The Classical Music Book

308

See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■

Gruppen 306–307 ■ Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311

I

t was Olivier Messiaen who

suggested that Iannis Xenakis

should apply mathematical and

engineering principles to musical

composition. Xenakis, who had

studied engineering, was working

in Paris for the avant-garde designer

and architect Le Corbusier after

fleeing the anti-communist regime

in postwar Greece.

Scientific basis

Pithoprakta, an early work whose

title comes from the Greek for

“actions through probabilities,”

is typical of Xenakis’s technique,

which he called “stochastic,” a

term relating to probability. Scored

for 46 stringed instruments, two

trombones, a xylophone, and a

wood block, the work was inspired

by the scientific theory that a gas’s

temperature derives from the

movement of its molecules through

space. Compiling a sequence

of imaginary temperatures and

pressures, Xenakis translated the

theory to stringed instruments

moving through their pitch ranges,

using a series of glissandi (rapid

slides through different pitches) for

each instrument. Punctuated by

the wood block, trombones, and

xylophone, the effect is of a

seething, gaslike “sound mass.”

Outlined in his book Musiques

formelles (Formalized Music, 1963),

Xenakis’s style has had a lasting

impact. Among others who cite his

influence, Richard Barrett, a Welsh

composer who studied genetics,

says the book helped him decide

to become a composer. ■

THE ROLE OF THE

MUSICIAN ... IS

PERPETUAL

EXPLORATION

PITHOPRAKTA (1955–1956), IANNIS XENAKIS

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Music and mathematics

BEFORE

1742–1750 J.S. Bach writes

the Art of Fugue comprising

14 fugues and four canons.

1912 Arnold Schoenberg

writes the hyperstructured

Pierrot lunaire.

1933 Ionisation by Edgard

Varèse is premiered in New

York. Xenakis greatly admired

Varèse’s originality.

1936 Béla Bartók composes

Music for Strings, Percussion,

and Celesta, incorporating

symmetrical design.

1950–1952 Pierre Boulez

extends the scope of

Schoenberg’s 12-tone method

by creating serial music.

AFTER

1960 Krzysztof Penderecki

creates blocks of sound in

Threnody for the Victims

of Hiroshima.

The role of the

musician must be this

fundamental research: to

find answers to phenomena

we don’t understand.

Iannis Xenakis

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