Xenakis's Hand, or The Visualization of the Creative Process Author(s): Sharon Kanach Reviewed work(s): Source: Perspectives of New

Music, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Winter, 2002), pp. 190-197 Published by: Perspectives of New Music Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833553 . Accessed: 30/10/2011 22:09
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Perspectives of New Music is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Perspectives of New Music.

http://www.jstor.org

XENAKIS'S HAND, OR THE VISUALIZATION OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS

SHARONKANACH

C'est la sensibilite de la main qui parle. J'en ai l'experience de cette methode. -Iannis Xenakis
THINKING PROCESS is manifest in his hand-he calculated, composed, searched, discovered, all in and while writing. Writingbe it musical, numbered, graphic or etymological-represents his preferred means for thinking, communicating, sharing with others. Finepointed and personal, yet always perfectly recognizable throughout the years, the decades, his hand remains legible, be it in his drafts of articles, his personal correspondence, his sketches, graphs, conference notes, his

xENAKIS'S

Xenakis's Hand

191

innumerable calculations ... no matter in what tongue,' in what form of language. With his quasi-exhaustive methodology and rigor, Xenakis characteristically strives to possess his subject as entirely as possible. He leaves nothing to chance. Tracing each step of the way appears to have been an absolute necessity for this placid man. "Write and keep writing until you find what you are looking for!"2 The impressive, near-gargantuan quantity of personal archives he left behind bears witness to this obsession with work. These archives, now on permanent deposit (though with restricted access) at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, comprise over sixty storage boxes filled to the brim with such documents, writings, traces. Surprisingly,Xenakis almost systematicallyused ink rather than a pencil when writing. It was, in my opinion, his way of "thinking out loud"; once something is said, it cannot be taken back, erased. It can be developed, refined, elaborated, even contradicted, but never eliminated. Indelible. The mental processes of creation, normally inexpressible or kept secret, are traced for this thinker, this musician, this architect; the processes are thus visible and retraceable. Furthermore, such visualization procedures support the very Xenakian notion of the rationalization of intuition.3 Indeed, Xenakis argues that bringing intuition to a conscious level allows it to be observed and elaborated as a basic phase in the creation of a new work. The visualization process and its results are useful for creating both the distance and the means necessary for such observation. Xenakis later admitted that while working on his first musical pieces: I had to organize this new material. It was natural for me and my advantage over other composers was that I could design. It was much easier for me to use a graphic approach to music than the classical notation with which I had never been able to see everything at the same time, as you do on a graph ...4 This then can be a first reason behind such trace-creating work methods-in order to be able to secure a visibleglobal overview.In published interviews and elsewhere, Xenakis often evokes his experience as an architect as one of the keys to being able to enjoy a global conception of a musical work.5 In fact, this capacity to possess a musical work in its entirety and to be able to visualize it in a glance it represents one of the universallyrecognized and supreme sensual pleasures of musicians-even Mozart mentions it in his letters! This task of instantaneous visualization

192

Perspectivesof New Music

of a musical work was a constant in Xenakis's research that ultimately evolved into his famous UPIC,6 or computerized musical drawing board. Looking at the carbon copies of his personal correspondence (and notably the letters written to Xenakis's early mentor, Hermann Scherchen), one gets the distinct feeling that they have by no means been saved for the sake of anecdotal evidence. Rather, Xenakis preciously keeps and files these traces as work documents, as stages in an on-going process. Most likely, Scherchen was going to answer. It was therefore essential to remember his own original words, in order to reply intelligently. Often, his correspondence is short answers to specific questions; but sometimes it is much more elaborate, relating a given state (mental, artistic, philosophical) at a given time. A secondreasonthen behind Xenakis's drive to write-and not only letters-is to createphysicalproof or recordof activities involving third parties. In 1963, Xenakis wrote in the "Subscription Bulletin"7 promoting MusiquesFormelles: Having been obliged to make a clean sweep of so many subconscious or acquired traditions, new points of reference had to be put on record, in the same manner as my "works" that result from or are provoked by the same, in order to not forget. For using man's ability to "engrave" is necessary in this tunnel, this darkness ... . . This book is the temporary fruit of reflections, of trials and errors, of certain ways of thinking and doing, for example, music. Therefore, it is the tails of the coin whose heads is my musical work. Thus perhaps it may be of some pragmatic use. Thus, Xenakis portrays-in this preview-the motivation behind what has proven to be one of the most complex and most revolutionary books on twentieth-century music. This need to "put on record,"to "engrave ... in orderto notforget" appearsto be a third reasonfor Xenakis to write. In addition, the dates are thereby established and never lie. (It is important to note that this third reason concerns exclusively Xenakis's own intellectual or creative itinerary, whereas the second was most often provoked by outside sources.) Xenakis was often quite proud of the precursory nature of his findings yet frustrated by their lack of formal recognition.8 Xenakis scrupulously kept everything in his archives, more or less wellorganized in separate files. Many of these thousands of pages of documentation are not fully formed written sentences, but sketches, calculations, and cursory indications such as single words. However, Xenakis repeatedly declared, "Every piece of mine contains a philosophical

Xenakis's Hand

193

question."9 Each and every phase of a musical composition or theoretical exploration is carefully notated, including even the easiest calculation one would normally do mentally. It is as though a mental space is somehow definitively liberated once an element is committed to paper, leaving his imagination and creativity free to explore beyond. His student notebooks from his earliest years at the Athens Polytechnical Institute already show this near-obsessional methodology in his work and his thinking process. Writing therefore becomes a way for Xenakis to free himselffrom menial or even more lofty contingencies and can be considered a possible fourth reasonwhy Xenakis spent so much ink. This meticulous manner of calculating and notating, virtually never showing eraser marks or crossed-out elements, is clearly exemplified throughout his creative life in his personal archives. This is what enables him to elaborate new concepts or gives him the freedom to apply established concepts to different, often unlikely domains. It is how he enlarged his own field of truth and investigation and managed to surpass his own or imposed limitations. This theme of self-surpassing is primal to Xenakis's theoretical writings as well as it was to his teaching.10 In fact it is the basis of his paradigm of creativity, leading eventually to true originality, and is indeed intimately correlated to one's capacity of observation. For example, in his short but important article, "Musique et originalite,"11 he distinguishes "lower" and "higher" levels of creativity based on one's ability to "give birth to the yet unconceived" through "visual thinking," elevating observation to the level of consciousness. Through this admittedly "superhuman effort," one may invent or define new rules or laws, thus attaining the creation of something truly original. This constitutes the ultimate goal of the rationalization of intuition mentioned above. Finally, we must not forget Xenakis's actual drawings. As an engineer and later as a draughtsman and ultimately as an architect first in Le Corbusier's studio12 and finally on a free-lance basis, he created an incalculable number of plans, studies and sketches. His freehand drawings show a very personal and elegant style where the plastic qualities, expressing a unique poetic economy, create a good fifth reasonfor pursuing such endeavors. In addition, it is through the bias of his drawings that he was able to transpose musical concepts into architecturalpractice such as the famous "undulating glass panes."13 One of the icons of twentiethcentury architecture, the Philips Pavilion for the World Fair in Brussels in 1958,14 composed of hyperbolic paraboloids, was developed by Xenakis in parallel to his musical research that resulted in his first major orchestral composition, Metastaseis.

194

Perspectivesof New Music

Let us then summarize what appear to be not only the motivations behind but also the result of Xenakis's urge or need to create written traces: 1) To produce a global overview 2) To establish physical proof or record of activities involving third parties 3) To record his intellectual or creative itinerary 4) To free himself from contingencies 5) To work with new plastic qualities We have all, at one time or another, delved into one or several of these acts, consciously or unconsciously, which constitute various stages or degrees of the kind of visualization essential for subsequent observation. What is unique about Xenakis's approach is that a work's realization-be it musical, architectural, or even theoretical-went through several or all of the above processes before finding its definitive form. For example, starting with an abstract idea, Xenakis would begin to calculate (fourth reason). From chosen results of that process, he would attempt a graphic representation (first reason). From there, he would transcribe that visualization either into musical notation, or text, or architectural plan (third reason), etc. No matter what means of expression he chose, every single one of his works went through several of these visualization processes, without any established order. His capacity for observation of these visualizations was what enabled him to make knowledgeable value or aesthetic judgments. Through consciousness gained thanks to these steps, he was able to be free enough to create something new, one is tempted to say, by progressively attaining a universal state. Understanding the importance and methodology behind these visualization procedures can help us to enter the depths of Xenakis's thinking and creative process, but can of course in no way substitute for the power or the mystery of his actual works. In relation to his musical works, the genesis is complete only upon performance and listening. It is curious to note that Xenakis never wrote a book. Nevertheless, his bibliography is quite impressive.15To date, there are some 160 articles (28 of which are unpublished) plus over 100 interviews16catalogued. From his numerous articles, Xenakis constructed only two books (in French): Musiques Formelles and Musique. Architecture.17A third volume signed by him, Arts/Sciences:Alliages, is a transcription of his verbal thesis defense presented in 1976 at the Universite de Paris-Sorbonne when awarded a State

Xenakis's Hand

195

Doctorate in letters and humanities, and was published in 1979.18 In these works, Xenakis often produces examples of the reasons 1), 3) and 4), illustrating specific aspects of his creative and thinking processes. Two other collections of articles have appeared under Xenakis's name, although neither contains material that had not been published previously elsewhere. Both received Xenakis's authorization, although they were entirely conceived by third parties: KIleiitha and Musique et Originalite.19 Neither, unfortunately, is illustrated. Finally, his very last project, which we had the pleasure of discovery of sharing together, was to compile the bulk of his texts, projects and realizations concerning architecture under the title TheMusic of Architecture, scheduled for release in the Spring of 2003 by The MIT Press. Starting with the related material already collected in Musique. Architecture, we were able to enhance this new volume with temporarily forgotten documents we uncovered in his personal archives and from other sources. Numerous illustrations of all five categories of visualization of Xenakis's creative processes outlined above will therefore soon be availablefor consultation and study.

196

Perspectivesof New Music

NOTES

1. Xenakis was a true polyglot: he admitted having never lost the habit of counting in his native Rumanian; his mother-tongue was, of course, Greek; he was fluent in French and English, and his German was passable. 2. This was Xenakis's inevitable refrain each time I approached him with a problem, be it musical or of any other nature. 3. Cf. Iannis Xenakis, Formalized Music (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1992), especially Chapter 1, p. 22, and also Balint Andras Varga, Conversationswith lannis Xenakis (London: Faber and Faber, 1996), 200, etc. 4. Quoted in Nouritza Matossian, lannis Xenakis (London: Kahn & Averill, 1990), 92. 5. Cf. for example Matossian, lannis Xenakis, 69; Varga, Conversations with lannis Xenakis, 127; etc. 6. For full information on the UPIC, cf. Xenakis, Formalized Music, 329-34. 7. Since Musique Formelleswas first published as a special double issue of and by La Revue Musicale, a well-respected periodical, the book was initially launched by a subscription among its regular subscribers and also by a loose-leaf tract. 8. In, for example, Iannis Xenakis, Arts/Sciences:Alloys (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1985), his Thesis Defense before an illustrious jury, Xenakis repeatedly emphasizes the dates of his seminal works, musical, theoretical, or architectural. 9. Cf. for example, Matossian, lannis Xenakis, 107. 10. Although Xenakis never considered himself a teacher, many of his writings are scattered with references to abolishing existing teaching methods and inventing new ones that would expose students to a Renaissance model of instruction, including the study of paleontology. However, he was often invited to give lectures in places such as Tanglewood, Darmstadt, Sienna, and various universities worldwide and was a Associate Professor at Indiana University at Bloonmington between 1967 and 1972, and later, a Professor at the Universite de Paris I between 1972 and 1989, where I had the honor and chal-

Xenakis's Hand

197

lenge of following his post-graduate courses between 1977 and 1980. 11. Iannis Xenakis, "Musique et originalite," PhreatiquesNo. 28, 62-6; reprinted in Iannis Xenakis, Musique et Originalite (Paris: Editions Seguier, 1996), 7-16. 12. Xenakis worked in Le Corbusier's studio in Paris between 1947 and 1959. 13. Xenakis applied Le Corbusier's famous "Modulor" distributions to create revolutionary rhythmic glass facades, called "UGP," or undulating glass panes. 14. Although Philips commissioned Le Corbusier for this project, it is now formally recognized that the Pavilion's architecturalconception was entirely Xenakis's. 15. Cf. Makis Solomos, "Bibliographie Commentee de/sur Iannis Xenakis" in Presencesde lannis Xenakis/Presencesof Iannis Xenakis (Paris: Centre de Documentation de Musique Contemporaine, 2001), 231-65. 16. Two of these interviews are actually books: Varga, Conversationswith lannis Xenakis, and Francois Delalande, Ilfaut etre constamment un immigre (Paris: Buchet-Castel/INA-GRM, 1997). 17. Iannis Xenakis, MusiquesFormelles(Paris: La Revue Musicale, 1963). This original edition was translated, revised, and published with additional new material as Formalized Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971). In 1981, a new edition was published in French by Editions Stock, Paris. In 1992, Xenakis and I further revised and added new material to Formalized Music (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press). Iannis Xenakis, Musique. Architecture (Tournai, Belgium: Casterman, 1971). 18. A translation of this valuable introduction to Xenakis's thinking was published under the title Iannis Xenakis, Arts/Sciences: Alloys (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1985). 19. Iannis Xenakis, Keleiitha, edited by Alain Galliari, preface and notes by Benoit Gibson (Paris: l'Arche, 1994). Iannis Xenakis, Musique et Originalite, (Paris: Editions Seguier, 1996).