Kai Strobel FAIR WIND

 

FAIR WIND

 

Jonian Ilias Kadesha / Vashti Hunter A JOURNEY FOR TWO

A JOURNEY FOR TWO

DeciBells IANNIS XENAKIS Pléïades

Xenakis’s orchestral works have not entered the repertoire but those for ensemble have often found a niche; not least his percussion music, of which Pléïades is the grandest in conception and most wide-ranging in content. Completed in 1979, it stands at a crucial juncture – when technology enabled the rendering of graphic imagery into musical terms, the ‘arborescences’ principle that saw his instinctively gestural ideas harnessed to developmental processes. Not that the four sections of Pléïades are inherently symphonic; their unfolding is more akin to that of Reich’s Drumming, for all that the coolly incremental changes found in the latter piece are a world away from those visceral contrasts in timbre and texture as pursued by Xenakis.

This new recording by the Basel-based group DeciBells is notable for its having used newly prepared ‘sixxen’, the 19 metal bars of varying frequency, which gives their vital contribution audibly greater richness and subtlety. Add to this the use of skin rather than plastic heads on the drums and the music’s expressive range is opened out accordingly – not least in the final and cumulative section, ‘Mélanges’, where the six-strong ensemble is brought together for an apotheosis that conveys its melding of isolated events into swarms with heady immediacy.

Pléïades has been recorded several times, with that by Red Fish Blue Fish part of a three-disc set that takes in all Xenakis’s acknowledged percussion work. This remains the benchmark account, yet the distinctive approach as favoured by DeciBells makes rewarding listening. (Richard Whitehouse / Gramophone)

IANNIS XENAKIS Synaphaï

In 1968 the choreographer George Balanchine made a ballet from two works by Xenakis Metastaseis and Pithoprakta and the following year he commissioned Xenakis to compose an original score for New York City Ballet. Antikhthon turned out to be one of the great might-have-been collaborations: Xenakis completed the score in 1971, but the work was never staged. The concept of Antikhthon Anti-Earth or Counter-Earth was first proposed by the Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus of Croton around 400 BC. He speculated that there was a Counter-Earth a hypothetical heavenly body that revolved with the earth around a Central Fire. This led to Philolaus being credited as one of the first to propose that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, but that it was in an orbit around the Sun (Central Fire), with the other planets.
This idea clearly appealed to Xenakis as the basis for a stage work, though his score has no programme and no scenario. Presumably he intended the notion of the Counter-Earth, and the Central Fire (which he called a beneficial source of creative energy ... a mysterious and unknown source which is still beyond mans conception) as something that would stimulate Balanchines choreographic imagination. Certainly, he regarded music as having something of the same intangible qualities as then Central Fire, but he was more pragmatic about what he thought ballet could achieve: being based on what it was possible for the human body to do, he believed that it was limited to the movements we can make with our limbs, our trunk and our head and thats all. The vocabulary of ballet ... is not rich.
The work plays continuously but falls into five distinct sections perhaps reflecting its original intention as a ballet. The first is dominated by sustained clarinet notes and clusters, interrupted by rapid brass chords, a side drum, and nervous, energetic woodwind chords. The second section is driven by rhythmic string patterns (often played col legno), interrupted by increasingly urgent and extended outbursts from woodwind, brass and timpani, which then gradually fizzle out. The short third section (with wind and brass to the fore) prepares the way for the fourth, and longest, section in which initially delicate glissandos in the strings are periodically disturbed by the wind and brass, the strings seeming to feed off these interruptions, becoming increasingly animated and frenetic. The final section is more sustained, leading to a magical, evanescent close.

American Festival of Microtonal Music Ensemble CARRILLO - PARTCH - IVES - SCELSI - XENAKIS - HARRISON Chamber

Want to stretch your ears? This disc is one of the best introductions to the world of microtonal music. The program consists of six works, each with its own approach to defining and using tones outside standard notation and keyboard configuration. To many listeners some of these pieces will seem simply out of tune, but others will find them merely strange-sounding. Just a touch of music theory to explain things: You can get microtones by slicing the equal half-step intervals of a piano scale into narrower equal fractions. Since the equal half-steps are really a slightly-out-of tune compromise to accommodate our modern system of equal temperament, such "quarter-tone music" exaggerates the out-of-tuneness but creates remarkably tangy harmonies.
This is best illustrated here by Julian Carrillo's Prelude to Columbus, a work for voice, flute, guitar, harp, and string quartet. Carrillo, one of the true pioneers of this kind of music, uses quarter-tone (and narrower) intervals both as ultra-expressive passing tones and to create fresh, dark harmonies.
Another approach to enlarging the palette of notes is to refuse to accept the compromise of equal half-steps and instead use scales whose notes coincide with "natural" overtones. Harry Partch was the pioneer of this approach and is represented by his Finnegan's Wake songs. Soprano Meredith Bordon is the able soloist in both Partch's and Carrillo's compositions. Her recital-style voice is accurate and strong. Lou Harrison, a follower of both Partch and Charles Ives, contributes a typically attractive Tombeau for Ives, using his own adaptation of Partch's ideas.
But the stand-out performance on the disc is Ives' own Second String Quartet. Harmony Ives once instructed a copyist not to "correct the spelling" of her husband's scores. (For instance, not to turn an E-flat into D-sharp, for these notes, identical pitches in standard notation, are different pitches in a "natural overtone" scale.) She went on to explain how Charles perceived the relationship of such putatively identical notes. AFMM leader Johnny Reinhard realized that she was describing a natural-overtone scale system of 21 notes, and this is billed as the first recording to play this great string quartet in this manner. A valuable alternative to great standard readings, this performance reveals a softer, dreamier, less satiric affect.
The music discussed so far is all tonal. In Anaktoria, Iannis Xenakis writes atonal music, so all the notes are equally valid and nothing sounds out of key; that is to say it is consistently dissonant. Xenakis' sound is bold, generally harsh, without melody or traditional rhythm, but conveys a sense of power and monumentality that is exhilarating (assuming it doesn't send you running for the door instead of listening!). This is an excellent performance, aided by the precise intonation of the experienced AFMM players. Along with the Ives, Anaktoria is a primary reason for my strong recommendation to daring listeners. Giacinto Scelsi's eight-minute piece also is atonal and uses micro-steps--but like most of Scelsi's work it fails to reveal anything of real musical value. Obviously producing a labor of love, Reinhard and his musicians give exciting, committed readings. Sound is slightly studio-bound, but clean. In sum: The disc is well worth acquiring, even if you decide to skip Scelsi on subsequent playings. (Joseph Stevenson, ClassicsToday.com)