Xenakis Electroacoustic Music

Compositional Models in Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music
Author(s): Agostino Di Scipio

Source: Perspectives of New Music , Summer, 1998, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp.
201-243
Published by: Perspectives of New Music
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/833529
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COMPOSITIONAL MODELS
IN XENAKIS'S
ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC
AGOSTINO DI SCIPIO
N IANNIS XENAKIS'S OUTPUT, electroacoustic music plays a role that is

quantitatively marginal but quite meaningful in its content. In the fol-
lowing observations, my aim is to demonstrate that highly relevant
aspects of Xenakis's contribution to today's musical thinking are found in
electroacoustic works like Concret PH (1958), Analogique A-B (1958-
59), and Bohor (1962), up to La Legend d'Eer (1977), Mycenae-Alph
(1978), and Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromede (1989), and mos
recently Gendy301 (1991) and S709(1994).
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
In electroacoustic music, compositional strategies are mediated by too

of work and thought-i.e., by a TxXvql (tekhne), an entire world of

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202 Perspectives of New Music
techniques and technologies-often considered foreign to the field of the

musicological discourse. However, this z?xvi( represents an essential
expression of the knowledge which converges in the compositional pro-
cess. As Pierre Schaeffer wrote, ". .. les idees musicales sont prisonnitres,
et plus qu'on ne le croit, de l'appareillage musicale...."' The elabora-
tion of the sound material and the strategies of musical design are cap-
tured in actions, procedures, and tools which actually permit us to
"record" and study the compositional process and to observe how the
composer's ideas are transformed into audible musical objects.
My analyses below lean on the notions of model of sound material,
model of musical articulation, and control structure:
* A model of sound material is the operative description of "compos-

ing the sound." The analysis of electroacoustic music cannot waive
the study of this aspect so essential to, and distinctive of, this type of
compositional praxis. Characterizing a model of sound material
shows the features of sound (microstructures) that are cognitively
available to the development of musical form (macrostructures), and
may illustrate the theory of sound implicit in the way in which the
composer represents, conceives of, and works on and within the
sound material.
* A model of musical design is the operative description of "compos-

ing with sounds." It illustrates the strategies of articulation of musi-
cal form, i.e., the way in which the material is worked on and the
way by which the overall form is developed out of smaller units and
components.
* A control structure represents the conceptual interface, as well as the

operative link, between microstructures and macrostructures. It
implements the relationship between the conception of material and
the conception of musical form, and thus illustrates the features of
material actually used (from among those available) in a certain
musical construction.
This approach helps us, I believe, to tackle questions that are funda-
mental in music analysis: what is the material of the musical work under
observation? By what methods was the material worked on? How did this
way of working finally bring forth the perceived musical structure? What
relationship is there between sound and music? Thus, it becomes possible
to grasp meaningful features of the music theory and the aesthetic hypoth-
eses underlying the work in question. Music analysis is understood here
as a question of characterizing and evaluating the musical knowledge

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Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music 203
mediated by the z-XvTI in the process of c

which such a mediation is accomplished.2 T
particular tools for such a mediation are con
cially designed by the composer-as in Xenak
* * *
Xenakis's work with ele

first, at Pierre Schaeffer
1957 to the middle of t
tique Automation Musi
the composer himself t
computer science.
Except for Analogiqu
Analogique A,
for string
pieces of musique concr
pointing to a transfor
inversion dans le sens
concret sonore, d'oui qu
qu'il contenait en puissa
example of such an atti
than twenty-three min
magma. A relevant chara
ent phrase-like articula
This is perhaps explaine
for articulation in -rather than with-the sound material itself. I would
like to illustrate this potential as explored in the composition of Concret
PH and Analogique B-two works which, in rather different ways, both
represent a mediation between the noisy violence of Bohor and the con-
structive, mathematico-philosophical approach in Xenakis's instrumental
works of the same period, such as Achorripsis (1956-57) and the
computer-generated ST/10-1 (1956-62).
FROM CONCRET PH . . .
Concret PH (1958) is a 2'45"-long textural composition, a "cloud" filled

with splinters of sound only vaguely differentiated among themselves. As
is well known, this piece was conceived as an introductory event in Le
Corbusier's Philips Pavilion, presented at the Brussels World's Fair in
1958 (the Pavilion also included Varese's only tape work, Poeme Electro-
nique).

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Sound design for Concret PH followed three steps. As a first step, the
sounds of hot coals and burning material were recorded on tape. As a
second step, very short chunks were extracted from the recording and
isolated from their original context. Each chunk here corresponds to a
single crackle, to a single creak of the coal in consumption-noise bursts
lasting no more than a few hundredths (sometimes even a few thou-
sandths) of a second. As is expected, such sounds have a very large spec-
trum (see Example 1). Indeed, at this level the determination of
frequency becomes dependent on the duration: the shorter the sound
impulse, the wider the frequency band. (In other words, following
Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle," a precise localization in the time
domain causes indeterminacy in the frequency domain.) As a conse-
quence, frequency and its perceptual attribute, pitch, are hardly control-
lable here, as it is impossible for human ears to integrate differences of
pitch and amplitude in such brief moments.5
As a third step, the short noise bursts were assembled to create a
longer texture, by piecing together innumerable scraps of tape. A series
of such textures was obtained, each having a particular temporal density
dn = kn/At. Textures were then submitted to two distinct strategies of
densification:
1. layering of m copies of the same texture: D = mdn (density of

microevents controlled by means of a geometric series)
2. layering of different textures each with its own density:

D = 2ndn.
In both cases, the result of layering is a qualitative enrichment of the

sound texture, heard as the fluctuating timbre of a rough dust of sound,
with rare periodic patterns.
In Example 2 readers can see a sonogram of the entire recording of
Concret PH.6 Two types of texture can be distinguished, one made of
very short noise bursts (wide frequency bands, with peaks at around
6000-9000 Hz), the other made of slightly longer bursts (narrower fre-
quency bands, with peaks at 4000-5000 Hz). Often the two types over-
lap, e.g., in fragments 40"-50" (Example 3a) and 110"-120" (Example
3b). Occasionally, one of the two is more in evidence-the first in frag-
ment 30"-40" (Example 3c) and the second in the brief excerpt 80.9"-
86.6" (Example 3d) and later in fragment 100"-110" (Example 3e).7
Features found in large-scale spectral analysis are also found at smaller
scales. For instance, Example 3c (fragment 30"-40") shows a sono-
graphic snapshot which is quite similar not only to that of the entire piece
(Example 2) but also to that of a very short detail only 0.3" long

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Xenakis's Etectroacoustic Music20 205
(Example 4, 37.7"-38"). Example 5 illustrates this phenomenon in

fragment 90"-100" (Example 5a), and in its ever-smaller particulars
(Example 5b, 94.5"-96"; Example 5c, 94.8"-95.2"). In short, this
"4zooming in" reveals the properties of a self-similar object, a surface in
relief that is fractal in dimension: something halfwvay between a plane
a solid. An object of this kind, of dimension H = 2.6666667, is illus-
trated in Example 6.8
a ii . .11 I sh l J 0.11i l ik lI Ii I i ,LL L - It
1S4.467 '111.3?0 '200272 '203 17S '206O77 '208,980 '211-882 1214.785 '217.682iw
.0
dB8
-10
-20
-30.
-40 -
A
50-
-s0
HZ:
EXAMPLE 1: CONCRET PH IS ENTIRELY MADE OF EXTREMELY SHORT
NOISE BURSTS. SHOWN HERE IS THE WAVEFORM OF ONE SUCH SOUND
(APPROXIMATELY 0.1" IN DURATION) AND ITS FREQUENCY SPECTRUM

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0'-80"
EXAMPLE 2A: SONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION

OF CONCRET PH00"--80"
* . . ..
I : . : . . D . . . '
*- '^!:''-! .": :.., ; ? ,i :, ,' ' :' ... .. : :. ' . ' ' ','' :
j:"
_ t , -- ...... ';, I : ' ' :t' i - ; :
. j;EXAMPLE 2B' CONCRT ; i: PH-80"-160"
EXAMPLE 2B: CONCRETPH-808:~'"- I60"
EXAM PLE 2B: CONCRET PH-80-1 60

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n,
i::
o, ?i ? i:: ? :?:' ? : - :-I.:I
: ? i ' ' '
a, (
,, :j: i ? i ir::::.?:':'-?;??? : :? ?'? ?:::'
-:
?,r:? It
?, f: i:: ? ?
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.? " :.i ::I t,l
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IO LI U U
EXAMPLE 3A: PARTICULARS OF CONCRET PH-OVERLAPPING OF TWO

TYPES OF SOUND TEXTURE, FRAGMENT 40"-50"
EXAMPLE 3B: CONCRET PH-OVERLAPPING OF TWO TYPES

OF SOUND TEXTURE, FRAGMENT 110"-120"

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EXAMPLE 3C: CONCRET PH-FIRST TYPE OF SOUND TEXTURE (NOISE

BURSTS OF WIDE SPECTRUM IN EVIDENCE), FRAGMENT 30"-40"
n,
r,
r-
.
w,
s : I?:
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.1 ; 1 'i? ? ?: i'E
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w r lvr,n r u* -rxln*e sra*n?-,?-- I--------?r*nlrurm
g0'52
EXAMPLE 3D: CONCRET PH-SECOND TYPE OF SOUND TEXTURE

(NOISE BURSTS OF NARROWER SPECTRUM) IN EVIDENCE,
FRAGMENT 80.9"-86.6"

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?,
?,
*,
6
r .
O ir:
? . ?
(( ?i : ?:: ?i .:.:::: ? : . . : . . ??.'. . .... : : : : ?. '. : . '? : : : ?':1- ?:l..:l::::::i "
ii::
:;?:? ;;t?i?:
???i ?:?/ ,1 . I ,Ir; iT: ?:I ':d : ' ?
-:r 7-k?'': ? i
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EXAMPLE 3E: CONCRET PH-SECOND TYPE OF SOUND TEXTURE

(NOISE BURSTS OF NARROWER SPECTRUM) IN EVIDENCE,
FRAGMENT 100"-110"
EXAMPLE 4: A SMALL DETAIL OF CONCRET PH, 37.7"-38"

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So"- Ioo'
EXAMPLE 5A: CONCRET PH, FRAGMENT 90"-100"
I_
*,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'i& '^ ::1:.::*:M J|^ ~~~~
?-;... .. :
* "i!~ -.~i':: - *~ ":.: : . .... ':^ ' - r ^ . - ~/ ". : :i . ' *:
- ::t'".; -..' -r~~~~~~~?
: ? ' .'. * : : :.' . ..:::*! : : !.*/:.. : .':'. . . ..
* ^ t.4 '^ '.^t "-^4'a '-.?*-? ,(:*!...* to '^ ^ li . :/ .* <^ . *-* ^ :- M *: **. * !:> * *"**<t-'<; . ( '
*? ~ f' t. an1 1.0
^ ***.~~~~~ ': -* *:'"* '" ;' ?''''"(":""''' ' '- '. h ' '"""
:_ ?.l.:'i: '.: : : . ~ . :
EXAMPLE 5B: CON

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Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music 21 1
?; ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ '3
?, ~ ~ ~ 4 ~
if?
re,?
EXAMPLE 5C: CONCRET
..
rd
. . J ; W0
i
. I
&
EXA
(REP
AN

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The overall piece presents a rather simple macroscopic shape, going

from the sonorities of the first type of texture, in evidence at the begin-
ning of the piece (Example 7a, 15"-20"), to the slightly less fragmented
ones of the second type, in evidence towards the end (Example 7b,
140"-145").
~~~~~~~~~~?-
i....
* - . :. : . ?
? _ ' *-'~~~. . ': . * . . . , . . . . . ? ' .* ' . '* * * ** -
?._, .. .. . *. ' . .;
? - '.i
'"~" ' ' ''
!~ .
:. i~ .i!~;..ii~; ' i~.. ~: ':
,-.~. ::: :.' : 'r..i~" 16 ::' .. :':

0~~~~~~~ ~ ~" " : * " ..A.f.....; i,...'" ~ " i:.
if~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ i" . ':, :;i ::I
EXAMPLE 7A: DETAIL OF THE SONOGRAM OF CONC

TEXTURE IS PREDOMINANT AT THE BEGINNING
AS IN FRAGMENT 15"-20"
* ..-
=6"-;!. i . ' ' ' ': '*:4-:.- ::;:! : . X::A
"' ....1^',;~~~~ ^~' -l^' '^ ':~~ "' ^140'
EXAMPLE DETAIL OF THE SONOGRAM OF CONCRETPHTHE SECOND TYPE OF
EXAMPLE 7B: PREDOMETAIL OF WARDS THE CONCRE T PH- THE SECOND TYPE OF
TEXTURE IS PREDOMINANT TOWARDS THE END, AS IN FRAGMENT 140"--145"

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* * *
Xenakis's interest in p
sound of cicadas, the d
scenes, the thunder of
avoid speculation here
burning materials. The m
so much lie in this aco
dissection, selection, a
That is the material ha
designed, and largely d
phenomenal origin (ind
sound of breaking glasse
seen, by means of simpl
the rather simple form
It is to be emphasized
is a point of catastrophe
which transforms a bit
overall form of the piec
allows the listener-and
tion to the morphology
the shortest processes
listener's attention, th
sonic events.
In line with the musique-concrete approach, here the model of sound

material is a mixture of manipulative procedures through which-with a
definition found in the system-theory literature-"noise is transformed
by learning into a sign."'l In this annotation, "learning" is perhaps the
most important thing: it means interior accretion and awareness of the
auditory experience, which finally becomes a project of art through
choice and isolation of particular features of the acoustic phenomenon.
These are the features of the very material in the composition of Concret
PH: every single component of the whole is marked by a creative inten-
tion, by an intentional act that changes its nature and meaning. What we
call material here, then, tends to lose its connotation of something natu-
ral and becomes a designed object itself-an artifact.
In spite of the simple cloud-like structure, the unfolding of Concret
PH is rather extraneous to explicit figurative criteria and devoid of
mimetic or narrative references. Despite Xenakis's debt to Schaefferian
aesthetics, there is something here that sets Xenakis at the margins of
musique concrete. I refer to an attitude that renders the musical work a
definitive artificium, the resultant of a project of art addressing many

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time scales in the structure of music. Incidentally, this is mirrored-

though hidden from the ear-by the self-similarity of the time-frequency
representation of the piece as a whole.
... TO ANALOGIQUE B
Analogique B (1958-59) marks a departure from the concretist approac

of pieces like Concret PH and Bohor (this latter, however, was composed
later, in 1962). Brought to conclusion partly at the GRM and partly in
Hermann Scherchen's studios in Gravesano, Analogique B represents the
very first attempt at welding musical invention to a conception of sound
freed from classical acoustics.
This "electro-magnetic music for sinusoidal sounds"" is made up of
many brief sinusoidal signals recorded on tape. Here Xenakis's concep-
tion of sound lies close to that put forth by physicist Dennis Gabor (as
well as by Norbert Wiener). The possibility is explored of composing
sound by innumerable overlapping elementary signals-sinusoidal sound
grains. Such a possibility is expressed by Gabor's series expansion:
s(t) = Zn,k an,kg(t-kT)ejnn
The elementary signal is represented by g(t). It has a real and an imagi-

nary part-i.e., in Gabor's own description:
enQt = p-2(-texp-a i2Tfol

where a is the parameter allowing us to establish both the duration of the
grain and its band width. For Gabor, therefore, "elementary signals are
harmonic oscillations of any frequency fo, modulated by a probabilistic
pulse."'2 A Gaussian curve is utilized for the pulse's envelope, as in fact it
allows one to locate the elementary signal in both time and frequency
with minimal spectral dispersion. Example 8 shows Gabor's "grid,"
where the time/frequency continuum is quantized into its smallest
cells-called by him logons-of area AtAf An elementary signal is repre-
sented by a corresponding logon in the grid. The three graphs in
Example 8 show the intuitive notion that the frequency spectrum
depends on the temporal pattern of elementary signals, while the density
in the particular time span remains the same.
Xenakis's approach is different with regard to the envelope curve of
the grain. He leaves it constant-a rectangular envelope. Shown in

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F F IIms F
Af
I
III II
u -> T -> T -> T

t
A A A
F iF F
EXAMPLE 8: THE NUMBER OF SINUSOIDAL GRAINS REPRESENTED IN THE

TIME/FREQUENCY GRID (TOP), IS THE SAME IN ALL THREE EXAMPLES,
BUT THEIR TEMPORAL PATTERN IS DIFFERENT, THUS CAUSING THE
SOUND TO CHANGE SPECTRUM (BOTTOM)
Example 9 are a Gaussian grain and a rectangular grain, w

relative frequency spectra. As can be imagined, the latter is perce
brief explosion of noise in a frequency range centered on the
of the elementary signal.
The rectangular grains in Analogique B have a fixed duration
amplitude and frequency values are localized on a plane brok
into tiny cells with an area of AgAf-Xenakis calls it a "screen.
to obtain dynamical sounds, a "book" of such "screens" is used,
tance of At = 0"5 (see Example 10).
The global characteristics of a "screen" are (1) the density of
the volume AgAJAtC, (2) the shape of grain distribution; (3) the d
order/disorder in such a distribution. The strategy empl
Analogique B deals only with the first of them. It consists in a M
process implemented as a transition probability matrix (TPM):
tion of the sound texture is traced by the probability that at a cert
t the screen's parameters will be modified with respect to t - At.

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/
t t
k)
a
I A f f
EXAMPLE 9: A GAUS
AND A RECTANGULAR GRAIN AS UTILIZED BY XENAKIS IN ANALOGIQUE B
Ag
n -
hf
At
- I
EXAMPLE 10: A "BOOK OF SCREENS," AS UTILIZED BY XENAKIS AT THE

MICROCOMPOSITIONAL LEVEL IN ANALOGIQUE B. REPRESENTED ARE DIS-
CRETE VALUES OF FREQUENCY (AF), AMPLITUDE (AG), AND TIME (AT). DE-
SCRIBED HERE ARE TWO IDEALLY SINUSOIDAL TONES OF EQUAL AMPLITUDE,
ONE AT FIXED FREQUENCY, THE OTHER SWEEPING DOWN IN FREQUENCY

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A simple TPM looks like the following:13
X Y
X 0.2 0.8
Y 0.8 0.2
It represents the probability
* that symbol Xwill be followed by another X

* that Xwill be followed by Y(80%);
* that Twill be followed by X(80%) and
* that Ywill be followed by another Y(20%).
In Analogique B, two TPMs were utilized in the d

tude, density, and frequency values:
x Y X Y
X 0.2 0.8 X 0.85 0.4
Y 0.8 0.2 Y 0.15 0.6
The decision as to whether the former or the latter should be used was
made at any given time on the basis of several rules which, for brevity's
sake, are not described here. X and Tare associated with two sets of val-
ues selected from among sixteen regions of frequency (each correspond-
ing to an octave), two sets selected from among four regions of
amplitude (in phones), and two sets selected from among seven regions of
density (in logarithmic units). Once the set has been selected, the partic-
ular values in that set are chosen on a purely random basis.
To successfully predict the evolution of the parameters, it is necessary
to answer this question: what is the system's general tendency during a
certain number of transitions? In the case of our first example matrix, we
have the following relationships:
X' = 0.2X+0.8T
T = 0.8X+0.2r
Thus, after only eight transitions, a stationary state is reached.

levels in the stationary state are X = 0.5 and Y = 0.5; for t
matrix, X = 0.73 and T = 0.27. It is possible to calculate
entropy of each TPM in a stationary state as
H = (HX) + (Hr)

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in which Hx represents entropy for X states of the TPM and Xy repre-

sents entropy for the Ystates, calculated as
H = --pilogpi
(pi are the transition probabilities established by the matrix).

A further macroscopic control utilized by Xenakis is called the
exchange protocol between perturbation states and stationary states. It is
employed to determine TPM internal parameter values for each section
of the piece-eight in all, for a total of only 2'35". The exchange proto-
col thus establishes the alternation between sound behaviors of growing
entropy, or perturbations P, and more static behaviors, or equilibrium
points E.14
These details give us a pretty clear picture of the various levels in the
compositional process: (1) the granular representation of sound provides
the composer with minimum discrete elements; (2) manipulating these
elements (microcomposition) results in the actual sound material for the
entire work; (3) the concept of "screen" represents the control device
connecting microcomposition with criteria of short-term (TPM) and
long-term musical design (exchange protocol P and E).
As in Concret PH, here we see again a continuity of micro- and macro-
levels. However, this time such continuity is caught in a rather formalized
system, whose states in time finally shape the resultant sound object. As
with later examples of algorithmic composition, the compositional
approach here seems to consolidate in a "mechanism" that the composer
lets manifest itself.'5 The perturbations that temporarily disrupt the sys-
tem's stability actually prove to be anything but an ulterior means for
manifesting the mechanism's functionality and consistency.
In short, the composition of Analogique B reflects the quantistic
approach that Xenakis borrowed from Gabor16 as well as the statistical
methods that Xenakis utilized in instrumental works during the late fif-
ties.
* * *
In the composition of
tinuum down to the fin
programmable, forma
itself. More recently, t
digital sound synthes
Fourier's paradigm-a s
which are impossible

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working out the sound material in terms of spectral characteristics, i.e.,

the frequency domain only, granular representations lead us to working
out in its micro-time structure. "Composing the sound," then, requi
the determination of time relationships among innumerable finite e
ments. In Analogique B, the conceptual tool to accomplish this is th
transition-probability matrix. More recently, composers have employ
other techniques, such as random distribution within either static
dynamic boundaries (as used by Curtis Roads and Barry Truax),17 a
mathematical models of nonlinear, chaotic systems (as used in my ow
compositional work).18 In most approaches of this kind, the morpholo
ical and perceptual properties of sound and music are to some exten
dependent on the coherence of micro-level processes, whose function
ity, then, is to bring forth the overall form of a sound object or texture
Albert Bregman, renowned scholar in the field of auditory perception,
has pointed out that granular representations can be pertinent in model-
ing dynamical sound events of particular complexity (transient pheno
ena, turbulence, auditory images rich in noise components an
compounded of innumerable microscopic events). He adds, however
that this is only possible if an adequate description of the way in whi
grains succeed and overlap each other is developed.19 That is, if the com-
position of grains is adequately achieved.
For many, the sonority of Analogique B is rather disappointing in com
parison with the theoretical implications in play. This is not explaine
simply by the poverty of the technical means available at the time of its
composition. Indeed, it can be explained, as we shall see later, also by the
strategies themselves pursued by Xenakis: stochastic laws seem to prevent
the emergence of a higher structural level; they seem not to be capable o
bringing forth those "sonorities of second order" Xenakis expected t
achieve.20 The reason for this may be that his formalized system is not a
ecosystem, i.e., it is not nourished by retroaction and "environment
conditioning; it does not change itself with the changing context. It h
no (nor does it desire) memory. The relevance of this point is hardly tri-
fling-and I will come back to the issue in my final discussion.
Still, emblematic in this music is Xenakis's gesture aimed at generating
by one and the same process, both complex timbral entities and the over-
all form of the work, so that the passage between micro- and macro
structure is rendered continuous.21 As is well known, a similar composi-
tional attitude was shared by many composers at the time of the realiza-
tion of Analogique B. Xenakis's contribution with respect to the
matters, rarely understood, represents a position of a profoundly differ-
ent nature compared with that of Stockhausen, who, however, has be

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the most famous supporter of temporal and structural unity in electro-

acoustic music.22
MYCENAE -ALPHA
Mycenae-Alpha (1977) was the first music realized by means of the U

computer system-the "polyagogic" computer unit of the CEMAMu
was recorded on monophonic tape although its public performance c
for either two or four loudspeakers.23 On the UPIC, composing is c
ried out by tracing lines on a graphic pad connected to the comput
The graphs are stored and then utilized either as audio waveforms o
amplitude envelopes. They can also be utilized as pitch envelopes (gl
sandi) or tempo curves.24
The sound is generated by table look-up synthesis, the most straightf
ward standard synthesis method known in computer music. The sou
sample amplitudes are looked up from a short array (wavetable) wh
the waveform samples are stored, stepping through the array by a step
proportional to the desired frequency:
a = NpSt(l/p)
wherein Np is the number of points in the wavetable, St is the sampling

period and p is the period of the signal to be generated. The method can
be formulated in this way:
s(i) = Ag(,)
wherein g(O) is the sample read from the array location X, namely
O = [0+ + o(i)]modNp
As we can see, o varies with the index of discrete time, i. In the UPIC
system, o is controlled by the curves the composer intends to use as pitch
profiles.
The "score" of Mycenae-Alpha (Example 11) consists of a diagram
illustrating the temporal progression (horizontal axis) of a values (vertical
axis). It gives no information as to the actual pitches heard (except in case
the wavetable utilized stores the samples of a single-period sinusoid). Nor
does it give information about the particular wavetable selected for the
synthesis. However, it shows that the piece is made up of thirteen sec-
tions, each having a characteristic graphic outline. The shortest section is
section 4, only 5" in duration; the longest is section 13, lasting 1'01".

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1 2 3 4
C., -_ I
5. i
C,.
.,
I
5 A'\ 6
a'
11 _ _ 12 13
i I I I
EXAMPLE 11: THE SCORE OF MYCENAE-ALPHA

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Section 7 and 13 have an identical shape but a different duration (1'01"

and 24"). The low, fine weave in section 3 is almost perfectly mirrored in
section 6, but the latter ends with different pitch profiles. There is also a
strong similarity between section 11 and 12. Many sections feature tree-
like shapes (like section 5, where each line follows an independent path).
Only the transition from section 9 to 10 is rather smooth; in all other
cases the beginning of a new section is marked by abrupt changes in the
music.
From the point of view of computer music system design, UPIC cer-
tainly represents one of the earliest examples of a uniform and coherent
music interface. However, there are also strongly constrictive aspects. I
shall mention two of these from among those which, in my opinion,
betray an involution in comparison with earlier works:
* The notion of timbre appears reduced here to one "parameter"

among others, understood as the set of harmonics of a periodic
waveform (as is typical of table look-up synthesis); in earlier works,
as we have seen, timbre tended to be understood as dynamic form,
the epiphenomenon of microcomposition;
* The distinction between "musical structure" and "sound structure"
has been reinstated (the fact that the same profiles could be used as
either audio waveforms or pitch functions, does not prove the con-
trary). That distinction was implicitly put into question in the earlier
works, which reflected a notion of composition that shares little with
instrumental and vocal music.
Similar observations also apply for Voyage absolu des Unari vers
Andromede (for two-track tape), realized with an updated version of
UPIC.25 Despite the different formal reach (Mycenae-Alpha lasts 9'36"
and Voyage more than 15'), Voyage, too, is divided into sharply contrast-
ing sections. Both works feature extensive glissando textures26 contrast-
ing with constant-pitch structures. Overall, differentiated sonorities
alternate between the following oppositions:
* sounds having wide-band spectra

* continuous spectrum: noise strias (at times rhythmically ani-
mated);
* discrete spectrum: pulse trains.
* sounds having limited-band spectra

* harmonic spectrum: smoothed pulse trains;
* almost-pure sounds: one single spectral line.

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Introducing the UPIC system,27 Xenakis insists on the impact of com-

puter graphics on musical didactics, and on the potential of composi
tional design laid out graphically. Using the UPIC, composition takes
place first of all within the flat world of the time-o plane; auditory experi-
ence takes place only after this drawing of lines. Although it has raised th
interest of many,28 I find this approach a debatable one in that it implies
an a posteriori association of a sound pattern with a visual pattern. In
sense, the sound is conceived almost as if it were the by-product of ges
tures removed from the flow of time-which, instead, is the essentia
dimension in the experience of all acoustic phenomena, including musi
(Notice in section 8 of the Mycenae-Alpha score that some pitch profil
move back in time!)
In this sense, Xenakis's work with the UPIC seems to conform literally
to his well known statement that "time could be considered as a blank
blackboard, on which symbols and relationships, architectures and
abstract organisms are inscribed."29 I shall return later to the issue of
time in Xenakis's music, as I do not believe it can be reduced to such a
thoroughly reductionist position.
SOUND AS A STOCHASTIC PHENOMENON. FROM LA LEGEND D'EER ...
In the first English edition of his book Formalized Music, Xenaki

described an approach to sound synthesis that is completely independen
of the Fourier paradigm. The approach was based on initial experiments
Xenakis pursued at CEMAMu and at Indiana University (Bloomington),
and which he further pursued in the realization of La Legend d'Eer
(1977), worked out at CEMAMu and at Cologne WDR, and later in the
realization of Gendy301 (1991) and S709 (1994).
La Legend d'Eer is a long continuum of sound lasting about forty-six
minutes, recorded on a seven-track tape.30 It is made up of both
computer-synthesized sounds and recorded samples. The latter include
the sounds of African and Japanese instruments, eventually processed at
the Cologne studio. (Listening to the piece, I find that these sounds
seem to resonate from earlier electroacoustic works, especially Diamor
phoses and Orient/Occident.) The computer sounds were obtained in par
with the UPIC system and in part with stochastic methods.31 At first, the
music is a rather fine thread of high-pitched synthetic sounds. Later i
gets denser and denser until it becomes a massive texture mixing up sev-
eral distinct sources. Processed instrumental samples are present in an
ever increasing manner as the piece unfolds. Except for the initial pitched

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sounds, most synthetic sounds in the piece are quite noisy. In my obser-
vations below, I focus on the stochastic synthesis methods through which
these sounds were achieved. I will then discuss the detail of the musical
application of these methods in Gendy301.
* * *
The sound-representa
domain of the acoustic
sound signal by using
path traced by a point
of ranging continuous
rather irregular curves
Xenakis used to this end
eration, all of which, de
establish a condition of
can either be reduced
stems from two considerations:
* the complexity of natural sound phenomena cannot be reduced to

the terms of the Fourier paradigm because its limitations heavily
condition the sonological applications (both with analog and digital
technology);
* sound design should be regarded as an act of creative imagination; it

cannot be relegated, therefore, to the simulation of known sounds.32
The latter consideration is extremely important. In the twentieth century,

musical forms have gradually been freed from the reproduction of pre-
established frames. The inspiration behind a music of electronically pro-
duced sounds springs from extending this freedom to the realm of the
sound material itself. Therefore, simulation of pre-established sonic
materials (e.g., the sound of musical instruments) is excluded on the basis
of this position.
As mentioned above, in the direct-synthesis approach developed by
Xenakis the instantaneous signal amplitude can be thought of as an alea-
tory variable and can be defined in terms of the probability of the occur-
rence of allowable values. The whole of such probabilities can be
expressed by relating x value of variable X to the probability P of its
occurrence. Thus, by means of
f(x) = P[Xsx]

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Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music25 225
we show that P is the probability that X will assume a value included in

the interval [oo, x]. We can also characterize the probability density func-
tion expressing the probabilities of a continuous random phenomenon:
F(x) =f xf(t) dt.
The functions most often used by Xenakis are the following (see
Example 12):
e Uniform: f(x) I 1, withO0< x <
* Cauchy: f(x) / (a2+ +x2)

* Gauss: f(x) = [1/( F2-na)]e_(X _t)2 / (2a2)
* exponential: f(x) = l/2keXli-i
These can rather easily be simulated on the computer using simple Algo-
rithms. 33
f lxi ix
ix
-a + 'tI I I
f (xj f([XI
.-O.
EXAMPLE 12: AN APPROXIMATE GRAPHICAL RENDITION OF PROBABILITY

DENSITY FUNCTIONS (TOP LEFT: CAUCHY; TOP RIGHT: EXPONENTIAL;
BOTTOM LEFT: GAUSS; BOTTOM RIGHT: UNIFORM)

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There is a connection in the way Xenakis conceived of sound material

in Analogique B and Concret PH and this digital sound synthesis
approach. The quantistic hypothesis he followed during the late fifties is
taken here to extreme consequences. Earlier the quantization of the time
continuum reached the granularity of elementary signals as short as a few
hundredths of a second. It is now even finer: the entity subjected to com-
positional decisions is the digital sample itself, the instantaneous pulse
necessary for a digital computer to generate sounds. In Xenakis's experi-
ments, samples succeeded each other with a lapse of about At = 0.00002"
(sampling rate = 50 KHz). The signal was obtained by directly calculat-
ing the sample values in discrete time, i.e., operating in a bidimensional
space AtAg. Frequency and timbre characteristics, therefore, become the
resultant of particular sample patterns; they are to be regarded as emer-
gent properties, i.e., epiphenomena of a process that occurs in the lowest
technically available scale of time.
Broadly speaking, Xenakis's stochastic synthesis belongs to a class of
methods that can be formulated quite simply as
s(i) = f(s(i- k))
in which function festablishes the relation between the amplitude of the

signal at time i and its amplitude at time i - k. Iffdoes not implement
any consistent acoustic model, then we may call this a nonstandard syn-
thesis approach.
In computer music, nonstandard synthesis has been used not only by
Xenakis but also by composers like Herbert Briin (in his compositions
realized with the SAWDUST program) and Gottfried Michael Koenig
(SSP program). More recently it has been utilized by younger composers
(e.g., Paul Berg, Arun Chandra, Jonathas Manzolli, Michael Hamman).
The important point shared by all nonstandard methods is that the
sound-generating process depends on the composer's arbitrary inven-
tion. Sound material shifts into the realm of the possible-paradoxically
appearing dematerialized, virtual, i.e., not preexistent to an act of cre-
ation and design. The composer becomes integrally responsible for the
musical artifact, by means of a thorough continuity of the compositional
approach. He composes sound and music at once. A perfect instance of
this is Xenakis's recent Gendy301.
... TO GENDT301
In 1991, twenty years after his first experiments with direct syn
Xenakis took up this research line once again. He marked his retu

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writing a computer program called GENDY (GtNeration DYnamique),

which he wrote himself in BASIC and which was later translated into C
by his colleagues at CEMAMu. The program implements an algorithm of
sound synthesis called dynamic stochastic synthesis,34 and is called up by
another program, PARAG3, which has the role of a higher-level control
structure. Gendy301, a tape piece lasting 18'45", is the first work using
dynamic stochastic synthesis. The world premiere took place at the Mon-
treal International Computer Music Conference (October 1991). The
piece is now available on CD (Neuma 450-86), but there it bears the
slightly different title of Gendy3. The two recodings being perfectly iden-
tical, I think the title was changed because of editorial aspects, which are,
of course, completely irrelevant to us here (in the files available at
Xenakis's Paris publisher, Salabert, Gendy3 is officially claimed to have
been premiered in Metz, France, in November 1991).
Dynamic stochastic synthesis entails distorting a waveform in time and
amplitude, calculating the amount of transformation through stochastic
variations. It assumes that the sound signal is traced by a series of wave-
forms J, each consisting of I linear segments (Example 13a). The end
coordinates of the i-th segment in the j-th waveform are xij, Yij. Phase
continuity between waveforms j and j + 1 is assured by establishing
Xo, j+ 1, 0,j+ = Xi- i,j,Yi- I,j-
The method can be described by saying that the end coordinates of seg-
ment i in the j-th waveform are stochastic variations applied to the end
coordinates of the segment i in waveform j- 1. That is,
Xi,j+ = Xi,i+fx(z)
Yij, = Yi,j+fy(z)
where fx(z) and fy(z) return positive or negative values, given an argu-
ment z (itself a random number with uniform distribution, i.e., white
noise). Samples are computed by linear interpolation between the initial
and end points in each segment:
s(t) = s(t) + [i + , j-Yi, /ni,j]
where nij is the number of samples in the i-th segment. The segment
duration is
dij = (nij- 1)/Sampling rate.

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Therefore the j-th waveform will have a total duration (period) of
Dj = Yidi,.
We have three possibilities:
* transformation of the ordinates only
Yi,j+ = Yi,+fy(z)
i,j+ 1 = Xi,j
(which means only the amplitude values are modified, thereby
causing a change in the spectrum);
* transformation of the abscissae only
Yi, j+ 1 = Yi,j
xi,j+1 = Xi,+fx(z)
(which means alterations of Dj, which cause changes of funda-
mental frequency of the sound, and, therefore, of pitch; eventually
this also causes audio rate frequency modulation, with related
spectral enrichment);
* transformation of both coordinates
Xi,j+ = Xi,j+fx(z)
Yi,j+l = Yi,j+fY(z)
(which means alterations of both spectrum and pitch; Example
13a and Example 13b show a transformation of this type).
As the width of the signal is represented by sixteen-bit integers, the

values of yij must be kept within the interval [+-32767] to avoid satura-
tion. Moreover, too-extreme aleatoric variations of xij can lead to wild
frequency modulations; so they, too, must be kept within a given range.
To deal with these problems, Xenakis resorts to the notion of an elastic
barrier, a control process with three arguments
fx(z) MIR[fc(z), fXmin, fXmax]

fy(z) - MIR[fy( z),fYmin,fYmax]
nij+ MIR[n ,j+ 1, Nmin, Nmax]

Yij+ 1 MIR[yi, + 1, Ymin, max]

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Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music22 229
whereinAfrin andAfXax determine the margins of stochastic variations for

the abscissae, fY'min and J5tma. determine the margins of the ordinates, Nm..in
and N,,, determine t-he range of samples per segment (the duration
range for dij), and lastly Ymin and Ymax are equal to -32767 and +32767
(or lower amplitude values) respectively. This causes a mirror-like reflec-
tion of excess values within allowable limits.
2.j
x x x x 5.
O.j 1.1 2,j 3.j 4,j X8.j 9.j
FDj
y
5,j y6,
EXAMPLE 13A: POLYGONAL WAVEFORM GENERATED
WITH DYNAMIC STOCHASTIC SYNTHESIS
j+V'%OJ I
O .j+1
y
5Si
Y7,j+l
V6j+
EXAMPLE 13B: POLYGONAL WAVEFORM GENERATED WITH DYNAMIC

STOCHASTIC SYNTHESIS; SEGMENT END POINTS HAVE BEEN
CALCULATED AS STOCHASTIC VARIATIONS OF SEGMENT
END POINTS IN THE PREVIOUS WAVEFORM

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The PARAG3 program supplies the GENDY program with the follow-
ing parameters:
* number of I segments per waveform;
* duration of the synthesis process;
* type of stochastic function fx;
* type of stochastic function fvy;
* arguments of the elastic barriers;
For fx and f, one can select among stochastic functions of the type
already illustrated (uniform, exponential, normal, Cauchy). In Gendy301,
these functions are also used at the level of the macro-structure. The
PARAG3 program assigns a "time-field" to sixteen different voices-or
simultaneous synthesis processes; a field may be passive (silence) or active
(synthesis triggered) and its duration is calculated by exponential law,
based on a mean value D:
d = (-1/D)log(l - z)
(as usual, z is a random number of the interval [0, 1]).

Overall, this formalization closely resembles the approach taken for
Achorripsis and ST/10,35 except that the musical parameters for the
instrumental lines are now replaced with initialization parameters for the
stochastic synthesis. Like Achorripsis, the large-scale framework of
Gendy301 can be represented by a matrix (voices x time-fields) with a
certain density of active cells, as, for instance, in Example 14.
Some of the eleven sections in Gendy301 show a predominance of har-
monic spectra, with much or little glissando activity. This is the case in
section 1; Example 15 shows the sonogram of its first thirty seconds,
where very wide harmonic spectra (partials up to 8000-9000 Hz.) and
the parallel striations of the harmonic glissandi can be seen.36 Wide noise
bands are found in other sections; in Example 16 we see the sonogram of
a seven-second fragment corresponding to the passage between section 3
and 4 (ca. 5'10" from the beginning). In section 4 (Example 17a), acous-
tic energy is statistically spread over a very wide frequency range, up to
17 KHz (notice, however, the strange "hole" between 10 and 11 KHz).
By observing Example 17a, we can also understand how dense the tem-
poral articulation is at very high frequencies; we can also glimpse a har-
monic structure which appears three times behind the wall of noise. In
Example 17b the first of these three interruptions in the noise band is

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SOt:S352;ysp/- 7;psi7; 8;Pge: 3;,ur.iin:Sec: 2:13;

128 139 149 159 169 197 180sec
,. . .... , .... ....*, ....*I,.... , ....,I .... **....** *... I *..*. * **.* I*-.*-11
I.. . . , . . . . ... I.. . . . .. . . . . . ." * . . . . *. . . . . . . . * . . . . 1
3 .5. .... ....I ...., ...., ....,I .... ...., ....2 ....t , ...., .... 3
....
.... , , ..,
.... .... ..... ....
.... ...., I..
...., ....
...., ....
...., .... I ......
.... I I?....
. ,5
..
...
...... . ....
, .... . .. .. ....
, .... ....
, .... ....
, .. .. ....
. .. ..., ... .... ....
.. . . ... ....
, .... ....
, .... , .. ....
..I,?
,.. . . . .... .... .... .... .... ........ . . ...., n
, I.... ,.......
... ....
* ...., .....
. .... II ....
.... ....,
,, I.....,
.... ....,
.. ....
. ....,
....
.... ........,
.... I... ....
.... i....
. I.. ...., ....
....
.... *, *
, ....I .... ,14
11...1
....
, ,.. .... ....,.. .....

.. .... .. ... ..
.... , -...
.. ....,
.. .. ... *...
.. .. .... ....
.. .. ........
' ... ..1
11
.. ; , ... I , .... . ............. ... , 4.. ,3

St:S352;sp. ?;Psi;- 8 Pge= 2; du,,in Sec= 2 ,13 tot,
69 79 89 99 199 119 12.M
E XA.M .. . T PA. .E .O. T ... .... ..
I 113
I... .. , .. I .. . . . . .. .. . .. .... I ....*14
I, I , I ..... .... I .. . . . .... I .... I it ' I 15
enlarged, wi in Em . 7 w. e se the7 s o a s frag-
. .... .... .... I.... I.... I.... I.... I.... i.... a .... .... 11
-I- I.... .... .... I ..I . .. I .... .. .... .... 1
tra i a.c....co ur. Th e .a ace isf as the reflect
I ..I .... .. . .. .. I I .. .. I..... ..I 114
,6
I- . . 1 . .. ..,... ..I . . ..?I ...., .... .... I I.I ...
EXAMPLE 14: TWO PAGES OF THE GENDT301 SCORE. THICK LINES

INDICATE ACTIVE TIME FIELDS (ACTIVATION OF THE SYNTHESIS
PROCESS). THE ONLY PARAMETERS REPRESENTED HERE ARE START
TIME AND DURATION FOR EACH OF THE SIXTEEN LAYERS AVAILABLE
enlarged, while in Example 17c we see the sonogra

ment of only 0"5-nearly white noise.
Sounds in Gendy301 are both new and ancient in t
troacoustic and computer music. They are ancient insof
the classical opposition between harmonic spectrum

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as well as the proliferation of glissandi so peculiar to Xenakis's orchestral

works. And yet, they are new each time inasmuch as they result from a
microcompositional process based on an indeterministic model-and also
because they are absolutely mobile, so varied in their dynamics as to
reach quite deafening extremes.
. Mj '
: ~ ; ..'.. f-. . .:.. ~'.. ',.' 5' . '' :.
v e t "s
EXAMPLE
EXAMPLE 16: SONOGRAM OF A SEVEN-SECOND PASSAGE IN GENDY301

(TRANSITION FROM SECTION 3 TO SECTION 4)

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EXAMPLE 17A: SONOGRAM OF THE ENTIRE

SECTION 11, 94" IN DURATION
EXAMPLE 17B: A PARTICULAR OF

SECTION 11, 4" IN DURATION

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EXAMPLE 17C: A PARTICULAR OF SECTION 11, 0.5" IN DURATION
DISCUSSION
There is a thread uniting pieces like Analogique B and Concret PH to

Gendy301 (and S709, not described here): Xenakis tends to create a
mechanism that, once started, exhibits itself in time, rendering auditorily
explorable the potential of knowledge captured in the theoretical pre-
mises and assumptions behind the model mechanism. Xenakis makes
electroacoustic music a vehicle for a theory of sound of a level adequate to
his theory of music. In this medium he seems to circumscribe the compo-
sitional techniques of his instrumental music. Xenakis's art then becomes
an utterly cultural fact-a creative gesture which no longer leans on
materials existing prior to the artistic concept. This represents a most
important challenge in contemporary music, one which is both highly
influential and yet very poorly understood. Also, the approach implies the
possibility of interpreting music technology in the special sense of an
integral poiesis, as a cognitive disposition for exploring possible result
(sound and music) rather than as a powerful means for the realization of
musical ideas too often highhandedly considered independent from the
technical substratum. That represents, in a sense, a condition sine qua
non towards the reconciliation of music theory and music praxis in ou
time.
Even in the work of composers reputed to be highly sensitive to the

sound materials' inner vitality, the ontological status of sound appears as

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something preexistent, an external natural object subjected to human

channeling and transformation. Technology then plays the role of a
microscope revealing the sound matter's most intimate details. And still
this matter is given before the act of composing, as a natural, preexisting
process in which the composer grasps details of musical form. Gerard
Grisey writes: "the object allows us to understand the process in its
Gestalt, and to effect a system of combinations."37 So it happened that
some have used the computer to analyze preexisting sounds and to use
the analysis data as a compositional structure. Tristan Murail's orchestral
writing, for example, "simule (...) des spectres naturels donnant a
entendre la metamorphose d'un son inharmonique de cloche en un son
harmonique de trompette."38 Here, the technological medium is impor-
tant for its instrumental function-its computational "power" and preci-
sion. In a way not foreign to widespread platitudes and beliefs, T?;XvT is
still an instrument for the control of Nature: tools are exploited to put
sound to use. In contrast, Xenakis seems to conceive of technological
means as a concrete way for the sonic matter to become the very result of
invention. The sound object is the result of composition, and therefore is
wholly comprised in the world of the artificial-it represents no preexist-
ing nature to be contemplated in its perfection, nor does it represent an
aim that results from an exploitation of natural forces.
What the sound material "materializes" is the creative intent from
which it takes origin and form. Musical form, then, begins with a net-
work of relationships in which it is difficult to glimpse a "syntax," since
this network does not determine relations of cause and effect at the level
of the elements (or symbols) of the musical flow, but at the level of the
minimal time units within sound. By acting "within" the sound rather
than "on" it, Xenakis's mechanism aims at creating a network of relations
on a presyntactic (or subsymbolic) level, allowing perceptually relevant data
to emerge at a time scale relevant to the listener. The music comes to life
by means of operations that take place before any syntactic norm can be
recognized as such by the listener.
This leads to a paradigm shift that I have tried to summarize in the fol-
lowing way:
It is possible to reconcile and combine "composing the sound" with

"composing with sounds," following a line of musical research unit-
ing formalized approaches (algorithmic composition) and qualitative
exploration of sound and music as perceived. This includes a blur-
ring the opposition of form vs. matter-the quantitative vs. the qual-
itative, the conceptual vs. the perceptual-and is to be seen as a
realm of artistic expression peculiar to electroacoustic music and
computer music, as it is only accessible through these media.39

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In a similar vein, Hugues Dufort writes: "Si tout le concret percu par
l'oreille est sous-tendu par des relations abstraites, on ne voit plus la rai-
son de maintenir une distinction entre une composition musicale qui
porterait les sons et une composition musicale qui porterait sur le
formes."40 In Xenakis's electroacoustic music, composing means letting
the form of sound and music emerge from lower-level processes-be it
the level of sound grains (Analogique B) or the digital samples themselves
(Gendy301).
* * *
It must be pointed out,

an evolutionary flow in
examining this theoretica
the issue of musical time.
Even though a statistic process may have a direction, it is always

moving towards the mean-and this is exactly what evolution is not.
This statement-quoted from Edgar Morin41-helps us define the episte-

mological and conceptual coordinates in order to discuss the experience
of musical time in Xenakis's electroacoustic works. By starting from here,
I also mean to affirm the methodological necessity of skipping over
Xenakis's own reductionistic definition of time as "a blackboard on which
one writes events and structures." I would rather concentrate on how he
works and what he works on-than on his declarations concerning the
subject matter. Declarations of intent sometimes are to be distinguished
from actual experience. The notion of a perfectly spatialized time seems
well suited only to works like Mycenae-Alpha which, as has been said
above, are not at all entirely representative of Xenakis's electroacoustic
works.
The preceding sections of this essay suggest that Xenakis, in his electro-
acoustic music, is aiming but perhaps not succeeding at setting up a self-
organizing system or mechanism. That his mechanism does tend toward
self-organizing behavior is revealed by its being sensitive to the initial con-
ditions set up by the composer: the system behaves differently, though
consistently, upon different initial settings. That self-organization, how-
ever, does remain purely potential is revealed by the fact that his mecha-
nism is event-insensitive, i.e., unable to change its behavior upon the
occurrence of unpredicted states or events provoked by its own function-
ality.
This notion-that stochastic processes are event-insensitive-means
that the unexpected, the singularity of events, does not become a source

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of information and transformation, but rather favors a levelling-off

dency reflecting the relentless increase of entropic disorder (this is co
ent with the world view proper to the classical interpretation of
Second Principle of thermodynamics). Being memoryless, Xenak
mechanism does not learn from the history of its previous states; it c
not interact with the external, nor can it interact with its own histor
stated above, it is not an eco-system-it has no context.
Paradoxical as it may appear, this state of affairs represents a defici
"technological efficiency," a problem brought in by the theoret
cognitive limitations of stochastic laws-which in fact the compo
adopted in order to deliberately break down causality, i.e., the symme
of before and after. Hence there derives the need for very simple ove
formal shapes, with separate sections for each of which the mechanism
reset with new input data. We might say that in this utterly formaliz
music the event is forced by the external: all changes having some relev
for the shaping of the musical form are fed in by an intention that u
mately transcends formalization and stems, therefore, from intuition
out of formalized processes.
For Xenakis's mechanism cannot avoid being uprooted from its
text. Particular occurrences in the sonic matter leave no promises
open no temporal horizons; they leave no traces of themselves in
Singularity does not become catastrophe, in the sense that it does
cause a change of behavior by altering, even without annulling, the
governing the functioning of the mechanism. A state of suspen
ensues, moment by moment, in the flow of time as experienced b
listener.
If time, here, really were dynamic evolution, the mechanism's l
would then require that the occurrence of unforeseen (unforehe
events cause the activation of self-organizational dynamics. In reality,
occurrence of particular patterns and textures of sound is not capable,
Xenakis's mechanism, of reorienting the flow of time. The occurre
soon forgotten: the composer's mechanism denies time the powe
endowing the elements of the musical flow with a coefficient of creativ
Xenakis's radical gestures reflect an epistemological need to com
algorithmic and stochastic, determinism and indeterminism,42 and fin
lead to an essential nonlinearity and fragmentation in the experien
time. His work reflects a world no longer describable in terms of
order-from-order principle-with which Schrodinger had identif
purely deterministic rationalism of Laplacean stamp-but a world
mated by the order-from-disorder principle, a world where thing
incessantly put in order, warding off the ever-deeper abyss of ent
disorder. Yet, Xenakis does not manage to take a further step, toward
order-from-noise principle, i.e., toward a world neither strictly coher

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(algorithmic order) nor strictly incoherent (statistic order) but, if any-

thing, in a dynamic condition of chaos.43 There things would find their
(unstable) order, and the world would take form through the event,
through singularity. As is proposed by a positive interpretation of the Sec-
ond Principle: in self-organizing systems, an increase in entropy is a cre-
ative force, the bearer of isles of temporary order in the incessant flow of
transformation.
Xenakis's compositional models leave the sound matter in a condition
of statistic order, lacking any theory of the event capable of describing the
constructive and destructive dynamics of the experienced musical form.
CONCLUSION
From Concret PH to Gendy301, Xenakis is approaching an aesthetic-

cognitive paradigm that pushes his art right into the sphere of noise,
the reflection of the violent Nature that is free will-not unlike Lucre-
tius's description in his De Rerum Natura. The technology of the sto-
chastic laws constrains him within the margins of disorder and statistic
order, before any chance for true evolution can arise from the sound. The
events and discontinuities that nourish the musical form remain largely at
the mercy of a demiurge, not comprised by the criteria of the mechanism
itself.
This music incarnates the utopia of an art which aims at resolving the
dialectic between material and form-between Nature and Culture-by
means of an integrally constructivist disposition. This I call an instance of
integral subjectivity, resulting in works of art which are thoroughly arti-
facts: nothing in the work exists prior to the artist's action. Constructiv-
ism, here, takes the form of the objective, "natural" manifestation of the
mechanism; but the latter is designed and built up by the subject itself.
The S6val.;t (dynamis)-the living force-which in principle could let
the mechanism reveal itself remains largely left to the incursion, from the
external, of the subject. The techno-logy (knowledge in use) behind this
music testifies to the intelligence of an art in which chance and necessity
are perfectly integrated.

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NOTES
This paper revises and expands a previous essay published in Italian in

1995. The author wishes to thank the editors of Sonus-Materiali per la
Musica Contemporanea (Potenza) for permitting translation of the unre-
vised parts.
1. Pierre Schaeffer, Traite des objects musicaux. Essais interdisciplines

(Paris: Le Seuil, 1966), 16-17.
2. On this issue, see my paper "On the Centrality of Techne for an Aes-
thetic Approach on Electroacoustic and Computer Music," Journal
of New Music Research 24, no. 4 (1995): 369-83.
3. Schaeffer, Traite, 23.
4. At the time, Bohor was one of the most radical attempts at annulling
linear articulation in Western music. Another tape piece that was just
as radical at the time was Fabricfor Che (1968) by James Tenney.
5. See Brian Moore, The Psychology of Hearing (London: Academic

Press, 1982), 50-52.
6. The sonograms in these pages were made using a NeXT computer at
the Centro di Calcolo, Padua University. All other graphics were
realized on an IBM486 at the Laboratorio Musica & Sonologia in
L'Aquila. At the time of the making of this analysis (1994), the only
recording of Concret PH at my disposal was that published on None-
such LP H-71246. The work is now also available on the Electronic
Music Foundation CD, EMF 003 (together with Diamorphoses,
Orient-Occident, Hibiki-Hana-Ma, and S709).
7. In this second type of texture are hidden some sweeping sounds-

heard as extremely short chirps; see example, overleaf.
8. Example 6 is drawn from Benoit Mandelbrot's book Fractals: Form,

Chance, and Dimension (San Francisco: Freeman, 1977).
9. See Iannis Xenakis, Formalized Music (New York: Pendragon Press,

1992), 9. The 1992 edition of Formalized Music is an updated and
augmented version of the 1971 English edition (Bloomington: Uni-
versity of Indiana Press, 1971), which, in turn, integrally reprinted
and expanded the original French version, Musique Formelles (Paris:
La Revue Musicale, 1963).

101.161.72.177 on Sat, 05 Dec 2020 05:50:30 UTC
" " "fi^^h^,^,,- ~~~ ~~~~~..
.~
i. ''^'^ ^ ^ ; .. :.- . '* .

?- ?* - '
;|-,;, .^ ,~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~
: ^ .* , ; . . . .. . , - ll* ;l:
i rc ./
CONCRET PH: TWO EXTREMELY SHORT, BARELY AUDIBLE CHIRPING

SOUNDS (SEE NOTE 7); TOP-79.4"; BOTTOM-130.7"

101.161.72.177 on Sat, 05 Dec 2020 05:50:30 UTC
10. Stafford Beer, "Below the Twilight Arch," General Systems no.
(1969): 20.
11. Formalized Music, 103; Philips recording 835487.

12. Dennis Gabor, "Acoustical Quanta and the Theory of Hearing
Nature 4044(3) (1947): 592.
13. For an easily readable computer-code implementation of first-ord
TPMs, see Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse, Computer Music: Syn
thesis, Composition, Performance (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985),
283-88.
14. The same strategy was utilized in Analogique A (for three v

three cellos, and three double-basses). The compositional proc
Analogique B closely resembles that of Analogique A, the basi
ments of which are very short notes; the distance between succes
screens is At = 1.111 (MM J, 54). Analogique A-B propos
neat superimposition of instrumental and electronic sounds; it m
overtly clear that no attempt at timbral integration was made. M
cologist Angelo Orcalli describes the sounds of Analogique B a
buzzing of insects" in his book Fenomenologia della Musica S
mentale (Potenza: Sonus Edizioni, 1993), 117.
15. Formalized Music, 94.
16. He borrowed Abraham Moles's as well. However, Gabor had

pated most of the relevant psychoacoustical notions discusse
Moles's The'orie de l'Information et Perception Esthetique (P
Flammarion, 1958).
17. Barry Truax, "Real-Time Granular Synthesis with a Digital

Processing Computer," Computer Music Journal 12, no. 2 (1
14-26; Curtis Roads, "Automated Granular Synthesis," Comp
MusicJournal 2, no. 2 (1978): 61-62; Curtis Roads, "Asynchro
Granular Synthesis," in Representations of Musical Signals, ed. Gi
De Poli, Aldo Piccialli, and Curtis Roads (Cambridge: MIT
1991), 143-86.
18. Agostino Di Scipio, "Composition by Exploration of Non

Dynamical Systems," Proceedings of the International Comp
Music Conference (Glasgow, 1990), 324-27; "Caos determinist
composizione e sintesi del suono," Atti del IX Colloquio di Inf
tica Musicale (Genoa, 1991), 337-50; "Micro-Time Sonic D
and the Formation of Timbre," Contemporary Music Review 1
2 (1994): 135-48.

101.161.72.177 on Sat, 05 Dec 2020 05:50:30 UTC
19. Albert Bregman, Auditory Scene Analysis (Cambridge: MIT Press,

1990), 118-19.
20. Formalized Music, 103. For a more extended discussion on this
point, see my paper "The Problem of Second-Order Sonorities in
Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music," Organised Sound 2, no. 3 (1997):
165-78.
21. Orcalli, Fenomenologia, 120.

22. "Die Einheit der musikalischen Zeit" was written in 1961 for broad-
cast on the WDR, Cologne. It was first published in English transla-
tion as "The Concept of Unity in Electronic Music," trans. Elaine
Barkin, Perspectives of New Music 1, no. 1 (Fall 1962), 39-48. The
original German text was published with some revisions in Zeugnisse
(Frankfurt: Europaische Verlagsanstalt, 1963), and in Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Texte 1 (Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg,
1963), 211-21. For a discussion of microcomposition in the fifties
and sixties, see Henri Pousseur's book Fragments Theoriques: I-Sur
la musique experimentale (Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1970), in
particular the section "De la microstructure absolu."
23. Neuma CD 450-74. Perspectives of New Music cassette PNM 25.
24. In a later release of UPIC on the AT386 computer, these curves

were called arches, see G. Marino, J. M. Raczinsky, and Marie-
Helene Serra, "The New UPIC System," Proceedings of the Interna-
tional Computer Music Conference (Glasgow, 1990), 249-52.
25. Perspectives of New Music CD PNM 28.
26. Though Xenakis's orchestral scores are liberally supplied with glis-
sandi, that is not the case with his earlier tape works, with the excep-
tion of Diamorphoses.
27. See, for example, Iannis Xenakis, "Music Composition Treks," Com-
posers and the Computer, ed. Curtis Roads (Los Altos, Calif.: Kauf-
mann, 1985), 171-91.
28. On graphical methods of sound synthesis, see discussion in Curtis
Roads, Computer Music Tutorial (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996),
329-35.
30. A stereo mixdown of the seven tracks is available on CD, Montaigne

MO 782058.

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31. See Richard Toop's liner notes for the CD MO 782058; see also
Formalized Music, 293.
33. See code examples in Dodge and Jerse, 266-78.
34. Iannis Xenakis, "More Thorough Stochastic Music," Proceedings of

the International Computer Music Conference (Montreal, 1991),
517-18; Marie-Helene Serra, "Stochastic Composition and Stochas-
tic Timbre," Perspectives of New Music 31, no. 1 (Winter 1993):
236-57; Peter Hoffman, "Implementing the Dynamic Stochastic
Synthesis," offprint from Les Cahiers Groupe de Recherche en Infor-
matique Image et Instrumentation 4 (Caen, 1996).
36. These sonograms have been realized analyzing a monophonic copy

of the tape, so as to provide an image of the total spectral structure.
37. Gerard Grisey, "Tempus ex machina: A Composer's Reflections on

Musical Time," Contemporary Music Review 2, no. 1 (1987): 269.
38. Hugues Dufourt, Musique, pouvoir, ecriture (Paris: Bourgois, 1991),

335.
39. Agostino Di Scipio, "Inseparable Models of Material and of Musical

Design in Electroacoustic and Computer Music," Journal of New
Music Research 24, no. 1 (1995): 34-50.
40. Dufourt, Musique, pouvoir, ecriture, 195.
41. Edgar Morin (ed.), Teorie dell'evento (Milan: Bompiani, 1972), 31

(translation mine).
42. Morin, Teorie dell'evento, 297.
43. H. von Foerster, "On Self-organizing Systems and Their Environ-

ment," in Self-organizing Systems, ed. C. Yovits (New York: Perga-
mon Press, 1960), 31-50.

101.161.72.177 on Sat, 05 Dec 2020 05:50:30 UTC

Xenakis Electroacoustic Music

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Compositional Models in Xenakis's Electroacoustic Music

Author(s): Agostino Di Scipio

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/833529

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N IANNIS XENAKIS'S OUTPUT, electroacoustic music plays a role that is

In electroacoustic music, compositional strategies are mediated by too

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techniques and technologies-often considered foreign to the field of the

* A model of sound material is the operative description of "compos-

* A model of musical design is the operative description of "compos-

* A control structure represents the conceptual interface, as well as the

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mediated by the z-XvTI in the process of c

Xenakis's work with ele

Concret PH (1958) is a 2'45"-long textural composition, a "cloud" filled

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1. layering of m copies of the same texture: D = mdn (density of

2. layering of different textures each with its own density:

In both cases, the result of layering is a qualitative enrichment of the

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(Example 4, 37.7"-38"). Example 5 illustrates this phenomenon in

a ii . .11 I sh l J 0.11i l ik lI Ii I i ,LL L - It

EXAMPLE 1: CONCRET PH IS ENTIRELY MADE OF EXTREMELY SHORT

NOISE BURSTS. SHOWN HERE IS THE WAVEFORM OF ONE SUCH SOUND

(APPROXIMATELY 0.1" IN DURATION) AND ITS FREQUENCY SPECTRUM

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EXAMPLE 2A: SONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION

_ t , -- ...... ';, I : ' ' :t' i - ; :

. j;EXAMPLE 2B' CONCRT ; i: PH-80"-160"

EXAMPLE 2B: CONCRETPH-808:~'"- I60"

EXAM PLE 2B: CONCRET PH-80-1 60

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EXAMPLE 3A: PARTICULARS OF CONCRET PH-OVERLAPPING OF TWO

EXAMPLE 3B: CONCRET PH-OVERLAPPING OF TWO TYPES

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EXAMPLE 3C: CONCRET PH-FIRST TYPE OF SOUND TEXTURE (NOISE

j?;? " ii.

:::i::iC " :;?:! ' ??i ?,

ffi':, '' CI:C i .I:i "! ' c

EXAMPLE 3D: CONCRET PH-SECOND TYPE OF SOUND TEXTURE

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f:i, iiO iii.;F-;

EXAMPLE 3E: CONCRET PH-SECOND TYPE OF SOUND TEXTURE

EXAMPLE 4: A SMALL DETAIL OF CONCRET PH, 37.7"-38"

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EXAMPLE 5A: CONCRET PH, FRAGMENT 90"-100"

EXAMPLE 5B: CON

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EXAMPLE 5C: CONCRET

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The overall piece presents a rather simple macroscopic shape, going

,-.~. ::: :.' : 'r..i~" 16 ::' .. :':

if~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ i" . ':, :;i ::I

EXAMPLE 7A: DETAIL OF THE SONOGRAM OF CONC

"' ....1^',;~~~~ ^~' -l^' '^ ':~~ "' ^140'

EXAMPLE DETAIL OF THE SONOGRAM OF CONCRETPHTHE SECOND TYPE OF

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In line with the musique-concrete approach, here the model of sound

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time scales in the structure of music. Incidentally, this is mirrored-

Analogique B (1958-59) marks a departure from the concretist approac

s(t) = Zn,k an,kg(t-kT)ejnn