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Xenakis's 'Polytope de Mycenae'Author(s): Brigitte SchifferSource: Tempo, New Series, No. 127 (Dec., 1978), pp. 44-45Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/945961 .Accessed: 27/10/2011 04:14

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I mentioned that only four pieces explored unfamiliar ensemble combina-tions. These were Edward McGuire's jocular and folksy Soundsaround . . . forviola and percussion (ingeniously running to rubber balls in a drum, a wet sauce-pan, glass, bamboos and ballons); Andrew Worton-Steward's ChamberMusic or thekeyboardy combination of flute, piano, harpsichord, celeste and vibraphone(which locally recalled Herzegewdchse,Reich, and Ligeti but failed to achieve apersuasive unity); the 1968 As whenupona tranced ummernight ill-advisedly drawnfrom Michael Finnissy's bottom drawer; and David Graham Ellis's LoveSong.Granted that some of LoveSong'seffect was lost by the last-minute substitution ofan amplified violin for the ondes martenot, this piece was rather a disappointmentbecause its hommage o Messiaen succumbed too much to the temptations ofquotation and pastiche. Perhaps this is the place to mention Haydn Reeder'sChrometalea,which proclaims in its title, as in its expanded consumption of time,an intention to exploit the colour of sound: a pity therefore that it contenteditself with the now conventional medium of flute(s), clarinet(s), violin and cello,mostly playing clusters enclosing quarter-tones smorzato n bass clarinet.At the other extreme, the age-old solo piano was sufficient stimulus to thevital imagination of Andrew Vores. Naturally at 2 Vores had not disguised muchof his debt to inherited piano techniques, but his jubilant exploitation of thewhole keyboard (in layered arguments), his rhythmic invention, and his readinessto conjure surprises made his Piano Worka refreshing contrast to the inhibitedsafety of Allan Moore's TheUpwardCycle piano), Roger Steptoe's Suite for Cello,Janet Graham's Crux(flute and piano) and Janice Hamer's TwoMorningAsanas(piano); though in naming these I am singling out works which each achievedsomething individual, and indeed sounded more mature than Vores. The soloclarinet piece Bob's Mandalaby David Graham Ellis had its moments as a virtuosodisplay, but I was unable to feel its 'centering' which might have justified itsextreme length. Finally mention should be made of Geoffrey King's Quintet forflute, clarinet, trumpet, violin and cello, which was spacious but purposeful in aStravinsky/Goehr/Maxwell Davies idiom.The Young Composers' Platform is now moving onto a one-yearly basis,and the next concerts will take place at York in Autumn 1979. One's hope mustbe that rather than reflecting the self-doubting spirit of our times, one or twocomposers will have achieved something audacious; in this way they might, asartists should, lead rather than follow.

Xenakis's 'Polytope de Mycenae'BrigitteSchiffer

WHEN Iannis Xenakis returned to Greece for the first time after an exile of 27years, in 1974, he made a pilgrimage to the ruins of Mycenae, the cradle of ourcivilization, which he remembered from an early visit in 193 as a schoolboy. Itwas then and there, during that second visit, that the idea of an artictic revival, 'asort of Mycenae Polytope', took root.Unlike the previous Polytopes (those of Brussels and Montreal, Osaka,Persepolis and the Diatopeof the Plateau Beaubourg, all of them the outcome of

I mentioned that only four pieces explored unfamiliar ensemble combina-tions. These were Edward McGuire's jocular and folksy Soundsaround . . . forviola and percussion (ingeniously running to rubber balls in a drum, a wet sauce-pan, glass, bamboos and ballons); Andrew Worton-Steward's ChamberMusic or thekeyboardy combination of flute, piano, harpsichord, celeste and vibraphone(which locally recalled Herzegewdchse,Reich, and Ligeti but failed to achieve apersuasive unity); the 1968 As whenupona tranced ummernight ill-advisedly drawnfrom Michael Finnissy's bottom drawer; and David Graham Ellis's LoveSong.Granted that some of LoveSong'seffect was lost by the last-minute substitution ofan amplified violin for the ondes martenot, this piece was rather a disappointmentbecause its hommage o Messiaen succumbed too much to the temptations ofquotation and pastiche. Perhaps this is the place to mention Haydn Reeder'sChrometalea,which proclaims in its title, as in its expanded consumption of time,an intention to exploit the colour of sound: a pity therefore that it contenteditself with the now conventional medium of flute(s), clarinet(s), violin and cello,mostly playing clusters enclosing quarter-tones smorzato n bass clarinet.At the other extreme, the age-old solo piano was sufficient stimulus to thevital imagination of Andrew Vores. Naturally at 2 Vores had not disguised muchof his debt to inherited piano techniques, but his jubilant exploitation of thewhole keyboard (in layered arguments), his rhythmic invention, and his readinessto conjure surprises made his Piano Worka refreshing contrast to the inhibitedsafety of Allan Moore's TheUpwardCycle piano), Roger Steptoe's Suite for Cello,Janet Graham's Crux(flute and piano) and Janice Hamer's TwoMorningAsanas(piano); though in naming these I am singling out works which each achievedsomething individual, and indeed sounded more mature than Vores. The soloclarinet piece Bob's Mandalaby David Graham Ellis had its moments as a virtuosodisplay, but I was unable to feel its 'centering' which might have justified itsextreme length. Finally mention should be made of Geoffrey King's Quintet forflute, clarinet, trumpet, violin and cello, which was spacious but purposeful in aStravinsky/Goehr/Maxwell Davies idiom.The Young Composers' Platform is now moving onto a one-yearly basis,and the next concerts will take place at York in Autumn 1979. One's hope mustbe that rather than reflecting the self-doubting spirit of our times, one or twocomposers will have achieved something audacious; in this way they might, asartists should, lead rather than follow.

Xenakis's 'Polytope de Mycenae'BrigitteSchiffer

WHEN Iannis Xenakis returned to Greece for the first time after an exile of 27years, in 1974, he made a pilgrimage to the ruins of Mycenae, the cradle of ourcivilization, which he remembered from an early visit in 193 as a schoolboy. Itwas then and there, during that second visit, that the idea of an artictic revival, 'asort of Mycenae Polytope', took root.Unlike the previous Polytopes (those of Brussels and Montreal, Osaka,Persepolis and the Diatopeof the Plateau Beaubourg, all of them the outcome of

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FIRST PERFORMANCESthat peculiar unity of thought so characteristic of Xenakis), the latest was bornout of a passionate commitment to the land and the people of Greece. Moreover,as in Persepolis, it was not a man-made architectural project that was to be 'sonor-ized', but a historic site and its actual scenic environs.All that is specifically Greek in Xenakis's previous works-the incidentalmusic to Sophocles's Oedipus t Colonus,Euripides's Helen and Aeschylus's Oresteia,Psappha for one percussionist (written in honour of Sappho) and Persephassa,another percussion piece for 6 players, dedicated to the Chtonian deity-allthese works were integrated into the new Polytope. They were linked together byelectronic 'interpolations' specially composed with the help of a new compositionsystem (using minicomputer and plotter) developed by Xenakis at the Centre deMathematiques et Automatiques Musicales in Paris; and also by recitations fromHomer and from recently-discovered Mycenean funeral inscriptions; by proces-sions of children bearing torches, goats bearing lights and bells, and young peoplefrom the neighbourhood bearing the funeral masks of the Achaean kings; byfires lit on the hilltops of Mt. Elias to commemorate the victorious return of thesoldiers from Troy; by flashes and beams of light from anti-aircraft searchlights;and by fireworks, which illuminated the whole region.

Opinions may differ about the pronunciation of the archaic texts 'accordingto the phonetics of their times', to the 'prosodic melody of the Attic language ofthe fifth century' and to the 'harmony based on Aristoxenos's and Euclid's musictheory'. But there can be no doubt whatsoever that the recitations of SpyrosSakkasand Olga Tournaki struck a note of authentic tragedy, that the lamenta-tions and invocations from Helen, sung organum-fashion by the women of Argos,and the hymns to the cities of Athens and of Attica from Oedipusat Colonus,sungby students from the Provence and accompanied by 14 instrumentalists of theOrchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine, had an unmistakable archaic touch.Orestia, the trilogy of the curse-ridden dynasty of the Achaean kings, filled thetombs of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus with sinister fanfaresand des-olate chants entirely suited to the site and its history. The percussion sounds ofPsapphaand of Persephassachoed hauntingly from the mountains and from theCyclopean walls of the Acropolis. The sounds of the seven electronic 'Inter-polations' gave to the event a quality of unreality and wildness, while theprocessions, fires and illuminations added a strong visual flavour in which thecontinuity of a 3,600-year-old civilization was brought home with vigour andconviction. The phenomenal percussionist Sylvio Gualdaand his ensemble of six,the musicians from the Lorraine under the direction of Michel Tabachnik, thestudent choirs from the Provence with their leaders, Christine Prost and RolandHaydarebian, and the women and children of Argolis conducted by StefanVassiliades sang and played side by side, turning this historical, musical andenvironmental event into a triumph of cooperation and good will.What had started as a sudden vision was soon transformed, by John Papaioan-nou, into a commission endorsed by Panagiotis Lambrias and was financed, to thescale of a ?ioo,ooo-budget, by his National Greek Tourist Organisation. Ithas since turned into a 'new chain of international artistic feats at Mycenae'where, in Xenakis's own words, 'history and art will henceforth beamalgamated'.

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