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12. Activating Sound Phenomena in the Music of Iannis Xenakis

Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. 199–212)

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Metadata
Title12. Activating Sound Phenomena in the Music of Iannis Xenakis
ContributorMauricio Garcia de la Torre(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0390.14
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0390/chapters/10.11647/obp.0390.14
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightMauricio García de la Torre
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-10-09
Long abstractAcoustic energy is a fundamental resource, although little studied, in the music of Iannis Xenakis. This approach is articulated within the concept of activating sound, a notion from psychoacoustics. According to Eggerman, this is one of the underlying mechanisms that enables emotional responses to music. For this author, musical listening is the final stage of a process of acoustic energy transfer, which has a direct correlation with the sympathetic nervous system and as a response generates a certain orientation, as well as physiological arousals towards the stimulus. Xenakis's music invokes an overwhelming physicality, a by-product of sound constructions endowed with a power emanating from the composer's design and realization strategies. With the intent of displaying how this remarkable quality guides Xenakis's creative endeavor, in this chapter I present a descriptive analysis of some iconic passages in which the Greek musician employs the resource of acoustic energy with exceptional mastery.
Page rangepp. 199–212
Print length14 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Mauricio Garcia de la Torre

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0308-1120

Mauricio García de la Torre is a composer, researcher, and pianist. He holds a PhD in music composition from Mexico’s UNAM and a Master’s in Music Composition from McGill University, Canada. He graduated in piano performance from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes’ (INBA) Superior School of Music in Mexico. He is currently a Professor in Composition and Theory at Pan American University and the Superior School of Music. As a researcher he has studied subjects related to music cognition, phenomenology of music, physics and psychoacoustics. He is currently Editorial Director of UNAM’s PILACREMUS periodical, Co-editor of the website www.musicaenmexico.com and founding member of the collective Transdisciplinarity, Art, and Cognition (TACo).