Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)

[snyprrr]

I thought that the Jack Tetora was more interesting than the Arditti, something to do with the quality of their sound, less blended maybe, I'm not sure. I shall check out Sea Change, I find Zythos a bit of a challenge.

'Zythos' literally sounds like 'Silent Night' to me- meaning, I see a peaceful white blanket of snow, the peace of christmas eve kind of thing, very stereotype nordic homey feel (the marimbas and the silence), and then the silver beam/fire thingy that is the trombone... it's such such a stark stark piece of sonic arche... I'm not saying how I feel about it, but I do give IX credit here for a supre,mely WTF?!? moment, for sure, haha.

Somehwere, we can hear a snippet of 'Koiranoi', the second to the last IX orchestral work, which apparently has a premiere recording but no physical release, and that piece too seems to have much more interest (as with 'Sea-Change') than oth Late IX.... maybe, had he lived, we would have been treated to a final burst of creative genius?


per 'Tetora' JACK vs Arditti... the music itself is so smooth and seamless that the only thing left to comment on IS the actually sound the performers make: I find the Arditti bring out the sandy, gritty, raw dune power of the dry dryness, whereas the JACK have a much smoother and silkier tone, giving the sand a moist sheen of oil... I do like the JACK...

where is the REST of the Mode Chamber Music Series?? There seems to be a JACK Vol.2 that could be had, but, aye, we're going to have to call Brian at Mode and see what happened...

[bhodges]

On another thread, a comment about graphic scores made me recall this 2010 exhibition at The Drawing Center in New York, titled Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary. Here is the archived page about the show, and if you scroll down, the complete, 154-page catalog is still available to view (or to buy).

http://www.drawingcenter.org/en/drawingcenter/5/exhibitions/14/past/355/iannis-xenakis/

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Just found this terrific live performance of Tetras by the JACK Quartet, from just a few months ago - audio and video - taped at the New College of Florida. At this point, the JACK players must have done this piece over a hundred times, all over the world, and that experience shows. If you're inclined, it's a riveting experience.

http://icareifyoulisten.tv/jack-quartet-tetras-by-iannis-xenakis/

--Bruce

[snyprrr]

Looks like I'll be hopping from Cage to Xenakis. I am seeing so much more between these two now. Reading how their critics use gobble-gook language of the High Serialists to try and de-legitimize(?- why is there no speell check??) their procedures...

[James]

Looks like I'll be hopping from Cage to Xenakis. I am seeing so much more between these two now. Reading how their critics use gobble-gook language of the High Serialists to try and de-legitimize(?- why is there no speell check??) their procedures...

Xenakis himself didn't care at all for Cage, and essentially felt 'twas inept & pointless.

[Mandryka]

Xenakis himself didn't care at all for Cage, and essentially felt 'twas inept & pointless.

I didn't know that, so thanks. Where did you learn that Xenakis said that Cage's music was inept and pointless, and that he didn't care for it at all?

[snyprrr]

lol, James has left the building...


My point was that the "establishment", who didn't like Cage's "procedures", also didn't like Xenakis's. I think both feldman and Cage could have utilized Xenakian methodology a little more. Their percussion works, like 'Four4', could stand perhaps with a little math in them... uhhh.... I mean....

"Oh, your bloops and bleeps are all messed up, man. Here, listen how my bloops and bleeps are right where they're supposed to be."


Please someone tell me how I'm supposed to "see" Boulez's Piano Sonata No.3 any differently than ... oh, help me out here... I'm looking for a Determinist Work and an Indeterminist Work that a lay person would have difficulty distinguishing... any?

[Artem]

I never associated Xenakis music with Feldman before, but now I strongly hear Feldman in Akea and Paille in the Wind from this CD, which are terrific pieces, by the way. There's some Stravinsky in Akea, probably, too.

[asin]B00354NAOG[/asin]

[bhodges]

Overheard at a concert tonight, the second night of four by the Momenta Quartet. After some 20th and 21st-century Japanese works, the group ended with Beethoven's Quartet in F major, Op. 135:

"Beethoven was the Xenakis of the 19th century."



--Bruce

[snyprrr]

I may write a blog article, if not a uni essay on Xenakis' late works. As his biggest fan, I'll probably be the best one to do it 

I'm noting this here, as I will return 

goading noted

Now go listen to 'Zythos' 78 times!!



Yea, so I'm still wondering what happened to Mode's Xenakis Series.

I dooooo get tired when the only IX releases are just endless new performances of 'Rebonds', oy vey... throw me a bone why doncha....


hey- do you know where I can hear 'Korinorai' (bad spelling- one of his last Orchestral Works- there's a recording, but no commercial way of getting it)??

[snyprrr]

So I get a hunch you're a big Xenakian too!  this is good!

I'm taking on your Zythos challenge even if you meant it as a joke. I've already overlistened to plenty of Xenakis' early works when I was first obsessed with him.

I think a chronological Xenakis Series needs to be put out, personally.
(Even though I've done it myself via playlists)

Unfortunately I don't know how to obtain Koïranoï. It's one of a few small holes in his relatively large output. Same goes for several scores. I've contacted all the publishers associated with Xenakis, trying to obtain a few particular scores but it seems that certain works need to be published again 

Yeah man, the Rebounds thing is quite funny. I do find it frustrating when you converse with people who say they like Xenakis yet have only ever heard Rebounds 

i hear ya

You know, I DID start a "Xenakis Late Works" Thread... I'll bump it... I think it's nothing special at the moment... let's see...

[arpeggio]

I have never cared for Xenakis.

My nine year old grandson is just discovering classical music.  He is learning it from his music classes in public elementary school.  He and many of his friends have signed up for viola in the school orchestra program.  His favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.

He was curious about modern music so I played this an old LP recording I had of Metastaseis.  He flipped out.

Not only did he flip out but after all of these years his sixty-nine year grandfather had an epiphany.  Rats!!!!!!!!!! I now have to start adding Xenakis to my library.

I dare not mention this at Talk Classical.  Many of the old curmudgeons who now control that forum would freak out.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

He was curious about modern music so I played this an old LP recording I had of Metastaseis.  He flipped out.

"Flipped out" in a positive or negative way?

Also, is that the Vanguard LP conducted by Maurice Le Roux? I've got that.

[nathanb]

I made a speech today in that damn communications class I have to take. I talked about some music. Specifically, it went: Gruppen, Atlas Eclipticalis, Metastasis, Les Espaces Acoustiques.

[nathanb]

Awesome, how did it go man? Great to see you back btw   

It was okish. Relative to the other people, good. I was kinda nervous so I don't think I conveyed some shit properly, but I found some pretty helpful visual aids. I was never gone, I was just smoking a bit too much tbh

[Mandryka]

I've been thinking about the polytopes. Was Xenakis influenced by Scriabin? Prometheus is a sort of polytope I suppose, though clearly not site specific. He lets us know quite a bit about his ideas about music and mysticism, which may or may not resemble the ideas Scriabin took from theosophy.

In "Xenakis on Xenakis" we read (p 18)

"The power of music is such that it transports you from one state to another. Like alcohol. Like love. If I wanted to learn how to compose music, maybe it was to acquire this power. The power of Dionysus"


And on page 1 of Music and Achitecture he informs us that

"Art, and, above all, music, has a fundamental function, which is to catalyze the sublimation that it can bring about through all means of expression. It must aim [...] to draw towards a total exaltation in which the individual mingles, losing his consciousness in a truth immediate, rare, enormous, and perfect. If a work of art succeeds in this undertaking even for a single moment, it attains its goal."

[milk]

I've been thinking about the polytopes. Was Xenakis influenced by Scriabin? Prometheus is a sort of polytope I suppose, though clearly not site specific. He lets us know quite a bit about his ideas about music and mysticism, which may or may not resemble the ideas Scriabin took from theosophy.

In "Xenakis on Xenakis" we read (p 18)

"The power of music is such that it transports you from one state to another. Like alcohol. Like love. If I wanted to learn how to compose music, maybe it was to acquire this power. The power of Dionysus"


And on page 1 of Music and Achitecture he informs us that

"Art, and, above all, music, has a fundamental function, which is to catalyze the sublimation that it can bring about through all means of expression. It must aim [...] to draw towards a total exaltation in which the individual mingles, losing his consciousness in a truth immediate, rare, enormous, and perfect. If a work of art succeeds in this undertaking even for a single moment, it attains its goal."

inspiring

[Mandryka]

inspiring

I expect that some Xenakis fans may not be so pleased to learn about his spiritual agenda. Xenakis seems to have seen himself as a shaman, a guru with magic powers.

[milk]

I expect that some Xenakis fans may not be so pleased to learn about his spiritual agenda. Xenakis seems to have seen himself as a shaman, a guru with magic powers.

I like that part. Maybe I think composers should feel that way.

[Mandryka]

lol 
He was an atheist though

I've read he was, in some sense. Nevertheless his language in the 1970s is  replete with ideas which are "spiritual." Look at this:

Myself, I wanted to deal with the abysses that surround us and among which we live. The most formidable are those of our destiny, of life or of death, visible and invisible universes. The signs that convey these abysses to us are also made of the lights and sounds that provoke the two principal senses that we possess. That is why the Diatope would like to be a place for the condensation of those signs from the many worlds. Rational knowledge coalesces with intuitive knowledge, or revelation. It is impossible to dissociate one from the other. These abysses are unknowable, that is to say, knowledge of them is an eternal and desperate flight, composed of milestones-hypotheses across the epochs

This sort of thing may have been sincere, it may have been public relations, it was the time of hippies, the age of Aquarius, all of that. Anyway, what I really want to say is that the communist-materialist understanding of Xenakis  prima facie doesn't fit what we know about him in the 1970s, the period of the site specific multi-media spectacles.

Have you heard of the "world polytope?"