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XENAKIS
NOURITZA MATOSSIAN
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Iannis Xenakis revolutionized post-war music more forcefully than any other 20th-century composer. A Resistance leader in World War II, he escaped from Greece to Paris under sentance of death. He became one of Le Corbusier’s chief architects, and a pioneer of the computer age in music and the arts. Milan Kundara called him ‘the prophet of insensibility’.
Xenakis harnessed chaos theory and invented ‘stochastic music’. He freed the sound spectrum from western scales and based music on natural principles. He combined architecture, light and sound in a radical new art form to create a boundless aesthetic in music. Shunned by contemporaries, Xenakis created vast compositions imbued with elemental passion, and brilliantly reinvented the landscape of music.
Since it was first published in 1980, Nouritza Matassian’s book on Xenakis has become an unrivalled classic on the composer. He spoke frankly to her about his methods of composition, and his relationships with Varese, Messiaen, Le Corbusier and Boulez. This new edition includes an unpublished interview and essays, and is illustrated with musical and architectural sketches, scores and recently released archival photos.
Mouflon Publications
Soft back
42 b/w photographs, 49 b/w illustrations,
scores and line drawings
ISBN 9963-642-22-50
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