XENAKIS : METASTASIS / PITHOPRAKTA / EONTA [Lyra]

Catalogue: Lyra / YCDM 0251
Format: LP, Reissue
Condition : Used / Near Mint / Near Mint
Country : Greece
Released : 
Genre : Experimental

Metastasis 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. It was written using a sound mass technique in which each player is responsible for completing glissandi at different pitch levels and times. The piece is dominated by the strings, which open the piece in unison before their split into 46 separate parts.
Pithoprakta (1955–56) is a piece by Iannis Xenakis for string orchestra (with 46 separate solo parts), two trombones, xylophone, and wood block. The word Pithoprakta translates to "actions through probability". This relates to Jacob Bernoulli's law of large numbers which states that as the number of occurrences of a chance event increases, the more the average outcome approaches a determinate end. The piece is based on the statistical mechanics of gases, Gauss's law or Brownian motion.
Eonta (beings) is so entitled as a homage to the ancient Greek philosopher and poet Parmenides. The original printed form of the title word is Cypriot orthography of Creto-mycaenean origin, lost for over 24 centuries and only recently deciphered. Eonta, written in Berlin during 1963-64, was first performed at the Domaine Musical concerts in Paris, conducted by Pierre Boulez, in December 1964. It makes use of stochastic music (based on the theory of probabilities) and symbolic music (based on logistics). Some of the instrumental parts, notably the piano solo at the opening, were calculated on an IBM 7090 computer at the Place Vendôme, Paris.
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