Iannis Xenakis in his studio, Paris, c. early 1960s.

Photographer: Adelmann Collection: Franoise Xenakis

Xenakis: Arts / Science

Proceedings / Actes
Friday, October 1, 2010 Vendredi 1er octobre, 2010
Schulich School of Music, cole de musique Schulich,
McGill University McGill University

Edited by / dit par Fabrice Marandola

McGill University - CIRMMT

C I R Centre for Interdisciplinary Research

in Music Media and Technology
MM T
 Published by / Publi par:
McGill University, CIRMMT
ISBN: 978-0-7717-0699-8
All copyrights remain with the authors / Tous les actes du colloque demeurent la proprit de
leurs auteurs.

Proceedings may be found online at / Les actes peuvent tre tlchargs ladresse:
http://www.cirmmt.mcgill.ca/activities/xenakis-conference

Scientific committee / Comit scientifique

Sean Ferguson McGill University - CIRMMT
James Harley University of Guelph
Sharon Kanach Centre Iannis Xenakis, Xenakis
Project for the Americas
Jean Lesage McGill University
Fabrice Marandola McGill University - CIRMMT
Jon Wild McGill University - CIRMMT

The CIRMMT team / Lquipe du CIRMMT

Sean Ferguson Director / Directeur
Fabrice Marandola Associate Director - Artistic Research /
Directeur associ - recherche artistique
Gary Scavone Associate Director - Scientific and
Technological Research / Directeur associ - recherche scientifique et
technique
Jacqueline Bednar Events & Administrative Coordinator / Coordinatrice venementielle et
administrative
Julien Boissinot Systems Manager / Responsable systmes
Sara Gomez Research Administrator / Administratice de recherche
Harold Kilianski Technical Manager / Responsable technique
Yves Mthot Electronics Coordinator / Coordinateur pour
llectronique

http://www.cirmmt.mcgill.ca/

2
 Schedule / Programme

8:30 Registration / Inscription

9:00 Opening remarks / Remarques prliminaires

9:15 Session A: About Xenakis compositional principles /
Des principes compositionnels de Xenakis
Ronald Squibbs, Eliot Handelman, Jimmie Leblanc
Chair / Modrateur: Sean Ferguson

10:45 Coffee break / Pause caf

11:00 Session B: Performing Xenakis / Interprter Xenakis
Benjamin Duinker, John Klepko, Stphanos Thomopoulos
Chair / Modrateur: Fabrice Marandola

12:30 Lunch / Pause djeuner

14:00 Keynote lecture / Confrence invite (Sharon Kanach, Centre Iannis Xenakis, Xenakis
Project for the Americas)
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Philippe Leroux (Universit de Montral) is unable to deliver
the Keynote lecture / Pour des raisons indpendantes de sa volont, Philippe Leroux (Universit de
Montral) ne pourra pas donner la confrence invite

15:00 Session C: Architecture and technology / Architecture et Technologie
Joseph Clarke, Alcides Lanza
Chair / Modratrice: Sharon Kanach

16:00 Coffee break / Pause caf

16:30 Session D: Analysing Xenakis music / Analyser la musique de Xenakis
Robert Hasegawa, Benjamin Levy, James Harley
Chair / Modrateur: Jon Wild

18:00 End of the conference / Fin de la confrence

3
 Aspects of compositional realization in Xenakiss pre-stochastic and early
stochastic music
Ronald Squibbs, PhD
Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Connecticut, Connecticut

In the preface to the score of Metastaseis (1953-54), Xenakis indicates that certain of the works
features prefigured aspects of stochastic composition, the approach that he would adopt in
Pithoprakta (1955-56) and subsequent works. While there are good reasons to contrast the serial
procedures that underlie certain passages in Metastaseis with the stochastic approach taken in later
works, there are also significant points of contact between Xenakiss compositional realizations of
both approaches. This presentation compares a passage from the first middle section of Metastaseis
with passages from Analogique A (1958-59) as well as with general features of other early stochastic
works. Among the issues to be considered are the methods used for generating the events that
appear on the musical surface, characteristics of the instrumentation, and rhythmic structure.
In both the pre-stochastic and early stochastic music, the rhythm is frequently regulated by means of
superimposed, non-coinciding divisions of the beat, producing a metrical grid system that Xenakis
referred to as differential durations. The differential durations provide support both for the
polyphonic combinations of structural voices in Metastaseis and for the continuous streams of sonic
events produced in the process of stochastic composition. When the output of stochastic functions is
filtered through the multi-layered grid produced by the system of differential durations, the individual
instrumental parts produce a kind of virtual polyphony. Although the pitches move freely within the
registral boundaries defined by the composer, the part writing features successions of arpeggiated
triads, scale fragments, and other melodic motives commonly found in the music of early modernist
composers. Thus, even as Xenakiss music moved decisively into the future by distancing itself from
techniques that had been developed by his predecessorssuch as serialism or free motivic
associationthe musical surfaces in his early stochastic works still show stylistic affinities with the
music composed according to older methods.
In order to test whether it is possible to achieve these effects while adhering closely to the principles
of stochastic music as defined by Xenakis, a short excerpt from Analogique A is compared with a
hypothetical continuation based on the output of a stochastic compositional algorithm. The results of
this exercise in model composition indicate that the instrumental parts do indeed demonstrate the
kinds of quasi-motivic patterns found in Xenakiss early stochastic works. Further, it appears that the
use of differential durations contributes significantly to the formation of these patterns, both by
regulating the overall flow of sonic events and by segmenting the individual parts by means of
intermittent rests.

4
 The Xenakian outside-time as motion perception: an analysis and
simulation
Eliot Handelman, PhD
Center for Music-Computational Thought, Montreal

Iannis Xenakis proposed a psychologically relevant distinction between music as performed which
he called "inside-time" and music as heard or felt, which he called "outside-time." In one
interpretation, the apprehension of music is characterized by the fact that parts of the music can be
voluntarily remembered, i.e., not bound by the order given in performance. Xenakis (4) presented
this diachronic listening model in a "tentative axiomatization", roughly asserting that:
Musical events can be grouped together forming segments.
Some segments are remembered as "landmarks".
Landmarks can be compared with past landmarks. The difference
between landmarks can be considered as a "step", "displacement"
or "jump" from one point to another in a composition.
Xenakis made a further point which spoke of "linking" such steps together in a chain in one of two
orientations, described as "accumulation or de-accumulation". He did not explain what he meant
by these terms but we propose a new clarification based on three ideas.
1. What Xenakis calls "segment" or "landmark" we call "shape", an auditory analogy to the visual
shape, which played a vital role in Xenakis' thinking. But there is a suggestion in the neuroscience
literature (1) that the cortical processing machinery for both is homologous. Psychological parallels
are manifest. As with visual shape, auditory shape can roughly be taxonomized in terms of
simplicity: there are simplest auditory shapes, such as an even glissando. We argue that the simplest
shapes are the perceptually most salient, and constitute a basic category of the "landmark." Hence
the visuality of Xenakis' thought seems to lead back to the auditory (3).
2. The "perceptual step" is, roughly, a change in degree, or size, of a shape. The "step" from one
loud and furious passage to another is the felt increase or decrease in loudness or furiousness (or
whatever the defining features may be). In the Xenakian landmark step chain, shapes increase and
decrease in size. There are clearly simplest ways to do this.
3. These changes result in the perception of motion, which we see as
a low-level music perception substrate related to the listener's
perception of motion in the physical world. (2) But how to construe the problem of motion in the
criss-crossing of different landmark chains? We offer the concept of "motion asymmetries," the
interlocking of chains with a view to imbalance or asymmetry, generating patterns of diachronic
motion.
Asymmetries of the landmark/shape-linking/chaining "outside-time" can be shown in an enormous
amount of music here, we will demonstrate the relevant ideas in folksong and in Xenakian
compositions. As an appendix to the talk, I will indicate how these questions can be explored not
only as problems in descriptive computational music theory, but in a generative music composition
system in which an "outside-time" perspective is fundamental. The success of this reveals that the
Xenakian "outside-time" concept offers a powerful theoretical perspective on musical perception
and its relation to visuality, the organization of music, and on generative composition.

5
 References
(1) Belin P., Fecteau S. & Bdard C. (2004) Thinking the voice: neural
correlates of voice perception, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8

(2) Nussbaum, C. (2007) The Musical Representation: Meaning, Ontology, and Emotion. MIT Press.

(3) Schaub, S. (2005) Akrata, For 16 Winds by Iannis Xenakis: Analyses. International Symposium
Iannis Xenakis, Athens, May 2005

(4) Xenakis, I. (2001) Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition. Pendragon
Press.

6
 Le projet esthtique xenakien: Nomos Alpha et les paradoxes dune
intuition musicale formaliste
Jimmie LeBlanc
tudiant au doctorat lcole de musique Schulich de lUniversit McGill et membre tudiant du
CIRMMT, Montral

partir des crits entourant luvre pour violoncelle seul Nomos Alpha (1965) de Iannis Xenakis,
nous tenterons de crer un pont entre les forces vives de lintuition musicale du compositeur et son
rapport la formalisation scientifique. Ainsi, nous aborderons une dfinition du paradigme
esthtique xenakien sous les angles combins dun regard indit sur lexprience musicale et des
stratgies compositionnelles ayant permis sa ralisation.
Dans un premier temps, nous discuterons de deux paradoxes inhrents aux crits thoriques du
compositeur. Dune part, ds les annes 1950, ce dernier se donne comme projet de dvelopper
une thorie musicale universelle en sappuyant sur lobjectivit des structures mathmatiques. Le
paradoxe rside ici dans le fait que ce regard structuraliste constitue en soi un paradigme
dexplication du monde bien circonscrit sur les plans gographique et historique. Dautre part, en
articulant sa pense selon les termes dune thorie universelle, Xenakis en est venu crer une
musique minemment personnelle. Dun ct, le compositeur ne pose pas les thories scientifiques
comme une fin en soi, mais aborde plutt la musique avec un regard scientifique. De lautre, ni la
tradition tonale, ni le srialisme ne lui fournissaient les outils ncessaires la formalisation de ses
ides, ce sont les mathmatiques qui ont rempli cette fonction. Le nud de ce second paradoxe, sil
en est un, rside donc dans le fait que la vision universaliste de Xenakis, motivant son rapport aux
sciences, participe directement de la singularit de sa pense musicale.
Cest la lumire de ces considrations que nous entrerons dans lunivers conceptuel de luvre
Nomos Alpha, afin de tenter une esquisse plus gnrale du paradigme esthtique qui lenglobe. En
effet, les complexes sonores , sinscrivant dans la gense de luvre pour violoncelle, traduisent
une imagerie qui habitait le compositeur au moment de la composition. Que ce soit le nuage
ataxique de sons ponctuels ou le champ ataxique de sons glisss , ces archtypes
morphologiques, quil formalise par le recours la thorie des groupes de transformations et des
cribles, nous mettent sur la piste dun projet musical plus large, dfini par le dsir de reproduire
(bien davantage que de reprsenter) musicalement une exprience des phnomnes
stochastiques, et de plonger lauditeur au cur de ceux-ci. Le projet esthtique xenakien, bien que
solidement ancr dans la thorie, sachant tirer profit de ses paradoxes internes, vise
essentiellement la production dune exprience sensorielle intense, une exaltation totale dans
laquelle lindividu se confond, en perdant sa conscience (Xenakis, Musiques Formelles, dans Revue
Musicale no. 253-254, Paris, dition Richard Masse, 1963, p. 15). Nous rendrons compte de cette
vision, notamment en ce qui a trait aux oprations, conceptions et outils proprement musicaux qui
ont conduit sa matrialisation.

7
 Rebonds, for solo percussion: Thoughts on structure and performance

Ben Duinker
Schulich School of Music & CIRMMT student, McGill University, Montreal

Composed by Iannis Xenakis for virtuoso percussionist Sylvio Gualda, Rebonds has developed into
one of the most popular and revered works in the solo percussion repertoire. In comparison to
works for percussion requiring extremely large instrument setups, Rebonds seems rather simple,
calling only for seven skins and five woods. However, by using both steady and erratic modes of
musical development, Xenakis creates a work that mixes the elemental sounds of wood and skin
with the complexity of mathematically inspired musical structure.
As with most literature for solo percussion, musical parameters such as timbre, rhythm, density, and
register figure prominently in Rebonds. About Xenakis music, James Harley writes: Given the lack
of reliance of this [Xenakis] music on traditional elements such as melody or harmony, or even
more modern techniques such as parameter rows or sets, more common analytical tools are not
often of musical use. This fact also goes some way to explaining the lack of attention Xenakis music
has received in the analytical community.
The goal of this presentation is to summarize a structural analysis of Rebonds, bearing in mind the
situation stated above by Harley. Rebonds A (the first movement) begins simply, but undergoes
long and elaborate development to reach a saturated conclusion. The analysis will feature aspects
of musical development in the domains of accents (timbre), rhythm, polyrhythm, and register, and
will discuss how these developments contribute to an understanding of the works form. A shorter
segment will be devoted to Rebonds B, which undergoes a series of violent juxtapositions in texture,
timbre, and rhythm. How these juxtapositions affect the movements initial stability (and eventually
determine its form) will be in focus here.
In addition, through the use of video examples, several references will be made as to how this
analysis might be useful for performers. If the knowledge gained through analysis brings about a
greater understanding of a works form, the performer is able to develop a unique and informed
interpretation based on their use of this understanding. The fruitful relationship between
performers and theorists creates such an understanding in much of the standard instrumental
repertoire; with flexible analytical methodology there is great possibility for such a relationship to
also exist in the world of percussion literature.

8
 Audio representations of spatial music compositions: A recording
engineer's perspective
John Klepko
Department of Music, Concordia University, Montreal

Throughout the works of Iannis Xenakis, the use of space is often a key component in the
composition. In particular, several of his works were designed to be performed with unusual spatial
relations and distribution of the musicians and audience. In a live performance, this poses several
problems to the musicians in the execution of the music, and for the audience in terms of the
perception of the event.
An added complication arises in mediating these performances through audio recordings. The audio
producer/engineer has many prospective technical and creative solutions toward the goals of
respecting the spatial element intended by the composer and maximizing the perceptual experience
for the listener. With Xenakis, this spatial element not only explores the disposition of instruments,
but also illusions of movement through spatially modulated timbres, and outlining of spiral shaped
curves through melodic and rhythmic constructions. There are basic aural percept limitations that at
times simplify the audio illusion, and at other times curb its potential.
In an effort towards understanding the associated problems through qualitative relations, the
"stage" (real or, virtual) will be analyzed by division into 4 dimensions: depth/distance; horizontal
placements/positions; spectral ranges; and movement of the sound source (instruments) and
image. Existing recordings of Xenakis' works Terretktorh (1966), Nomos Gamma (1967-68) and
Windungen (1976) will serve as main references.

9
 Evryali et les arborescences: La reprsentation graphique comme un outil
pianistique
Stphanos Thomopoulos
Professeur, CNRR de Nice ; Etudiant au Doctorat, Universit Paris IV-Sorbonne/CNSMDP, Paris

Depuis le 19me sicle, et mme en de, les penseurs de lart nont pas cess de vouloir associer le
visuel et le sonore. Des nombreux artistes se sont investis cette qute, aussi des musiciens,
comme Alexandre Scriabine ou Olivier Messiaen, qui ont dvelopp leur synesthsie sur des liens
entre son et couleur.
Xenakis via ses reprsentations graphiques sest intress au dessin, donc une forme en deux
dimensions, et la manire dont cette forme peut tre transform en son. Depuis ses dbuts, il a
cherch introduire laspect visuel dans la cration musicale. Cela est certainement d sa
premire vocation darchitecte, ou encore au fait quil considre le son comme une matire
physique et tangible. Ds les formes parabolodes hyperboliques de la reprsentation graphique de
Metastasis, nous trouvons cette volont dassocier la main de larchitecte celle du musicien.
Avec les Arborescences ou Formes Dendritiques, qui apparaissent en 1973, il parvient en quelque
sorte une synthse des recherches menes prcdemment en mettant en place un concept qui
est la fois un nouveau systme de notation et une nouvelle manire de verser ses intentions
cratrices sur le papier, beaucoup plus directe, spontane et vivante.
La reprsentation graphique est peut-tre le rsum le plus loquent de luvre. Ensuite, cette
reprsentation est codifie en criture conventionnelle, et devient la partition support utilis par
linterprte pour lexcution.
Avec cette prsentation, nous voudrions explorer ce lien qui peut se crer entre la performance du
pianiste et la reprsentation graphique, en se penchant sur le dessin dEvryali, une uvre dont
limage qui se trouve la source de sa composition a une force insolite et une musicalit abstraite
indiscutable.
En effet, cette reprsentation graphique peut tre une source prcieuse dinformations, tant
donn que les indications du compositeur lies linterprtation sont, comme dans toutes ses
uvres, assez rares. Le dessin serait-il le document le plus fiable pour comprendre les intentions
musicales du compositeur ?
Se fondant sur les tmoignages des interprtes xnakiens ainsi que sur notre exprience
personnelle avec luvre du compositeur, nous essaierons pendant cette prsentation de dfinir le
rle qui peut tre jou par la reprsentation graphique dans le processus suivi par le pianiste pour
arriver lexcution de luvre. Nous croyons que plusieurs domaines du travail de linterprte
peuvent tre enrichis par ce contact avec le dessin : une meilleure perception de la forme globale
de luvre (une prise de vue macroscopique, pour employer le langage de Xenakis), une aide au
choix de la technique et la sonorit pianistique employer, des solutions pour contourner les
impossibilits du texte sans altrer les intentions musicales du compositeur...
Nous allons soutenir notre point de vue en donnant des exemples prcis au piano. Nous proposons
galement une interprtation complte dEvryali la fin de la prsentation.

10
 Composer l'htrogne : modles gestuels et phras nergtique

Philippe Leroux
Universit de Montral, Montral

Le travail ralis avec Iannis Xnakis sur une courte priode la fin des annes 70, ma fortement
influenc, du fait de lutilisation quil faisait de modles mathmatiques, physiques ou chimiques en
les appliquant au monde sonore. Par linvention de nouveaux concepts musicaux, la pense de
Xnakis est une des plus riches de la fin du XXe sicle, parce que cest une pense neuve. Au-del de
la relation musique/science, sa vision a apport de nouvelles perspectives sur le rapport que la
musique entretient avec la nature. Son association pense scientifique/musique a men une
certaine forme dcologie musicale, et une vraie modernit. O en sommes-nous actuellement ?
Nest-il pas apparu, au fil du sicle prcdent, dautres catgories compositionnelles que celles sur
lesquelles taient bass traditionnellement la musique? Les compositeurs occidentaux ont raisonn
sur le mouvement comme s'il tait fait d'immobilits. La pense musicale a eu besoin de diviser et
de se reprsenter, au lieu de la continuit ininterrompue, une juxtaposition de notes distinctes. Or
le son est un phnomne continu. Il ny a pas pour le son, contrairement aux autres sens, de
phnomne on/off. La notion de continuum est une acquisition majeure du XXe sicle. Les notions
de hauteur, rythme, timbre et espace sont indissolublement lies en un continuum perceptif.
Certaines compositions ont dvelopp la notion de continuum temporel en sorientant sur les
diffrents degrs de proximit par rapport au son dans la perception. Le son est produit par un
geste humain : un mouvement corporel orient qui sinscrit dans lespace et dans le temps.
linverse, le mouvement corporel engendr par un geste cre la musique instrumentale ou vocale.
La musique lectroacoustique concrte rpond aux mmes critres de production. Il en est
autrement de la musique purement gnre par des moyens lectroniques. Au dpart de toute
action musicale, il y a un geste de production de son. Le mouvement provenant dun geste est
galement un phnomne continu. Le geste physique produit les phnomnes sonores desquels
naissent les sons qui crent la musique. Inversement, la musique dvoile, par lintermdiaire du son,
le mouvement initial qui a produit ce dernier. Si lauditeur relie aisment le geste producteur de son
au phnomne musical, il recherche, linverse, quand il coute de la musique sans assister sa
production sonore, laction motrice, le geste physique initial ayant produit ce son. Le geste
producteur de son se traduit par une certaine quantit et une certaine qualit dnergie employe
dans le temps. Un geste est caractris par son profil nergtique. Le son se traduit par des
variations dnergie, elles-mmes lies aux variations nergtiques du geste initial. Qualit et
quantit dnergie nous renseignent sur le fait que celle-ci soit conserve ou convertie, diminue ou
augmente. Lorsquon entend les variations nergtiques dun son, sans assister sa production, on
est renseign sur le geste layant produit, puisque les qualits et quantits dnergie vont se
transformer de faon similaire ou en rapport troit dans le geste comme dans le son. Ces variations
dnergie du son se prsentent donc comme des substituts gestuels du geste original. Au sein dune
musique, les diffrents substituts gestuels sentendent comme des empreintes nergtiques du
geste initial. La musique met en scne les conditions nergtiques du geste. On peut rattacher les
relations entre les sons ce quon pourrait appeler des mouvements relationnels. Le compositeur,
comme lauditeur, projettent leur vcu corporel et leurs expriences relationnelles dans le temporel
sonore et musical. Les conduites nergtiques des sons ou des configurations sonores se
manifestent souvent, mais pas uniquement, par des phnomnes physiques, comme psychiques,

11
 de pparation-tension-dtente. Il existe une parent entre le comportement des sons et
lexprience des mouvements physiques et psychiques. Les variations nergtiques des
phnomnes sonores prennent appui dans lexprience du corps et des mouvements psychiques
relationnels. Un geste porte, au sein de sa continuit, sa propre logique nergtique que lon peut
appeler le phras nergtique ou le phras gestuel. Cette logique denchanements gestuels trouve
galement son application au sein des gestes compositionnels. Dans cette optique, la dfinition
dune musique est dtre un systme dorganisation provenant, non pas des paramtres du son que
sont la hauteur, le rythme ou les timbres, mais des gestes originaux ou des substituts gestuels.
couter une musique cest raliser en nous-mmes une reprsentation kinesthsique des
mouvements physiques et psychiques proposs par celle-ci. La musique nest pas ncessairement
limage du langage verbal. Apprhender le fait musical, dans cette vision dune organicit de
phrass nergtiques, suppose une rgression accepte. La notemusicale perd son hgmonie.
Les gestes humains sont des archtypes cintiques, physiques ou psychiques que chacun possde.
Ces gestes, ou substituts gestuels, se situent dans un espace commun la fois au compositeur,
lauditeur et quand il y a lieu linterprte. Cest au travers de ces substituts gestuels voquant plus
ou moins lointainement des sensations neuromusculaires que le compositeur et lauditeur
expriment leur sensibilit et leur pense. Le compositeur peut laborer directement partir de la
notion de geste sonore, il construit sur des entits sonores dont il trouve les justes relations, le
phras. Le compositeur et lauditeur sinscrivent dans une dynamique relationnelle de lordre du
dsir, ayant pour but lchange. Le compositeur dpose dans luvre des rseaux denchanements
gestuels auxquels il donne un sens. Lauditeur y collecte ce quil souhaite en conserver en
construisant sa propre coute. Linterprte, le compositeur et l'auditeur projettent leur prsence
au-del des limites de leurs corps, vers cette musique que chacun sapproprie. Luvre musicale est
commune tous, bien qutant propre chacun. Luvre est une jonction vivante entre des sujets
dsirants. Elle est une aire intermdiaire dexprience qui porte sur la notion de mouvement. Celui-
ci est concrtis dans les gestes ou les substituts gestuels. Laccordage entre compositeur et
auditeur correspond une perception a-modale dans laquelle le son peut se rflchir dans un autre
mode perceptif cause dun substrat perceptif qui ne distingue pas encore les modes de
perceptions. Les notions de rugosit, de duret, ou dlasticit des sons, font appel au sens du
toucher. Il existe une prsence haptique du son. La distinction que fait Gilles Deleuze entre espace
haptique et espace optique peut sappliquer la musique. La notion de texture en tant quespace
tactile est une force gnratrice de propositions musicales. Dans cette vision, luvre musicale nest
pas un objet offert par le compositeur au public. Elle est un espace dexpriences cintiques et
gestuelles partages entre celui qui la conoit, celui qui la ralise et celui qui lcoute.

12
 About Philippe Leroux
Philippe Leroux est n le 24 septembre 1959 Boulogne sur Seine (France).
En 1978, il entre au Conservatoire National Suprieur de Musique de Paris dans les classes d'Ivo
Malec, Claude Ballif, Pierre Scheffer et Guy Reibel o il obtient trois premiers prix. Durant cette
priode, il tudie galement avec Olivier Messiaen, Franco Donatoni, Betsy Jolas, Jean-Claude Eloy
et Iannis Xnakis.
En 1993, il est nomm pensionnaire la Villa Mdicis o il sjourne jusqu'en octobre 1995.
Il est l'auteur d'une soixantaine d'oeuvres, pour orchestre symphonique, acousmatiques, vocales,
pour dispositifs lectroniques, et de musique de chambre.
Celles-ci lui ont t commandes par:
le Ministre franais de la Culture, l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, La Sdwestfunk de
Baden Baden, l'IRCAM, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, l'Ensemble Intercontemporain, lEnsemble
2e2m, l'INA-GRM, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne de Montreal, l'Ensemble Ictus, le Festival Musica,
l'ensemble BIT 20, la fondation Koussevitsky l'Ensemble San Francisco Contemporary Music Players,
lensemble Athelas, lOrchestre Philharmonique de Nice, lOrchestre National de Lorraine, le CIRM
ainsi que par d'autres institutions franaises et trangres.
Ses oeuvres sont joues et diffuses en France et l'tranger: Festival de Donaueschingen, Festival
Prsences de Radio-France, Festival Agora, Festival Roma-Europa, Festival de Bath, Festival Musica ,
Journes de l'ISCM de Stokholm, Festival MNM de Montreal, Festival Musiques en Scnes de Lyon,
Festival Manca, Festival de Bergen, Festival Ultima dOslo, Festival Tempo de Berkeley, BBC
Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonie
Tchque, Orchestre de la Tonhalle de Zrich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine, etc...
Il reoit de nombreux prix : prix Herv Dugardin, prix de "la meilleure cration musicale
contemporaine de l'anne 1996" pour son oeuvre "(d')ALLER", prix SACEM des compositeurs , prix
Andr Caplet et Nadia et Lili Boulanger de l'Acadmie des Beaux-Arts de l'Institut de France, prix
Paul et Mica Salabert pour son uvre Apocalypsis, et le prix Arthur Honegger de la Fondation de
France pour lensemble de son uvre.
Il publie de nombreux articles sur la musique contemporaine et il donne des confrences et cours
de composition dans des lieux tels que l'Universit de Berkeley Californie, Harvard, la Grieg
Academie de Bergen, l'Universit de Columbia New-York, le Conservatoire Royal de Copenhague,
lUniversit de Toronto, la Fondation Royaumont, l'IRCAM, le Conservatoire Amricain de
Fontainebleau, les Conservatoires Nationaux suprieurs de Musique de Paris et de Lyon, le domaine
Forget au Qubec
De 2001 2006 il enseigne la composition l'IRCAM dans le cadre du cursus d'informatique
musicale. En 2005 et 2006, il est galement professeur de composition luniversit McGill de
Montral dans le cadre de la Fondation Langlois. De 2007 2009, il est en rsidence lArsenal de
Metz et lOrchestre National de Lorraine. Depuis septembre 2009, il enseigne la composition
lUniversit de Montral (Canada).

13
 Iannis Xenakis, aujourd'hui et demain

Sharon Kanach

10 ans aprs la disparition de Iannis Xenakis, l'oeuvre de l'artiste continue d'inspirer les crateurs et
chercheurs d'aujourd'hui : Xenakis Project of the Americas, festivals, confrences, en passant par de
nombreux projets de recherches fondamentales et appliques. Quels sont les thmes abords par
ces diffrents mdiums, quelles sont les avenues qui restent explorer? Tels seront les aspects
abords lors de cette prsentation dont l'ambition premire est de susciter l'interaction parmi les
participants la journe de confrence, afin de dessiner les questionnements du futur.


About Sharon Kanach
The American musician Sharon Kanach has lived in France for more than thirty years. She originally
went to Paris as a student to study with Nadia Boulanger but her path diverted radically when she
met Iannis Xenakis (1922 2001), with whom she collaborated closely for the last twenty years of
his life, especially on his extensive writings. She translated Arts/Sciences: Alloys, then translated and
edited a new, revised, and enlarged version of his seminal Formalized Music. In 2008 the superb
volume entitled Music and Architecture, which she co-authored with Xenakis, was published in
English, which, like the previous titles is published by Pendragon Press. As General Editor of the
Xenakis Series at Pendragon Press, Kanach has compiled a new volume, Performing Xenakis,
comprised of thirty essays by Xenakis champions from fourteen different countries. Since June
2007, Kanach is acting artistic director and co-vice-president of the newly reestablished Centre
Iannis Xenakis (formerly CCMIX and Ateliers UPIC originally created by Xenakis in 1985 in Paris),
now based at the Universit de Rouen. In January 2009, Sharon Kanach became the founding
director of the Xenakis Project of the Americas, under the prestigious auspices of the Barry S. Brook
Center for Music Research and Documentation at the Graduate Center of CUNY, NYC. A regular
participant and/or organizer of scholarly lectures and symposia on Xenakis in particular or
transdisciplinarity in general, Kanachs articles are regularly published by international peer
publications.

14
 Temporal modes of architectural formation: Promenade Architecturale at
the Philips Pavilion
Joseph Clarke
Doctoral Student, Graduate School of Arts and Science, Yale University, Connecticut

As contemporary architects debate whether a formal language of complex geometries can be used
to produce politically critical buildings or is merely a new form of spectacle, an instructive example
may be found in the cross-disciplinary work of Iannis Xenakis. The Philips Pavilion, designed by Le
Corbusier and Xenakis for the 1958 Worlds Fair, is an important precedent for contemporary
parametric architecture and a preeminent example of postwar experimentation with technology
and graphical representation.
In the late 1940saround the time that he hired Iannis Xenakis to work in his architectural studio
Le Corbusier took an intense interest in music, citing it as a metaphor for the way a building is
experienced over time. Xenakis, for his part, began to repurpose geometrical techniques and spatial
forms of organization learned in Le Corbusiers office to serve as compositional devices. Their
mutual translation of musical and architectural formal systems culminated in the design of the
Philips Pavilion. Because the buildings intricate composition of smooth hyperbolic paraboloid forms
resisted visualization in linear perspective, Xenakis turned to alternative ways of notating the design
on paper. Close examination of several of his wireframe axonometric sketches along with
contemporary diagrammatic renderings reveals that Xenakiss innovations in design and
representation are related tobut distinct fromLe Corbusiers earlier use of virtual geometric
structures to organize the distribution of forms in space.
The Pavilions unusual generative process and the productive tension between its two designers
yielded a new variation on the trope of promenade architecturale. Le Corbusier introduced this
concept in the 1920s to describe the embodied experience of architecture whose aesthetic energy
comes from the interaction of different formal readings. In case of the Philips Pavilion, however, the
principal tension is not between discrete readings but rather between the smooth exterior, whose
complex form offers a continuous variation of contours, and the more narrative experience of the
interior, with its multimedia account of human history.
In the context of the first Worlds Fair to be held after World War II, these innovations signaled a
cogent position on the politics of architectural form. Xenakis, though shaped by his experience in
the Greek resistance, insisted on maintaining an abstract formal language in his architectural and
musical practice. Far from a socially disconnected folly, however, the Philips Pavilion was a means of
aesthetically rethinking the ideology of progress, and suggests a vision of postwar modernity that
resists reduction to a goal-directed, linear aesthetic experience.

15
 The UPIC system with antecedents and fellow travelers

alcides lanza
EMS Director Emeritus, McGill University, Montreal

This paper will discuss the development of three different systems that permitted composers to
utilize graphic representations to act as controllers in the creation of electroacoustic works. The
best known of these was developed by Xenakis [1922-2001] starting in 1953, with implementation
in 1970 and is called UPIC. At around the same time, but on different continents, two other similar
systems were developed. In Canada Hugh Le Caine [1914-1977] created the Spectrogram, and in
Argentina Fernando Reichenbach [1931-2005] the Graphic Converter. All three were working
independently, and in those pre-Internet days, unaware of each others research.
Reichenbachs Graphic Converter was initially developed in 1958 at the University of Buenos Aires,
and then subsequently transferred to the CLAEM at the Di Tella Institute in Buenos Aires in 1967.
This system was developed to simplify and improve electronic musical decisions and operations
permitting the composer to create a graphic score which would immediately convert into sound.
The converter system operated like a closed circuit TV. The score - graphic music on a paper roll -
was then read by a TV camera and the images projected on the monitor screen.
Only a few compositions were created with this system. The better know one perhaps is by Pedro
Caryevschi, titled Analogias Paraboloides.
Hugh Le Caines Spectrogram used a system based on 100 photo cells which were able to read
information drawn by the composer in ink on moving graph paper. A light shone through a slot in a
metal cursor placed above the score: a black line interrupting the light would indicate on and off
for one or more oscillators or machines. The system installed at the McGill EMS in 1964 had eight
channels and was able to control all the Le Caine instrumentarium in the room. Composers like
Pedersen, Anhalt and others have used this system.
The UPIC designed by Xenakis consists of a digitizing tablet connected to a computer. It combines a
graphic score editor, a voice editor and a performance playback system, all sharing the same data. A
composer draws the score on the tablet, and all parts of the score drawings can be edited,
transposed, played in reverse or inverted, with modulatory algorithmic transformations possible.
Many important composers have created works with the UPIC: Xenakis, Estrada, Teruggi, Risset and
others. All three systems strove to simplify the process of creating electroacoustic music, with the
composer having the option to create directly through graphic representations of the music with no
tape splicing or editing needed. Each managed to achieve this goal by a different pathway. The
Spectrogram and the Graphic Converter have entered the realm of historical status, the UPIC system
is still in use by composers. This paper will describe in some detail how each system worked, which
composers worked with the systems in creating electroacoustic works, and observe how the UPIC
currently is relevant to the newest compositional techniques employed by composers using the
latest computer technology.

UPIC: Unit Polyagogique Informatique du CeMaMu, and CeMaMu: Centre dEtudes de
Matmatique et Automatique Musicales, institutions created by Iannis Xenakis in the 1960s in Paris.
CLAEM: Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales, the musical part of the Di Tella
Institute in Buenos Aires]

16
 Coherence and incoherence in Xenakiss Embellie
Robert Hasegawa
Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Eastman School of Music, New York

In his review of a recording of Iannis Xenakiss 1981 viola solo Embellie, Nicholas Hodges is harshly
critical of the compositions musical quality. The violist Garth Knox, Hodges writes, makes every
effort to save the uncomfortable and incoherent Embellie from the oblivion it undoubtedly
deserves. The terms of Hodgess critique raise an intriguing aesthetic question: what does
coherence mean in the work of a composer whose music is often written with stochastic
processes and random walks? Any attempt to demonstrate coherence in Xenakiss music through a
traditionally organicist analysis seems both musically and philosophically naveyet if we seek a
satisfying hearing of Embellie (or for that matter, a committed and thoughtful performance) instead
of a disconnected stream of sounds, some kind of coherence seems to be a necessity. In this
paper, I examine some of the inconsistencies and contrasts that make Embellie so challenging, and
propose a reading of the piece that traces a meaningful path through these complexities.
Whether or not one agrees with Hodgess assessment of the piece, the qualities that lead him to
condemn the work as incoherent are clear. Embellie juxtaposes drastically different types of
musical material, often within the span of a few measures. The brash, microtonally inflected fanfare
of the opening measures suddenly gives way to slowly creeping glissando double stops; later in the
piece, diatonic modality is succeeded by virtuosic microtonal arpeggios and throbbing, fortissimo
elaborations of a single, static harmony. Each of these disparate textures seem to embrace a
different conception of pitch structure; James Harley describes the pitch organization as less fixed
and rigorous than other contemporaneous works, often lending the work a modal flavor without
being strictly limited to any scale or sieve.
Rather than trying to force the piece into the Procrustean bed of unity, my approach to analysis is
pragmatic, proposing a viable way of understanding of the work without claiming to have recreated
the composers process or to have reached a final, authoritative reading of the piece. Philosopher
William James describes pragmatism as an instrumental view of truth: ideas (which themselves are
but parts of our experience) become true just in so far as they help us to get into satisfactory
relation with other parts of our experience. The agenda of this analysis is straightforward: 1)
defining and circumscribing the contrasting musical objects of the work, and exploring ways that
they can be placed into satisfactory relation with one another; and 2) constructing a temporal
understanding of the work, which explores the shifting energies of these relationships as they
unfold in time. The goal of the analysis is not to crack the code to uncover some hidden structure,
or to plumb the depths for clues to compositional intention, but rather to offer an Ariadnes thread
to follow through the works intricacies.

17
 A form that occurs in many places
Clouds and arborescence in Mycenae Alpha
Benjamin Levy, PhD
Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Arizona State University, Arizona

In a 1989 interview with Blint Andrs Varga, Iannis Xenakis states, I believe that is what is lacking
today: a theory about shapes. Perhaps in twenty, thirty, forty years time, fundamental shapes will
be classified, along with their applications and expressions in different fields of observations and
production. He expresses the belief that these archetypal shapes, are everywhere at various
levels, forms corresponding to some inner necessity. This paper presents an analysis of how two
of the most prominent shapes Xenakis mentions, clouds and arborescence, have deep salience in
his electronic work Mycenae Alpha (1978). This was the first piece completed using the UPIC
system, so conducive to thinking in terms of graphic symbols, and the present analysis shows their
relevance at levels ranging from basic material, to formal organization, to the context of this piece
and its place as the centerpiece of the Polytope de Mycnes.
These basic shapes have both concrete and abstract connotations for Xenakis. In his writings he
mentions veins and lightning as examples of arborescence, and describes clouds consisting of
gasses, insects, or crowds of people. More abstractly, however, Xenakis maintains that the branch-
like structures are closely linked to causality, repetition and consequently variation as individual
points replicate themselves. Conversely, cloudlike shapes are connected to stochastic probability
and outside-time structures. Xenakis does, however, acknowledge that these two poles are
distantly related, an observation which is of particular value for Mycenae Alpha, as it
demonstrates, if not a synthesis of the two, then a complimentary balance.
The musical material of Mycenae Alpha, as presented in its score, shows predominantly
arborescence, as do many of the visual components of the Polytope. The form of the piece,
however, is a constellation of different sections, with some repetitions but with little development
between these. In spite of this seeming contradiction between branchlike material and cloudlike
structure, Xenakis uses dynamics and other means to fragment the linear material towards more
cloudlike elements, and at other times implies connections between separate points. A comparison
of spectrographic images to the UPIC score reveals the importance of waveforms and dynamic
envelops in navigating between these oppositional ideas. The analysis concludes with brief
commentary on ways in which juxtaposed points and broken continuities exemplify the structure of
the full Polytope: the handling of Greek texts from different perspectives, times, and dialects, which
are interrupted and resumed throughout the performance; the Cyclopic architecture of the ruins;
the dispersion of performing forces across many places, including the use of the audience as
participants; and finally the undeniable personal significance of the event to Xenakis as it marked his
return to Greece after years of absence, reconnecting with the interrupted threads of his previous
life. This pluralist perspective, combining different points in time and space into a non-linear, non-
hierarchical whole, underlies the very idea of the Polytope, as well as the Polyagogic musical
interface Xenakis used to realize it.

18
 Graphic conception of musical structure and sonority in Xenakis
Jonchaies
James Harley
School of Fine Art and Music, University of Guelph, Ontario

"Jonchaies" by Iannis Xenakis, scored for large orchestra and completed late in 1977, presents an

interesting study for the relationships between graphic design and musical form. The image of a
"bed of rushes", as might be viewed in a marsh, perhaps with a breeze creating complex
interactions of wave patterns, easily lends itself to musical "translation." In this work, Xenakis
chooses to implement such a translation in multiple ways, the different interpretations of the
concept of "waving rushes" being formed into sections and ultimately into the overall formal shape
of the composition. At the same time, Xenakis in this work proposes a new approach to the
organization of pitch (in the first section), a modal conception of melody and harmony that proved
fruitful for this composer in several works over the next decade and more. He also proposed a new
conception of orchestral texture (in the second section in particular), produced by layering
individual instruments in overlapping arcs of sound. This particular approach to texture directly
relates to a new electronic texture that Xenakis produced just following "Jonchaies" for "La legende
d'Er," created in the WDR facilities in Cologne early in 1978. It is worth also noting that 1978 was the
year that saw the launch of Xenakis's UPIC computer music system, with its unique graphic
interface. One can argue that Xenakis's predilection for designing his music graphically (then
transcribing into musical notation), a natural method of working for an architect/engineer, led to
original conceptions of musical structure and sonority, in conjunction with his theoretical research
and creative exploration of primary elements of music such as pitch, rhythm, texture, and form.

19