IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Ροβίθη Χαρά Μετάφραση : Αμπούτη Αγγελική Για παραπομπή : Ροβίθη Χαρά , "Xenakis Iannis", Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11573> Περίληψη : A music composer of Greek origin, coming from a family of the Greek Diaspora. During his lifetime, being as a participant of the social, political and cultural life in the years following the Second World War, he followed a course of research and creation serving his vision of art. Iannis Xenakis produced a rich musical, architectural and auctorial work which made him one of the most important progressive creators of the 20th century. Τόπος και Χρόνος Γέννησης 29th of May, 1922 ? (or 1921), Brăila, Romania. Τόπος και Χρόνος Θανάτου 4th of February, 2001, Paris. Κύρια Ιδιότητα Architect, mechanic, composer. 1. The First Years-Basic Studies Iannis Xenakis was born in Brăila of Romania, on the 29th of May, 1922 (the date is uncertain as it is probable that he was born in 1921) of parents who were members of the Greek Diaspora. His father, Klearchos, director of a British import-export company, came from Euboea, and his mother, Fotini Pavlou, came from the island of Limnos. Iannis Xenakis had two younger brothers, Kosmas, an urban planner and a painter, and Iasonas, a philosophy professor. Xenakis was introduced to music by his mother, who was a pianist. It is said that during his early childhood his mother gave him as a present a flute encouraging him to get involved in music. When he was five years old, his mother died from measles and the three children were brought up by French, English and German governesses. In 1932, the Xenakis family settled in Greece. On the island of Spetses, where his first residence in Greece was, Iannis studied at ‘Anargirios and Corgialenios School’( Αναργύρειος και Κοργιαλένειος Σχολή). Parallel to his basic studies, he started piano and music-theory lessons. During that period he encountered and fell in love with Mathematics, as well as, Greek and foreign literature. In the autumn of 1938, he moved to Athens in order to prepare for the exams of the ‘National Technical University of Athens’. Nevertheless, at the same time he continued his musical studies under the instruction of the composer, Aristotelis Koudourov. His entry into the Technical University coincided with the declaration of the Greek-Italian War (28 October, 1940). During the period 1940-6, Iannis Xenakis remained in Athens and attended lessons at the Civil Engineering Department at the National Technical University of Athens, which, however, did not operate regularly because of the circumstances during the German Occupation. 2. The resistance action In 1941, Iannis entered the Resistance and became a member of E.A.M..1 He participated in many demonstrations and was imprisoned several times by the German and Italian occupation forces. In 1943, Xenakis was secretary of EPON2 and an agitator in the ‘Lord Byron’group. In January 1945, at the beginning of the Greek Civil War, he was wounded. He was traced by his father, who rescued him and transferred him to a hospital. As a result of his injury, Iannis lost his left eye and his face was disfigured. In March, 1945, Xenakis was discharged from hospital. He managed to finish his studies by completing his graduate thesis on reinforced concrete. Δημιουργήθηκε στις 26/9/2021 Σελίδα 1/5 IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Ροβίθη Χαρά Μετάφραση : Αμπούτη Αγγελική Για παραπομπή : Ροβίθη Χαρά , "Xenakis Iannis", Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11573> In September 1947, after hiding for six months in an apartment in Athens, Iannis managed to escape abroad in a barge which conveyed him to Italy. Xenakis, having as initial destination the USA, illegally crossed the French-Italian borders with the help of Italian communists, and ended up in Paris. In Greece, he was condemned to death in absentia. His father and brother were imprisoned. 3. The period 1947-59: his learning beside Le Corbusier In December of the same year, Xenakis was hired at the studio of the internationally renowned architect, Le Corbusier, where he worked during the years 1947-59, first as assistant to Le Corbusier and afterwards as his partner. In France, Iannis continued his studies in composition of music at ‘Ecole Normale’and there associated with Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger. His pioneering ideas often brought him in opposition to his teachers. More harmonious was his communication with the French composer, Olivier Messiaen during his studies at the ‘Conservatoire’of Paris. Messiaen urged him to explore the relationship between Mathematics and music. Between 1949 and 1952, Xenakis composed twenty-four pieces of music, mainly for piano and piano – vocals. In 1950, he attended the concerts of GRMC (Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète), which was a group of electrical-acoustic music founded by Pierre Schaeffer, and he attempted to join the group, however, unsuccessfully. In the same year, he met Françoise Gargouil, the subsequent author, Françoise Xenaki, whom he married on 3 December, 1953. From that marriage he had one daughter, Machi Xenaki, a painter and sculptress. In 1953, Xenakis organized a concert within the framework of the ‘International Congress of Modern Architecture’( CIAM), in Marseille. The organization, which came in response to the proposition of Le Corbusier, aimed to distinguish the communication between sound and architectural space. The following year, Xenakis was the head of the architectural planning of the ‘La Tourette’ monastery, while, during the same period, he was working on the musical opus ‘Metastaseis’, which was first publically performed, in October, 1955, at the ‘Donaueschingen Festival’, under the co-ordination of Hans Rosbaud. ‘Metastaseis’, signaled the first attempt of the creator to apply the laws of nature to music. The concert was a ‘scandal’in the area of ‘Serial Music’.3 That concert followed the publication, in July of 1955, of a Xenakis’s text with the title: ‘La crise de musique serielle’, in which the composer criticized that kind of music and its polyphonic structure. During that time, Xenakis joined the group of Pierre Sephere, ‘Recherche de Musique Concrète’, which has since been renamed after 1958, in ‘Groupe de recherché musicales’, and within its framework created the composition, ‘Diamorphoses’. In 1958, Le Corbusier assigned Xenakis with the designing of the Phillips Pavilion for the ‘Brussels World’s Fair’( Expo ’58). Its structure, which its creator connected it to the musical composition ‘Metastaseis’, comprises a paradigm of Xenakis’s theory on post-art, a concept which was based on his view, according to which, art expression could be completed with the contribution of Mathematics in every art form. In March of 1957, Iannis performed his opus, ‘Pithoprakta’, at the ‘Live Music Festival of Munich’for the first time; while in July of 1958 another music composition, ‘Achorripsis’was performed for the first time in Buenos Aires. Herman Scheren was the director of both music pieces. Iannis Xenakis, in the article ‘A la recherche d’une musique stochastique’explained the principles of ‘stochastic synthesis’, on which he had based the composition ‘Achorripsis’. 4. The period 1960-1974: The international recognition In 1960, Iannis Xenakis established with Michel Philippot, Abraham Moles and Alain de Chambure, MYAM, a research group having as its subject Mathematics and music. In the same year he held an experimental music concert at Tokyo where he met Yuji Δημιουργήθηκε στις 26/9/2021 Σελίδα 2/5 IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Ροβίθη Χαρά Μετάφραση : Αμπούτη Αγγελική Για παραπομπή : Ροβίθη Χαρά , "Xenakis Iannis", Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11573> Takahashi, who presented the work of Xenakis to the Japanese audience. In 1962, Xenakis completed the composing of a series of music works, which he called them ‘ST’from the first two letters of the word ‘stochastic’, by using a programme of an electronic computer, which he subsequently performed. In October of 1963, Iannis’s theoretical short essays, titled ‘Musiques Formelles-Nouvelles principles de composition musicale’were published. Between 1964 and 1966, the composer continued his writing and musical activities, whilst his work was becoming more broadly known through many international events. One of these was the presentation of one of his works, ‘Ikedites’at the Theatre of Epidavros (July 1964), which took place without its composer being present. In 1967, Xenakis founded and directed EMAMU (Equipe de Mathematique et d’Automatique Musical). The group, which had as co-founders François Genuys and George Guilbaud, combined theoretical seminars with research. In the same year, Xenakis was invited to lecture at the Indiana Bloomington University. He would retain his position there until 1972. His musical work increasingly earned the favour of the audiences and the critics from Ottawa to Chile. In 1969, at the inauguration of the ‘National Art Centre of Ottawa’, his music was choreographed by Roland Petit for the ballet company Kraanerg, under the direction of Lukas Foss. In many respects, the work of Iannis Xenakis continues to restore the dialogue between many expressions of art, such as architectural space, light and sound, and to show multiple dimensions of time. Characteristic of his aims were various displays like, the performance of his work, ‘Persepolis’, at the ‘Shiraz Art Festival’, which took place at the ruins of the ancient palace of Darius, and the organisations with the name ‘Polytope’, as the ‘Polytope’in Montreal (1967), and at the spa of Cluny (13 October 1972), and the organisation with the name ‘Diatope’at the George Pompidou Centre. 5. The Period 1974-2001 In 1974, after the fall of the dictatorship, Xenakis returned to Greece. In the summer of the following year, the ‘Athens Festival’ honoured him by concluding its shows with a tribute to his work, called ‘Xenakis’s Week’.