Iannis xenakis biography of william

  • Iannis Xenakis was one of the leaders of modernism in music, a hugely influential composer, particularly in the later s and s.
  • This book represents a fascinating panorama of observations, recollections and recent scholarship around the life, thought and impact of Iannis Xenakis.
  • In the days before our present age of cultural plenitude, recordings by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis weren't always easy to find.

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    Iannis Xenakis: Who Is He?

    Taken by itself, a theory of stochastic music may seem a bit dry. But when Xenakis tells us about it, as in Formalized Music, we feel the pulse of his life and the impact of his wartime experience:

    &#;Everyone has observed the sonic phenomena of a political folkmassa of dozens or hundreds of thousands of people. The human river shouts a slogan in a uniform rhythm. Then another slogan springs from the head of the demonstration; it spreads towards the tail, replacing the first. A wave of transition thus passes from the head to the svans. The clamor fills the city, and the inhibiting force of voice and rhythm reaches a climax. It fryst vatten an event of great power and beauty in its ferocity. Then the impact between the demonstrators and the enemy occurs. The perfect rhythm of the gods slogan breaks up in a huge cluster of chaotic shouts, which also spreads to the svans. Imagine, in addition, the reports of dozens of machine guns and the whistle of bullets adding thei

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    In the days before our present age of cultural plenitude, recordings by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis weren&#;t always easy to find. My haphazard introduction to contemporary composition came via record libraries and secondhand shops but even in these havens of obscurity discs of Xenakis music remained frustratingly elusive. Today I do own a few Xenakis CDs but there&#;s still a large portion of his work that I&#;ve yet to hear. After watching Mark Kidel&#;s documentary I&#;m persuaded once again that the gaps in my listening ought to be filled.

    20th-century composition can be intimidating to the unitiated. Intimidating to listen to when so much of it is about finding new sounds, new structures, new modes of performance; and intimidating to read about when the discussion involves the analysis of very cerebral or technical conceptions. It can also disappoint when the results of those conceptions fail to hold the attention or excite the emotions. Many Xenakis compositions had their

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    The Algorithmic Music of Iannis Xenakis–What’s Next?

    Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. –)

    Iannis Xenakis was a pioneer in algorithmic composition of music and art. He combined architecture, mathematics, music, and performance art to create avant-garde compositions and performances that are still being analyzed, performed widely, and discussed. Xenakis’s musical contributions are deeply algorithmic in nature, inspired by his understanding and appreciation of mathematics and controlled randomness; i.e., stochastic processes. His work was made possible through his use of early computer programming languages, such as FORTRAN and BASIC, and the formalization, standardization, and replicability such languages provide. This chapter explores the intersection of science and art, Xenakis’s early computational techniques for a non-technical audience, and how algorithmic music composition has advanced since his passing. It includes t

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