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Music 307
Iannis Xenakis:
Polytope de Cluny
Matt Pierce
V00126204
Iannix Xenakis (1922-2001), a Rumanian born composer of Greek heritage, was a
main precursor and practitioner of both electro-acoustic and computer music. A turbulent
childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, that included the death of his mother,
numerous incarcerations due to political allegiances, the loss of his left eye during the
war, and the stripping of his Greek nationality (complete with a death sentence in
absentia) [3] led the composer down a path of most resistance with regards to his musical
techniques. Not one to follow the Serial conventions of his musical heyday (the mid- to
late-1900’s), Xenakis was a strong advocate of incorporating mathematical, architectural,
and perhaps most significantly, technological ideas into contemporary compositions. He
was one of the very first electro-acoustic composers, and also the first in France to use
synthesized sound within a piece [1, pg 70].
In addition to being a composer, Xenakis studied and majored in civil engineering
in Greece, before he was exiled, and had a great affinity for architectural and spatial
design. This led him to the idea of compositional ‘installations’; that is to say, he began
organizing, not merely musical structures, but spatial structures and arrangements to
serve as a backdrop for his music. These ideas eventually culminated in the creation of
Xenakis’ Polytopes (From the Greek ‘polys’, meaning ‘many’ and ‘topos’, meaning
‘place’ or ‘location’) [1, pg 50]. The first of these, Polytope de Montreal (1967), was
premiered at Expo ’67, and featured twelve hundred strobe lights of various colours
filling the space inside Montreal’s French Pavilion [2, pg 215]. The strobes, in addition to
pre-recorded orchestrations, played through a number of loudspeakers, were given
specific rhythmic cues based on mathematical patterns worked out by Xenakis. This sixminute audio-visual spectacle paved the way for the composer’s next big work, the fiftyminute polytope, Persepolis (1971), which was premiered at Xenakis’ Open-Air Light
and Sound Show, in the ruins of Persepolis, in Iran [2, pg 217]. Critically acclaimed, the
work introduced an important element to the composer’s polytope repertoire: Lasers [1,
pg 68]. Two of them were used, in addition to a large number of loudspeakers (being
outside, many more were required) in order to fill the desert hillside with Xenakis’
evolving, textural orchestral music. Following this success, Xenakis returned to his
adopted home of France, where he would create his most successful, and most
technologically stunning work to date: Polytope de Cluny (1972-74).
Originally commissioned by France to write an opera for the Festival d’Automne,
Xenakis responded by saying, “I’m not interested, but I can create an automated abstract
spectacle with lights, lasers, and electronic flashes” [3]. Thus, housed in the Cluny
Museum, which was built atop ancient Roman baths, in the small eastern town of Cluny,
installations began on the Polytope de Cluny. This work featured six hundred xenon
flashbulbs, three lasers (one red, one green, and one blue), and four hundred rotating
mirrors to project the lasers in various patterns throughout the building [4]. The bulbs
were hung from the ceiling with cables (a good deal of scaffolding was brought in during
preparation), and, as in the Montreal polytope, were arranged in various patterns based on
mathematical and geometrical structures. For this work, Xenakis placed twelve
loudspeakers [1, pg 70] around the T-shaped hall in order to disperse the audio to various
points in space, so that, when one moved around the spectacle, one would hear a moving
audio ‘image’ to compliment the ever-evolving visuals. The audio itself was prerecorded
onto seven digital tracks of magnetic tape, which was fed through a computer and into the
loudspeakers. In an effort to fully utilize the technology of the time, Xenakis also
prerecorded some forty-three million [4] binary computer instructions onto an eighth
magnetic track, which were used to dynamically control the light flashes, laser lengths,
and mirror positions [4]. Not only did this procedure allow for a fully automated
“performance,” it also provided an intuitive way for the composer to coordinate the lights
with the sound [1, pg 70].
In terms of the actual ‘music’ of Polytope de Cluny, Xenakis composed in a
similar style to many of his previous works (especially his other polytopes), creating
unique sonorities, which are constantly evolving over the course of the work. Quite
opposed to the established Serialistic style (he wrote articles on the subject) due to his
feeling that they were hindered by their own compositional complexities [3], Xenakis
tried to simplify his works by focusing on singular timbres, which, over the course of
time, change their shape and are layered amongst other timbres. The music can thus be
thought of in two ways: 1) As a product of the instrumental timbres that are used to
achieve the various sonorities, and 2) as a product of the mathematical methods by which
the sonorities are shaped. In terms of his instrumentation, Xenakis emphasized both
strong percussive elements, such as ceramic wind chimes and an African thumb piano,
and extreme modern orchestral timbres, like the grating string glissandi [4]. He also
introduced, for the first time in his musical career, computer-generated sounds that were
meant to evoke an out-of-this-world feel. In terms of his method, Xenakis used a number
of previously explored mathematical ideas. The computer-generated sounds, for instance,
were created using probability functions [5]. With the geometric light patterns, Xenakis
was trying to loosely recreate natural phenomena, such as storms and constellations via
his calculations [4], so one can surmise that the music received a similar treatment in
order to celebrate the splendor of nature through sound (and, indeed, many passages
evoke imagery of waterfalls, electricity, wind-storms, and the like). For Xenakis, math
and architecture were used as filters through which nature could be broken down,
analyzed, and rebuilt in order to be shared and displayed in a more intimate and personal
setting.
The work was received well beyond the expectations of even Xenakis himself.
Associated with a new, rebellious style of Avante-Garde, largely by students in France (a
popular slogan at the time was “Xenakis, not Gounod”), the work was hailed as a triumph
and thousands flocked to the Museum daily, for the sixteen months the piece ran [1, pg
68]. Spectators would sit inside the cavernous hall and be entranced by an awe-inspiring
display that one can easily imagine would rival light shows of today. Xenakis was right
on the cutting edge of development, always looking for a new source of musical
inspiration. This was a major influence in the expansion of music into the computer
domain, much earlier, probably, than would have been seen otherwise. Following
Xenakis’ breakthroughs with his polytopes, electro-acoustic music, as well as computer
music, started to break free of the research labs to which they were previously confined,
and became much more commonplace within the contemporary music scene.