Iannis Xenakis and his influence on music technology today

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• http://www.iannis-xenakis.org/xen/archi/real.html

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”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZazYFchLRI&feature=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)

“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• http://www.cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=16542

• IanniX• Graphical open source sequencer• http://vimeo.com/25041544

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

UPIC

AUTUMN THEATER FESTIVAL, PARIS

• XENAKIS' POLYTOPE II DE CLUNY (2008)• http://

thesoundofeye.blogspot.com/2010/05/anton-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)