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Prolegomenon: Meta-materiality in the Thought and Creative Activity of Iannis Xenakis

  • James Harley (author)
Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. 21–26)

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Metadata
TitleProlegomenon
SubtitleMeta-materiality in the Thought and Creative Activity of Iannis Xenakis
ContributorJames Harley (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0390.02
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0390/chapters/10.11647/obp.0390.02
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightJames Harley
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-10-09
Long abstractIannis Xenakis is mostly known as a music composer, but he was actually many things and thought of himself as being formed of a ‘mosaic of coherences’. Xenakis possessed an enormous capacity to absorb a wide range of information, and to apply these inputs to his creative and technical work. Engineering is a discipline where a rigorous training in foundational skills such as mathematics is allied with practical applications. In the realm of Western music, the cross-fertilization with other disciplines became quite restricted. While Music had been one of the foundational elements of Western education (the Quadrivium), the increasingly elaborate techniques being explored in Western music made it more hermetic. For Xenakis, however, his engineering background made it more natural for him to adapt tools and approaches from other disciplines. The transferal of ideas had the effect of creating highly original music: a) The geometrical principles underlying hyperbolic paraboloids as they were being explored in architecture turned into a web of string glissandi in Metastasis (1954); b) the probability functions used in risk analysis were applied to generative applications in creating complex, granular ‘clouds’ of sound in Pithoprakta (1956); c) the detailed understanding of computer programming as well as the intricacies of linking software to digital audio-oriented computer hardware led to a unique graphical-based synthesis system, UPIC, and a series of compositions created using this system, beginning with Mycènes Alpha (1978). His engineering background also supported his ability to develop unique multimedia presentations involving digitally controlled lighting systems with hundreds of flashbulbs and laser displays guided by movable mirrors. Perhaps the epitome of Xenakis’s meta-materiality is his Diatope (1978), a work combining architecture, music with spatialization, lights, and a program text combining philosophy, history, and aesthetics. He had combined elements of this work in previous productions, mainly in his Polytopes (Montréal 1967, Persepolis 1971, Cluny 1972-74, Mycenae 1978). Elements of the music and lighting had appeared earlier, but the opportunity to create the architectural home for the work was unique. For Xenakis the polymath, it was natural to draw concepts and techniques into his creative work from various disciplines. The advice from Olivier Messiaen to his young student who had very little traditional background or training in music proved prescient: ‘I encouraged him to use his mathematical and architectural knowledge in his own music and not to worry about melodic – harmonic – contrapuntal – rhythmic problems’. Of course, these elements are core to whatever music is being created, but the techniques for handling them can come from musical traditions or from other disciplines. The meta-materiality of Xenakis’s work is fundamental to his truly original contributions.
Page rangepp. 21–26
Print length6 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

James Harley

(author)

James Harley is a Canadian composer-musician presently teaching at the University of Guelph. He obtained his Doctorate at McGill University in 1994, after spending six years (1982–8) in Europe (London, Paris, Warsaw). His music has been awarded prizes in Canada, USA, UK, France, Poland, Japan, and has been performed and broadcast around the world. Some of Harley’s music is available on disc, and his scores are primarily available through the Canadian Music Centre. He composes music for acoustic forces as well as electroacoustic media, with a particular interest in multi-channel audio and soundscapes. As a researcher, Harley has written extensively on contemporary music, including two monographs: Xenakis: His Life in Music (2004, Routledge), Iannis Xenakis: Kraanerg (2015, Ashgate). As a performer, Harley has a background in jazz, and has most recently worked as an interactive computer musician.