Xenakis in miniature: style and structure in a r. (Hommage a Ravel) for piano (1987).

INTRODUCTION

BETWEEN THE EARLY 1970s and the late 1990s Iannis Xenakis composed several short works for solo instruments and for small ensembles. Because of their limited duration and minimal instrumentation, these works may be thought of as miniatures in comparison to his lengthier and more numerous chamber and orchestral works. (1) Xenakis's miniatures are attractive subjects for analytical study because, in spite of their brevity and relative simplicity, they nevertheless demonstrate a masterly coordination of texture, pitch materials and temporal structure comparable to that found in the larger works. The miniature that has been chosen for analysis here is a r. (Hommage a Ravel) for piano, which was commissioned by the Radio-France International Festival at Montpellier in 1987 as part of its commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Ravel's death. At twenty-one measures and just over two minutes in duration, it is one of the most concentrated of Xenakis's works. While the subtitle of a r. indicates that it is a tribute to Ravel, the work contains little stylistic resemblance to the older composer's work except for a general virtuosity and brilliance of harmonic color. Stylistically it is much more closely related to Xenakis's own chamber works from the same period, works such as Jalons (1986), XAS (1987), and Waarg (1988), which are particularly notable for their exuberance and intensity of expression.

This analysis will examine the structure of a r. from three perspectives: first, texture, segmentation and formal design; second, sieve theory and pitch-class sets; and finally temporal structure. Though these three perspectives inevitably intertwine somewhat through the course of the article, each will be the principal focus of a separate section below.

TEXTURE, SEGMENTATION AND FORMAL DESIGN

In Xenakis's instrumental works, large numbers of individual sounds tend to coalesce into textures that are homogeneous with respect to rhythm, density, dynamics, articulation, and pitch collection. Relative homogeneity is maintained even when the temporal intervals between the sounds are randomized, as in the process of stochastic composition, for in such cases the average density of the resultant texture remains constant. (2) Sudden changes in any of these characteristics have the effect of setting off a given texture from other, surrounding textures, thus dividing the musical surface into clearly perceptible segments. These segments are the containers for the sound masses for which Xenakis is well known, and they serve as the primary structural units upon which the form of a work is based. As such, they are subject to hierarchical groupings that form the basis for larger structural units. (3) Segments group together to form sections and sections, in turn, group together to form parts. A small work will typically divide into no more than two or three parts.