"Drawn Into the Flight Path of the Sounds": Xenakis Listening Thread

The versions of Zyia that I see on Spotify, Youtube, and a quick look at Naxos all seem to be for solo soprano with flute and piano but that version also seems to date from 1952 so should be fine.

Thanks for setting this up. I’ll get on it asap.

Oh wow, you went ahead with it. Awesome. I shall return...

Yes pls

I listened to two recordings of Zyia: the one on Spotify sung by Angelica Cathariou and this one, with Raquel Camarinha singing: https://youtu.be/qLxLx29S2yA ; found a score on Scribd. The one on Youtube made the stronger first impression - and it's a strong one, with pretty (if very complex) melodies juxtaposed against clusters in the piano's low register, sometimes reminiscent in a way of what Vivier would get up to a couple of decades later. Quite different from the stochastic music we typically associate with Xenakis, still very much built around melody and metre. The vocal melody lines often draw on diatonic collections and even suggest tonal goals, although these change frequently and the clusters in the piano part obscure tonality. Metre also changes often, with additive patterns appearing at times.

Metastaseis - opus 1! Just listened to two versions this morning, the Rosbaud-conducted one on this box: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Musique-De-Notre-Temps-Reperes-19451975/release/2583078 and the Tamayo-conducted RAI Symphony one I streamed on Naxos, which I liked so much I listened to it two more times. We're into the real deal now - huge, terrifying sound masses with that stunning first crescendo. Must have been incredible to see in 1955, a half-decade before Ligeti's and Penderecki's sound mass pieces, well before sci fi and horror film directors adopted those sounds. I'm sure it would still be a dazzling live experience. This was actually the first piece I ever heard by Xenakis, in an undergrad music history class. Definitely made an impression.

Just took a look at the score and wow, yeah, 60 different parts, all written out by hand. Sort of incredible that there was a time when a Greek guy in his early 30s could even write something like this as his op. 1 and get it performed.

I've listened to Zyia twice now, several hours apart. I like what the piano and flutes doing a lot, though the presence of vocals (not sure I've heard Xenakis with a solo vocalist before!) makes me slightly anxious about what I'm missing in the absence of a translation. The low clunky piano rhythms around, say, the 5:00 mark bring to mind Messiaen. Though it's fair to say that I'm kinda conditioned to hear Messiaen in things!

Pithoprakta - just listened to the Tamayo-conducted Luxembourg Orchestra recording. This is probably the Xenakis piece I've listened to most, since I used it when teaching for a couple of years. He kept the 46 strings, two trombones, and wood block from Metastaseis but not the rest of the winds and brass. All playing individual parts again. Doesn't quite have the huge dramatic moments of Metastaseis but I find it a bit more satisfying as an overall composition, I think. The arc-like form is very pleasing and well-constructed and the percussive extended techniques on the strings are great. The composition was inspired by Brownian motion iirc. A great demonstration of this concept:

The collision of hail or rain with hard surfaces, or the song of cicadas in a summer field. These sonic events are made out of thousands of isolated sounds; this multitude of sounds, seen as totality, is a new sonic event.

Yeah, tbh, I have no idea where the text for Zyia comes from or what it's saying. If someone has a translation or speaks Greek, would be happy to hear!

Heroic! Looking forward to this.

Hi, is it okay for me to join in with this? I probably won't have much of interest to contribute, but despite having heard about "this guy Xenakis" for much of my music-listening life I've never really investigated the work, so this would be a cool learning experience.

following, this guy is on my list to investigate further

Same here.

Everyone is welcome!

Xenakis would have definitely wanted it that way. The full quote referenced above, as quoted in Ross, is in fact "The listener must be gripped and—whether he likes it or not—drawn into the flight path of the sounds, without a special training being necessary. The sensual shock must be just as forceful as when one hears a clap of thunder or looks into a bottomless abyss."

He's not a composer I'd say I'm exceptionally well-versed in myself so this is meant to be educational for all involved.

Ιάννης Ξενάκης otm.

I've got all his stuff and am most familiar with and have a preference for his piano works and have nothing of interest to say beyond oafish inarticulate enthusiasm - so I'll be another lurking observer here. Maybe learn something for once!

Btw, Nagx3, I don't think it's just your conditioning: Xenakis studied with Messiaen. If you can read French, this gets into the relationship between the two, with some discussion of Zyia: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/770144/filename/Notes_sur_les_relations_musicales_entre_Xenakis_et_Messiaen.pdf

It seems like this is a piece Messiaen went over with Xenakis when he was working on it. The quotes from Xenakis's notes show that Messiaen's comments were important to him. He mentions Messiaen's praise and specific comments on various compositional elements, thanked him and said it was thanks to his encouragement and instruction in Indian rhythms as well as Le Corbusier and Greek folk music, and even noted that he felt like "a new man" because of Messiaen's encouragement:

15 novembre 1952. Messiaen a vu la Zyia. Il l’a lue attentivement en en trouvant des fautes de copie. Il m’a dit : « Mais c’est formidable le progrès que vous avez fait depuis les harmonisations. Vous avez maintenant une langue, un style. C’est très très bien. Comment avez-vous fait ? Vous vous rendez compte ? ». J’ai dit que c’était grâce à lui, à son encouragement, à ses leçons, ensuite à la rythmique hindoue, à Le Corbusier et ?? à la musique populaire grecque.
Il m’a répété son étonnement [41] à plusieurs reprises.
Il m’a dit qu’il voudrait bien entendre la partie centrale, ?? [soprano], flûte et piano, qu’il trouve exceptionnelle à cause de la combinaison des timbres, mélodies et rythmes.
Il a eu un doute quant au raccord de la strette avec les doubles croches de Bartók, mais, a-t-il dit, ce sera très bien quand même.
...
Il a trouvé la partie du piano solo avec la variante du refrain très bien et pas du tout longue et statique, à cause des accidents rythmiques (changements de mesures).
Il m’a proposé de montrer la Zyia de sa part à Marcel Couraud pour qu’il la mette dans ses
...
[42] Je commence à me sentir à nouveau un homme parce que les paroles de Messiaen sont très encourageantes et parce que je ?? ?? ?? {suis d’accord avec lui}. C’est le début de la fin du Moyen âge ?22 »

He recalled the composer Iannis Xenakis saying that it would take him six months to figure out a 30-minute Cecil Taylor piece. Xenakis is “my favorite European composer,” Taylor continued

Cecil was obv a big fan.

The few things I'd heard from him were very abstract and cacophonous, so the relative accessibility and simplicity of Zyia is a nice start. Looking forward to following this.

now listening to Metastaseis. Yeah this guy is the Autechre of orchestral music

thanks so much for this, Sund4r. will check in later tonight when i get a chance to listen to this first set of compositions.

Diamorphoses: I always preferred Xenakis's instrumental music to his electronic music so it's good to be able to revisit and reconsider these pieces I haven't listened to in ages. This was his first electronic work, done at Pierre Schaeffer's GRM studio, again, while he was Messiaen's student. A musique concrète work in ternary form based on white noise as well as aiui samples including bells, trains, and jet engines. On the first couple of listens, I listened for the form, which seems clear enough, with the low-end white noise largely dropping out or becoming less consistent in the second section. The glissandi derived from the bell samples are v cool. Obv people have done much more complex and elaborate things with electronic processing since then but the creativity and vision here still come through and the form is very well-balanced and pleasing. (And noise artists still do LESS complex and elaborate things as well!) Has a similar dark, intense character as some of his instrumental music from around the same time, and certainly when compared to other early musique concrète.

Concret PH: next piece on the CD. This short work is derived from 1s samples of crackling embers, layered in different densities, similar to the sound mass processes he was working with in his instrumental music. Written for the Philips pavillion at the World Fair, to be played between playings of Varèse's Poème électronique. It doesn't have as much dramatic impact but the sounds are pleasant.

I want in but I didn't see this thread until right now. I assume we do 5 pieces a week so if you miss one, you can catch up later?

45-60m of music a week and we're still in the middle of the first week.

Is anyone doing a Spotify playlist? Should I?

That would be great if you want to do that, thanks!

A few of the more prominent recordings on Youtube:

Metastaseis - Orchestre National de l'O.R.T.F./Maurice Le Roux
Metastaseis - Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra/Arturo Tamayo

Pithoprakta - Orchestre National de l'O.R.T.F./Maurice Le Roux
Pithoprakta - Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra/Arturo Tamayo

Diamorphoses - magnetic tape

Concret PH - magnetic tape

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1J3dBKMAwe0ttB13rMogfX?si=IlhgenD_S1e5M0Wkv3nqFQ if anyone needs it. Open to suggestions ofc

Haha, freaky timing.

Analogique A+B: well, this is definitely different. A piece for 9 strings (Analogique A) and 4-track tape (Analogique B), where the ensemble and the tape alternate in a call and response fashion. From what I gather from here: https://www.iannis-xenakis.org/fxe/catalog/oeuvre_15.html , the A part was composed by stochastically generating material in arbitrary ranges of pitch (frequency?), volume, and density, and these ranges change according to probabilities determined by a Markov chain, resulting in eight 'sonic states'. The tape part is an early (the first?) granular synthesis composition, based on similar processes. Unlike the other pieces so far, these structural ideas are not apparent on listening, at least to me in two distracted listens. Feels comparatively static. Some interesting sounds for certain. I might give it another try.

Spotify link for this one: https://open.spotify.com/album/6DqkaXUhKsbnshFkzhnfOG?si=GXgMPYPmSceXKtcafUxRQQ

Thanks, Tom!

Running late on this... I’ll get there before the week’s through.

I'm familiar with Concret PH and Diamorphoses from an LP called Electro-Acoustic Music that I got out of the library as a teenager. Those versions are apparently revisions from 1968, although I don't know if that simply means that was when a stereo mixdown was made. The liner notes to that record describe Diamorphoses as having four parts, with the two inner sections having less sonic density than the other ones.

I wonder if the relative homogeneity of the sound sources that he uses makes his work easier to parse for "rock" based listeners than composers who used a very eclectic variety of sounds. There is more of an atmosphere and mood here than in some electronic music of the era where the composer is changing directions every 15 seconds.

I probably won't be able to listen to everything week by week, but threads like these are a great resource to go back to at a later date!

Interesting. The liner notes to the 1997 Xenakis - Electronic Music CD describe Diamorphoses as a ternary form, which is audible to me and is a standard classical form, but I can see how you could subdivide the middle section into two subsections for a four-part form.

Analogique sounds pretty cool on first listen. Definitely never heard that before. Though I've tended to get more mileage out of his chamber stuff and his tapes/electronic stuff than the vast-clouds-of-sound stuff and he's neatly catering for that niche market here. :)

Catching up. Zyia is indeed Messiaen-esque, occasionally even Bartókian in its writing for the piano (maybe because Xenakis was born in Brăila?), with a dash of André Jolivet in its conception of neo-classicism as a return to pre-Christian Greek sources. I also hear echoes of Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, which leads me to speculate that Xenakis perhaps subsequently felt the need to break with the 'exotisant' gaze of the French scene through a more forceful idiom of his own. Anyhow, I very much agree with Sund4r that the vocal melodies in particular look ahead to Claude Vivier (himself a quasi student of Messiaen via Gilles Tremblay), although to my knowledge Xenakis doesn't seem to have explored this avenue much further in his later compositions.

Even with the benefit of experience, I was expecting Metastaseis to come as a shock after Zyia, but the nifty thing about these listening threads is that they help you re-contextualize and re-historicize that which might otherwise seem sui generis. When listening to them back-to-back, both come across as constructs made of space, which to my mind implies a move away from narrative (a chiefly temporal art) and makes me wonder what Metastaseis in particular would sound like if it were played backwards or cut up and stitched back together in a different order. After all, the title really just means 'change' (including political change, which is not irrelevant here), as though to mark not only a break with his juvenilia but also to indicate that the work itself is by no means set in stone, a music of constant becoming rather than of being, quite unlike the fantasies of a return to European civilization's Greek 'roots' some of the aforementioned French composers peddled in their own compositions.

Pithoprakta is where Big Brain Xenakis really comes to the fore. Glissandos conceived as the thermodynamic movement of gas molecules, underlying scientific laws promulgated by German and British dudes whose names I'm too much of a philistine to remember, probability theory as the basis of aesthetics… I imagine this is all a musicologist's wet dream, and I am in no position to intelligently comment on any of it, but I will say that the application of theorems drawn from other disciplines to notated music remains an incredibly fecund compositional approach and – as much as I value it in its own right – it does put the comparative narrow-mindedness of integral serialism to shame. I will also say that it also sounds great (tbf I'm a sucker for string orchestras, here augmented by two discreet trombones, xylophone and a wood block), and the coexistence of pointillistic pizzicatos and nearly smeared glissandos foreshadows Ligeti's beloved 'clocks & clouds'.

Musique concrète is a blind spot for me more often than not, but I found much to enjoy in Diamorphoses, the second piece of his I had never heard so far (after Zyia). Sund4r summed it up nicely, and helped me get a better grip on what goes on in this piece, which does indeed strike me as more modern (and listenable, frankly) than what many of Xenakis's peers were up to at the time in their own electronic experiments. The link between this and his orchestral works is also quite obvious in terms of their sense of shape, and it gets me thinking about how much of Xenakis's art is one of correlation and translation between different media, almost as though he were guided by a theory of forms, if you'll forgive the lame reference.

Concret PH is considerably glassier and hence more, uh, concrete, but it also evokes a piano, which creates a strange aural illusion whereby the abstract (absolute music) and the figurative (recognizable noises made by everyday objects) coexist. It makes for an eloquent little fragment (or shard).

Analogique is perhaps the toughest nut to crack thus far, although quite interesting in that it spells out what I was just saying about correlation: its stated aim is to seek analogies between the strings and their corresponding tape material, which often requires that the two soundworlds take turns, thereby stressing their distinctness. This dual state greatly serves the piece imo – listening to A and B in isolation wouldn't work quite as well.

As a student of, mainly, the natural sciences it's possible Xenakis' borrowings from extra-musical disciplines are part of the appeal before even hearing a note. I mean, I don't feel like it aids comprehension (the maths, when written out, looks immensely scary) but when one reads about him and finds diagrams of probability distributions and auditory response thresholds, etc, a certain deeply nerdy part of my brain gets all "these are a few of my favourite things". Hehe.

Can't find Analogique on youtube and I've forgotten my spotify password as I use it so little, so I guess I'll have to skip it? Bah.

Some scattered thoughts, probably of no use to anyone (I'm also going to try to avoid musicology terms in fear of using them wrong in front of proper musical theorists/classical buffs, so I'm gonna come across as very basic):

Zyia - not what I was expecting but I really like this one. The vocal fixes me, an anchor point in the sea, while the instrumentation roils. Nice, nice.

Metastaesis and Pithoprakta are in line with what I expected Xenakis to sound like, probably b/c the former is the only one I've heard before. The latter almost gave me an anxiety attack tbh. I used to chill out to Stockhausen and sounds like that, I don't think I can do it any more. Doesn't mean I don't like it, it's super cool, but my chest was definitely tightening in places.

Diamorphoses - love this but I want to argue with pomenitul's statement that it's more modern (and listenable, frankly) than what many of Xenakis's peers were up to at the time in their own electronic experiments, I'm just not sure I'm up to the job. Would be interested to know what pieces you were thinking of specifically in your comparison, and maybe we could tease out why we differ in stances?

Concret PH - this is gorgeous and I wish it went on forever. It's obviously the least 'composed' of all the pieces on the list, but the sounds are perfect for me.

I was thinking of stuff like Varèse's Poème électronique, Stockhausen's Studie II, Boulez's Etudes I & II, Barraqué's Etude (I see a pattern here!), etc. Luc Ferrari, Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Bernard Parmegiani and other noted musique concrète practitioners from that era are in a different category as far as I'm concerned because they devoted the quasi entirety of their efforts to the genre.

Ah, okay, so that rules out some counterpoints, and I don't know the Boulez or Barraqué. Poème électronique is basically godhead to me, so I've got to disagree about its listenability at least. Do you think that what separates out Diamorphoses is that it's already moved to composition where the examples you mention are still stuck in exploration?

If you don't know Vivier's Lonely Child, it might be worth a try if you like Zyia.

I do not, thank you!

Do you think that what separates out Diamorphoses is that it's already moved to composition where the examples you mention are still stuck in exploration?

I would say so, yes. Keep in mind that I am generally not very receptive to tape music/musique concrète/sound collage/early electronic experiments/Cageian 'banal noises are also music', so my assessment is bound to be harsh by default – no doubt unfairly so, but we all have our blind spots. Perhaps I'll overcome this one someday.

Check out the studio version with Susan Narucki – you can find it here.

xp

Oy, well, we shall have to differ then because those things are very much my jam. But I can accept the composition vs exploration thing, just relistened to Studie II and I definitely see it there, it sounds wonderful to my ears but it is rather simplistic, I think.

xp

I'm finding Pithoprakta much more pleasing than Metastaseis. The latter always seemed to be the Xenakis piece mentioned when I started to read bits and pieces on 20th century music in the '90s. I've listened to it a few times as a result and I don't recall making much progress with it. It's rarely actually ugly and those moments where a large proportion of instruments converge in a sustained period of something suggesting a more or less conventional harmonic relationship do achieve a pleasing sense of resolution. But I'm still craving something more to drag me forward.

I don't think I'd previously spent any time with Pithoprakta but, despite it feeling less dense, more hazy still in terms in harmony and occasionally like a scratchy mess (LOL) I somehow sense more persistent forward momentum, which is apparently important to this particular brain. So yay for Pithoprakta!

Troorkh is cool, quite different from Keren in terms of how the trombone is handled - he does make much more use of glissandi here; also a lot of use of the trombone's lovely highest register. Dialogue between the soloist and orchestral is strong and varied, with a lot of back and forth with the orchestral trombones. It's again more built around melody, motive, and rhythm than timbral exploration or stochastic density, and reminiscent at times of early 20th century atonal music. Because the form is so complex and not clearly narrative, my attention drifts a bit at times, but it's pleasant.

Waarg! He does have the best titles ever.

Practically everything but orchestral music this week:

Week 33

Tetora, str qt, 1990
GENDY3, 2-track, Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis, 1991
Pu wijnuej we fyp (A. Rimbaud), children’s choir, 1992
Paille in the wind, vc, pf, 1992

Just listened to the Arditti recording of Tetora and I loved it right away. It's more traditionally structured - introduces motivic/thematic material at the outset, then develops it. Just very strong writing, with effective dramatic movement between homophonic/homorhythmic passages and tight call-and-response dialogue between the violins vs viola & cello, with some really crunchy dyads, esp in the violins.

Paille in the wind: pretty sure I've listened to this before but I listened several times now, first to the Arne Deforce/Dean Vanderwalle recording, then to Rohan de Saram/Aki Takahashi. It's a short and sparse piece but gripping and effective and easy to grasp right away. Begins with sparse piano clusters with the pedal down, spreading out across the range of the keyboard; then the cello enters in its low register, again mostly playing slow quarter notes with no vibrato over piano resonance, starting softly and building into a dramatic crescendo; the pianist punctuates the cello line, takes over briefly, then the cello returns in a higher register, eventually working its way back down with just a couple of piano punctuations.

Harley on Tetora, much more in depth than what I wrote above:

It is appropriate, though certainly arbitrary, to close another phase of Xenakis’s output with a string quartet. As Tetras (1983) epitomizes many of the concerns leading into the 1980s, Tetora incorporates a number of characteristics found in the music leading into the 1990s.22 Compared to the earlier quartet, this one is much simplified in terms of texture: the tempo and pace of events is slower, pitch-based melodic contours are more prominent, the intervallic qualities of the sieves strongly color the expression of the music, and chordal passages are organized in a tightly controlled though unpredictable manner.

Tetora means “four” (in the ancient Dorian dialect), as does Tetras, but there is in fact much less homogeneity in the later piece. The quartet is often divided into two duos, distinguished by register, and there are numerous solo, or soloaccompanied, passages as well. There are no glissandi, no grinding noises or other effects, no trills, tremolandi, or microtones, and very little use of polyrhythms. The music is structured according to the predominance of melodic or harmonic/ rhythmic material. There is a great deal of fluidity within these domains, and a fair amount of convergence or juxtaposition as well.

The melodic material can be subdivided into six categories: (1) solo; (2) twopart (or more) counterpoint; (3) resonated, where individual notes of the solo melody are sustained by the other instruments; (4) distributed, where each note of the melody is played by a different instrument—hocket-like; (5) chorale, where one line is prominent, but is supported by parallel-moving chords; and (6) accompanied (by harmonic or ostinato material). The opening passage of Tetora (mm. 1–21) is entirely melodic in orientation, but the structure, in terms of changing sub-entities, is quite intricate. The melody itself proceeds very smoothly, with the one major shift of register (going into m. 9) being linked to the switch from first violin to second. This dichotomy between a relatively stable line and a rapid succession of textural variation carries through much of the melodic material, creating a sense of formal fluidity and continuous development that contrasts with the block-like structure of many other compositions.

The harmonic material can be distinguished by the degree of rhythmic synchronization, ranging from tutti chords to two-part structures (usually pitting the violins against the viola and cello) and four-part ones in which each instrument plays double stops, often within a layered ostinato setting. Registral contiguity is another important factor in characterizing the harmonic material. The first such passage, for example, taking over from the melodic material at the end of m. 21, is very disjunct, the tutti chords jumping up and down by as much as two octaves. By contrast, the next chordal passage, coming after a short melodic interlude at mm. 25–26, is highly contiguous (again featuring a synchronized rhythmic structure). With such progressions, the harmonic entity starts to merge with the melodic “chorale” entity, the distinction generally being that the main impetus for the passage is either linear or vertical.

While Tetora proceeds as an alternation between melodic and harmonic passages, the variety of rhythmic structures generally associated with the chordal material gradually begins to dominate the music. The final extended passage of melodic material occurs at mm. 86–100, carrying the music to the 11'00" mark of its over-sixteen-minute duration.23 This section features two-part counterpoint, shifting from first violin and viola to viola and cello, with high, punctuating chords being added at m. 91.

At m. 101 each instrument plays an irregular cycle of double-stops according to an independent rhythmic structure, including polyrhythms. Given the very slow tempo, the aim is to create a floating rhythmic counterpoint rather than layered tempi. At m. 109, the players are synchronized for a brief passage of tutti chords before sliding back into nebulous contrapuntal material. At m. 115, however, the quartet comes together in a clearly structured, two-part texture built from multiples of the basic sixteenth-note pulse. In this section, the violins are more active than the lower pair, but the two parts interlock to create an ongoing pulse (shifting from 16th-notes to 8ths at m. 116, and thereafter the rhythmic pattern is somewhat more irregular). The whole passage is divided into segments, and each pair draws upon a set of chords for each segment, usually four for the violins and three for the lower duo (the viola and cello play an ostinato on one chord in the first segment at mm. 115–16). These segments are distinguished by changes in the pitch sieve from which the chords are drawn, or rather, by transpositions of a single sieve. The underlying unity of the passage is difficult to hear, but the sense of harmonic progression, segment by segment, is quite apparent. Finally, at m. 128, this material leads directly into the final passage.

This section is similar in construction to the previous one, being built from irregular progressions of a limited set of chords for the two duos, this time six for the violins and five for the viola and cello. The pairs are brought together rhythmically, though, and the pattern of durations is derived from a sieve (see fig. 30). Xenakis treats this sieve simply, repeating the cycle of durations and then reversing it. The addition of a 3+1–1–1 segment in between the second and third statements of the set allows for a palindrome to be created as well, something not readily perceivable by the listener but which lends a certain elegance to the structure. While this passage is decidedly harmonic rather than melodic, it should be noted that the chords of the upper pair are contained within narrow range (and are narrowly voiced), resulting in quite a smooth progression. The clustered sonority precludes the projection of a clear line, but a certain melodic sense is conveyed nonetheless.

The attention to structural details, as evidenced in this final passage as well as in the intricate succession of melodic textures in the opening section, are what makes Tetora a worthy successor to Tetras. While the earlier quartet is far more dazzling, this one contains a lyricism that is remarkably strong, as well as an obvious obvious affinity for the sonorities of the string quartet. Even if the music is shorn of many of the elements that made the earlier score so compelling, the formal depth and sureness of tone make this a substantial addition to the quartet repertoire. It has the added distinction of being within the realm of performance possibility for many more groups than the Arditti String Quartet. And this concern for wider accessibility is a major factor in the stylistic changes Xenakis’s music underwent through the 1980s.

GENDY3: the sounds here seem much more varied and pleasant than what we were getting from the last couple of UPIC pieces. As Harley notes, there is a surprising amount of consonance and steady, sustained sounds, while we still have a lot of continuous variation. It actually sounds like a more direct ancestor of a lot of experimental synth/noise noodling you can stream on Soundcloud and works similarly as enjoyable music to have on in the background while going about things. I don't really feel that there's enough formal unity or narrative to justify its length as a piece for dedicated active listening but, hey, always good to be able to throw something on while getting through the day.

Pu wijnuej we fyp (A. Rimbaud): the title and text apparently come from anagrams of a Rimbaud poem. It's quite unique for a children's choir piece - not a simple composition, certainly not just the kind of chanting we get in a number of X's choral pieces. A lot of really dense multi-voiced clusters and glissando effects. Some spectacular moments when a single voice expands out into an eleven-part cluster.

A little late to start this week but looks to be interesting:

Week 34

Mosaïques, 1993
Plektó, fl, cl, perc, pf, vn, vc, 1993
Dämmerschein, 1993–4
Koïranoï 1994

Plektó is nice modern chamber music, more built around counterpoint melody, and rhythm, with strong energy. An enjoyable listen all the way through.

I've listened to Dämmerschein several times now. I find it very pleasant. Although it doesn't have quite the same intensity as the earlier orchestral music, the way the large clusters almost rock back and forth is enjoyable. Nice dynamic range.

Haven't found a recording of Mosaïques yet.

I swear I'll get back to this soon. I'm almost done catching up with my 2021 playlist.

Can't find a recording of Koïranoï either?

The hour-long Les Bacchantes d' Euripide seems to still be unrecorded so we're going to focus on a lot of shorter works for

Week 35

Sea-Nymphs (phonemes from W. Shakespeare: The Tempest), SATB (24 minimum), 1994
Ergma, str qt, 1994
Mnamas Xapin Witoldowi Lutoslavskiemu [In Memory of Witold Lutosławski], 2 hn, 2 tpt, 1994
S 709, 2-track Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis, 1994
Ioolkos, 1995
Kaï, fl, cl, bn, tpt, trbn, vn, va, vc, db, 1995

The version of Sea-Nymphs by the BBC singers here is fantastic. I haven't focused much on the text but it's got a lot of energy, textural variation, and what sound like amazing beating effects from (I think?) quarter-tone harmonies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KsRb8CxnWE

Ergma also really enjoyable. I listened to the JACK quartet's recording a couple of times. It just grinds away for eight minutes, consistently slow and loud, with the strings usually playing crunchy clusters together in homorhythm (but not in parallel motion); players are mostly playing double stops of major sevenths or minor ninths. Might appeal to doom metal fans?

À la mémoire de Witold Lutoslawski: I listened to the recording from this album I have had a copy of for a while: https://moderecords.com/catalog/056xenakis/ . I've heard it before ofc but not in a while. It's pretty interesting, really seems to make the most out of three and half minutes, using very dense counterpoint between trumpet-horn pairs. Unlike the other two pieces, dissonance is less of a focus. There are actually a lot of clear, perfect intervals, approached with neighbouring dissonances. Relatively static dynamically and very even and steady in its rhythm, it's somewhat reminiscent of early polyphonic music, which makes sense for a memorial piece.

Ioolkos: just listened to it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNM4_8chRU4

A good, bracing one. Starts out fff and stays there for seven minutes, with counterpoint between the sections of the huge orchestra, generally harmonized in dense clusters. (I might have guessed they were in quarter-tones but Harley says they're chromatic. The extent of the dissonance is probably just coming from the density of the harmony.) I'm enjoying these compact statements.

I think the title is Ioolkos rather than Loolkos but the video is labelled as the latter.

S.709: another dynamic stochastic synthesis piece, seven minutes long. This one doesn't seem to aspire to a clear sectional form or linear narrative development; the sounds are being constantly modulated. There is a lot of variety and activity and it holds my interest but hasn't moved me very deeply beyond that. Incidentally, it is a pleasant, even gentle listen on the Electronic Music CD through my audio interface and monitor speakers but blew my ears out on a YouTube stream on my phone through cheap headphones.

We're near the end and have probably no more than 70m left of music. I'm splitting it up over the next two weeks. Somehow I missed Kaï last week so I'm adding it here.

Week 36

Voile, str, 1995
Kaï, fl, cl, bn, tpt, trbn, vn, va, vc, db, 1995
Kuïlenn, fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bn, 2 hn, 1995
Hunem-Iduhey, vn, vc, 1996
Ittidra, str sextet, 1996

Voile is pretty well-crafted and satisfying. The strings play dense block chords (a 40-note sieve, apparently), then arpeggiate them, then expand on the pitch material through various textures of block chords, glissandi, arpeggios, and counterpoint, ultimately ending with large chordal statements.

oof, this has been going on 36 weeks? I'm sorry to keep missing this.

BTW I appear to have accidentally timed my trip to Paris (May 2021) at the same time the Radio France orchestra is having a Xenakis weekend!

(I intentionally timed my trip to coincide with performances of Fin De Partie by Kurtag at the Opera Ganier!).

Are these late works a little more austere than the earlier, more famous ones (sorry if that has been mentioned before)?

I can't find online versions of:
Kaï, fl, cl, bn, tpt, trbn, vn, va, vc, db, 1995
Kuïlenn, fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 bn, 2 hn, 1995

Yes, "austere" is probably fair. I haven't found those yet either. I did listen to three recordings of Hunem-Iduhey this morning, by Deforce/Aerts, Michell/Kanka, and Project SIS (live video). The relative dryness and clarity of Michell/Kanka made the lines very easy to pick out. Project SIS had great live energy. It's a compact 3m piece with a very steady pulse, moving between passages where one player sustains a longer note while the other plays a melodic line and passages where they play together. Again, satisfying and well-crafted.

V cool re Paris btw

I listened to Ittidra ("Arditti" backwards) twice this morning. It's interesting and seems of a piece with many of these other late pieces. Consistently fff, with the string mostly playing together in dense chromatic vertical harmonies. Has the grinding, churning quality that I've got from a few of these pieces.

And we've reached the end of our journey. Last week of this, unless recordings of some of the other pieces turn up.

Week 37

Sea-Change, 1997
O-Mega, perc solo, chbr orch, 1997
Roscobeck, vc, db, 1996
Zythos, trbn, 6 perc, 1996

I've listened to Sea-Change and O-Mega a couple of times each, the Steven Schick/ICE recording of O-Mega and this Proms recording of Sea-Change on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ocz2glNC8
Both seem a bit unfinished at first blush. Might want to read more and return to them.

Listened to Roscobeck a few times over the last couple of days and I like it a lot. Seems more substantial. Similar to Hunem-Iduhey in that it's a string duo but it's longer and for cello/double bass, which obviously makes a big difference in terms of sonority. The two players are often playing together homorhythmically or close; sounds like both are playing double-stops at times. A lot of close intervals, which can result in a muddy grind in that register, although X also pushes them both to the top of their registers as well. Pulse seems steady. Again, satisfyingly crafted.

Zythos is really nice. I listened to the recording by Benny Sluchin/Steven Schick/Red Fish Blue Fish. Steady rhythm again, and a beautiful variety of percussion and trombone timbres.

Revisiting Sea-Change (without much reading), I don't know how I ever heard it as "unfinished". It's dramatic and accomplishes a lot in its five and a half minutes (in the Proms performance). There's a tense dialogue/conflict between melodic lines in the brass and wind sections over ominous clusters that develops and reaches an unresolved, lonely-sounding conclusion.

And returning to O-Mega, again, I get a lot more out of it, both from the Steven Schick/ICE recording and what looks like a student performance from Stony Brook University from 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAOnH9Afn98

The percussionist keeps loud, powerful rhythmic material going continuously, beginning and ending the piece solo. The sections of the chamber orchestra pass harmonic and melodic material around between each other, ending, as Harley notes, with a chorale in the brass before a full ensemble phrase leading into the final solo percussion material. (I actually liked this last bit better in the SBU performance!)

And I think that's it for me, ending with iirc the last piece Xenakis ever wrote!

https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/electroacoustic-works

I just finished listening to Bohor from this box set and it is so much more immediate and immersive than the two other versions I've heard (EMF and Recollection GRM). Those sound distant and tinny by comparison. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the set.

o__O. Saving that.

https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/electroacoustic-works🕸🕸

I just finished listening to Bohor from this box set and it is so much more immediate and immersive than the two other versions I've heard (EMF and Recollection GRM). Those sound distant and tinny by comparison. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the set.

Yes. My bandcamp download came with a PDF of the LP set booklet.

Yes. My bandcamp download came with a PDF of the LP set booklet.

I was going to Paris for a few days next week and someone has just pointed out this is happening while I'm there:

https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/fr/activite/exposition/24162-revolutions-xenakis

Huzzah!

I’m in Paris when Radio France is doing their weekend Xenakis festival. Have tickets to the two orchestral concerts of the series cause no American orchestra ever does.

Also seeing Kurtag’s Fin de Partie at the Opera Garnier.

Yes, it's the centenary of the big guy's birth this year... not that you'd ever hear about that in the UK of course.

Wow!

Went to the Oresteia at Oslo City Hall last week; my second time attending this work in this city, the first being iirc in the 90s with the master attending.

1) Generally good stuff under the baton of Christian Eggen, who really should get some sort of international recognition for his relentless work in the space between repertoire curiosity and tradition;

2)the scary Eumenide parts could do with being a bit louder and scarier for my taste;

3) the Kassandra – and this is by some distance my least favourite part of the work per se – totally smashed it, surpassing every recording and/or youtube rehearsal thingy I've heard. Seth Carico, I've now googled her name as being. Damn. Going outside afterwards, I heard random audience members holler Kassandra-like lines into the night, not kidding.

btw: I fell off the main course of this thread at least a couple of times for various personal reasons, last around the middle of 2021 it seems. The thread is an astonishing trove of reactions, knowledge, lore, musings, etc. There is no doubt I'll pick up the entire project at some time and pretend I was there with you. Sincere thanks, Sund4r; missing pom.

Oh it was my pleasure, glad you enjoyed it. The live experience sounds great. I finally got around to buying the Apex 2CD set with the Ensemble Intercontemporain on disc 1 (Phlegra, Jalons, etc) and all the harpsichord pieces by Chojnacka on disc 2. Love having all those harpsichord pieces in one place - a great listen.