Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies - cover image

Copyright

Sharon Kanach; Peter Nelson. Copyright of individual chapters are maintained by the chapter author(s).

Published On

2024-10-09

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80511-224-2
Hardback978-1-80511-225-9
PDF978-1-80511-226-6
HTML978-1-80511-229-7
EPUB978-1-80511-227-3

Language

  • English

Print Length

834 pages (xxxii+802)

Dimensions

Paperback178 x 58 x 254 mm(7.01" x 2.28" x 10")
Hardback178 x 62 x 254 mm(7.01" x 2.44" x 10")

Weight

Paperback1923g (67.83oz)
Hardback2162g (76.26oz)

Media

Illustrations272
Tables19
Videos23
Audio28

OCLC Number

1460256848

LCCN

2023513481

THEMA

  • AVN
  • AGA
  • QDTN
  • AVM

BIC

  • AVGC6
  • AVH
  • AVGW

BISAC

  • MUS050000
  • ARC006000
  • ART015110
  • PHI001000
  • PER000000
  • MUS020000

LCC

  • ML410.X45

Keywords

  • Iannis Xenakis
  • music composition
  • aesthetics
  • architecture
  • twentieth century’s European culture

Meta-Xenakis

New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies

  • Sharon Kanach (editor)
  • Peter Nelson (editor)
Meta-Xenakis offers readers a comprehensive collection of insights into the history, works and legacy of Iannis Xenakis, one of the twentieth century’s most significant creative figures. It presents a transcontinental engagement with his life and output, focusing as much on the impact of the questions he posed as on the accomplishments of his body of work.

This volume evolved out of the multi-modal, international Meta-Xenakis Consortium’s artistic and scholarly events commemorating his centenary. Informative and comprehensive, contributions span subjects including music composition, creative pedagogy, aesthetics, game theory, architecture, and the social and political contexts in which Xenakis operated. The book is organized in eight sections, centered on different facets of Xenakis’s work and reception. It includes a digital archive of audio and visual media from the events staged throughout 2022, as well as computer software.

Bringing into conversation the diverse perspectives and insights of researchers, musicians and artists, this volume serves as a foundational resource for future research on the life and work of Xenakis. It will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners across a range of disciplines including music, architecture, cybernetics and computation, and the digital arts.

Endorsements

This book represents a fascinating panorama of observations, recollections and recent scholarship around the life, thought and impact of Iannis Xenakis.

Robert Rowe

Professor of Music Technology, NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

Reviews

Meta-Xenakis represents a milestone in the critique of Xenakis as an artist-philosopher, appraising his status as amongst the most significant composers of the second half of the twentieth century, whose influence has contributed materially to the concerns of musicians and their collaborators today. In a perceptive review of Matossian’s (2005) update of her groundbreaking (1981) monograph on Xenakis, Vagopoulou (2011, p. 126) wrote: We still await the publication of a full-length biographical work on Xenakis’s life and music, critically evaluated and restructured, incorporating fuller coverage of his last years and drawing connections between performance issues and the relationship he had with his regular musicians. This multi-authored volume offers for the present a convincing response to Vagopoulou’s request.

Nicholas Bannan

Journal of Creative Music Systems (2399-7656), vol. 9, no. 1, 2025.

Full Review

Additional Resources

[audio]Meta-Xenakis Playlist

Contents

Preface

(pp. 1–2)
  • The Meta-Xenakis Team Leaders

Introduction: Meta-Xenakis

(pp. 3–20)
  • Peter Nelson
  • Sharon Kanach

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

(pp. 21–26)
  • James Harley

1. Iannis Xenakis’s Theater Studies: An Unknown Aspect of the Composer’s Life during the Occupation

(pp. 29–38)
  • Nikos Ioakeim

2. Iannis Xenakis through his Letters at the KSYME Archive

(pp. 39–48)
  • Stella Kourmpana

3. Iannis Xenakis in Berlin

(pp. 51–70)
  • Marko Slavíček

4. Debating the Noise: The Reception of Iannis Xenakis’s Music in Serbia as a Part of the SFRY (1960–90)

(pp. 71–90)
  • Jelena Janković-Beguš

5. Iannis Xenakis in Japan: Productive Performances and Reception of Texts

(pp. 91–100)
  • Mikako Mizuno

6. Iannis Xenakis’s Free Stochastic Music Program as an Aid to Analysis

(pp. 103–114)
  • Ronald Squibbs

7. Continuum versus Disruptum: A Poetic-philosophical Approach to the Instrumental and Vocal Works of Iannis Xenakis

(pp. 115–142)
  • Pierre Albert Castanet

8. Iannis Xenakis’s Materialism: On the Dialectic of Real-time Computation

(pp. 143–156)
  • Ramón del Buey Cañas
  • Oswaldo Emiddio Vasquez Hadjilyra

9. Iannis Xenakis’s Philosophy of Music, Stochastics, and the Postmodern Sublime

(pp. 157–166)
  • Nathan Friedman

10. Jean-Étienne Marie and Iannis Xenakis: The Vision of an Artistic Engineer and a Theorist of Microtonal Music

(pp. 167–180)
  • Judith Romero Porras

11. On the Link between the Exact Sciences and Music in Iannis Xenakis’s Creative Work

(pp. 181–198)
  • Pablo Araya

12. Activating Sound Phenomena in the Music of Iannis Xenakis

(pp. 199–212)
  • Mauricio Garcia de la Torre

13. Spatial Movement of Sound Vectors

(pp. 213–232)
  • Ambrosio Salvador Rodríguez Lara

14. The CIX Archives: Revalorizations and Hidden Treasures

(pp. 237–252)
  • Cyrille Delhaye

15. Game Theory and Formal Structure in Iannis Xenakis’s Duel (1959)

(pp. 253–272)
  • Mikhail Malt
  • Benny Sluchin

16. A Myth of Recurrence in Iannis Xenakis’s La Légende d’Eer

(pp. 273–284)
  • Anton Vishio

17. Iannis Xenakis’s Hibiki Hana Ma and the Japanese Team for Tekkhokan (Steel Pavilion) at Expo ’70, Osaka

(pp. 285–296)
  • Mikako Mizuno

18. Iannis Xenakis’s Pithoprakta: A Phenomenological Approach

(pp. 297–318)
  • Erik Christensen
  • Lise C. Bjerno

19. Performing Iannis Xenakis’s Polyrhythms: A Perception-informed Approach to Renotation

(pp. 319–336)
  • Imri Talgam

20. An Approach to the Epistemic Potential of the UPIC

(pp. 337–352)
  • Mauricio Meza

21. Seeing Music and Listening to Architecture: Iannis Xenakis and La Philharmonie de Paris

(pp. 355–360)
  • Brigitte Métra

22. Iannis Xenakis/Le Corbusier: A Confrontation en sol dur

(pp. 361–374)
  • Guy Pimienta

23. Polytropos: Iannis Xenakis, Engineer in Music and Architecture

(pp. 375–398)
  • Panayotis Tournikiotis

24. Liberated Music.: A Loving Testimony

(pp. 401–408)
  • Νikos Kornilios

25. La Légende de Xenakis: Meta Xenakis

(pp. 409–428)
  • Curtis Roads

26. Creating and Learning with UPIC

(pp. 429–438)
  • Takehito Shimazu

27. Music, Science, Architecture: Two Conversations with Iannis Xenakis

(pp. 439–466)
  • Julio Estrada

28. A Pythagorean Wall of Visual and Auditory Drama

(pp. 467–482)
  • Julio Estrada

29. Iannis Xenakis, Inventor of Music—Composer, Engineer, and Architect: The Voice of the “Inexpressible” and of “Revelation”

(pp. 483–500)
  • Cândido Lima

30. The UPIC System of Iannis Xenakis: Autoethnography as Rapprochement

(pp. 501–514)
  • Peter Nelson

31. UPISketch: New Perspectives

(pp. 517–536)
  • Rodolphe Bourotte

32. Somax2 and Reinterpreting Iannis Xenakis

(pp. 537–542)
  • Mikhail Malt
  • Benny Sluchin

33. Xenos: A Xenharmonic Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis Virtual Instrument

(pp. 543–562)
  • Raphael Radna

34. Light Tectonics: The New Aesthetics in Iannis Xenakis’s Work

(pp. 563–580)
  • Yin Yu
  • Conrad Harris

35. Phoenix-Albatross: An Approach to Iannis Xenakis’s Work on Game Theory through Live Coding and Networked Dance

(pp. 581–590)
  • Iannis Zannos
  • Takumi Ikeda

36. Mapping the Influence: Iannis Xenakis’s GENDYN Algorithms as a Means for Creative Explorations in Live Improvised Feedback Music

(pp. 591–604)
  • Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris

37. Notes on A Catalog of Difference

(pp. 605–634)
  • Andrew Lucia

38. The Algorithmic Music of Iannis Xenakis–What’s Next?

(pp. 635–660)
  • Bill Manaris

39. The Process of Creating a Computational System: A Collective Audiovisual Composition

(pp. 661–678)
  • Hugo Solís
  • Mizky Bernal
  • Diego Jiménez
  • Guillermo Leonardini
  • Eunice Pérez

40. The Xenakis Networked Performance Marathon 2022: An Experiment in Networked Performance Collaboration Inspired by Iannis Xenakis

(pp. 679–696)
  • Iannis Zannos
  • Martin Carlé
  • Vasilis Agiomyrgianakis
  • Takumi Ikeda
  • Hanako Atake

41. The Xenakis Networked Performance Marathon 2022 (Sustainable Resources)

(pp. 699–712)
  • Iannis Zannos
  • Martin Carlé
  • Vasilis Agiomyrgianakis
  • Takumi Ikeda
  • Hanako Atake

42. Japanese Society of Electronic Music (JSEM) Concert: A Tribute Celebrating Iannis Xenakis’s Centennial

(pp. 713–714)
  • Mikako Mizuno

43. Meta-Xenakis Concert at Suntory Hall, Tokyo

(pp. 715–716)
  • Kuniko Kato

44. The Establishment of the CMRC—KSYME in Athens: A Virtual Exhibit

(pp. 717–718)
  • Nickos Harizanos
  • Katerina Tsioukra
  • Dana Papachristou

45. In Memoriam, Joel Chadabe

(pp. 719–720)
  • Sharon Kanach

46. A New Documentary: Iannis Xenakis: Music of the Universe

(pp. 721–726)
  • Apostolos Loufopoulos
  • Renata Dalianoudi
  • Iakovos Panagopoulos
  • Hari Marini

47. Reportage of a UPISketch Workshop in Japan

(pp. 727–728)
  • Yoshihisa Suzuki

48. Polytope XXI: A Tribute to Iannis Xenakis

(pp. 729–732)
  • Fabrice Marandola
  • Myriam Boucher
  • Dominic Thibault

49. An Architecture of Alchemy: A Cinematic Painting

(pp. 733–736)
  • David J. Lieberman

50. The Iranian Context of Iannis Xenakis’s Persepolis

(pp. 737–746)
  • Aram Yardumian

51. Iannis Xenakis, 1922–2001

(pp. 747–748)
  • Benny Sluchin

Contributors

Sharon Kanach

(editor)
Co-president of the Centre Iannis Xenakis at University of Rouen

The American musician Sharon Kanach first went to France to study with Nadia Boulanger. Very quickly however, in 1978, her path crossed that of Iannis Xenakis, with whom she studied and collaborated closely, especially on his writings (Arts/Sciences: Alloys; Formalized Music; Music and Architecture…). With the publisher Pendragon Press (recently closed) she was the editor of the Xenakis Series where a total of six books were produced. In 2009, she founded the Xenakis Project of the Americas under the auspices of the Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the Graduate Center of City University of New York and is currently Co-president of the Centre Iannis Xenakis (CIX) based at the Université de Rouen Normandie (France), under the auspices of the research lab Groupe de Recherche d’Histoire (GRHis). Between 2013–23, she was on the Editorial Committee of Circuit, musiques contemporaines. In 2022, under her directorship, the CIX initiated the Meta-Xenakis Consortium to celebrate the centenary of Xenakis’s birth. Kanach has been promoted to “Chevalière de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture.

Peter Nelson

(editor)
Professor Emeritus at University of Edinburgh
https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/prof-peter-nelson

The British composer and music scholar Peter Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Music and Technology at the University of Edinburgh, where he established the electronic and computer music studios and led a research group in music and artificial intelligence. He met Iannis Xenakis in 1986 and became an associate of Xenakis’s computer music studio Les Ateliers UPIC between 1987 and 1991, touring and teaching with the Atelier and composing a number of works for UPIC. He has published book chapters and articles on a number of topics including music and technology, and rhythm. Between 1992 and 2022 he was Editor of the international journal Contemporary Music Review, published by Routledge. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2024.