When following the graphic score of Pithoprakta by
Xenakis along with the recording, we see the piece is based on
mathematical structures that look organic, as if drawn by hand. This
organic appearance is valuable in composition. If the strings entered in
square orderly fashion, the score would show straight lines, leading to
predictable music. Breaking these lines creates more organic shapes and a
more organic listening experience. The score remains schematic but
features structures as natural as a tree, not a refrigerator. Pithoprakta avoids ideal squared forms, making it more interesting to the ears...
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| The original analog score by Xenakis has both musical and visual value |
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| Pithoprakta: graphical score by Pierre Carré |
The music of Xenakisis both organized and visceral. Xenakis breaks the
commonplace conception of Apollo as the opposite of Dionysus. The guts
of Dionysus and the arrow of Apollo converse. The warmth of wine, the
dance, the beast come together with the intellectual distance, the
direction, and the predetermination of the archer. Gabriel Valverde, my
composition teacher, used to say when talking about Xenakis: "An
elephant has passed." An algorithmic elephant, I would say!
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| Pithoprakta, score excerpt |
I am interested in the mathematical construction of
organic forms. Nowadays there are many contemporary composers who work
with mathematical forms derived from nature, with sonic results that are
generally highly schematic: the translation of data into music seems to
be done by pushing a button. Xenakis was overall a musician, deciding
what the algorithm means in the realm of music, and filtering them with
musical sense: an old school drawing the functions in graph paper. The mathematical sketches are also scores.
In Pithoprakta, the different scenes
succeed each other in blocks, conforming the musical structure. These blocks are in dialogue with each
other, like "blocks of concrete" or "blocks of gas" or "blocks of fluids". In the manner
of Stravinsky, Gubaidulina, Ustvolskaya, Nono in his string quartet,
among others, the discourse in blocks attempts to disrupt centuries of a
Western linear narrative discourse. An urgent matter in the mid-20th
century. I listen to Pithoprakta with nostalgia,
like someone watching a Tarkovsky film. A classic, that blurry dot back then in
the 20th century. Good old times.
In my Música invisible for trombone, Water, played by Dalton
Harris, I am using the rhythmical structure of water drops to create
musical forms to shape musical forms that create a dialogue between determination and indeterminacy. I use the water itself within the pipe mechanism of the trombone: half brass instrumen, half kitchen sink, the trombone becomes a vessel for sounds, air, and water (listen with headphones please! The beginning is very
soft).
