Page 310 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
P. 310
308
THE ROLE OF THE
MUSICIAN … IS
PERPETUAL
EXPLORATION
PITHOPRAKTA (1955–1956), IANNIS XENAKIS
t was Olivier Messiaen who
IN CONTEXT suggested that Iannis Xenakis
I should apply mathematical and
FOCUS engineering principles to musical
Music and mathematics
composition. Xenakis, who had
BEFORE studied engineering, was working The role of the
1742–1750 J.S. Bach writes in Paris for the avant-garde designer musician must be this
the Art of Fugue comprising and architect Le Corbusier after fundamental research: to
14 fugues and four canons. fleeing the anti-communist regime find answers to phenomena
in postwar Greece. we don’t understand.
1912 Arnold Schoenberg Iannis Xenakis
writes the hyperstructured Scientific basis
Pierrot lunaire. Pithoprakta, an early work whose
title comes from the Greek for
1933 Ionisation by Edgard “actions through probabilities,”
Varèse is premiered in New is typical of Xenakis’s technique,
York. Xenakis greatly admired which he called “stochastic,” a
Varèse’s originality. term relating to probability. Scored slides through different pitches) for
1936 Béla Bartók composes for 46 stringed instruments, two each instrument. Punctuated by
Music for Strings, Percussion, trombones, a xylophone, and a the wood block, trombones, and
and Celesta, incorporating wood block, the work was inspired xylophone, the effect is of a
symmetrical design. by the scientific theory that a gas’s seething, gaslike “sound mass.”
temperature derives from the Outlined in his book Musiques
1950–1952 Pierre Boulez movement of its molecules through formelles (Formalized Music, 1963),
extends the scope of space. Compiling a sequence Xenakis’s style has had a lasting
Schoenberg’s 12-tone method of imaginary temperatures and impact. Among others who cite his
by creating serial music. pressures, Xenakis translated the influence, Richard Barrett, a Welsh
theory to stringed instruments composer who studied genetics,
AFTER moving through their pitch ranges, says the book helped him decide
1960 Krzysztof Penderecki using a series of glissandi (rapid to become a composer. ■
creates blocks of sound in
Threnody for the Victims See also: Pierrot lunaire 240–245 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■
of Hiroshima. Gruppen 306–307 ■ Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 310–311
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