IANNIS XENAKIS AND HIS INFLUENCE ON MUSIC TECHNOLOGY TODAY

XENAKIS: AN INTRODUCTION May 29,1922 – February 4, 2001 Greek composer, music theorist, and architect/engineer Born in Romania. Ethnic Greek. Forced to flee to Greece after being denounced a Communist. Later became a naturalized citizen of France and worked both in the US and in France. Post-war avant-garde composer

XENAKIS: OVERVIEW OF HIS METHODS Used mathematical models and applications of set theory, stochastic (random) processes and game theory to make his music. Mixing music with mathematics XENAKIS AS AN ARCHITECT

AS AN ARCHITECT Xenakis designed the hyperbolic Phillips Pavilion with Le Corbusier for the 1958 Brussels World Fair. Edgard Varese’s “Poeme Eletronique” Concret PH” by Xenakis Idea: “Math can be applied to any art form” Le Corbusier’s sketches were hand over to Ixenakis He was to translate them through mathematics. Xenakis was working on“Metastasis” So, he turned his graphical musical sketches of Metastasis into architectural schemes

“METASTASIS”

AS AN ARCHITECT

“METASTASIS” ature=player_embedded ature=player_embedded

“CONCRET PH” Crackling sound of burning charcoal Tape recording - cut into hundreds of tiny pieces and arranged in various densities according to theories of probability. Controlled individual elements of sound “Second-order sonorities” Spectrum of small moments in time  larger formal structures Related to the concept of fractals

“ANALOGIQUE B” Tape piece written in 1959 Xenakis’s first attempt at granular synthesis All sounds can be represented as micro-temporal pieces of sound called “grains.” Xenakis used data that depicted a moment in time and contained information regarding the density, frequency and amplitude of grains at that moment Determined by Stochastics.

“ORIENT-OCCIDENT”

“BOHOR” (1962)

CELLULAR AUTOMATA (CA) Colored cells on a grid of a specified shape Cells change through discrete time steps based on a set of rules defined by surrounding cells. “On” and “off” states Discrete model – computability theory, mathematics, physics, biology, and microstructure modeling. Xenakis used CA calculated with his “pocket computer” to determine the succession of chords within a rational, perceptible structure His mapping was based on pre-determined pitches and the state of the cell chose the instrumentation.

CELLULAR AUTOMATA Left: Close up of Xenakis’ text/symbol pocket computer printout for his piece “Horos” Right: Graphic blocks and stretched to line up with printout

IN TERMS OF MAPPING Xenakis was the first composer to make mathematical concepts popular in composition. Mapping – using numbers plugged into a system that recognizes values and manipulates data by presenting it in a way that makes sense to our minds.

IN TERMS OF MAPPING Xenakis designed the UPIC (computerized music composition tool) and is the inspiration behind the program called (IanniX) IanniX is a program that can be integrated with Max

IN TERMS OF MAPPING Dynamic stochastic synthesis IanniX Graphical open source sequencer

UPIC Digitalizing tablet linked to a computer with a vector display. Draw waveforms and volume envelopes on the tablet Compose with the waveforms by drawing "compositions" on the tablet X-axis = time Y-axis = pitch. Compositions can be stretched in duration, transposed, reversed, inverted, and other algorithmic transformations. Allows for real time performance by moving the stylus across the tablet.

UPIC

AUTUMN THEATER FESTIVAL, PARIS XENAKIS' POLYTOPE II DE CLUNY (2008) cabalero-xenakis-polytope-ii-de.html cabalero-xenakis-polytope-ii-de.html

CONTRIBUTION Founded the Center for Musical Mathematics and Automation France and the US: Center Iannis Xenakis (CIX) Xenakis Project of the Americas (XPA)