Xenakis - reviews

Xenakis Iannis Xenakis revolutionized post-war music more forcefully than any composer of the 20th Century. Having escaped wartime Greece to Paris under sentence of death, he became one of Le Corbusier's chief architects, and a pioneer of the computer age in music and the arts. Milan Kundera named him ‘the prophet of insensibility’. An outsider and radical thinker, he freed the sound spectrum from western scales. He combined geometric architecture and music based on natural principles, probability mathematics, science and philosophy. The first to compose with computers, he invented ‘stochastic music’, harnessed the chaos theory, and created a bright, boundless aesthetic in music. Shunned by contemporaries, he created over 150 vast compositions imbued with elemental passion, and brilliantly reinvented the landscape of music forever. Since it was first published in 1981, Nouritza Matossian’s highly perceptive book on Xenakis has helped students, musicians and audiences appreciate his music. She shares his Greek culture and interest in philosophy, and has chronicled vital discoveries in his work. A reserved man, he spoke frankly to her about the mysteries and methods of his compositions, and his relationships with Varese, Messiaen, Le Corbusier and Boulez. After his death in 2002, his prophecy that computers, science and art would converge makes this book essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the digital revolution of our millennium. Matossian’s well-researched biography is an unrivalled classic on modern music. This newly revised edition is liberally illustrated with musical, architectural and personal photographs, sketches and scores, and a previously unpublished interview. Nouritza Matossian, PhD h.c, is a performer and writer on music and the arts. Born of Armenian parents who fled the 1915 Armenian Genocide to Cyprus, she became the Honorary Cultural Attaché of the Armenian Embassy in London. Following her earlier book on Xenakis, she produced a documentary film on him for BBC2. Her biography Black Angel, on the life of the Armenian painter Arshile Gorky, inspired the movie Ararat. Publisher's Website - Moufflon Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky Contents for Bookbank

Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis revolutionized post-war music more forcefully than any composer of the 20th Century. Having escaped wartime Greece to Paris under sentence of death, he became one of Le Corbusier's chief architects, and a pioneer of the computer age in music and the arts. Milan Kundera named him ‘the prophet of insensibility’. An outsider and radical thinker, he freed the sound spectrum from western scales. He combined geometric architecture and music based on natural principles, probability mathematics, science and philosophy. The first to compose with computers, he invented ‘stochastic music’, harnessed the chaos theory, and created a bright, boundless aesthetic in music. Shunned by contemporaries, he created over 150 vast compositions imbued with elemental passion, and brilliantly reinvented the landscape of music forever.

Since it was first published in 1981, Nouritza Matossian’s highly perceptive book on Xenakis has helped students, musicians and audiences appreciate his music. She shares his Greek culture and interest in philosophy, and has chronicled vital discoveries in his work. A reserved man, he spoke frankly to her about the mysteries and methods of his compositions, and his relationships with Varese, Messiaen, Le Corbusier and Boulez.

After his death in 2002, his prophecy that computers, science and art would converge makes this book essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the digital revolution of our millennium. Matossian’s well-researched biography is an unrivalled classic on modern music. This newly revised edition is liberally illustrated with musical, architectural and personal photographs, sketches and scores, and a previously unpublished interview.

Nouritza Matossian, PhD h.c, is a performer and writer on music and the arts. Born of Armenian parents who fled the 1915 Armenian Genocide to Cyprus, she became the Honorary Cultural Attaché of the Armenian Embassy in London. Following her earlier book on Xenakis, she produced a documentary film on him for BBC2. Her biography Black Angel, on the life of the Armenian painter Arshile Gorky, inspired the movie Ararat.

Publisher's Website - Moufflon

Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky

Contents for Bookbank