Toward an interpretation of Xenakis's Nomos alpha.(Critical Essay)

Art, and above all, music has a fundamental function, which is to catalyze the sublimation that it can bring about through all means of expression. It must aim through fixations which are landmarks to draw towards a total exaltation in which the individual mingles, losing his consciousness in a truth immediate, rare, enormous, and perfect. If a work of art succeeds in this undertaking even for a single moment, it attains its goal.

--Iannis Xenakis

0. INTRODUCTION

0.1 NOMOS ALPHA

FOR MANY OF US, Iannis Xenakis's 1966 solo cello composition Nomos alpha is one of these works of art. It gathers us as listeners into a sonic world which speaks to, indeed argues with, our notions of logic, philosophy, affection, and beauty. One of the piece's most engaging aspects is its difficulty, presenting substantial challenges to us as performers, listeners, and analysts. In the artist preparing a performance of Nomos alpha, all three of these personae must work together to overcome its obstacles: its formidable technical difficulties and, perhaps greater, the problem of forming an interpretation. The piece is extremely rich in detail and design, yet how do these aspects translate into the field of interpretation? George Fisher and Judy Lochhead (1993, 5) state the general problem most succinctly: "The basic question thus becomes not what bearing analysis should have on performance, but what bearing it can have."

The opinion we explore here is that, overall, Nomos alpha is a piece about time. As we will see later, the work's primary dialogue does not takes place in aspects of its pitch structure, but rather in the categories of time (linear, non-linear, etc.) which it incorporates. Consequently, to arrive at an appropriate interpretive model of the work, the performer must first have a clear understanding of the form of the piece, and how it works with, or against, notions of time in music. In the most general sense, such interpretation is a question of rhythm. As Edward T. Cone (1968, 38-9) states, "We must first discover the rhythmic shape of a piece--which is what is meant by its form--and then try to make it as clear as possible to our listeners." Like performers, we as analysts and, even more generally, listeners of Nomos alpha, must first discover the work's form to come to an understanding of the piece.

0.2 THE ROLE OF LISTENING IN FORMING AN INTERPRETATION