Iannis Xenakis
Greek composer and architect (1922-2001). He brought mathematical methods such as probability theory, set theory and game theory into composition, and opened up music based on probabilistic methods (stochastic music). In Paris he worked in architecture under Le Corbusier, and that experience deeply influenced his method of composition as well.
Life
He was born on May 29, 1922, in Brăila, Romania, to Greek parents. During the Second World War he joined the resistance against Nazi Germany in Greece, and after the war he continued to resist dictatorship. During this period he was seriously wounded in the face and lost his left eye. In 1947, with capture imminent, he fled Greece on forged papers and settled in Paris. In Greece he was sentenced to death in absentia; the sentence was commuted to ten years' imprisonment in 1951, and he was pardoned after the fall of the dictatorship in 1974. He died on February 4, 2001, in Paris.
As an architect
From 1948 he worked under Le Corbusier, assisting with the design of the monastery of La Tourette, and he was involved in building the Philips Pavilion for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.
Composition
With the orchestral work "Metastaseis", composed in 1953-54, he made a striking debut at the Donaueschingen Festival. In this piece every player in the orchestra is given an independent part. In the following work "Pithoprakta", he used the statistical mechanics of gas molecules as a compositional tool. His theoretical book "Formalized Music" (1963, English edition 1971) became his most influential writing on the relation between mathematics and composition.
He also developed the composition system "UPIC", which converts lines drawn with a pen and tablet into sound, and produced the electronic music "Polytope" with light shows (there are versions for Cluny, Montreal and elsewhere).
Relation to Japan and recognition
For Expo '70 in Osaka he produced the multichannel electronic work "Hibiki-Hana-Ma" (1969), which bears a Japanese title. He collaborated with the composer Yuji Takahashi on many works. In 1997 he received the Kyoto Prize (Arts and Philosophy) and visited Japan, and in 1999 he received the Polar Music Prize.
To verify
- When and how he was wounded (English Wikipedia says he was hit by shrapnel from a tank shell during the Greek Civil War, while Japanese Wikipedia says he was shot during resistance activity in the Second World War)
- The year UPIC was completed (Japanese Wikipedia gives 1977, English Wikipedia up to 1979)
- The title of the original French edition of "Formalized Music", and the formal title of the Japanese translation
References
- Mentioned in
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