Iannis Xenakis and the Presocratic Foundations of a New Music

Paradoxes abound in the music of Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001), a music almost paradigmatically "difficult," recalcitrant to traditional modes of musical and aesthetic analysis, and yet shockingly direct in its aural richness and in its impact on listeners. In his theoretical writings, Xenakis makes repeated references to Presocratic philosophers—in particular, to Heraclitus and Parmenides—using these archaic texts to help make a case for his own "stochastic music." Xenakis's interest here is in finding ways to integrate the stasis characteristic of Parmenides's account of the real with the constant flux of the real that Heraclitus describes. Xenakis goes further, however, to develop an account of listening as "experimental" on the basis of his distinctive reading of the Presocratic tradition. Thalleïn, a composition for large chamber ensemble, provides a vivid illustration and test case both for Xenakis's interpretation of the Presocratics and for his approach to listening as experiment.