Iannis Xenakis

Monographs
bibliography by M. Solomos

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Amagali Rosemary Tristano, Texture as an Organizational Factor in Selected Works of Iannis Xenakis, M.M. Thesis, Indiana University, 1975.

Arsenault Linda Marie, Iannis Xenakis's Evryali: An Introduction to Structure, Meaning and Performance, Undergraduate thesis, Edmonton (Alberta), University of Alberta, 1996, 127p.

On Evryali : an analysis based on the question of interpretation.

Baltensperger André, Iannis Xenakis und die Stochastische Musik. Komposition im Spannungsfeld von Architektur und Mathematik, Zürich, Paul Haupt, 1995, 709p.

Based on a Doctoral Dissertation defended in 1987. An in-depth study of earliest works, Metastaseis and works from the ST series. Three parts: 1) on Xenakis’s earliest period: a) biography of his first steps; b) analyses of the works in question; c) Xenakis’s work with Le Corbusier; d) analysis of Metastaseis; 2) study of the notion of stochastic music 3) analysis of the ST program and the ST works. The entire study is generously illustrated with diagrams and useful references. The analysis of Metastaseis is very detailed.

BARDOT Jean-Marc, Cendrées de Xenakis ou l’émergence de la vocalité dans la pensée xenakienne, Undergraduate thesis (equivalent), Université Jean Monnet (Saint-Etienne), 1999, 99p.
Analysis of Cendrées in three parts: materials and form, vocality, relationship with three other vocal works (Serment-Orkos, Pour la paix, Nekuïa).

BATTIER Marc, Daniel CIAMPOLINI, Frédéric VOISIN, Psappha. Version avec éléctronique (1995-1997), Cahier d’exploitation, Ircam, Centre Georges-Pompidou, 2^e édition, 2000, 47p.

Biasi Salvatore di, Musica e matematica negli anni 50-60: Iannis Xenakis, Bologne, Universida degli Studi di Bologna, 1994, 484p.

Centre Georges Pompidou-Xenakis, Le Diatope: geste de lumière et de son, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, undated (circa 1978), 24p.

The Diatope’s program. Cf. the articles by J. Millier, M. Fleuret and Xenakis. Also includes the five excerpts (by Platon, Hermès Trismégiste, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Paul Richter and Robert P. Kirschner) that were used as the "program" for the Légende d'Eer. [Cf. Chapter XXXV.iv of present volume].

Charles Daniel, La pensée de Xenakis, Boosey and Hawkes, 1968, 29p.

The author takes Xenakis literally and underlines his "pythagorism", his "naturalism", etc…

Cubillas Morales Juan Manuel, Iannis Xenakis, Nomos alpha: una aproximacion inicial hacia el analisis de un encuentro, en el siglo XX, entre la musica y la matematica (Teoria de Grupos), Valparaiso, Universidad Catolica, 1993, 228p.

Da Silva Santana Helena Maria, Analyse de l'activité rythmique chez Iannis Xenakis (Persephassa pour six percussionnistes et Psappha pour un percussionniste), D.E.A. (Masters equivalent), Paris, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/Ecole Normale Supérieure/IRCAM, 1995.

Da Silva Santana Helena Maria, L'orchestration chez Iannis Xenakis: l'espace et le rythme fonctions du timbre, Doctoral Dissertation, Université de Paris IV, 1998, 461p.

An important work based on specific analyses. In the second part entitled "L'espace fonction du timbre", the author analyzes aspects of Retours-Windungen, Alax, Eonta, Terretektorh, Nomos gamma, Persephassa and the Polytopes. In the third section, "Le rythme: fonction du timbre", certain aspects of Psappha, Nuits, Serment-Orkos, Sea-Nymphs, Metastaseis, Jalons and Koïranoï are analyzed. The first section presents an overview of certain general ideas concerning Xenakis.

DeLio Thomas, Structure and Strategy: Iannis Xenakis' Linaia-Agon, University of Maryland, 1985.

Dossier Iannis Xenakis = Entretemps n°6, 1988, p. 57-143.

Cf. the articles by J. Caullier, P. Dusapin, Cl. Helffer, F. Nicolas, J. Vriend and Xenakis.

Eichert Randolph, Iannis Xenakis und die mathematische Grundlagenforschung, Saarbrücken, Pfau Verlag: Fragmen 5, 1994, 41p.

Thoughts about the attempt to "found" music, with parallels drawn to the question of mathematical foundings.

Espace Xenakis, directed by Serge Provost = Circuits vol.5 n°2, 1994, p. 1-81.

Cf. the articles by M. Couroux, S. Galaise, B. Gibson, S. Provost and M. Solomos.

Fleuret Maurice, Xenakis, discothèque de Paris, 1972, 63p.

Addressed to the general public, this short work evokes Xenakis’s past, the links between his music and mathematics, his relationship with performers, his electronic works and the spatialization of certain works. It ends with an interview with the composer. (cf. Interviews).

Fleuret Maurice, Xenakis, Paris, Salabert, 1978, 70p.

Catalogue of works, bibliography and discography.

Flint Ellen R., An investigation of real time as evidenced by the structural and formal multiplicities in Iannis Xenakis' Psappha, Ph. D., University of Maryland College Park, 1989, 672p.

Gibson Benoît, Xenakis. Organisation sonore, techniques d'écriture, orchestration, D.E.A. (Masters equivalent), Paris, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/Ecole Normale Supérieure/IRCAM, 1992, 95p.

After a detailed analysis of the serial section of Metastaseis, the author deals with architectural influences on Xenakis’s music, stochastics and indeterminism.

Gontcharov P. -E., Les percussions chez Xenakis, Undergraduate thesis (equivalent), Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1988.

Halperin D., L'œuvre musicale de Iannis Xenakis (in Hebrew), Jérusalem, Université de Jérusalem, 1975, 35p.

Hoffmann Peter, Amalgam aus Kunst und Wissenschaft. Naturwissenschaftliches Denken im Werk von Iannis Xenakis, Frankfurt-am-Main, Peter Lang, 1994, 176p.

Based on his university research, the author examines the xenakian alloy between the arts and sciences by referring to Xenakis’s theories and to notions of structure, axiomatics, order, transformations, space and time, dynamic systems.

Hoffmann Peter, Music out of Nothing? Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis: A Rigorous Approach to Algorithmic Composition by Iannis Xenakis, Doctoral Dissertation, Université de Berlin, work in progress.

IannhV XenakhV. Ena afierwma tou Eqnikou Metsobiou Polutecniou proV enan apofoito tou (Iannis Xenakis. A gift from the Ethniko Metsovio Polytechnio to one of its former students), Athens, Sugcronh Epoch 1994, 121p.

This book includes translations of texts (excerpts from Regards sur Iannis Xenakis), as well as a previously unpublished interview with Xenakis and an article by I. Papaïoannou.

Iannis Xenakis = Musik-Konzepte n°54-55, 1987, 194p.

Cf. the articles by P. Böttinger, R. Frisius, H. Lohner (two articles) and H.R. Zeller plus an interview between H. Lohner and Xenakis.

Iannis Xenakis = Musik Texte vol.13, 1986, p. 17-60.
Includes two articles by R. Frisius, an article by H.R. Zeller and the translation of an article by Xenakis.

Iannis Xenakis = MusikTexte n° 89, n°90, Köln 2001.

A collection, over several issues, of homages following Xenakis’s death. Includes short texts/homages from musicians or friends of Xenakis as well as more elaborate texts by musiclogists. Articles by: Jorge Antunes, Irvine Arditti, Joel Chadabe, Elzbieta Chojnacka, Julio Estrada, Mariano Etkin, Orm Finnendahl, Ivan Frounberg, Peter Hoffmann, Mih Iliescu, Sharon Kanach, Jô Kondo, François-Bernard Mâche, Ricardo Mandolini, Gerard Pape, Graciela Parakevaidis, Rbert HP Platz, Henri Pousseur, Roger Reynolds, Josef Anton Riedl, Steffen Schleiermacher, Yuval Shaked, Makis Solomos, Sven Sterken, Yuji Takahashi, Dimitri Terzakis, Olav Anton Thommessen, Richard Toop, Maja Trochimczyk, Hans Rudolf Zeller.

Iliescu Mihu, Musical et extramusical. Eléments de pensée spatiale dans l'œuvre de Iannis Xenakis, Doctoral Dissertation, Université de Paris I, 1996, 393p.

The author poses the question of space as applicable to Xenakis’s music in general. In the first part, he defines the philosophical connotations and establishes Xenakis’s relationships with mythical thinking, pythagorism, Parmenides, Plato, the ancient Greek polis and Aristoxenos. Later, he concentrates on the arts/sciences alloy paradigm and subsequently studies the paradigm of complexity, chance, new orders, entropy and time, continuity and discontinuity, invariance, strange attractors, robots. Finally, in the third part, he lays the foundation for a morphological theory he suspects in Xenakis’s work based on the study of masses, arborenscences and the Polytopes.

Joseph Stephen A., The Stochastic Music of Iannis Xenakis: An Examination of his Theory and Practice, Ph. D., New York University, undated.

LACROIX Marie-Hortense, Pléiades de Yannis Xenakis, Paris, Michel de Maule, 2001, 106p.

A detailed analysis of the work in question, especially regarding the "keyboard" section.

Malt Mikhail, Trois aspects de formalisation dans Achorripsis de Iannis Xenakis, D.E.A. (Masters equivalent), Paris, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/Ecole Normale Supérieure/IRCAM, 1991, 111p.

Analysis of Achorripsis based on some of Xenakis’s technical premises.

Matossian ;Nouritza, Iannis Xenakis, Paris, Fayard, 1981, 325p.

The only biography of Xenakis, in a lively and dense style. Among other elements, the work is rich with information on the works themselves. The author was able to consult both personal documents and Xenakis himself directly. Aside from the two chapters that deal with works for theater and the Polytopes, the book follows a chronological order. Although the book was first published in 1981, it mainly deals with the 1950-60s: only the last chapter approaches the 1970s. There are twelve chapters in all: In Childhood and Resistance, Awakening in Paris, The Eruptive Unconcious, Stochastic Music, The Philips Pavilion, The Break with Le Corbusier, Formalizing Music, The Way of Truth and the Way of Seeing, Symmetry under cover, Total theatre, The Polytopes, Branching Out.

Nutida Musik vol.10 n°5, 1966/1967.

Nutida Musik vol.28, n°3, 1984-1985.

Orcalli Angelo, Le hasard se calcule—Una tesi di Iannis Xenakis, Padova, Imprimitur, 1990, 143p.

Cf. in "Articles and other major writings" Angello Orcalli, Fenomenologia della musica sperimentale.

Papadatos ;Joseph, Werkanalyse zu Iannis Xenakis' Jonchaies, Examensarbeit, Düsseldorf, Staatl. Hochschule für Musik, 1985.

Portrait(s) de Iannis Xenakis, François-Bernard Mâche (ed), Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2001, 227p.

Cf. under Articles by: Anne-Syvie Barthel-Calvet, Pascal Dusapin, Maurice Fleuret, Antoine Grumbach, Harry Halbreich, Peter Hoffmann, Sharon Kanach, François-Bernard Mâche, Olivier Messiaen, Sven Sterken, Françoise Xenakis, Mâkhi Xenakis.

Présences de Iannis Xenakis, Makis Solomos (ed), Paris, CDMC, 2001, 268p.

Cf. articles by: Linda Arsenault, Angelo Bello, Serge Bertocchi, Joëlle Caullier, François Delalande and Evelyne Gayou, Agostino Di Scipio, Ellen Flint, Benoît Gibson, Mathieu Guillot, James Harley, Jean-Luc Hervé, Peter Hoffmann, Mihu Iliescu, Antonio Lai, Cãndido Limá, Ricardo Mandolini, Philipp Oswalt, Carmen Pardo, Beatrix Raanan, Helena Santana, Elisabeth Sikiaridi, Makis Solomos, Ronald Squibbs, Sven Sterken.

Raanan Ruth Béatrix, N'Shima de Iannis Xenaki : composition avec le souffle. Analyse de l'œuvre, D.E.A. (Masters equivalent), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/Université Paris IV/IRCAM, 1998, 135p.

A detailed study of N'Shima in terms of Xenakis’s treatment of the voice in relation to the text, instrumental writing, textures developed from Browian movements, the articulating role of breathing, plus resonances from traditional music.

Regards sur Iannis Xenakis, prepared and organized by Hugues Gerhards, Paris, Stock, 1981, 416p.

A homage to Xenakis: this book includes 48 short entries (cf. articles by G. Amy, Cl. Barnes, J. Barraud, J. Batigne, N. Beecroft, J.Y. and D. Bosseur, M.F. Bucquet, R. de Candé, G. Casado, A. de Chambure, E. Chojnacka, M. Couraud, X. Darasse, G. Dmitriev, P. Dusapin and H. Halbreich, G. von Eller, R. Fajond, M. Fleuret, E. Fulchignoni, D. Gill, S. Gualda, Cl. Helffer, B. Jacobson, M. Kendergi, M. Kundera, J. Lacouture, J. Leber, L. Leprince-Ringuet, M. Leroux, J. Maceda, F.B. Mâche, N. Matossian, O. Messiaen, A. Meunier, J. Miermont, I. Monighetti, S. Ozawa, M. Philippot, Ch. Prost, M. Ragon, F. Rieunier, A. Riotte, M. Rollin, P. Schaeffer, C. Taranu, G. Tremblay and J. Vriend). Also included are a short biography, a list of prizes and awards, plus a list of cities where Xenakis’s works have been premièred.

Revault d'Allonnes Olivier, Xenakis: Les Polytopes, Paris, Balland, 1975, 135p.

A most valuable document regrouping sketches and photos of the polytopes. Simultaneously, the author proposes a philosophical and aesthical discourse on Xenakis.

Ruohomäki J., Ylesiä pürteitä Iannis Xenakisen musiikillisesta ajattulesta metodeista ja teoksista, Helsinki, Université de Helsinki, 1977.

Sato M., Iannis Xenakis: Sugaku ni yori sakkyoku, Tokyo, Université de Tokyo, 1978.

Sevrette Daniel, Etude statistique sur Herma de Xenakis, final paper for the Schola Cantorum Diploma, Paris, 1973, 31p.

SCHAUB Stéphan, L’hypothèse mathématique. Musique symbolique dans Herma de Iannis Xenakis, D.E.A. thesis (Master’s equivalent), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2001, 67p.

On the msuical and mathematical relationships in Herma.

Schmidt Christoph, Komposition und Spiel. Zu Iannis Xenakis, Köln, Verl. Schewe (Berliner Musik Studien Bd. 4), 1995, 288p.

Based on a Doctoral Dissertaion defended in 1993, this work examines Xenakis’s pieces that use Game Theory: Duel, Stratégie and Linaia-Agon. This very detailed study includes seven chapters: 1) on the mathematics behind Game Theory; 2) an analysis of Duel; 3) an analysis of Linaia-Agon; 4) a study of the xenakian notion of "heteronomous music"; 5) an analysis of Stratégie; 6) "La composition hétéronome comme jeu" [Heteronomous composition as a game]; 7) "Les jeux musicaux comme art" [Musical games as art].

Scott McCoy L., Duration, Pitch/Space and Density in Iannis Xenakis' Mists, University of Maryland, 1993, 167p.

Solomos Makis (Gérassimos), A propos des premières œuvres (1953-69) de I. Xenakis. Pour une approche historique de l'émergence du phénomène du son, Doctoral Disseertation, Paris, Université de Paris IV, 1993, 675p.

This work is divided into three main sections. The first examines the emergence of sound in Xenakis’s (as well as his contemporaries’) work, all while approaching the ‘technicalization’ of music and gesture. The second, based on works composed by Xenakis in the 1950-60s, examines what has become of each of the traditional dimensions of sound (pitch, rhythm, register, dynamics, space, timbre), followed by their fusion in global entities called sonorities. The author categorizes all of the works into three sonorities: "glissandi sounds", "static sounds", and "punctual sounds". The last section of this study analyzes four works in detail: Pithoprakta, Nomos alpha, Nuits and Persephassa.

Solomos Makis, Iannis Xenakis, Mercuès, P. O. Editions, 1996, 176p.

The first section of this book studies Xenakis’s evolution, which the author divides into three periods: from the works preceeding Metastaseis up to Musiques formelles, Group theory up to the aborescences, and finally, from Sieves until 1996. In the second, more theoretical section, the author offers a general approach to the "xenakian universe" through : a) a study of Xenakis’s underlying vision of the world; b) the concept "sonority" ; c) the concept of "gesture" (as opposed to that of sonority).

Squibbs Ronald J., An analytical Approach to the Music of Iannis Xenakis: Issues in the Recent Music, Ph. D., Yale University, 1996, 211p.

This dissertation offers to: 1) classify "xenakian textures"; 2) specify structural divisions in relation to these textures as well as transformations in dynamics, density, pitch and timbre; 3) study temporal structures both in-time and outside-time; 4) indentify the general principles found in the structures of the instrumental and electronic works under discussion.

Sterken Sven, Iannis Xenakis architecte, Thesis for Architect’s degree, Université de Gand, 1998, 178p.

A documented study of the bulk of Xenakis’s architectural works.

Swiat Xenakisa = Muzyka vol.XLIII n°4, Varsovie, Instytut PAN, 1998, 166p.

Cf. articles by B. Gibson, J. Harley, M.A. Harley, P. Hoffmann, M. Iliescu, R. Squibbs

Tric Olivier, Le processus de conception en architecture. Point de vue monotopique —un architecte regarde les Polytopes, D.E.A. (Masters equivalent), Université de Rennes, 1992.

Xenakis = L'Arc n°51, 1972, 88p.

Cf. articles by D. Durney, A. Droschke, M. Fleuret, F. Genuys, H. Krellmann, F.B. Mâche, L. Marin, B. Pingaud et O. Revault d'Allonnes, as well as three interviews by Xenakis with F.B. Mâche, O. Revault d'Allonnes and F. Genuys.

Xenakis = liner notes for Erato, STU 70526-70530, 1969, 36p.

Includes: a) brief presentations by Xenakis on the works included in the recording; b) excerpts from articles by Xenakis; c) sketches of certain works; d) a text by M. Fleuret; e) a text by F.B. Mâche.

Xenakis, Enzo Restagno (ed), Torino, EDT/Musica, 1988, 315p.

Includes translations plus original contributions: cf. articles by M. Fleuret, H. Halbreich, F.B. Mâche, E. Napolitano, E. Restagno and Xenakis as well as an interview between the composer and E. Restagno. A catalogue of works, including those composed before Metastaseis is appendixed.

Yannis Xenakis et la musique stochastique = Revue Musicale n°257, 1963, 24p.

Cf. articles by J. Barraud, M. Philippot and A. Richard.

Yoken D.W., Iannis Xenakis' Psappha: a performance analysis, San Diego, University of California at San Diego, 1985.

Anyone who has written work that is not mentioned here is kindly requested to send a copy to : Les Amis de Xenakis, 24 rue de Montpensier F-75001 Paris France. For work that has been released on the web, please send link to :
contact@iannis-xenakis.org