Iannis Xenakis was a Greek-French composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalized citizen of France. He is considered an important post-World War II composer whose works helped revolutionize 20th century classical music.
Granular synthesis is a basic sound synthesis method that operates on the microsound time scale.
François-Joseph Fétis was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today.
Nomos Alpha is a piece for solo cello composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1965, commissioned by Radio Bremen for cellist Siegfried Palm, and dedicated to mathematicians Aristoxenus of Tarentum, Évariste Galois, and Felix Klein. This piece is an example of a style of music called, by Xenakis, symbolic music – a style of music which makes use of set theory, abstract algebra, and mathematical logic in order to create and analyze musical compositions. Along with symbolic music, Xenakis is known for his development of stochastic music.
In musical composition, a sound mass is the result of compositional techniques, in which, "the importance of individual pitches," is minimized, "in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact," obscuring, "the boundary between sound and noise".
Surrealist music is music which uses unexpected juxtapositions and other surrealist techniques. Discussing Theodor Adorno, Max Paddison defines surrealist music as that which "juxtaposes its historically devalued fragments in a montage-like manner which enables them to yield up new meanings within a new aesthetic unity," though Lloyd Whitesell says this is Paddison's gloss of the term. Anne LeBaron cites automatism, including improvisation, and collage as the primary techniques of musical surrealism. According to Whitesell, Paddison quotes Adorno's 1930 essay "Reaktion und Fortschritt" as saying "Insofar as surrealist composing makes use of devalued means, it uses these as devalued means, and wins its form from the 'scandal' produced when the dead suddenly spring up among the living".
Metastaseis is an orchestral work for 61 musicians by Iannis Xenakis. His first major work, it was written in 1953–54 after his studies with Olivier Messiaen and is about 8 minutes in length. The work was premiered at the 1955 Donaueschingen Festival with Hans Rosbaud conducting. This work was originally a part of a Xenakis trilogy titled Anastenaria but was detached by Xenakis for separate performance.
Alexandre-Étienne Choron was a French musicologist. For a short time he directed the Paris Opera. He made a distinction between sacred and secular music and was one of the originators of French interest in musicology.
Harry Halbreich was a Belgian musicologist.
Game piece is a concept of experimental music having its roots with composers Iannis Xenakis, Christian Wolff, John Zorn and Mathius Shadow-Sky. Game pieces may be considered controlled improvisation. An essential characteristic is that there is no pre-arranged sequence of events. They unfold freely according to certain rules, like in a sports game. Therefore, game pieces have elements of improvisation. A number of methods can be used to determine the direction and evolution of the music, including hand gestures. Zorn's game piece "Cobra", which has been recorded several times for various labels, uses a combination of cards and gestures and can be performed by an ensemble of any size and composition. Zorn's game pieces, written in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, include Cobra, Hockey, Lacrosse, and Xu Feng.
Pithoprakta (1955–56) is a piece by Iannis Xenakis for string orchestra, two trombones, xylophone, and wood block, premièred by conductor Hermann Scherchen in Munich on March 1957. A typical performance of the piece lasts about 10 minutes.
Maurice Fleuret was a French composer, music journalist, radio producer, arts administrator, and festival organizer.
Concret PH (1958) is a musique concrète piece by Iannis Xenakis, originally created for the Philips Pavilion and heard as audiences entered and exited the building. Edgard Varèse's Poème électronique was played once they were inside the building.
Henry Prunières was a French musicologist, and international proponent of contemporary art in various forms, including music, dance and painting. He occupies an important place in the art world between the wars, particularly with regard to music. His major contribution La Revue musicale, a monthly musical periodical which he founded in 1920 and left in 1939, is still a reference in the Western musical world.
Scambi (Exchanges) is an electronic music composition by the Belgian composer Henri Pousseur, realized in 1957 at the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano.
Antikhthon is a ballet for orchestra composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1971.
Keqrops is a composition for piano and orchestra by Greek/French composer Iannis Xenakis. Due to the prominent role of the piano soloist, it has often been classified as a piano concerto. It was completed in 1986.
Makis Solomos is a Franco-Greek musicologist specialising in contemporary music and particularly in the work of Iannis Xenakis of whom he is one of the most important specialists. He is also one the specialists of Adorno's thought. His current work focuses on the issue of sound ecology and decay. He has published numerous articles and books and regularly participates in meetings and symposia. In 2005, he also participated in the creation of the magazine "Filigranes" which aims to broaden the field of musicology.
Serge Gut was a French musicologist of Swiss origin.
Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger is a Swiss musicologist. He became known through his activities as a juror and publications on Chopin.
