third volume of Ensemble Music.


Everyone, I was the first to want to hate this, but, gulp, guys!, it's absolutely transcendental! The three classic works are almost like new works as played by these incredible performers! I just can't even relay the absolute Instant Classic Status of this CD!!


snyprrr

Quote from: Mirror Image on November 10, 2013, 08:43:51 PM
I was listening to the work Hiketides awhile ago and I was surprised by how 'subdued' this work was for Xenakis. It also actually contains melodies! WTF?!?!? I guess Xenakis was stoned when he composed this work. :D

Yes, that was a shocking Xenakis moment for me. Frankly, you are going to have to check out that new Mode release. The samples won't prepare you. Frankly, I can't wait for someone else to hear this disc. It's going to make Xenakis new fans!