Pithoprakta
''Pithoprakta'' (1955–56) is a piece by Iannis Xenakis for string orchestra (with 46 separate solo parts), two trombones, xylophone, and wood block, premièred by conductor Hermann Scherchen in Munich in March 1957. A typical performance of the piece lasts about 10 minutes. The word ''Pithoprakta'' translates to "actions through probability". This relates to Jacob Bernoulli's law of large numbers which states that as the number of occurrences of a chance event increases, the average outcome approaches a determinate end. The piece is based on the statistical mechanics of gases, Gauss's law,Xenakis, Iannis (1992). ''Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition'', p.15. . or Brownian motion.Emmerson, Simon (2007). ''Living Electronic Music'', p.48. . Each instrument is conceived as a molecule obeying the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution law,Randel, Don Michael (1996). ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'', p.999. . with Gaussian distribution of temperat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metastaseis And Pithoprakta
''Metastaseis and Pithoprakta'' is a ballet by New York City Ballet co-founder and ballet master George Balanchine to two orchestral works by Iannis Xenakis: '' Metastaseis'', written 1953–54, and ''Pithoprakta'', written 1955–56. The premiere took place 18 January 1968, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center with lighting designed by Ronald Bates. Casts Original *''Metastaseis'' :''and 22 women'' :''and 6 men'' *''Pithoprakta'' *Suzanne Farrell :''and 7 women'' *Arthur Mitchell :''and 5 men'' Revivals Suzanne Farrell Ballet *''Pithoprakta'' = Washington DC 2007 = *'' t.b.a.'' = New York City Center '' 2008 Fall for Dance festival'' = *''t.b.a.'' Articles Washington Post, November 16, 2007 Reviews by Don McDonagh, January 19, 1968NY Timesby Donal Henahan, January 19, 1968NY Timesby Clive Barnes, January 22, 1968 NY Timesby Alastair Macaulay Alastair Macaulay is an English writer and dance critic. He wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metastaseis (Xenakis)
( el, Μεταστάσεις; spelled in correct French transliteration, or in some early writings by the composer ) is an orchestral work for 61 musicians by Iannis Xenakis. His first major work, it was written in 1953–54 after his studies with Olivier Messiaen and is about 8 minutes in length. The work was premiered at the 1955 Donaueschingen Festival with Hans Rosbaud conducting. This work was originally a part of a Xenakis trilogy titled ''Anastenaria'' (together with ''Procession aux eaux claires'' and ''Sacrifice'') but was detached by Xenakis for separate performance. ''Metastaseis'' requires an orchestra of 61 players (12 winds, 3 percussionists playing 7 instruments, 46 strings) with no two performers playing the same part. It was written using a sound mass technique in which each player is responsible for completing glissandi at different pitch levels and times. The piece is dominated by the strings, which open the piece in unison before their split into 46 separat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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String Orchestra
A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players (each usually playing different parts), the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass. String orchestras can be of chamber orchestra size ranging from between 12 (4 first violins, 3 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and 1 bass = 12) and 21 musicians (6 first violins, 5 second violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos and 2 double basses= 21) sometimes performing without a conductor. It could also consist of the entire string section of a large symphony orchestra which could have 60 musicians (16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos and 8 double basses = 60; ''Gurre-Lieder'' calls for 84: 20.20.16.16.12). Repertoire The repertoire includes several works by Mozart (including '' Eine klei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Balanchine
George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was an ethnic Georgian American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years.Joseph Horowitz (2008)''Artists in Exile: How Refugees from 20th-century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts.''HarperCollins. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music. Born in St. Petersburg, Balanchine took the standards and technique from his time at the Imperial Ballet School and fused it with other schools of movement that he had adopted during his tenure on Broadway and in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Compositions By Iannis Xenakis
Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include visuals and digital space *Composition (music), an original piece of music and its creation *Composition (visual arts), the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work * ''Composition'' (Peeters), a 1921 painting by Jozef Peeters *Composition studies, the professional field of writing instruction * ''Compositions'' (album), an album by Anita Baker *Digital compositing, the practice of digitally piecing together a video Computer science *Function composition (computer science), an act or mechanism to combine simple functions to build more complicated ones *Object composition, combining simpler data types into more complex data types, or function calls into calling functions History *Composition of 1867, Austro-Hungarian/ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stochastic Process
In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that appear to vary in a random manner. Examples include the growth of a bacterial population, an electrical current fluctuating due to thermal noise, or the movement of a gas molecule. Stochastic processes have applications in many disciplines such as biology, chemistry, ecology, neuroscience, physics, image processing, signal processing, control theory, information theory, computer science, cryptography and telecommunications. Furthermore, seemingly random changes in financial markets have motivated the extensive use of stochastic processes in finance. Applications and the study of phenomena have in turn inspired the proposal of new stochastic processes. Examples of such stochastic processes include the Wiener process or Brownian motion process, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Simon Emmerson (composer)
Simon Emmerson is an electroacoustic music composer working mostly with live electronics. He was born in Wolverhampton, UK, on 15 September 1950. Simon Emmerson studied at Cambridge and at City University, London where he founded the electroacoustic music studio in 1975, remaining until 2004 when he joined De Montfort University, Leicester as Professor in Music, Technology and Innovation, and where he is now Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Sonic Creativity. He has been a composer and writer on electroacoustic music since the early 1970s. Commissions include: Intermodulation, Singcircle, Lontano, Jane Manning, Philip Mead, Jane Chapman, GRM (Paris), IMEB (Bourges), Inventionen (Berlin), Sond-Arte Ensemble (Lisbon), and more recently for BEAST (Birmingham) and for soloists Darragh Morgan (violin), Carla Rees (flute) and Heather Roche (clarinet). He was a first prize winner at the Bourges Electroacoustic Awards in 1985 for his work ''Time Past IV'' (soprano and tape, commiss ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale. For example, C is adjacent to C; the interval between them is a semitone. In a 12-note approximately equally divided scale, any interval can be defined in terms of an appropriate number of semitones (e.g. a whole tone or major second is 2 semitones wide, a major third 4 semitones, and a perfect fifth 7 semitones. In music theory, a distinction is made between a diatonic semitone, or minor second (an interval encompassing two different staff positions, e.g. from C to D) and a chromatic semitone or augmented unison (an interval between two notes at the same staff position, e.g. from C to C). These are enharmonically equivalent when twelve-tone equal temperament is used, but are not the same thing in meantone temper ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ordinate
In common usage, the abscissa refers to the (''x'') coordinate and the ordinate refers to the (''y'') coordinate of a standard two-dimensional graph. The distance of a point from the y-axis, scaled with the x-axis, is called abscissa or x coordinate of the point. The distance of a point from x-axis scaled with the y-axis is called ordinate. For example, if (x, y) is an ordered pair in the Cartesian plane, then the first coordinate in the plane (x) is called the abscissa and the second coordinate (y) is the ordinate. In mathematics, the abscissa (; plural ''abscissae'' or ''abscissas'') and the ordinate are respectively the first and second coordinate of a point in a Cartesian coordinate system: :abscissa \equiv x-axis (horizontal) coordinate :ordinate \equiv y-axis (vertical) coordinate Usually these are the horizontal and vertical coordinates of a point in plane, the rectangular coordinate system. An ordered pair consists of two terms—the abscissa (horizontal, usually '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metronome Mark
A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats per minute (BPM). Metronomes may include synchronized visual motion. Musicians use the device to practise playing to a regular pulse. A kind of metronome was among the inventions of Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887). In 1815, German inventor Johann Maelzel patented his mechanical, wind-up metronome as a tool for musicians, under the title "Instrument/Machine for the Improvement of all Musical Performance, called Metronome". In the 20th century, electronic metronomes and software metronomes were invented. Musicians practise with metronomes to improve their timing, especially the ability to stick to a regular tempo. Metronome practice helps internalize a clear sense of timing and tempo. Composers and conductors often use a me ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abscissa
In common usage, the abscissa refers to the (''x'') coordinate and the ordinate refers to the (''y'') coordinate of a standard two-dimensional graph. The distance of a point from the y-axis, scaled with the x-axis, is called abscissa or x coordinate of the point. The distance of a point from x-axis scaled with the y-axis is called ordinate. For example, if (x, y) is an ordered pair in the Cartesian plane, then the first coordinate in the plane (x) is called the abscissa and the second coordinate (y) is the ordinate. In mathematics, the abscissa (; plural ''abscissae'' or ''abscissas'') and the ordinate are respectively the first and second coordinate of a point in a Cartesian coordinate system: :abscissa \equiv x-axis (horizontal) coordinate :ordinate \equiv y-axis (vertical) coordinate Usually these are the horizontal and vertical coordinates of a point in plane, the rectangular coordinate system. An ordered pair consists of two terms—the abscissa (horizontal, usually '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |