Xenakis Sings the Logistic Map (additive synthesis with visualisation)

[ahanysz]

I know I'm not the first to do a cover of this chaotic 60s number. But it's possible that a couple of features of my version are unique, and I had a lot of fun putting it together.

[sandandpaint]

nice rendition - I like the visualisation too. Did Xenakis ever actually do this?

and we share a hometown it seems!

[ahanysz]

we share a hometown it seems!

Oh! I knew you were in Brisbane: this explains why you have such good taste for a Queenslander ;-) Have you been living up there for long? Thanks for saying hi!

nice rendition - I like the visualisation too. Did Xenakis ever actually do this?

I'm not a Xenakis expert, but I don't think he went there. (Checking with a quick google search, I find that today, the top two hits for "Xenakis logistic map" are my video and this forum thread!) I'd love to see what he would have done if modern computing were available a couple of decades earlier.

[sandandpaint]

we share a hometown it seems!

Oh! I knew you were in Brisbane: this explains why you have such good taste for a Queenslander Have you been living up there for long? Thanks for saying hi!

been in Brisbane for decades longer than I lived in Adelaide

Nice to hear some work on KVR that comes through the classical tradition without thinking that tradition ended at Brahms

Someone who is continuing the Xenakis stochastic tradition in software is Sinan Bokesoy https://www.sonic-lab.com/ His software is not that easy to get a grip on but is powerful.
eg https://www.sonic-lab.com/oceanic
and https://www.sonic-lab.com/cosmosfm31

[ahanysz]

Nice to hear some work on KVR that comes through the classical tradition without thinking that tradition ended at Brahms :)

Thanks!

To be honest, some days I think if music history had stopped at Brahms, we'd have everything we need! But actually I'm fascinated by how these traditions evolved through the next century. Reading Schoenberg's writings (which are easier to understand than his music!), you can see a direct line of development from Brahms + Wagner through Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, ... and then Messiaen and Ligeti are not so far away. Xenakis and Stockhausen are not such a big break from tradition as they might first appear.

And those SonicLab plugins: I remember seeing demo videos of Oceanic when it first came out. Fascinating, but really not Linux-friendly. And I'm not short of other toys to play with!

[sandandpaint]

I posted up a version of Ligeti's Continuum a few weeks ago viewtopic.php?t=629479

[rp314]

I don't think that I've heard of that Xenakis piece before but I'm not a real expert and at my age my memory is not so good.

Once upon a time KVR had a small group of folks into so-called Contemporary Music that usually hung out in the Cafe and you would no doubt have had more listens and comments.

[ahanysz]

No, it's not an actual Xenakis piece, it's my little tribute to Xenakis. Yes, I was pleasantly surprised when I posted my "Ligeti" (again not actual Ligeti) a few years back by how much attention it got here. Thanks for listening!

[ChameleonMusic]

Never expected to see the name ''Xenakis'' in the Music Cafe nowadays...

Enjoyed the listen! Inspired me to dig out my old Xenakis CDs!

...if music history had stopped at Brahms...

If I remember correctly from my studies many years ago, Xenakis was quite partial to Brahms and also mentioned in one of his own articles that he fully understood that he was utterly incapable of creating similar music for obvious reasons!

you can see a direct line of development from Brahms + Wagner through Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

But, just remember that this is just one of many 100s of threads that weave their way through late 19th and then 20th century music...many of these continued to be very much tonal / 'traditional' and just as valid.

then Messiaen and Ligeti are not so far away.

Interesting that Messiaen took on the job of 'tutoring' Xenakis after he was rejected again and again by some serious names including Nadia Boulanger (probably the greatest 20th century music teacher)!

Messiaen simply avoided all traditional music skills when teaching Xenakis and just concentrated on helping him go down his own chosen path!

[rp314]

No, it's not an actual Xenakis piece, it's my little tribute to Xenakis.

Ah, I must have slightly misread your first post.

Which for some reason makes me recall once owning an old LP of Stravinsky's Pulcinella the liner notes of which seemed to fully accept his claim that it was all indeed the music of Pergolesi.

I also owned some wonderful old Segovia records that contained certain pieces attributed to Sylvius Leopold Weiss and Alessandro Scarlatti that we now know were composed by his friend Manuel Ponce.

But apparently great artists can get away with doing such things...

[Winstontaneous]

Nice to hear some work on KVR that comes through the classical tradition without thinking that tradition ended at Brahms

Thanks!

To be honest, some days I think if music history had stopped at Brahms, we'd have everything we need! But actually I'm fascinated by how these traditions evolved through the next century. Reading Schoenberg's writings (which are easier to understand than his music!), you can see a direct line of development from Brahms + Wagner through Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, ... and then Messiaen and Ligeti are not so far away. Xenakis and Stockhausen are not such a big break from tradition as they might first appear.

And those SonicLab plugins: I remember seeing demo videos of Oceanic when it first came out. Fascinating, but really not Linux-friendly. And I'm not short of other toys to play with!

Well, I think in a way "the classical tradition" may have indeed ended with Brahms...the era of music we're still in started in the 1890s (to my ears) with Satie and Debussy. After them I divide "classical" composition into those who followed intellectual formulae regardless of the musical results (serialists, Cage), and those who created music to be heard, enjoyed, and hopefully make an emotional connection to an audience.

[ahanysz]

Ah, I must have slightly misread your first post.

No, it's me being cryptic, a little too fond of word games. "That 60s number" referred literally to the numbers behind the logistic map.

Which for some reason makes me recall once owning an old LP of Stravinsky's Pulcinella the liner notes of which seemed to fully accept his claim that it was all indeed the music of Pergolesi.

Right. And all those violin pieces that we now know are by Kreisler :-)

[enroe]

Xenakis Sings the Logistic Map: Interesting — we first hear a sine-like tone that
grows louder and then quieter, before changing and varying its overtone content.

Towards the end, sequences of noise break up the prevailing calm, introducing a
shift — and a different character — to the track.

I would say: an interesting experiment in a new tonality — a completely different,
audio-style experience compared to what conventional music can offer.