Dissertation Index



Author: Squibbs, Ronald, J.

Title: Analytical Issues in Recent Instrumental Works of Iannis Xenakis

Institution: Yale University

Begun: September 1992

Completed: March 1996

Abstract:

This dissertation confronts some of the problems involved in the analysis of post-war avant-garde music by focusing on the recent instrumental music of Iannis Xenakis. This study presents comprehensive analyses of a group of solo and chamber works in an effort to uncover some of the general structural principles underlying this important composer's msuic. The analytical method developed for this study takes into account several aspects of the music, including its pitch structure, textural features, and temporal structure. A survey of the composer's most important theoretical concepts and compositional techniques is presented as a necessary preliminary to the introduction of the analytical methods that are used thoughout the dissertation. The relationship of the mathematical theory of probability to the composition of Xenakis's stochastic music is discussed in detail and the structural ramifications of this compositional method are explored in the analyses. The use in Xenakis's compositional process of techniques of transformation derived from the graphic arts in is also discussed with reference to particular works. In conclusion, Xenakis's position among his contemporaries, both serialists and non-serialists, is considered in light of the preceding analyses.

Keywords: Xenakis, analysis, 20th-century, music since 1950, pitch sets, compositional technique, mathematics, graphic composition, stochastic music

TOC:

TOC: 1. Introduction
2. Compositional Technique and Analytical Method
3. Works for Solo Piano
4. Works for Solo Strings
5. Chamber Music
6. Conclusions

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