To me, this is as riveting and bewitching as a piece of music can be. But undoubtedly only those people with sufficient depth of awareness and mental flexibility would be able to relate to it. Over the years (I first heard a different and somewhat less effective version of it in 1970), it has further grown on me, and is a seriously awe-inspiring experience. If only more people could let go of their preconceived notions of what music should be like, and would let themselves open to this incandescent wonder - an amazing achievement!
No cap. This music is hella based. I spin it every Halloween for the kiddos. Definitely need a mondo geeker tho, not for basic peeps. Like this is some shit Kanye would chop or sumthin.
Nice comment, alot of people think in music within the boundaries of what they think should be music. Now listing to Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians. Great piece aswell (well in my opinion).
@@RubenEditIT, Thank you for your appreciation. Actually, I hope it wouldn't be seen to be too out of place to suggest that anyone who gets a positive experience from any of the more massive-sounding works of Xenakis try exploring my own massive-sounding Nature-Symphonies, which, like many of Xenakis' works, are stochastically organised, but with the difference that my creations are nature-generated., and mostly use wind chimes out in wild places, with transformative processing and much use of layering. If you're interested, ru-vid.com/group/PL2QPtPIi_uE40eJXM2sDzMXu7h1h-tjev is a good starting point.
Like Stockhausen, if you have not actually lived through war, you are unlikely to have a feeling for this. I haven't of course, but this helps me to imagine war, and so to begin to try to reconcile myself to our times.
With that said, interestingly, I'm not sure if Stockhausen should be mentioned in this regard. When it comes to art, it's not even "apples to oranges"; it's more like "apples to potatoes." Yes, both lived through war, an experience that may have impacted their music. However, while many of Xenakis's works are very dramatic and have clearly defined structures (beginning, culmination, end), Stockhausen's music is mostly about bright and unusual "moment-forms," representative of good old total serialism with complete lack of sense of narration, structure and completeness. Unlike Xenakis's works, I didn't feel a sense of "war" or dramatism in Stockhausen's music, except perhaps in the original recording of "Prozession" from 1967, where there is some sense of aggression, fear and panic.
Two performances in Paris (in 1962 and 1968) and two separate performances in Manhattan (1971?) are said to have provoked very spirited responses, due to the very high volume. I just wonder how the hail of white noise was produced, since it sounds like the furor of a Category 5 hurricane, with a chilling ending. Earlier instrumentation was said to be amplified Oriental (or Byzantine) jewelry, a slowed-down Laotian mouth organ, crotales, and hammerings on the inside of a piano.
I've been reading books about Xenakis, I have a mémoir to write about him, and I've been listening to many of his weird works, this one being one of the weirdest. I like!
Hello, I am interested in learning more about Iannis's pieces and their relationship with mathematics. Do you have pdfs that talk about the subject? Beforehand thank you very much. Greetings from Mexico.
@@MB-oo5tyxenakis wrote a book explaining his entire methodology and philosophy - entitled "formalized music" the pdf is quite easy to find on google, be warned though the book is very dense and extremely difficult to make sense of without an extremely deep understanding of both mathematics and music
And how, you may ask, did I learn of this? By way of a chance encounter with a reviewer's comment that this, or at least part of this, was an inspiration for a sound effect used in Star Trek: The Original Series. You be the judge.
One source says: "The almost cosmic sound and dimensions of Bohor were derived from amazingly simple sources: various Oriental bracelets and other jewelry, and a Laotian mouth organ." Another source says: 'A Laotian mouth organ (slowed down), metal Byzantine jewelry (amplified), crotales, and hammerings on the inside of a piano.' Still, at the very end it sounds like it might reach the furor of a Category 5 hurricane, with a chilling end.
I'm assuming this audio has been compressed in some fashion, my textbook characterizes it as going to absurd loudness in volume by its finale but it doesn't feel like it does.Kinda underwhelmed.
I told my local used record store dealer to set aside any vintage electronic music for me. I had never heard of this before today when I brought it home. The vinyl is in pristine condition which is rare for a 50 year old LP. I'm absolutely certain that I am the first person to listen to this particular copy all the way through. And I only did it so I could brag about getting through it all. This straight up sucks and I don't know how this got a release. Save your ears and your time and go listen to something that isn't a bunch of random noise that sounds like ghosts dragging bags of silverware up and down a flight of stairs accompanied by a foghorn followed by a windstorm.
Dear Dan, the fact that you were able to picture so precisely ghosts dragging silverware up and down stairs while foghorn plays during a storm, proves that this great piece of music has served the purpose of its existence! Xenakis was never about good or bad, beautiful or ugly - he was beyond that (as his wife has proudly admitted too). His music is emotion-provoking, even when the emotions he provokes are negative. This is life and Xenakis' music is made (about and) for life :)
you may have a point, I knew someone who studied under Xenakis- said he was "wild" in a scary disturbing way (I took it), but I've liked this piece for a long time- an imperceptible build up to a determined climax of mad intensity. You think this is difficult, try reading his book on composition, lots of algebra
I assume you picked up a copy of Iannis Xenakis' "Electro-Acoustic Music" (Nonesuch H-71246, 1970). Quotes from James Mansback Brody's liner notes may help one better appreciate 'Bohor I' (1962): (T)he piece demands total surrender if there is to be any contact at all with the music. It carries the idea of a single, evolving musical substance ... Xenakis described the music as "monistic with internal plurality, converging and contracting finally into the piercing angle of the end". A tremendous furor was aroused in Paris in October 1968 at a performance of *Bohor* during the "Xenakis Day" in the city's International Contemporary Music Week. By the end of the piece, some were affected by the high sound level to the point of screaming; others were standing and cheering. "Seventy per-cent of the people loved it and thirty per-cent hated it," estimated the composer from his own private survey following the performance ... The almost cosmic sound and dimensions of *Bohor* were derived from amazingly simple sources: various Oriental bracelets and other jewelry, and a Laotian mouth organ. As with the much modern music composition (with numerous unfamiliar languages), perhaps one should consider Edgard Varèse's quote: “I do not write experimental music. My experimenting is done before I make the music. Afterwards, it is the listener who must experiment.” Still, it would be helpful if composers could easily enlighten their audience with the intentions of their compositions (provided the audience could adequately assess if they succeeded), but Xenakis also 'said little about *Bohor* so that "the imagination of the listener is left so free to choose a story or to image its own way or follow an itinerary."' One might get additional assistance (and context) from a reading of Tom Service's article 'A Guide to Iannis Xenakis's music', or The Drawing Center's Drawing Papers Volume 88 (titled "Iannis Xenakis: Architect, Composer, Visionary") featuring essays by Ivan Hewett, Carey Lovelace, Sharon Kanach, and Mâkhi Xenakis -- or Iannis Xenakis' 1963 book (with several later editions) "Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition".
Hi, I am interested in learning more about Iannis's pieces and their relationship with mathematics. Do you have pdfs that talk about the subject? Beforehand thank you very much. Greetings from Mexico.
