“X” is for Xenakis ology. He preached the power of numbers, yet he early group of pieces — including Persephassa for six never used the nearly ubiquitous numerical mechan- antiphonal percussionists, Psappha for percussion annis Xenakis (1922-2001) was many things: com- folklore of Xenakis paints him as either a logician ics of serialism. Perhaps 12 tone technique was sim- solo, and Dmaathen for single percussionist and oboe poser, architect, engineer, mathematician, political or a magician. As logician there is the portrait of ply too explicit for Xenakis, since the systems he — are marked by vividly colored and strongly differ- Idissident, and self-proclaimed ancient Greek exiled Xenakis as “pure mind,” an ultimate rationalist, hew- favored were livelier and produced lots of unforesee- entiated groups of instruments. Each of these pieces to the 20th century. To this impressive list add one ing to the cool constants of mathematics and to the able results. Indeed, when looked at in just the right consists of a “multiple percussion” arrangement of more item — progenitor of modern percussion music. ideology of the device. This is the Xenakis who light, the music of Xenakis embraced its own brand drums, wooden and metallic instruments. Dynamic Of course Iannis Xenakis did not create percussion applied Le Corbusier’s concept of “Modulor” to of indeterminacy. And like the music of his American tension, and therefore the forward momentum of a music, not even its most recent guise as notated music (whereby architectural proportion was linked counterpart, John Cage, the austerity of his composi- composition, results from charged interactions pieces of contemporary music. Xenakis’s first major to human shape and tied firmly to the ratios of the tional systems determined that musical expression between highly characterized groups of diverse contribution to the percussion repertory came with golden mean). This is Xenakis as master of the was to be located as external to his own desires and sonorities. Think of the clashes between potent drums Persephassa in 1969, more than three decades after unwieldy grammar of FORTRAN and the creator of tastes — the result of objective processes and not per- sounds and the pure high pinging of metal simantras the American percussion revolution of Edgard Varèse, the graphic computer interface of UPIC. It is this logi- sonal choices. Yet Xenakis wielded his numbers with m i d - way through Pe r s e p h a s s a, for example. (Simantras John Cage and Henry Cowell. But as Jorge Luis Borges cal and unsentimental Xenakis that the Czech novel- an almost virtuosic intuition that mated the intellectu- in Persephassa are resonant pieces of wood and said of Kafka, he was so important that he influenced ist, Milan Kundera praised for his “world of soothing al and calculated with the visceral and explosive in a metal, based on liturgical instruments found in Greek even those who came before him. Indeed, our early objectivity where the aggressivity of a soul seeking to music that was ultimately among the most personal monasteries.) Later pieces utilize a more homogenous 21st century ear for percussion music has been so express itself has no place.” But there is also Xenakis and individual statements of the 20th century. sound world, where tension results largely from a tuned by the music of Xenakis that we cannot fail to the mythological, the terrible, in whose music a land- The many contradictions of Xenakis — as simulta- dynamic array of the forces within groups. understand the first cacophonous noise constructions scape of incantation and ritual is pockmarked by sud- neously logical and mythological, mechanical and In the early percussion works, clashes of sonority of Varèse’s Ionisation (1931) and Cage’s First den and often inexplicable cruelty. How else can one intuitive — define his conundrum. They are the “X” often produce a turbulent sonic surface where Construction (1939) through the retro-lens of the raw understand the shattering silences of Psappha or the of Xenakis: the crosshairs of divergences so deep moments of frenetic activity are interrupted by sud- and terrifying noises of Komboï (1981) or Pléïades wailing sirens, sea stones and affolants at the end of and constant that no unambiguous point-of-view den and shattering silences. Here musical processes (1978). And the stick by which we measure the Persephassa? Likewise, the sixxen swarms in Métaux can illuminate him. incline strongly towards either end of a scale of den- expressive intensity of virtuosic chamber and solo and the spinning cross-patterns of Dmaathen do not sities. That is to say that this music almost always percussion music — even those pieces composed as come from a music of the mind alone. These musical enakis’s own entanglements — his “X”— found navigates between extremes of saturation or silence. early as the mid-1950’s — has become the scalding structures, as Olivier Messiaen wrote of the teeming a suitable mirror in the embedded dualities of As different as these two states may seem to be, they prophecies of Kassandra (1987) or the implacability string writing in Pithoprakta, “are not simply the X percussion music. The foundational grammar represent formal equivalencies in the early percussion of Psappha (1975). ancillary side-effects of a thought; they are not radi- of percussion music is inherently contradictory, based music of Xenakis. Either can serve as a natural end However, if the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis cally new but radically other.” in part on the specificity of attack (tending to amplify state of active progressions in a piece. This equivalen- defines percussionists as the Bach Cello Suites Indeed Xenakis was other, the product of terrible modernist values of rhythmic complexity and intellec- cy is best demonstrated by two similar trajectories at defined and codified the repertoire of cellists or as incongruities that pulled him well off the center of tual precision), but it is also rooted in the deeply the opening of Persephassa, his first great piece of the music of late Beethoven reified the mature lan- the mid-century grid. From the outset his music was physical language of ritual (a signature of more percussion music, written for and premiered by Les guage of the string quartet, Xenakis himself can seem rooted in contradictions that seemed always to stop ancient traditions). Following suit, the Xenakis per- Percussions de Strasbourg. Persephassa (the name maddeningly un-definable. In contrasting views, the him short of adherence to a single, unambiguous ide- cussion oeuvre itself seems to split into two parts. An refers to Persephone, the goddess of springtime) opens with a brief chaotic rise and fall of drum clashes between sonic groups in Persephassa, friction These entwined dualities — of unity and complexity, Argos cannot interpret her warnings. Xenakis ampli- tremolos and follows quickly with all six percussion- in Pléïades is to be found as the result of problema- of poly- and monochromatic groups of instruments— fies the disparity between being heard and being ists performing interlocking rhythms to create a uni- tized rhythmic and textural interactions within a become further tangled in the four duos that Xenakis understood by announcing each successively impas- fied rhythmic field. As players break away one by one given sound world. Note, for example, that the composed for single percussionist and another instru- sioned vocal foretelling with an ever more vigorous from the opening ensemble rhythm to play polyrhyth- sounds of the sixxen (“six” for the six members of the ment. The Xenakis duos — all of which are present on tattoo of drumming. However, no amount of sound is mic variations, a sense of temporal dissonance grows ensemble and “xen” for Xenakis), an instrument that this recording — prompt Janus-like compositional sufficient to convey the message. The identification and eventually culminates in a chaotic six-part rhyth- Xenakis conceived and built with the help of instru- strategies that seek both to ameliorate the inherent between voice and percussion is complete as mic “cloud” (called nuage in the score). Here each ment maker Robert Hébrard, blend easily to form a differences of rhetoric between two very dissimilar K a s s a n d ra , the most famous seer of the ancient world, player plays maximally dense and non-periodic uniform field of color but are consistently distin- instruments even as they rely heavily on precisely and her contemporary doppelganger a percussionist rhythms to form a tempest of non-aligned notes. An guished in the composition by variations of rhythm those differences for sonic vitality and formal articu- with a thunderous arsenal of drums and woodblocks, almost identical trajectory follows immediately begin- and texture. The sixxen used in this recording were lation. In Dmaathen (1977) for oboe and percussion, remain unheeded, effectively (if deafeningly) mute. ning again with slow unison playing. Then, again, designed and constructed by red fish blue fish mem- a relatively rare usage by Xenakis of pitched percus- independent temporal pathways break away until ber Brett Reed according to the composer’s indica- sion sounds in the form of a double-keyboard of t is not an exaggeration to say that for many con- each of the six players is following his or her tempo. tions: each sixxen consists of 19 metal plates tuned vibraphone and xylorimba reaches across the gap temporary percussionists learning how to play has However, this time when maximum density is micro-tonally relative to each other sixxen so that a between noise and tone to connect to the melodic Imeant learning how to play the music of Iannis achieved, the texture is suddenly broken by a lengthy unison passage produces a resonant, shimmering potential of the oboe. And as a counterbalancing ges- Xenakis. In fact if there is a nascent performance silence. In each instance a unison arrival at saturation sound. ture the raucous, multi-phonic oboe writing meshes practice in the realm of new percussion music it is or silence means that stability has been reached. Homogenous fields of instrumental color also mark easily with the sonic volatility of percussion world. In deeply indebted to the music of Xenakis. Does a new However different the chaotic nuage may seem from Okho (1989), for a trio of djembes (West African Komboï (1981) and Oophaa (1989), two works for piece pose problems of multiple layers of rhythmic the ominous silence, they have a critical quality in hand drums) as well as Rebonds (1989) for a highly harpsichord and percussion written for Elisabeth and sonic material? Look to the overlaid instrumental common: unity. Since all six players engage in shared collated set of drums and wood blocks. The combat- Chojnacka and Sylvio Gualda, a single percussionist and rhythmic groupings of Psappha for a directory of behavior, the friction of “poly-structure” is absent. ive groups of instruments of Psappha and Persephassa negotiates among flanking set-ups of instruments that solutions. Or in my recent experience, when John These behaviorally unified structures are therefore, in are gone in these later works. Gone also are the sud- present discrete sonic arrays not unlike a harpsi- Luther Adams’s The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies their essence, moments of repose. den silences, but the polarity between unity and chordist’s choice of manuals and stops. The harpsi- highlighted the relationship between local volatility A later generation of pieces, starting with Pléïades complexity is not. As in earlier pieces, moments of chordist returns the volleys of dense percussion of rhythm and large-scale formal stability in a multi- (1978), the second of two sextets Xenakis wrote for mobility are marked by “poly-structures,” that is to sonorities with hands-full of thickly scored chords. In movement work, I found that the indispensable Les Percussions de Strasbourg, features, as we have say by the presence of a multiplicity of pitch, rhyth- Kassandra (1987) for baritone voice and percussion, model at hand was Pléïades. noted, far greater homogeneity of sound. Pléïades mic or textural events at any given moment. On the Xenakis draws on passages from “Agamemnon,” in The works are powerful archetypes, but even the includes movements of a single color each: Peaux for other hand, repose is the result not of peacefulness which Kassandra foresees her own death. However, stories surrounding these works have become leg- drums alone, Métaux for “sixxen,” and Claviers for but of unity. Nodal points of formal articulation in Kassandra’s prophecies are cursed: Apollo wooed endary. Some of the stories are informative: there is keyboard percussion instruments. Even Mélanges, a these pieces function as they did earlier via common- Kassandra with the gift of prophecy, but when she Xenakis with Sylvio Gualda scouring the construction movement that mixes these colors, does so without ality of purpose. You have reached stasis when every- failed to return his affections he punished her by ren- site of the Centre Pompidou for the junk metal Gualda provocation. The goal is peaceful coexistence among one is (or in the case of the solo piece Re b o n d s, wh e n dering her true prophecies unbelievable to all who would need for Psappha. Some are heroic: there are timbres rather than open warfare. Unlike the overt all of one’s limbs are) engaged in the same task. heard them. As a result, a chorus of the citizens of Les Percussions de Strasbourg rehearsing by moon- light through the night before the outdoor premiere of is truly physically impossible…or nearly so. And the secure boundaries of a score behind and find an Southwest German Radio Symphony), the L.A. Persephassa at the Festival of Chiraz-Persepolis in Iran importantly, each of the impossible passages (think inventive and personal solution to an intractable Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, Summerfest because the sweltering September heat made their also about the acceleration at the end of Persephassa problem. By doing so a performer necessarily com- La Jolla, the Summer Institute for Contemporary scheduled daytime rehearsals impossible. Other sto- or some of the double-keyboard writing of bines the real with the imagined, the feasible with the Piano Performance in Boston, and the Festival ries are whimsical: there is Morton Feldman winking Dmaathen) coincides with a moment of maximum f a n t a s t i c a l . In every performance that I know, these are Internacional de Historia de la Mùsica in Mexico, at Xenakis over a plate of chicken wings after a per- impact in the composition. The impossible music the moments of transcendence: they are fleeting and has given solo recitals in Poland, Scotland, the formance in Buffalo, and suggesting that Xenakis’s defines the space where the two tangents of Xenakis glimpses of expressive fragility in the midst of the Netherlands, conversation partners at that moment, the oboist meet — the center point of his “X”— where a sophisti- irrefutable Xenakis plan. And, while no solution cor- and Germany. He has received sponsorship from Nora Post and the percussionist Jan Williams, could cated rational process in the form of a poly-structural responds exactly to indications in the score, each Fondazione Giorgio Cini, the City of Poznan, the use a new duo piece. compositional moment meets the maximum of uni- approaches the pulsating membrane of exchange Abby Whiteside Foundation, the Yvar Mikhashoff These are the legends. However, the stories that fied physical and emotional energy in performance. between the living, momentary, idiosyncratic forces Trust for New Music, and the Hillsborough County percussionists talk about with each other do not deal These instances call for extreme inventiveness on the of performance and the solid, calculated, permanent Arts Council. The Boston Globe referred to his play- with anecdotes, but rather with the nuts and bolts of part of the performer. Since Psappha allows the per- qualities of composition. In this light these are not ing as “forceful...finely shaded”; the Edinburgh the practical performance problems. Some of the cussionist to choose an individualized set of instru- moments of failure, but of grace. These are un-defin- Scotsman called his recital, featuring Ives’ Concord biggest of those problems— and to me the moments ments, some players have constructed special “sand- able moments, suspended between flatfooted and Sonata, a “stunning performance”; andante.com cited that most outline the “ X e n a k i s - n e s s ” of these pieces’’— wiched” instrument pairings that allow the stick to unambiguous options on either side — neither the his “exquisite touch and sensitivity”; and his perfor- involve the many impossible passages in this music. strike a surface on both the upstroke and downstroke wild effusions of straightforward virtuosity nor the mance Xenakis’ Evryali was hailed as “astonishing” (Although one is tempted to muse along with Aki in order to double the density of a tremolo. Other self-conscious constructions of modern music. They by the 20th Century Music Journal. Takahashi who once wondered, if Xenakis’s music players simply play at their maximum speed and are in fact transcendental in the way of all great were truly “impossible,” why so many of us are play- seek to lend a rhetorical emphasis to the passage. music, perched unsteadily — as Xenakis was Aiyun Huang ing it.) But the impossibilities are really there: they In another kind of decision, we at red fish blue fish himself — at the very edge of the unknown. Aiyun Huang was winner of the First Prize as can be found at the end of Psappha with Xenakis’s decided to exercise the full potential of the recording — Steven Schick well as the Audience Award (Prix du Public) at the indication that each of the many simultaneously studio by creating four separate layers of overdubbed 2002 Geneva International Music Competition; the sounding notes is to receive three strokes. The result- materials to construct the end of our recording of BIOGRAPHIES first prize in percussion has been awarded only three ing music at its most dense would have a single per- Persephassa, creating perhaps the first chance ever to times in the competition’s history. She has appeared cussionist playing as many as 25 strokes per second hear exactly what Xenakis actually wrote. John Mark Harris at the Weill Recital Hall of the Carnegie Hall, Los on a group of instruments dispersed widely in space. Whatever the solution, the attempt to play a truly John Mark Harris plays an eclectic range of key- Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s Green Umbrella Try it in a spare moment, but have a good breakfast impossible passage will, by definition, fail. A reason- board music from the Renaissance to the present day. Series, LACMA Concert Series, Holland Festival, first. Or in Rebonds B imagine the problems involved able question follows: why did Xenakis compose He holds degrees in performance from the University Victoria Hall in Geneva, Agora Festival in Paris, in executing a two-part line on woodblocks: one part music where failure is assured in the performance of of California at San Diego, the New England rESOund Festival, Banff Arts Fe s t ival, 7éme Biennale d‚ is a 16th note passage with grace notes and the other passages of music with great emotional impact and Conservatory, and the University of South Florida; his Art Contempora i n e de Lyon, Vancouver New Music a continuous tremolo. These are not simply passages compositional importance? Part of the answer lies in teachers included Robert Helps, Aleck Karis, and Festival, CBC Radio, La Jolla Summerfest, Musik 3, of extreme difficulty — there are plenty of those also. what you mean by failure. Each impossible passage Stephen Drury. He has appeared as soloist at the The Old Globe Theater, Scotia Festival, Centro No, in almost every piece there is a small patch that forces a player to deal with the unknown — to leave Salzburg and Donaueschingen Festivals (with the Nacional Des Las Artes in Mexico City, and National Concert Hall and Theater in Taipei. She performs reg- resident new music ensemble at U.C. San Diego, ing of Roger Reynolds’ Summer Island. Luciano pioned contemporary percussion music as a per- ularly with Toca Loca, a group dedicated to expand- where Larson is a professor of music. Berio’s “Sequenza VIIa Supplementary Edition by former and teacher. He studied at the University of ing the possibilities of contemporary music. A You can hear Larson on CDs featuring composi- Jacqueline Leclair” is published by Universal Edition Iowa and received the Soloists Diploma from the European solo tour in the fall of 2004 included cities tions by Robert Erickson, Kenneth Gaburo, Will Vienna, and her recording of the work is on Mode S t a a t l i che Hoch s chule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. of Geneva, Lyon, Paris, Katow i c e , Budapest, Ogdon, Roger Reynolds, and Iannis Xenakis, as well #161/3, Berio: The Complete Sequenzas (2006). Steven Schick has commissioned and premiered Bratislava, and Milan. as other contemporary “new music.” The New York Times has reviewed Ms. Leclair’s more than one hundred new works for percussion Ms. Huang has commissioned new works from Larson is one-half of [THE], a performance/ performances as “astonishing” and as having “electri- and has performed these pieces on major concert numerous composers including: British composer composition duo formed in 1977 with fellow U.C. fying agility,” and the New Yorker has referred to series such as Lincoln Center’s Great Performers and Michael Finnisey, Canadian composers Rose Bolton, San Diego faculty member Ed Harkins (trumpet). At Ms. Leclair as “lively” and “wonderful.” the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella con- Inouk Demers, Chris Paul Harman, Alice Ho, David UCSD, Larson frequently performs with percussionist Ms. Leclair studied at the Eastman School of certs as well as in international festivals including Jaeger, Gary Kulesha and Heather Schmidt; American Steven Schick in the university’s new music ensemble Music and SUNY Stony Brook where she earned a Warsaw Autumn, the BBC Proms, the Jerusalem composers Rick Burkhardt, Sean Griffin, Derek Keller, SONOR, as well as in the resident percussion ensem- Bachelor of Music, Performer's Certificate, Master of Festival, the Holland Festival, the Stockholm Chris Mercer and Erik Ulman; Taiwanese composers ble red fish blue fish. Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts. Her teachers International Percussion Event and the Budapest Kuei-Ju Lin and Chia-Lin Pan. included Richard Killmer and Ronald Roseman. Spring Festival among many others. He has recorded Born in Taiwan, Ms. Huang immigrated to Jacqueline Leclair many of those works for SONY Classical, Wergo, Canada when she was seventeen where she pursued Oboist Jacqueline Leclair, one of the United red fish blue fish Point, CRI, Neuma, Cantaloupe and Mode Records. her studies in percussion with members of Nexus. States’ foremost interpreters of new music, resides in red fish blue fish is the resident percussion He has been regular guest lecturer at the Rotterdam She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors New York City and is a member of Alarm Will Sound ensemble of the University of California, San Diego. Conser-vatory, and the Royal College of Music in from the University of Toronto, a Premier Prix from and Sequitur. She has presented solo and chamber The group functions as a laboratory for the develop- London. Schick is Professor of Music at the University Conservatoire Nationale de Région de Rueil- music concerts throughout the United States and ment of new percussion techniques and music, and of California, San Diego and Lecturer in Percussion at Malmaison in France, a MA and a DMA degree from Europe, and can frequently be heard performing with has toured widely. Its concerts have included Lincoln the Manhattan School of Music. Schick was the per- the University of California, San Diego. Between New York City ensembles such as Sospeso, Ensemble Center and the Henry Street Settlement in New York cussionist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars of New York 2004 and 2006, she was a Faculty Fellow at the 21 and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band. City as a part of two Bang on a Can marathon con- City from 1992-2002. From 2000 to 2004, he served University of California, San Diego. Currently, she is Ms. Leclair specializes in the study and perfor- certs, the Agora Festival (Paris), the Los Angeles as Artistic Director of the Centre International de the Chair of the Pe rcussion Area at the McGill Unive r- mance of new music. She has premiered many Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Centro Percussion de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland. sity in Montreal, Canada. works and regularly presents classes in contemporary des Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the Percussive Steven Schick is the founder and Artistic Director music and its techniques at schools such as UCLA, Arts Society International Convention. In addition of the percussion group, red fish blue fish. Philip Larson the Eastman School of Music, Brigham Young the group offers a regular series at the University of In 2006 Schick released two important publica- Basso-baritone vocalist Philip Larson has per- University, the North Carolina School for the Arts and California, San Diego. red fish blue fish has recorded tions. His book on solo percussion music, The formed avant garde music at concert halls in New the University of California San Diego. She is faculty for John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams, was York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Tokyo, at Montclair State University, Hofstra University and published by the University of Rochester Press. His Munich, Lisbon, and Warsaw. He has been a featured Mannes College. Steven Schick recording of The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies by soloist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, Ms. Leclair has recorded extensively, receiving Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a John Luther Adams was released by Cantaloupe. the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and SONOR-the critical acclaim in particular for her premiere record- farming family. For the past thirty years he has cham- Greg Stuart Mumford. She has given performances in New York’s Born in Berkeley, California (1978) and hailing Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the New from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Greg Stuart is dedicated School for Social Research, Boston’s Isabella Stewart to expanding new music for percussion through com- Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall, the New Zealand missions, improvisation and mixed-media projects. Embassy in Washington D.C., the Japan America He has performed with Joscha Oetz, Anders Ästrand, Theater in Los Angeles and festivals at Aspen, Yellow Steven Schick, Frank Gratkowski, Andreas Wagner Barn, VT and Sandpoint, ID. and Hans W. Koch. He has appeared in numerous Wettstein is the pianist of the St. Paul, MN con- festivals including the L.A. Philharmonic’s Green temporary ensemble Zeitgeist. She has been and Umbrella Series, the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue artist-faculty member of New England Conservatory’s Musik, Line Space Line, Muzik3, SEAMUS, La Jolla Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Perfor- Summerfest, Pro Musica Ensenda and the Whitney mance since 1996. She has been as Artist-in- Museum of American Art Biennial. Greg performs Residence at the Walden School, a summer program regularly with the percussion ensemble red fish blue for young composers in New Hampshire. fish, is a founding member of the experimental per- Wettstein holds a DMA from the University of cussion quartet quadrivium and has worked with San California, San Diego, a BM (highest distinction) Diego’s Lower Left Performance Collective and from the University of Kansas, and a MM (honors) Chicago’s Trapdoor Theater. He has collaborated with from New England Conservatory. Her teachers have a wide range of composers including Sean Griffin, included Aleck Karis, Stephen Drury, Sequeira Costa, Michael Pisaro, Chou Wen-chung, Rick Burkhardt Richard Angeletti and Claude Frank. and Roger Reynolds. Greg can be heard on Recent awards include grants from the Minnesota Accretions, Tzadik, Insides, and Mode Records. Arts Council, an American Composers Forum Com- poser Commissioning Grant, and the Merle Shannon Wettstein Montgomery Grant of Mu Phi Epsilon. Her recordings Shannon Wettstein, pianist, has performed count- are available on the Centaur, Tzadik, Innova, and less new works throughout the United States and Koch International Classics labels. internationally. She has collaborated with composers She is member of the music faculty of Augsburg such as Brian Ferneyhough, Chinary Ung, Martin College in Minneapolis and has formerly served on Bresnick, Gunther Schuller, Lee Hyla, and Jeffrey the faculty of Bemidji State University.