The harpsichord works of Iannis Xenakis

Pace, I.

doi:10.1080/07494460100640121

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Doch neben den beinahe unspielbaren gibt es auch die tatsächlich unspielbaren Werke, die aus physiologischen Gründen nicht so zu bewältigen sind, wie sie notiert wurden. Eine Komposition, die in diese Kategorie fällt, ist das 1989 komponierte Duo für Cembalo und Perkussion Oophaa von Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001…”

Section: Unspielbare Musikunclassified

Unspielbare Musik. Zum Cembalowerk von Iannis Xenakis

Scheurer

2023

GMTH Proceedings

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Section: Unspielbare Musikunclassified

Unspielbare Musik. Zum Cembalowerk von Iannis Xenakis

Scheurer

2023

GMTH Proceedings

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“…He developed this method since the mid-1960s and discussed it through several essays ( Xenakis, 1965 , 1966 , 1967 , 1968 , 1988 , 1990 ) without any reference to the term “gears.” One of his articles provided an important account of several compositional choices around his piece Nomos Alpha (1965–1966) for cello solo that helped several analysts delve into its mathematical features ( Vandenbogaerde, 1968 ; DeLio, 1980 ; Vriend, 1981 ; Solomos, 1997 ; Peck, 2003 ). Other scholars have equally approached his sieves seeking to analyze further pieces within Xenakis’ oeuvre (e.g., Flint, 1993 , 2001 ; Bertocchi, 2001 ; Pace, 2001 ; Squibbs, 2002 , 2003 ; Exarchos, 2007 ; Gibson, 2011 , p. 81–114), to understand the mathematical details of the composer’s approach (e.g., Gibson, 2001 ; Jones, 2001 ; Exarchos, 2009 ), to contextualize the relationships between this approach and others he already developed (e.g., Barthel-Calvet, 2012 ; Hoffmann, 2019 ), to derive computational models (e.g., Agon et al, 2004 ; Ariza, 2005 ), to borrow sieves for their own compositional purposes (e.g., Tipei, 1987 , 1989 ), or as a formal framework for analyzing other repertoires ( Noll et al, 2006 ). To the best of our knowledge, there is only one work providing cognitive remarks upon Xenakis’ sieves, and again in quite general terms ( Besada, 2019 , p. 265–267).…”

Section: From Sieve Theory To Xenakis’ Compositional Sievesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gearing Time Toward Musical Creativity: Conceptual Integration and Material Anchoring in Xenakis’ Psappha

2021

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Understanding compositional practices is a major goal of musicology and music theory. Compositional practices have been traditionally viewed as disembodied and idiosyncratic. This view makes it hard to integrate musical creativity into our understanding of the general cognitive processes underlying meaning construction. To overcome this unnecessary isolation of musical composition from cognitive science, in this conceptual analysis, we approach compositional processes with the analytic tools of blending theory, material anchoring, and enaction. Our case study is Iannis Xenakis’ use of sieves for distributing rhythmic patterns in Psappha. Though disregarded in previous accounts, the timeline and the gearwheel provide crucial conceptual templates for anchoring Xenakis’ idea of time for this score. This case study of conceptual integration templates for temporal representation seeks to gain insight into musical creativity, embodiment, and blending, especially into how virtual interactions with material structures facilitate the construction of complex meanings.

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“…Komboï (1981), written for harpsichord and percussion, is based entirely on a single non-octave-repeating scale, spanning six octaves, with few exceptions of pitches alien to the scale being used throughout the work (Pace, 2001, p. 129). As noted by (Pace, 2001), "the use of the same scale, or filters thereof, provides a very marked harmonic consistency. The one exception to this rule (cr 313-319) is all the more sharply contrasted as a result" (p. 131).…”

Section: A Single Scalementioning

confidence: 97%

Structural properties of multi-octave scales

Crowley

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First and foremost, my new friend and brother in arms, Paco Gómez, for guiding me on this amazing journey and for opening my eyes to a fantastic world where there are so many things worth discovering. I am forever humbled by your knowledge and humanity. I look forward to many more adventures! Julián Ávila, for the gift of a marvellous software that turns scales expressed by a string of integer numbers indicating inter-onset distances into musical notation. You probably saved me about three months work on Appendix 2! Ander Garcia, for helping me actually put some of these scales into practice. This is merely the beginning! José Antonio García Sevilla, for the technical support with spreadsheets which enabled me to filter through tens of thousands of scale options.Luis Díez Antolinos, for the hours of conversation about the subject and for patiently undertaking countless preliminary experiments.Ramón Paús, for being a mentor and friend throughout my life and teaching me so much about art, life and music, including the existence of multi-octave scales.My dear Maud, Liam and Aaron, for all your love and support throughout the years. My wonderful parents, Jerry and Angela, for making me who I am and opening my heart to life, art, music and knowledge.My precious daughter, Alana, for being a continuous source of love and inspiration and for teaching me so much about myself and the world.A very special thanks to Pahola, my wife, friend and companion and so much more. Without your invaluable love, support, encouragement, patience and courageous go-for-it attitude towards everything you do, there is no way I would have completed this work (or started it). It's a privilege to share my adventures with you and I look forward to turning these scales into music together.And, last but not least, to you, dear reader. Whilst I am pretty sure that a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it probably does make a sound, I am positive that v vi PrefaceThe present research deals with multi-octave or non-octave-repeating scales. That is, scales in which pitch content differs in successive octaves. Throughout the text both terms are used indistinctly. While not exactly common, these structures have been employed in a variety of musical settings to organise pitch content in music from the middle ages to present day. Yet the literature dealing specifically with the topic is scarce and it would appear that a large number of musicians are unaware of their existence, or, if vaguely acquainted with the concept, have not considered the possibilities inherent in such scales. After discussing the musical cultures in which non-octave-repeating scales have existed for centuries and the music of composers and improvisors who have employed them in their work, we define a collection of two-octave scales based on musically desirable intervallic characteristics. We subsequently analyse their structural properties and provide a basic taxonomy. Finally, we look into these scales from the point of view of perception and cognition, considerin...

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The harpsichord works of Iannis Xenakis

Abstract: This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent

Cited by 4 publications

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Unspielbare Musik. Zum Cembalowerk von Iannis Xenakis

Unspielbare Musik. Zum Cembalowerk von Iannis Xenakis

Gearing Time Toward Musical Creativity: Conceptual Integration and Material Anchoring in Xenakis’ Psappha

Structural properties of multi-octave scales

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