Mists (Xenakis)
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Mists (Xenakis)
''Mists'' is a composition for piano by Iannis Xenakis. It was written in 1980, and was premiered on April 16, 1981, by Roger Woodward, to whom it is dedicated. Its duration is approximately 12 minutes. Background ''Mists'' was composed in response to a commission from Australian pianist Roger Woodward, and was presented to Woodward as a "personal gift". It was Xenakis's third work for solo piano, following ''Herma'' (1961) and ''Evryali'' (1973). Xenakis would go on to dedicate two additional works to Woodward: ''Keqrops'' for piano and orchestra (1986), and ''Paille in the Wind,'' for cello and piano (1992). According to Xenakis biography James Harley, the work was inspired by nature, "the title being suggested in the music by the scattered clouds of notes in the stochastic sections, and perhaps in the rolling waves of ascending scales". Material and form In the preface to the score, Xenakis wrote that the work is based on two ideas. The first is the use of scales and their c ...
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Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalised citizen of France eighteen years later. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances. Among his most important works are '' Metastaseis'' (1953–54) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra; percussion works such as '' Psappha'' (197 ...
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Roger Woodward
Roger Woodward (born 20 December 1942) is an Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. Life and career Early life The youngest of four children, Roger Woodward was born in Sydney where he received first piano lessons from Winifred Pope. His mother and second sister were amateur violinists and his father and elder sister sang in the local Chatswood Church of Christ choir. On his first day at Chatswood Public School, he sat next to Peter Kraus, a boy who had survived the Auschwitz train four years before. The six-year olds became lifelong friends and, as he came to know Peter, his brother Paul, and the Kraus family, their story impacted his emerging vision and personal development. He attended the Conservatorium High School and matriculated from North Sydney Technical High School, North Sydney Boys' Technical High School with a Commonwealth scholarship. Woodward's early studies of Bach organ works with Peter Verco led to his immersion in Bach's cantata ...
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Herma (Xenakis)
''Herma'' (from Greek ἕρμα "a stringing together, a foundation") is a piece for solo piano composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1961. About ten minutes long, it is based on a formulation of the algebraic equations of Boolean algebra, and is also an example of what Xenakis called symbolic music. Composition ''Herma'' was the composer's first major work for piano. It was composed after a visit to Japan in 1961, where Xenakis befriended pianist and composer Yūji Takahashi. Xenakis completed the piece upon his return to Paris and dedicated it to Takahashi, who premièred the piece on February 2, 1962. The pianist's impression of that concert was that the piece "made some excited and wonder, others feel painful". Boolean algebra is the main mathematical principle behind ''Herma''. Xenakis defines several pitch sets and proceeds to apply various logical operations to them. The results are incorporated into music by using successions and combinations of various sets. Stochastic procedures ...
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Evryali
''Evryali'' (from grc-gre, Εὐρυάλη ''Euryale'') is a piece for solo piano composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1973. It is based on a technique Xenakis invented in early 1970s, called arborescences—proliferations of melodic lines created from a generative contour. The title refers to the name of one of the Gorgon sisters, and is also Greek for ''open sea''. Written in 1973, ''Evryali'' was Xenakis' second major work for piano solo after Herma, written in 1961. ''Evryali'' was composed for, and dedicated to, pianist Marie-Françoise Bucquet. According to her, upon presenting her the score, Xenakis said: "Here's the piece. Look at it, and if you think you can do something with it, play it"., translated in . Conventional notation is used throughout the score; however, instead of using two or three staves as is customary for piano scores, Xenakis frequently employs four and five staves. Numerous passages are impossible to play as written either because it is physically impossib ...
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Keqrops
''Keqrops'' ( gr, Κέκρωψ, also incorrectly entitled by the composer ''Κεqροψ'', which can be translated as ''weaving'') is a composition for piano and orchestra by Greek/French composer Iannis Xenakis. Due to the prominent role of the piano soloist, it has often been classified as a piano concerto. It was completed in 1986. Composition The composition was commissioned by Phynea Paroufakis and Peter Paroufakis from Australia for the pianist Roger Woodward, the New York Philharmonic, and conductor Zubin Mehta, who gave it a first performance on 13 November 1986 at the Lincoln Center in New York. The composition was published by Éditions Salabert in 1987. According to the composer, the title of the composition, as most of his other works, is a compound from other Greek words and roots: ''krekoo'' and ''opsis''. Xenakis translated the title as ''weaving''. However, Xenakis gave the title a second meaning. He also refers to the legend from the Mycenaean era of Cecrops ...
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James Harley
James Harley (born 1959) is a Canadian composer, author, and professor of music born in Vernon, British Columbia. His creative output consists of orchestral, chamber, solo, electroacoustic, and vocal music. Studies Harley studied at Western Washington University (B.Mus, magna cum laude, 1977–1982), Royal Academy of Music (1983–1985), Université de Paris (1986–1987), Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw (1987–1988), and McGill University (D.Mus., 1988–1994). Teaching He has taught at the Faculty of Music at McGill University (1989–1995), Wilfrid Laurier University (1995–1996), California Institute of the Arts (1997), University of Southern California (1997), and Minnesota State University Moorhead (1999–2004). In 2004, he took up a tenure-track position in music at University of Guelph, where he is associate professor. Harley is also the author of the book ''Xenakis: His Life in Music''. His areas of expertise and specialization include digital music, comp ...
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Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhythm), or a momentary section. Polyrhythms can be distinguished from irrational rhythms, which can occur within the context of a single part; polyrhythms require at least two rhythms to be played concurrently, one of which is typically an irrational rhythm. Concurrently in this context means within the same rhythmic cycle. The underlying pulse, whether explicit or implicit can be considered one of the concurrent rhythms. For example, the son clave is poly-rhythmic because its 3 section suggests a different meter from the pulse of the entire pattern. In western art music In some European art music, polyrhythm periodically contradicts the prevailing meter. For example, in Mozart's opera ''Don Giovanni'', two orchestras are heard playing toget ...
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Goldberg Variations
The ''Goldberg Variations'', BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work. Composition The story of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel: Forkel wrote his biography in 1802, more than 60 years after the events related, and its accuracy has been questioned. The lack of dedication on the title page also makes the tale of the commission unlikely. Goldberg's age at the time of publication (14 years) has also been cited as grounds for doubting Forkel's tale, although it must be said that he was known to be an accomplished keyboardist and sight-reader. contends that the Forkel story is entirely spurious. Arnold Schering has suggested that the aria on which the variations are based was not written by Bach. Mor ...
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Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. The newspaper has a prominent focus on financial journalism and economic analysis over generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. The daily sponsors an annual book award and publishes a " Person of the Year" feature. The paper was founded in January 1888 as the ''London Financial Guide'' before rebranding a month later as the ''Financial Times''. It was first circulated around metropolitan London by James Sherid ...
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Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter, group= ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet classical pianist. He is frequently regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time, Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his interpretations, his virtuoso technique, and his vast repertoire." Biography Childhood Richter was born in Zhytomyr, Volhynian Governorate, in the Russian Empire (modern-day Ukraine), the hometown of his parents. His father, (1872–1941), was a pianist, organist and composer born to German expatriates; from 1893 to 1900 he studied at the Vienna Conservatory. His mother, Anna Pavlovna Richter (née Moskaleva; 1893–1963), came from a noble Russian landowning family, and at one point she studied under her future husband. In 1918, when Richter's parents were in Odessa, the Civil War separated them from their son, and Richter moved in with his aunt Tamara. He lived with her from 1918 to 1921, and it was then that his interest in art first ...
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Perspectives Of New Music
''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory and analysis. It was established in 1962 by Arthur Berger and Benjamin Boretz (who were its initial editors-in-chief). ''Perspectives'' was first published by the Princeton University Press, initially supported by the Fromm Music Foundation.David Carson Berry, "''Journal of Music Theory'' under Allen Forte's Editorship," ''Journal of Music Theory'' 50/1 (2006), 21, n49. The first issue was favorably reviewed in the ''Journal of Music Theory'', which observed that Berger and Boretz had produced "a first issue which sustains such a high quality of interest and cogency among its articles that one suspects the long delay preceding the yet-unborn Spring 1963 issue may reflect a scarcity of material up to their standard". However, as the journal's editorial "perspective" coalesced, Fromm became—in the words of David Gable—disenchanted with the "exclusive viewpoint hatcame to dominate" ...
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Digital Performer
Digital Performer is a digital audio workstation and music sequencer software package published by Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) of Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms. Ancestry In 1984, Mark of the Unicorn released ''Professional Composer'', one of the first application programs for the Apple Macintosh. The program used the Macintosh's high-resolution graphics and printing to allow the user to print professional quality music scores. In 1985, the company released a music sequencer named ''Performer'', also based on the Macintosh platform, for arranging and performing with synthesizers and other devices which recognized the then-newly developed MIDI standard. Sending a series of numerical values, such a sequencer could direct many instruments, commanding which notes to play, at what loudness, and for how long to sustain them. There are many deep features in the MIDI protocol; MOTU developed extended capabilities in Digital Performer fo ...
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