Iannis Xenakis | |
|---|---|
 Xenakis in his Paris studio, c. 1970 | |
| Born | Giannis Klearchou Xenakis 29 May 1922 |
| Died | 4 February 2001 (aged 79) |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, architect |
| Years active | 1947–1997 |
| Works | List of compositions |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; Greek: Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, pronounced [ˈʝanis kseˈnacis]; 29 May 1922[a] – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde[2] composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer.[3]
After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalised citizen of France eighteen years later.[4] Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances.[5]
Among his most important works are Metastaseis (1953–54) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra; percussion works such as Psappha (1975) and Pléïades (1979); compositions that introduced spatialization by dispersing musicians among the audience, such as Terretektorh (1966); electronic works created using Xenakis's UPIC system; and the massive multimedia performances Xenakis called polytopes, that were a summa of his interests and skills.[6]
Among the numerous theoretical writings he authored, the book Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition (French edition 1963, English translation 1971) is regarded as one of his most important publications. As an architect, Xenakis is primarily known for his early work under Le Corbusier: the priory of Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, on which the two collaborated, and the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58), which Xenakis designed by himself.[citation needed]
- ^ Xenakis, Mâkhi (27 March 2024). Iannis Xenakis. Uteurp. ISBN 978-2-9585283-5-5.
- ^ Kundera wrote in 1980 about Xenakis in "Regards sur Xenakis" published by Paris Editions Stock pages 21-25. Later added commentary in 2008 in "Un Rencontre" published in Paris by Gallimard, pages 92-98. The translation comes from Interpreting Xenakis, published by Pendragon Press in Hillsdale New York in 2010. "Xenakis has had to go beyond music. His innovation has a quite different character than those of Bach, Debussy and Schoenberg. They never lost the link with the history of music, they could always "go back" (and often did). For Xenakis, the bridges were irrevocably destroyed. Oliver Messiaen said it: Xenakis' music is "not radically new but radically different". Xenakis does not set himself against a preceding phase of music. He turns his back on all European music, in total rejection of this inheritance. His starting point is somewhere else: not in the artificial sound of a note that has isolated itself from nature in order to express human subjectivity, but in the noise of the world, in a "sound mass" that doesn't gush from the heart, but comes to us from the outside, like the pitter-patter of rain, the din of a factory , or the chanting slogans of a crowd demonstrating."
- ^ Harley, James (28 September 2015). Iannis Xenakis: Kraanerg. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4094-2331-7.
- ^ Gagné, Nicole V. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, p. 299, Lanham: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-6765-6: "Xenakis settled in Paris, becoming a French citizen in 1965."
- ^ Gérard Pape, Musipoesc: Writings About Music, Paris: Éditions Michel de Maule, 2015, pp. 351-353.
- ^ "Yannis Xenakis' Polytopes: Cosmogonies in Sound and Architecture – SOCKS". Socks. 8 January 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
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