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The Orchestra as a Resource for Electroacoustic Music On some works by Iannis Xenakis and Paul Dolden Agostino Di Scipio a a L'Aquila Italy.

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To cite this Article Scipio, Agostino Di(2004)'The Orchestra as a Resource for Electroacoustic Music On some works by Iannis Xenakis and Paul Dolden',Journal of New Music Research,33:2,173 — 183 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/0929821042000310649 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0929821042000310649

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The Orchestra as a Resource for Electroacoustic Music On some works by Iannis Xenakis and Paul Dolden1

Agostino Di Scipio

Via Salaria Antica Est 33/a, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy

Abstract Iannis Xenakis’ tape work Hibiki-Hana-Ma (1970) was com- Ohm’s “superposition principle” (1843). He also rejected the posed only using extended recordings of orchestral passages. idea that electroacoustic and computer music should involve In this paper some analytical remarks are proposed concern- a simulation of conventional music instruments. In analogue ing the studio techniques Xenakis adopted and how they electronic works such as Analogique B (1958–59) and La reﬂect in the resultant sonorities. I shortly discuss, too, Below Légend d’Eer (1977), and computer music compositions the Walls of Jericho (1988–89), a tape work by Canadian alike, e.g., Mycenae-Alpha (1978) and Gendy3 (1991), composer Paul Dolden, made of hundreds of instrumental Xenakis created the sound materials themselves, implement- lines layered together like a huge kind of orchestra. In con- ing new sound synthesis methods based on statistical princi- sidering these two works, I am interested in questions like: ples. However radical, that position is of the utmost relevance what makes this music “electroacoustic”, rather than to the aesthetics and the theory of electronic music media. It “orchestra music that was eventually recorded”? The answer represents the composer’s attempt to bring forth, at that time, leans on a number of observations concerning (a) per- a theory of sound (i.e., an understanding of sound phenom- ceptual/cognitive phenomena (“emergent sonorities” and ena) consistent with his own theory of music (i.e., the vision “timbral residues” as due to variations of sonic density), and and implementation of “stochastic music”) (see discussion in (b) technological devices adopted in the compositional Di Scipio, 1995b, 1997). process. A relevant implication is ﬁnally discussed: the Yet, in his career Xenakis followed several approaches to notion that a clash or encounter takes place in this music electroacoustic composing (a survey on his eletroacoustic between different musical technologies understood as cul- and computer music repertoire is found in Harley, 2002; see tural institutions – namely the “orchestra” and the “electroa- also Hoffmann & Solomos, 1998). Moreover, in apparent

Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 coustic studio”. Besides some common elements, the two contrast to his own initial position, he did use instrumental works under examination in actuality reﬂect contrasting sounds in some of his electroacoustic works. I do not refer views of music technology in the creative process. to “mixed works”, i.e., scored for instruments and tape – there are only two, namely Analogique A et B (nine strings and taped synthetic sounds, 1958–59) and Kraanerg (23 1. Introduction instruments and tape, 1968–69). Nor do I refer to Pour la paix (1981), his only hörspiel, with voices (spoken and sung) In the late 1950s Xenakis rejected the notion that musical and synthesized sounds. I rather refer to tape works exclu- sound should be thought of in terms of simple harmonic sively or predominantly made of recordings of instrumental oscillations summed together, a notion dating back to Jean- ensembles or orchestras. That is the case with Polytope de Baptiste Fourier’s theorem (1807) and also related to George Montréal (1967), Hibiki-Hana-Ma (1969–70) and Persepo- lis (1971). And with Kraanerg, too, as its tape part “is appar- 1 Revised and extended text of a lecture delivered at the Rotterdam ently based on recordings done with the same 23-member Conservatory, 1998. chamber orchestra as the live parts” (Harley, 2002, p. 42). All

Correspondence: Agostino Di Scipio, Via Salaria Antica, Est 33/a, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]

such works were initially part of larger multimedia events, should pursue an examination of those auditory and techno- but later they have been presented as independent electroa- logical aspects which were not – and could not – be notated coustic works. They are very different among themselves, by the composer, but which nonetheless were central to his and yet represent altogether a homogeneous set of composi- composing. tions, the common element being the extensive utilization of As it seems, here is a paradoxical “study case” – but a recorded orchestra sounds. telling one – for scholars interested in music theory and The music of Polytope de Montréal has a special rele- analysis. It is often repeated that a major problem in analy- vance, in this respect. A 6-minute piece scored for four sis work bearing on electroacoustic repertoires is represented ensembles (each with 14 members), it is listed as “orchestra by the absence of a score, understood as the presumed lack music” in the official Xenakis catalogue. However, musicol- of a presumed niveau neutre (with older nattiezian terms). ogist François Delalande classifies this work as “musique However, confronted with works like Hibiki-Hana-Ma (or pour ensemble instrumental enregistré” (Delalande, 1997, p. Paul Dolden’s Below the Walls of Jericho – discussed later in 154). Indeed, within the installation of Polytope de Montréal, this paper), we should admit that such problems are not really Xenakis had a recording of the orchestra performance played overcome just because musical scores are, or could be, avail- back and projected over four loudspeaker groups. Arguably, able. In actuality, the problems raised far exceed issues of that was for reasons of economy and practicality: it might notation and “neutral level”, and have more to do with a lack have been difficult to somehow harmonize 56 instrumental- of “ethnomusicological awareness”, i.e., with an unwilling- ists within the logistics of the Polytope; and anyway the mere ness to characterize a different musical praxis (Di Scipio, presence of so many instrumentalists might have heavily 1995a). In all successful electroacoustic music, the link interfered with the visual focus of the overall event, expected between compositional process and listening experience to be on the trajectories of intermittent light-bulbs designed can hardly be reduced in terms of a possibly “objective” rep- by Xenakis himself. resentation of the sonic events, as it is more linked with I think, however, that the practical circumstances of Poly- design issues and a different cognitive relevance of sonic tope de Montréal revealed to the composer a significant and phenomena. hitherto unexplored potential. Indeed, the next year he started using taped orchestra sounds in a more systematic way, although certainly not in a “formalized” approach. That was 3. Hibiki-Hana-Ma for the tape parts of Kraanerg. Hibiki-Hana-Ma and Perse- polis were soon to follow. Xenakis’ Hibiki-Hana-Ma (Japanese words for “echo-flower- space”) was born of a commission to compose a new work for the Japanese Steel Federation Pavilion, at the 1970 Osaka 2. Questions World Expo. The overall project was under the direction of composer Toru Takemitsu, and also included multimedia The question arises as to what in such music is specific to events by Takemitsu himself and Yuji Takahashi. Composers the electroacoustic medium. In other words, what really were expected to create multichannel tape works to be played makes it electroacoustic music rather than orchestra music over a large array of loudspeakers, and to pursue their task Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 that for some reasons was recorded on tape? Another ques- by exploiting various resources made available by the NHK tion is: how was it that Xenakis, the author of some of the (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation), eventually including most utterly synthetic and abstract works that ever appeared the resident orchestra. According to (Loubet, 1998), the tech- in the history of electroacoustic music, turned for some years nical set-up for the final performance would include “four 6- to musical works predominantly made of (largely recogniz- track recorders [. . .] and 1300 loudspeakers located in the able) recorded orchestra sounds? floor, ceilings and walls” (Loubet, 1998, p. 49). Almost all sounds in Hibiki-Hana-Ma were originated by Based on a number of annotations found in various writ- a normal orchestra playing from scores. The scores had been ings (both Xenakis’ and his commentators’), and especially prepared by Xenakis for the specific purpose of having them based on relevant manuscript documentation recently found recorded on tape. It is reasonable to argue that some were by Makis Solomos in the Xenakis archives, in Paris (private actually drawn from previous scores of his (Harley, 2002, p. communication), we can summarize the main steps of the 44). This being so, one can also ask: what is the function, production process in the following way: (1) a certain and status itself, of orchestral writing (écriture) here? number of musical passages were scored; (2) these passages All such questions unavoidably touch upon fundamental were played and recorded in studio sessions by the Japan issues of music theory and also pose methodological prob- Philharmonic (Seiji Ozawa conducting; each orchestral lems of music analysis. Should one focus on written sketches family was recorded independent of the others); (3) to this and/or scores (I think that would be certainly the case with orchestral sound material, more materials were added in the Polytope de Montréal), or should one address those aspects studio, notably including percussive Japanese instruments, that make these works genuinely electroacoustic, i.e., uncon- and recorded strings previously utilized for the Kraanerg ceivable in other media? To answer the latter question, one tape; (4) all recorded materials were split into smaller tape The orchestra and electroacoustic music 175

segments and re-assembled on two synchronized six-track 1, for example, tape segments are grouped either by instru- analogue tape recorders; as a work plan, Xenakis devised a mental family or very general sound morphology (strings; montage schema (called “kinematic scores” in the archive rattles; and low-frequency rumbles resulting from timpani documents), illustrating the timeline for the tape segments rolls and other deep lowest sounds of woodwind and brass and track assignments. Probably the composer also prepared instruments). In other sections, however, different grouping a graphic schema for the loudspeaker assignments of tracks criteria would fit better, depending on the particular sound (he spoke of “kinematic diagrams”, see Xenakis, 1992, p. materials; that can hardly be otherwise, because newer mate- 379), as an aid that would help him in managing the projec- rials are introduced (replacing older ones) even at very late tion of the 12 tracks over a number of 150 loudspeaker stages in the piece – only after 15¢00≤ (last section) is this groups (for a total of 800 loudspeakers scattered across the process discontinued, as the sound palette is gradually Steel Pavilion); however, at the moment this is not at all clear, reduced and a single sound material becomes more in evi- and further scrutiny of the archive documents is needed. dence (string glissandos). In later years the original 12 tracks were mixed down to Now, in the following I will not go into a detailed descrip- eight (today an eight-track ADAT is available from Xenakis’ tion of the structure and the internal development of Hibiki- publisher). A stereo version was eventually prepared for the Hana-Ma. I think it is more fruitful to clarify constructive CD release (Xenakis, 1997). The total duration is 17¢40≤. aspects and related perceptual phenomena that specifically belong to, and enrich the range of, the techniques and methods of electroacoustic music. As stated above, I am 3.1. General remarks interested in characterizing what makes this music genuine A preliminary approach would consist in isolating the many “electroacoustic”, as opposed to orchestral music that was tape chunks the piece is made of. Accordingly, entry time and recorded on tape. end time of each segment would be checked, in order to obtain an overall view of the pace and rhythm of the music 3.2. Interference phenomena and timbral residue in its meso- and macro-level structure. (That would be the same as reconstructing the “kinematic score” mentioned The layering of many taped musical passages create a larger above.) Figure 1 shows a sketch of the first section sonority due to the interference among overlapping sound (0¢00≤–3¢00≤), where blocks represent tape segments. In my materials. While that seems quite obvious, it is nonetheless view, such an approach would be relevant primarily in order a crucial element, and demands special attention. It means to outline the time-changing “polyphony” (overlapping strata that some properties of the music as heard emerge more from of sound materials) of the overall work. That, in turn, would the layering of various (different or similar or identical) be relevant to a consideration of the most important dimen- sound materials, and less from the original orchestral writing. sion in this music: density (see discussion below). This is to say that the superposition and interaction among Clearly, the particular sound within each tape segment different materials is compositionally controlled through the should also be examined: instrument(s) involved, playing interplay of tape segments, empirically dealt with by the techniques, average registers, average intensity, etc. In Figure composer at the mixing desk. Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009

Fig. 1. Analysis of the orchestral sound sources in the ﬁrst section in Hibiki-Hana-Ma. 176 Agostino Di Scipio

Fig. 2. The mediation of electroacoustic technology causes more Fig. 3. In a multichannel playback set-up, the amount of natural acoustic interferences to sum on top of the natural interferences in and technologically mediated interferences increases. the sound phenomenon being recorded. sorts of byproduct, and a peculiar massive effect. An This notion of interference of should be referred to at least auditory image with a stronger, although artificial, sonic two distinct phenomena: presence develops. The relationship between density of (1) The sounds of many instruments are compressed onto a taped events and the perceived “volume” of the overall single track (typically corresponding to one “channel”, sound is not a linear one, and makes it impossible to i.e., one loudspeaker or several cascaded loudspeakers); presume that, say, eight sound layers simultaneously therefore, when the tape is played back, several instru- playing would give you the double volume of four layers. ments are “crammed” onto one single physical oscillat- The apparent “volume”, as a perceptual property in the ing point, i.e., the centre of the loudspeaker cone; the sound, should be understood here as a function of summation of many source signals is made in the elec- the complex interplay of many aspects, including troacoustic medium, not in the eardrum, as would be if spectral bandwidth, duration and, again, density (Truax, we listened to the orchestra playing in a concert hall 1992). 2 (Figure 2). For professionals in audio engineering, this We should speak here of a peculiar timbral residue, i.e., the situation causes many problems that should be carefully appearence of an emerging sonority which is not comprised dealt with (“high fidelity”). The auditory field can hardly in the separate sound layers, and only arising from their and be rendered by the movements of a single physical point. multiple interferences. In a sense, this is akin to an auditory Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 Phase-cancellations and phase-reinforcements among phenomenon Xenakis was already researching with different partial frequencies take place. The consequence is heard means in the late 1950s, when he put forth his hypothesis as a poor spatial perspective in the sound, and a partic- of second-order sonorities (Xenakis, 1992, p. 47) and ular coloration in the timbre takes over because of the experimented it in Analogique B, the tape component resonance characteristics of microphones and cones and of Analogique A et B (Di Scipio, 1997). In passing, I would because of the loudspeaker box design (loudspeaker observe that Analogique A et B is a totally different music, design is very similar to filter design). compared with Hibiki-Hana-Ma, but some of the questions (2) In the sound projection, further interferences arise Xenakis raised with that work (in a thorough formalized way) between the sounds coming over two or many different reflect into many later pieces. (The mathematical apparatus loudspeakers (each loudspeaker ideally representing the behind Analogique B is discussed in Orcalli, 1993; more is sounds of many instruments). More interferences are found in my own discussion of Analogique A et B, with also created between the loudspeaker sounds and the regard to the historical and intellectual background of its wave reflections in the room (see Figure 3). In such a mathematical frame; Di Scipio, 1998, 2002.) situation, higher densities of sound events generate all

3.3. Density 2 For the sake of simplicity, we assume an ideal recording session set-up, where each instrument has its own microphone. In actuality, A related compositional dimension is density. I mean hori- the superposition of the sound of two or several instruments already zontal density, in the ﬁrst place, that is amount of sound takes place across the microphone membrane. events per time unit. I don’t take into account, instead, of ver- The orchestra and electroacoustic music 177

tical density (frequency clusters), as I really doubt Xenakis with random pitches. Other sonorities include textures of was thinking in terms of spectral distribution.3 high-pitched small chimes or rattles (also found in other Understood as amount of sounds per time unit, density in Xenakis’ electroacoustic works), low-pitched rumbling principle could be precisely measured, allowing us to better sounds perceived as a kind of sonic turbulence, and more describe the sound textures this music is made of. In his gestural events like wild percussive outburts. Some are earlier orchestral works, Xenakis used to control density hardly recognizable as produced by any music instrument. variations on the basis of perceptual considerations: in For example, the rumbles heard at the beginning of the piece Analogique A et B, for example, he intuitively started with a were created by playing back orchestral material at a lower logarithmic scale of density degrees, including three levels: speed than the recording speed. By sampling, transposing one, three or nine sonic events per time unit (the time unit and layering percussion rolls distinctly heard at other being 1.2¢ in the instrumental score, and 0.5¢ in the synthetic moments in the piece, I could generate a very similar sound sounds on tape). However, such values were not actually used texture. as such, as they were submitted to statistical variations. Still, More tape speed variations were applied to recordings of it is very relevant that Xenakis chose a logarithmic law as a string passages. Examples are heard at 4¢12≤, 4¢42≤ and reference, because in that way he was in agreement with the 6¢52≤. Downsampling these sounds, I found that the original then well-accepted notion that all human perception follows sound was recorded while the orchestra was tuning or a logarithmic function of variations in physical quantity (the “warming up” before some performance (probably before the so-called “Fechner law”). Xenakis recording session itself). Among such sounds are In the production of Hibiki-Hana-Ma, density was clearly arpeggiato major chords and other phrase-like instrumental dealt with by Xenakis in a more intuitive and empirical way. passages usually strangers to Xenakis’ music. (Some of these That happened at two distinct levels: (1) in the orchestra transposed sounds have been also utliized by Xenakis in scores themselves, and (2) in the overlapping of tracks, i.e., Persepolis, especially the sound of the orchestra tuning.) in the “kinematic score”. By way of that, variations of density At the time when Hibiki-Hana-Ma was composed, tape were certainly a major preoccupation in the making of this speed control was among the easiest ways to operate sound piece. Significantly, in his description of the overall form, trasformations in the electronic studio. Yet, although exten- Harley (2002, p. 44) leans on variations of density – and its sively used by Xenakis in this work, it is in itself insufficient perceptual correlate, intensity. to clarify the difference between an electroacoustic compo- On this issue, I would say that music analysis could prof- sition based on orchestral sounds, and an orchestral compo- itably rely on research work carried out in the area of sition played back via loudspeakers. Other simple devices auditory perception, particularly studies in the cognitive rep- must be considered, whose utilization affected the end result resentation of granular, textural auditory percepts (e.g., as much as tape speed variations, although they were usually MacKay, 1984). A large body of related research is reviewed given a secondary role in analogue studio practice. in Bregman (1990). Useful hints could be drawn from the pioneering work of cognitive psychologist Bela Julesz, 3.5. Studio techniques: tape splicing whose main scientific concern was with the perception of visual textures: efforts have been made to apply his notion Indeed, a relevant aspect in Hibiki-Hana-Ma is the psycho- Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 of “texton” (defined as the “unity of texture”) in the analy- logical effect due to the splicing of tape segments into sis of twentieth-century orchestral music (see Gabel, 1993, smaller chunks, especially because the beginning and end of with examples bearing on music by Penderecki, Lutoslawski, these tape portions rarely match the beginning and end of the Rands, Ligeti, and Debussy). musical patterns recorded by the orchestra. Due to the artifacts of splicing (artificial transients), and to its psycho- logical connotations (the sudden, violent irruption or inter- 3.4. Studio techniques: tape speed variation ruption of a continuing musical flow), each tape chunk Many sonorities in Hibiki-Hana-Ma are typical of Xenakis’ becomes for the ear like a window that opens on an inde- orchestral repertoire, and include masses of string glissan- pendent musical flow that started at some earlier time and dos, “clouds” of pizzicato sounds, sustained clusters of wood proceeds in its own right. and brass instruments, and more percussive gestures, often Sure, one could compose a conventional orchestral score following the same idea (consider some of the orchestral output of Franco Donatoni: his Puppenspiel, a piece from the 3 None of the existing studies and the analytical investigations into early 1960s, was made with segments randomly extracted Xenakis’ electroacoustic music seems to suggest that he has ever approached the sound material in terms of its frequency spectrum from Stockhausen’s Gruppen). However, to work this out in (i.e., as a cluster of either harmonic or inharmonic frequency com- the tape medium has stronger and more dramatic connota- ponents). The main work tools he adopted or invented for himself tions. If anything, the transient by-products of splicing, and included no “spectral modeling” device. I presume this reflects his the short onset-time of each single chunk of sound, are only rejection of the Fourier representation of the sound. possible in the tape medium: in a traditionally scored work 178 Agostino Di Scipio

they would remain as an external reference, as the object of Another example is the string glissandos heard at 0¢26≤ mimesis, not belonging to the medium. and 0¢35≤: the latter occurrence is overtly an exact copy of Now, because the tape splicing results in a random sam- the former. At 1¢14≤, this sound is replicated once again, and pling of a continuing, independent musical flow, as a conse- develops into a more expanded glissando gesture. Later, by quence the orchestra is heard as a pre-existent, independent the end of the first section, more strings are heard playing a entity whose sound is repeatedly switched on and off. As the repeated glissando gesture but with a slower and slower music unfolds, this notion becomes a focus of attention, tempo (ritardando). Now, this is distinctly recognized as a together with the operation of switching and the resulting “performed” repetition, as opposed to a tape loop created in pattern of ons and offs. This reminds me of Samuel Beckett’s the studio. What becomes audibly evident, then, is the dif- radio play Cascando (1965), where the dialogue between two ference between purely mechanical and actually performed personae (called Voix and Musique) is technically operated repeats. by a third called Ouvrer (an “opener”, one who operates a The interplay of “performed” and “mechanized” comes switch device, as in a radiophonic studio). In a sense, the to the foreground at several moments in the piece. It is composer of Hibiki-Hana-Ma has, for the listener, the role hard to say to what extent Xenakis was aware of it, at of the Ouvrer, but an Ouvrer having several “sound per- least at the outset. But it is just as hard not to pre- sonae” to switch on and off. One could be tempted to further sume that, while working in the studio, he eventually be- stress a similarity with current practice in creative live came aware of it and ultimately didn’t try to avoid or mask mixing (inlcuding the typical technical set-up today operated it. by DJs). This would be going too far, I believe, although some related implications should be examined (later in the paper). 3.7. Studio techniques: random In passing, I would add that the audible relief of the tape- loudspeaker assignments splicing technique suggests, but discreetly, that a “conceptual” element is proper to Hibiki-Hana-Ma: in a way, the Finally, we should consider that musical materials are listeners can “hear out” the very means (crudely technical, exchanged between tracks. The very same string pizzicati – empirical) of the production process, thereby making them I mean the very same recorded material – would be heard part of the listening experience. Surely Xenakis didn’t take now from a loudspeaker, then from another maybe far this conceptual aspect into account, and didn’t develop it any removed from the former. This spatialization effect, though further: the effects of tape-splicing are in much less evidence, very basic, would be impossible with a real orchestra. In to say the least, in the other tape works of his made with works such as Terretektorh (orchestra, 1965–66), Nomos orchestral sound, and they are not featured in Persepolis, the Gamma (orchestra, 1967–68), and Persephassa (percussions, tape work composed next to Hibiki-Hana-Ma. It is, nonethe- 1969), Xenakis requires that the players be disseminated all less, interesting to observe that, at the time of Hibiki-Hana- around the hall. In Eonta (piano and five brass instruments, Ma, similar conceptual aspects were featured in the music of 1963–64) he required that the brass players change their posi- other electroacoustic pioneers. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s tion while playing. What is peculiar to Hibiki-Hana-Ma is Hymnen (1967) is a notable example, as it is disseminated that instruments could be heard from any of the loudspeaker Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 with “field recordings” taken in the electronic music studio groups placed in the concert venue, as if performers could (the noise of the equipment as it was being operated, and the move around while playing, and in some cases could be heard voices of Stockhausen and his assistant discussing studio in any number of places at the same time (i.e., the same mate- technicalities, etc.). rial heard over two or more loudspeakers). When that is the case, the set of instruments comprised in the particular tape segment is doubled, tripled, etc., with side-effects on density 3.6. Studio techniques: loops and exact replicas and the perceived volume. Another peculiar technique is the mere dubbing and looping To summarize, then, timbral residue (due the recording of tape segments. An example is the string glissandos first medium itself and to multichannel diffusion), density, introduced at 15¢40≤ and then insistently repeated up to volume, random spatialization, pitch-shift, tape loops and the 17¢10≤ (last section in the piece).4 What we hear is a repeat- effect of splicing-up taped materials at will – all of these ing musical gesture, but we soon become aware that that is perceptual and technical elements make Hibiki-Hana-Ma not the sound of an orchestra going through a “ritornelli” specifically electroacoustic. In the conception itself, as well passage: the gesture has a mechanical element to it, because as in the auditory experience, we see that the musical thought what is being repeated is not the musical phrase but the of this work was specific to the medium, and could not be physical waveform. vehicled in a piece scored “for orchestra”. Conversely, we could say that no work that Xenakis scored for orchestra could be thought of in the electroacoustic medium, even 4 That particular sound recording is also featured in Persepolis, at though, quite obviously, experience with one medium 55¢40≤ and 56¢50≤ in the background. affected experience with the other. The orchestra and electroacoustic music 179

4. Paul Dolden’s Below the Walls of Jericho all instrumental lines were individually performed and recorded; (4) the resulting digital tracks were mixed together As observed above, after composing Hibiki-Hana-Ma and and, through a number of submixes, finally the master stereo Persepolis, Xenakis never took up that approach again. Few mix was obtained. (Clearly, this is a simplification: it may composers seemed to have explored the particular approach. well be the case that steps 2, 3 and 4 were carried out in par- Among them, the Canadian Paul Dolden (b. 1956) has cer- allel, at least in part.) Dolden was very careful in scheduling tainly taken it to most radical consequences, though in ways the production work sessions in a way that no sound mater- other than Xenakis’. In tape works such as Below the Walls ial would be re-sampled more than three times. That was in of Jericho (1988–89) and L’ivresse de la vitesse (1993), he order to keep digital signal degradation to a minumum. Far utilized hundreds of digitally recorded instrumental lines and from being a merely technical detail, that was essential to arranged them in dense layers of sound. Below the Walls of provide the final sound with a strong sense of bodily pres- Jericho has up to 400 individual sound tracks assembled ence, almost like a tactile experience of sound. together. In discussing aspects of Dolden’s work, I will not create a link between his compositional methods and Xenakis’ 4.1. A “collapse” of auditory dimensions methods in Hibiki-Hana-Ma. Still, the reader is solicited to Although 400 different sound tracks were recorded, the score go through the present section keeping in mind the main of Below has up to 100 written musical lines: in the score, in points discussed so far. fact, every notated pitch stands for a set of four different into- Leaving aside the circumstance that Xenakis worked in nations of the same nominal pitch (each instrumental line an analogue studio, while Dolden works in a digital studio 5 preserves the equal temperament intonation, but based on a (his own), Dolden’s strategy is somewhat different from different reference pitch). A typical set of intonation shifts Xenakis’. In his work, each sound track is the recording of would be between -25 cents to +50 cents (i.e.: -25, 0, +25, an individual instrumental line. The instrumental line itself +50 cents). However, the amount of shift varies across the would be more or less conventionally notated. The complete instrumental groups, and even changes within one and the set of instrumental lines represents a score for a huge orches- same group at later passages in the score. As a simple tra. In Below the Walls of Jericho there are no less than 333 example, consider Figure 4, reproducing (with the com- lines of pitched instruments (brass, string and wind instru- poser’s permission) a page of Dolden’ manuscript score. ments, percussions, four voices, and several instruments of There are 48 distinct musical lines, i.e., 48 ¥ 4 = 192 indi- non-Western traditions), and 67 lines of unpitched percus- vidual instrumental parts. There are eight percussion lines, sions. This work was the first in a series of three, that the too, for a total of 200 sound tracks. The full range of 400 composer calls the Walls cycle (including Dancing on the tracks (100 different musical lines) is only utilized in some Walls of Jericho and Beyond the Walls of Jericho, composed very loud passages (e.g., by the end of the piece). respectively in 1990 and 1991–2). The titles refer to a bibli- Overlapping instrumental lines often have independent cal episode, the taking of the Philistine city of Jericho by the tempi and independent rhythms. For example, the eight Jewish, described in the Book of Joshua: a large crowd timpani would have overlapping tempi ranging from crotchet breaks down a wall by the sheer power of their shouts and = 150 to crotchet = 80 (page 2 of the manuscript score). At Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 cries. For Dolden, the episode becomes a methaphor for other passages in the score, overlapping instrumental parts social change through music. Accordingly, Below the Walls have different metrical divisions, and special arrangements of Jericho is meant to audibly illustrate a sound monolith torn of metres and tempi give rise to quite complicated polyrhyth- down by “the anonymous massed texture of four hundred mic patterns. In certain cases, such polyrhythmic patterns are tracks of sound” (from the compact disc booklet in Dolden, marked either accelerando or ritardando, in which there 1994). would be a continuous tempo shift over a certain time span. The piece lasts 13¢34≤. It unfolds following a fairly linear For example, in a given passage (page 16 of the manuscript development. There are three main sections separate by short score), several instrumental groups speed up from crothet = pauses. The third has three distinct subsections. In each 80 to crotchet = 360, playing in 4/4 rhythm, while, at the section there are areas of sparse materials and softer dynam- same time, all percussions slow down from crotchet = 160 to ics, contrasting with areas of denser materials and louder crotchet = 40, playing in 15/4 rhythm. dynamics. Intensity marks are typically relative to groups or fami- The composition process consists of the following steps: lies of instruments, and only occasionally refer to an indi- (1) a macro-structural plot of the entire piece was sketched; vidual line. Their function is not really one of determining (2) all instrumental lines were written down, one by one; (3) the total intensity, but to create a blend of several component events and to allow for the appropriate balance between overlapping layers. By precisely controlling the superposition of 5 Some technical operations in the production of Below the Walls of several sound layers, Dolden in actuality shapes up peculiar Jericho were carried out at the Electronic Music Studio of Simon sonorities, either with a gestural or textural character. In Fraser University, Burnaby, BC. short, I would say, the overall emerging sonority is worked 180 Agostino Di Scipio Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009

Fig. 4. A page in Paul Dolden’s score Below the Walls of Jericho.

out based on (1) the particular instruments or groups of of the interplay of these compositional devices. In concert instruments overlapping at any given moment, (2) the actual situations, typically the composer would play back his tape amount of instruments involved, (3) the micro-interval into- at very loud levels.6 Now, playing this music at loudest levels nations, (4) the interplay of polyrhythms, and (5) the density of sound events (depending on tempo and amount of instrumental lines). 6 The young Xenakis, too, used to do so. The deafening premiére of Overall, the “volume” of the emerging sonority is not Bohor, in 1962, caused Pierre Schaeffer’s bitter disappointment, directly a function of intensity, but a rather complex function although that piece was dedicated to him! The orchestra and electroacoustic music 181

in performance contexts perhaps is necessary to achieve a emerging in the studio production – better: they were com- kind of bodily experience of the sound on the listeners’ part. posed by exploiting those side-effects. Yet, I believe it also obscures the variety of “volumes” actu- In presenting the listener with (relatively) familiar sound ally determined, in various sections of these pieces, by the sources, these works are acousmatique in essence: we hear simple handling of timbres and textures. an orchestra playing, but do not see it. Also, we can subjec- In Below the Walls of Jericho, the traditional dimensions tively establish various degrees of “belongingness” and/or of instrumental music in the end collapse together and shift “extraneity” of these sounds to the (often recognizable) one into the other (the term “collapse” is Dolden’s). In par- orchestral material. ticular, I would mention the following phenomena: However, far more important to me than any consideration as to the musique concrète aspects of these pieces, is the (1) Dense pitch clusters create all sort of beatings fact that they represent distinct ways to create a lively and among component frequencies, resulting in fast micro- creative confrontation between different technologies, i.e., variations internal to the sound, impossible to hear out between different institutions: the “orchestra” and the (either as such (phasing, implemented by overlapping several analogue or digital, either public or private) “studio”. There- slightly different intonations of some musical phrase). fore, this music puts us listeners in a position where we could There, “tuning” collapses into “timbre”. ponder a comparison between different models of musical (2) The layering of many polyrhythmic strata creates a situa- praxis, eventually raising questions as to the economy and tion where a particular rhythm pattern is hard to track the social organization of two historically different musical down, and often no timbre-based perceptual grouping is media and the related cultural institutions. possible. In the overwhelming mass of sound, “rhythm” We should be aware that a negative connotation could be and “timbre” collapse either into “texture” or more ges- attached to the idea that the orchestra, qua cultural institu- tural and discontinuous events. tion, is reduced to “raw material” and exploited as such in (3) Due to the high density of sound events, and the layer- and by another technological frame, thus being essentially re- ing of many groups of (detuned) instruments, the iden- connotated. This notion that the orchestra is reduced to a tity of instrumental families (timbres) is not always resource of another cultural and social praxis has a post- preserved, and eventually transcends into new sound heideggerian ring to it. It reflects a view that, in the late colors. Some quite abstract sonorities puzzle any effort twentieth century, not only nature, but also history (Western to recognize the instrumental source. That is the case history) becomes a kind of Bestand of man’s productive with some ppp sonorities made of several overlapping activities, thus being primarily experienced as stockpiled lines (sometime reminiscent of “ambient” sonorities). resources, ready-to-use for commercial exploitation, essen- With larger masses of sounds, the resultant sound may tially reified. Notice that, since the time when Xenakis’ be close to white noise (like in the finale). “Polyphony” composed Hibiki-Hana-Ma or Polytope de Montréal, this and “tempi” then collapse into “spectral density”. dystopian implication has rapidly materialized in an undeni- All such interference phenomena give rise to sonic results able reality: huge banks of “orchestra samples” are today well beyond the range of sonorities that can be possibly (and have been for some 15 or 20 years, now) a cheap buy created with a real orchestra, yet Dolden’s scores offer, on the shelves of the music marketplace. How much “orches- Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 besides many verbal annotations as to intonation, etc., tra music” do we listen, today (in films, in advertising jingles, nothing less than traditional musical dimensions: pitch, met- in radio plays, etc.) that is actually made of these samples? rical rhythm, timbre classification based on classical orches- However, the creative efforts I have discussed above tration, intensity, etc. The point is: these dimensions are testify at an altogether different social and musical attitude. worked out not as such, but as partial components whose Particularly in the case of Hibiki-Hana-Ma, it would be mutual interaction will eventually reveal a different percep- simply wrong and misleading to imply that this music reflects tual reality. In a way, they are subverted in their historical aspects of a postmodernistic view of any sort, just because it meaning, and exploited to bring forth a higher-order sonor- suggests a kind of dismembrement or “deconstruction” of the ity which is unthinkable in a medium other than the digital orchestra (that would be an interesting point concerning studio. some works by John Cage, or – in a much more recent example – the Austrian composer Peter Ablinger’s Weiss/ Weisslich 22a, a 1996 mix of innumerable tracks of com- 5. The “deconstruction” of a mercial releases of classical and romantic music, packed musical institution? together only to achieve a quasi-white noise; Ablinger, 1997). Xenakis lived and worked in a time when, little by little, The preceding sections show that works like Hibiki-Hana- the cultural trends and perceptual habits of an age considered Ma and Below the Walls of Jericho were specially created to postmodern were de facto taking place. However, while it is resonate over loudspeaker systems. They do not represent true that in Hibiki-Hana-Ma orchestral segments are repeat- easy ways to get rid of the high costs of a large orchestra, edly switched on and off in an apparently random way (a sign and were composed with an awareness of the minute sonic of dismemberment reminiscent of poststructuralist litera- details, acoustic distortions and perceptual side-effects ture), the scores and verbal annotations that Xenakis gave 182 Agostino Di Scipio

conductor Seji Ozawa were his own hand-written scores, score, the composer is aware that all that he is doing will only carefully shaped up and ultimately profoundly “xenakian” in achieve the desired result if and when sounds will be fixed content: the recorded orchestra of Hibiki-Hana-Ma is already on tape and finally mixed down together. In other words, in itself “pure Xenakis” – no postmodernistic connotations crucial decisions as to timbre, gesture and texture, are imple- could be possibly attached to it. mented at the level of orchestration, but with an awareness Indeed, what is deconstructed in and by Hibiki-Hana-Ma, that the perceptual side-effects can only arise in the elec- as well as in and by Dolden’s Walls cycle, is not the orches- troacoustic domain. tra as a vehicle of older musical repertoires, but the way we The two works would be unthinkable outside the today perceive the orchestra sound – there is not a preoccu- electroacoustic medium, but they reflect two different rela- pation with music, but with sound (and, yes, that makes for tionships to the musical material. Xenakis’ approach in com- a different music). The way we perceive the orchestra sound posing Hibiki-Hana-Ma was explorative and open-ended today is not only mediated by the rethorics of classical, (also reflecting the fact that the particular approach devel- romantic, post-romantic and neo-classical idioms, but is also oped there was one of many he was experimenting in those essentially mediated by electroacoustic equipment. The years), while Dolden’s work in the Walls cycle was more music considered above tells us that this latter mediation is goal-oriented and deterministic (also reflecting the fact that crucial and cannot be considered secondary. Once his orches- the approach developed there was his main medium of tra materials had been taped, Xenakis took his time in manip- expression, peculiar and almost unique to his musical per- ulating those sounds; therefore his own perception of the sonality). That certainly implies different views as to the role recorded orchestra sounds, as other than the sounds of a live of studio technology in the compositional process – to which orchestra playing, might well have shifted to the focus of we should turn now, in conclusion. his attention. Only in this respect, I think, we could say that Xenakis 6.2. Role of studio technology paved the way (sure, inadvertently) to a possible “deconstruction” of the orchestra. A work like Hibiki-Hana-Ma is In the initial years of his career as a composer, Xenakis only possible in a world where the orchestra sound has opened many creative paths, and continued to explore them changed to our ears. It reflects a change in the auditory sen- further in later years, even after decades. Yet, as mentioned sibility of the society of its time. Later pieces, including earlier, the particular approach of Hibiki-Hana-Ma remained Dolden’s Below the Walls of Jericho, were born of that audio- undeveloped. Considering the implications discussed above sociological phenomenon. regarding the “deconstruction” of the orchestra, I would say The history of music is intertwined (and, to a large extent, that Xenakis had a feeling that the approach explored with is the same) with the history of auditory perception. those pieces would have eventually opened paths that did not interest him, paths that were contradictory to his cultural and cognitive horizon. I believe, however, that the experience 6. Final remarks made with Hibiki-Hana-Ma, Persepolis, etc., in the end affected his later orchestral works.7 6.1. Role of orchestration Differently, Dolden has never given up the strategies Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 To conclude with, it is necessary to highlight non-negligible shaped up in the Walls cycle, and went on to further develop differences between the two works considered above. Analy- them. In recent works, he bends those strategies to more sis is useful to reveal similarities in conception and facture, linear musical results than Below the Walls of Jericho, often but also to evidence differences, and to welcome these latter leaning on modal pitch structures (that is the case with his as such rather than smoothing them out. Entropic Twilights, 1999–2000). His huge virtual orchestra In Hibiki-Hana-Ma, orchestration is worked out mainly sometimes appropriates sonorities reminiscent of rock music on paper (scored orchestral passages). It is less a means to idioms, jazz, and non-Western musical idioms. Yet, the par- obtain certain end results, and more a means for the com- ticular technical approach was initially born to create a sonic poser to provide himself with materials to be further worked experience where pitch and rhythms were largely tran- out in the studio. Therefore, here orchestral writing is a pow- scended as such, and could hardly be used to convey particu- erful device for creating a rich sound material, while higher- lar idioms. In a way maybe closer to a postmodernistic view, level compositional decisions are made in the electronic Dolden’s personal compositional path is anyway coherent: in studio. my opinion, he is simply moving from a focus on sound in In Below the Walls of Jericho orchestral writing sets out a general, to a focus on the sound of musical genres. In this plan of operations to be carefully carried out in the studio. Orchestration is handled completely in the studio. Notwith- standing its rather conventional notation, Dolden’s score is 7 On this, it is interesting to note that in some of his orchestral music closer in function to an “electronic music realization score” Xenakis utilized excerpts of his own previous works, in an attitude (e.g., Koenig’s Essay), and far removed from so-called “audi- of montage that has been carefully discussed by Benoît Gibson tory scores” (e.g., Ligeti’s Artikulation). While preparing the (2002). The orchestra and electroacoustic music 183

move, the basic instrumental material itself changes in Di Scipio, A. (2002) Formalisation et intuition dans Analogique connotations. A et B, avec quelques reﬂexions a propos des sources math- For Xenakis, the adoption or invention of particular ematico-historique. Lecture delivered at the IRCAM Seminar working methods was one and the same with the music on Music and Mathematics (unpublished). created by those methods. In Dolden (at this stage of his Dolden, P. (1989). Below the Walls of Jericho (score available career) the working methods are assumed, instead, to be rel- from the composer). atively independent of the particular task, as if they were Dolden, P. (1993). L’ivresse de la vitesse. Compact Disc transparent to the composer’s idea, closer to a goal-oriented Empreintes Digitales IMED-9417/18. and “example-based” approach to composing (Laske, 1991). Gabel, G. (1993). Julesz’ Texton Theory applied to Music. In Typically, in the latter case, computer technology is presumed Proceedings of the 4th Biennial Arts & Technology to have a “purely instrumental” function (on this, see Symposium, Connecticut College, New London, CT: Hamman’s paper in the present issue). pp. 87–105. The different role of audio technology is mirrored in the Gibson, B. (2002). Théorie et montage chez Iannis Xenakis. peculiar ways by which these two composers creatively faced Lecture delivered at the IRCAM Seminar on Music and an older cultural institution – the orchestra – and the corre- Mathematics (unpublished). sponding control technology – orchestration. Harley, J. (2002). The Electroacoustic Music of Iannis Xenakis. Computer Music Journal, 26(1), 33–57. Hoffmann, P., & Solomos, M. (1998). The electroacoustic music References of Iannis Xenakis. In Proceedings of the First Symposium on Music and Computers, Corfu University: pp. 86–91. Ablinger, P. (1997). Weiss/Weisslich 22a. Compact Disc GEM Laske, O. (1991). Toward an Epistemology of Composition. 9701. Interface-Journal of New Music Research, 20(3/4), 235–269. Bregman, A. (1990). Auditory Scene Analysis, Cambridge, MA: Loubet, E. (1998) The beginnings of electronic music in Japan, MIT Press. with a focus on the NHK Studio: The 1970s. Computer Delalande, F. (1997). Il faut être cnstamment un immigré – Music Journal, 22(1), 49–55. Entretiens avec Xenakis. Paris: Buchet/Chastel. MacKay, J. (1984). On the perception of density and stratiﬁca- Di Scipio, A. (1995a). The centrality of techne for an aesthetic tion in granular sonic textures. An exploratory study. Inter- approach on electroacoustic music, Journal of New Music face-Journal of New Music Research, 13(3), 171–186. Research, 24(4), 360–383. Orcalli, A. (1993) Fenomenologia della musica radicale. Di Scipio, A. (1995b). Da Concret PH a Gendy301. Modelli Potenza: Sonus Edizioni. compositivi nella musica elettroacustica di Iannis Xenakis”, Truax, B. (1992). Musical Creativity and Complexity at the Sonus – Materiali per la Musica Contemporanea, 7(1–3), Threshold of the 21st Century. Interface-Journal of New 61–92. English translation: 1998, Compositional models in Music Research, 21(1), 29–42. Xenakis’s electroacoustic music. Perspectives of New Music, Xenakis, I. (1997). Electronic Music. Compact Disc Electronic 36(2), 201–243. Music Foundation EMF CD003. 1997. Di Scipio, A. (1997). The problem of 2nd-order sonorities in Xenakis, I. (1992) Formalized Music. Thought and Mathemat-

Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009 Xenakis’ electroacoustic and computer music. Organised ics in Music, Stuyvesant NY 1992. Revised and extended Sound, 2(3), 165–178. version of the French edition (Paris: La Revue Musicale, Di Scipio, A. (1998). Scienza e musica dei quanti acustici. 1963) and the ﬁrst English edition (Bloomington, IN: Indiana L’eredità di Gabor, Il Monocordo, 6, 71–73. University Press, 1971). Downloaded By: [University of Melbourne] At: 09:05 29 April 2009