Yuji Takahashi_Herma(Iannis Xenakis)

[NukuNukuMutton]

現代曲を弾きこなす人では　一番この人が好き　独特な味わい深さがあっていい

[worksorenge]

「楽譜を見ながらやってる暇はない」ｗｗｗ

[MusicalArmageddon]

Hit a wrong note at 0:29

[mamascarlatti]

Seriously, would anybody notice if he hit a wrong note? Or a whole series of them?Are you going to tell me that even Xenakis would notice? Feels like the Emperor's new clothes to me.

[Svokel]

@mamascarlatti You should look at the score before commenting. You would discover that your comment is a nonsense.

[pelodelperro]

@mamascarlatti Anyone who knows the score can tell if he hits the wrong note. You know: it's written.

[mamascarlatti]

@pelodelperro Haha. good point!

[saulboyjt]

Terrible 'music', atonal nonsense.

[KapustaCuber]

Unbelievable.

[xodn3300]

he has a typical musician hairstyle

[SergeyHod]

это невозможно сыграть! я пытался сам

[Zebeldarebel]

Does he write with serialism and tone rows, or is there another method involved?

[bs2ktc]

@Zebeldarebel He utilized Boolean algebra to compose Herma.

[fabiobonillo2010]

this is not music supposed to be performed by human beings.

[Vook]

Uh....what the hell kind of piece is this. :/

I don't know...but it's kind of cool in a way.

[bmnbmn0]

His performance impressed me

[pianomusickris]

Amazing...

[jonniemartin]

Holy mother of god

[terrestial63]

thanks!!!!

[scottturner1994]

My interpretation of Evryali and Herma is that they are both difficult in their own ways. Evryali is difficult for its notable muscular challenges, but is rather rhythmically simple when compared to Herma, which consists of multiple cross-rhythms and extreme psychological difficulties.

[BachScholar]

I actually played this once in a concert, all memorized. I forgot about a whole page though and left it out. Nobody could even tell I had a memory slip.

[fortune32]

lol.

[John11inch]

If that's the wittiest way you can express your distaste for this piece, I suggest you allocate the time you spent coming up with your attempt at pithiness to more practicing.

[john12inch]

John11inch: come on, you can't hear a major third.

Whatever you say about this music, it will be a shameless stealing of someone else's ideas.

And btw, Xenakis didn't compose this kind of music for academic wanna be's like yourself.

Now, go back to your major thirds.

[John11inch]

Why don't *you* say something interesting, then, what with me apparently boring you.

That would, of course, be the reason you've created three accounts to harass me. Because I'm so uninteresting <:

Glad to see I'm having SUCH an effect on your life; can't say I can reciprocate the "honor".

[john12inch]

I havent created these accounts to attack YOU, but essentially what you represent. Your arrogance and censorship allied with some pseudo-knowledge of these works are dangerous. U are irresponsible when you post videos of new music and go on mocking those who respond negatively. Be aware that not all of utubers r teenagers who have no idea of what this music is about.

[cancunhunt]

I distinctly remember on some forum (pianostreet, where he went by the name, soliloquy) that he listed a suspiciously grandiose repertoire of works he had conducted in the past. One of them was the Italian Concerto by J.S. Bach. Needles to say, that ended his credibility.

He also once proudly listed that he is smarter than anyone because he got a perfect score on his International Baccalaureate exams. Goedel, von Neumann, Feynman, Dirac, Schroedinger would just LAUGH.

[GreggaryPeccary]

HAHAHAHA I can't believe it, you're being parodied on Youtube! Way to go, mate, you must be doing something right!

[john12inch]

one more thing:

I'm not even going to make a judgment of your pathetic defense of Dusapins Trio because I have serious doubts you are capable of discussing it either musically or historically. And if you want to practice sarcasm, try pokemon fans.

[bxprettyloc]

i love you

[Filipdinca]

you try to become famouse with this music because you cant make a normal interpretation to a normal melody? :))

[kenfasano]

Both he and his sister Aki Takahashi play "Herma"; my impression is that Yuji makes it sound like a superhuman effort; Aki plays it as if it were simple.

[perry1559]

@kenfasano Yeah! I saw her play it some years ago and I was dumbfounded.

[p0lyph0ny]

Gorgeous. Takahashi was one of Xenakis' favorite pianists; it's easy to hear why here.

[isaacdelaconcha]

Great performance.

[s0nny80y]

beautful? childs play really.

[lkman4]

beauty is just a result of your conditioning of events and your comment is a fine example.

[japanesesweet]

if i may be so bold to say:Evryali is a much more interesting piece than Herma.

[ownage1810]

if he had extra notes or wrong one, would anyone here notice? i like some of xenakis' stuff but this is...

ligeti, imo is better.

anyway the idea of music being a science experiment is a repugnant idea.

[defdeezy]

it's a beautiful idea and one of very few that makes sense for music to exist outside of the subjective (ie the narcissistic), or as close to outside it as possible.

[ownage1810]

yes i know cage's idea that music should evolve so that it doesn't serve human sentiment, but i think this is beyond the upper bound of what we call and dont call music. it's almost much too disorganized, if anything can be music, why not nails on a chalkboard? why not glass breaking? can cage's water walk be called music?

and beauty IS a narcissistic thing.

[defdeezy]

yes. why not, eh?

why bother defining something as nebulous as music? to someone in mongolia, rock music would be noise.

[ownage1810]

can something like 4'33 be considered music? avant garde is always appreciable in what it attempts to do, but not what it is.

music is an organized sequence of sounds in respect to time. i have listened to mongolian traditionalist music and they have strict structure and theory. i'm sure if the performer played a wrong note SOMEONE would notice. this piece just feels like a mass of sound with little organization. if i added like 100 random notes, nobody would probably notice.

[ownage1810]

also, anyone who considers a certain form of music from a different culture "noise" has restricted their perception of music to their culture.

don't say im being antimulticultural with music, as Xenakis is greek and his music in no way captures his or anyone else's culture.

[fdaltrey]

I was reading the liner notes that accompany Vladimir Ashkenazy's 13 (or maybe it was 14) CD box set of Chopin's piano works, and it said that Chopin was similarly attacked by a London critic claiming that if the performer would've hit the wrong notes, no one would have noticed. I'm not entirely sure which particular piece it was referring to, but I'm sure every jury on the Warsaw Chopin Competition will notice even the slightest mistake today.

[cristinelu13]

But what if we take a Bach fugue you're not familiar with and add random (tonal) notes. Would you notice?

[ownage1810]

i probably would not if they were tonal, they're not really random if their within a certain key or tonality. if added a c7 to the passage or added say a g#minor4b7aug or something, i would still not notice.

[revoltz7]

Cristinelu13, the tonal part sort of defeats the random does it not? If you turned this music upside down, played it back to front you wouldn't be able to tell if you hadn't heard it before.

[TheBlackPage1]

Wouldn't the pianist know? Let's be honest. The average listener does not have the brain capacity to remember all the notes in a piece by Xenakis, which is one reason why criticism should be left to the specialists.

Long time no see.

[uhj4]

If you like experiment in music, just try TACUARA NOD, available on youtube

[bs2ktc]

Narration: This piece Herma was given its world premier performance by Yuji Takahashi in Tokyo in 1962.

Although he was a specialist in contemporary music, it was very hard for him to play this piece. When playing Herma in Paris, he cut his fingers by the keyboard and his nails were broken and peeled off.

Xenakis followed Socrates' motto "An unexamined life is not worth living."

He tried to torment himself. His uncompromising attitude taught Yuji that music is a struggle against something.

[Anarquitecto]

Great Pianist

Great Piece

("Herma" Of Iannis Xenakis Is Dedicated For Yuji Takahashi, Xenakis And Takahashi Was Friends)

[bs2ktc]

Yuji said in Japanese, "How to play this piece? Hmm...well, play it as slow as possible, then do fast! That's all.

Your fingers will move smoothly little by little...and, you couldn't play it without memorizing the musical score.

You have to memorize at least a sequence of notes. No time to follow along reading from the score."

[iwanttowatchsomethin]

Thank you so much for the translation. I've been waiting for someone to help me with the Japanese.

[lovesGenet]

wow .the vrious elements of his episodes seem /tend to get busy at same type.On the page it all loks impossibly "happening" of the page it seems like clouds or mists travelling and sorting out. I love this music. anyone who doesn't really like/get Webern isnot only behind the the times ( get with the program) and uninformed but missing out on some great ideas amd more importantly other ways of experiencing MUSIQUE !

[frappadias]

ntroph sou

[isherwood]

It is equally difficult to compose music which has very specific rules - something Xenakis is renowned for. Also, I think there is a confuison here between dissonance, so-called "episodic dissonance" and consonnance. Consonnance is still privelliged in musical circles because it appears to give closure to an idea. Continued dissonance or the absence of traditional (meaning until Messiaen in a very broad sense) consonnance is a relatively new phenomonen, and dissolves tradtional expectation.

[chashardy123]

on 3) - there is an interview I saw but can't remember the details where Mr X said he didn't much like the stochastic pieces (ST-10, ST-4 and such). When I studied with him in the early 70s he was working on using the (very new) micro-computer to realize new sounds based on mathematical formulations. It was thrilling to be doing something previously unrealized, but limited in it's musical applicability IMHO.

about 1) - agreed. 2) in my experience neither is easy

[reservoirdog999]

I believe he missed a note around 1:03

[angoranimi07]

4) to listen to such a music you must experience it with another type of listening.

5) Music is: «the art of organised sounds» and it's not anything else, sorry dude, but art is concept (idea), technicality (matter vs. idea) and social response.

[angoranimi07]

you can hate those composers but

1) Dissonance is a relative term (in the middle ages 3rds and 6th were «dissonance»)

2) They try a new approach to music (it's easy to compose something (something functional) from a tonal system who is implanted since Bach)

3) The fact that Xenakis works from mathematics do not make the music mathematical it's sensed and he sensed his music and he liked it (anyway music is mathematical)

[SickFoetus]

Oooh, how I hate Xenakis, Shöneberg, Webern and the likes.

I will never accept this as being "music", this is pollution by sound, it is noise.

Dissonance can be great, beautiful, shocking yet musical, and lots of contemporary pieces are too. Noise, is just noise.

Xenakis was an architect, he built, calculated his pieces, he didn't compose them. So it might be mathematically ingenius, but like I said, I will never accept that as music.

This is, however, my humble opinion on the matter only.

[isherwood]

Xenakis DID compose them: he may have used mathematics and more computantional deivced, but he still had to settle upon particular strategems for his ideas. Without these, his music would not been the same. It is for this reason that his mathematical computations are valid, mathemaically and musically. I would equally defend Brahms on this matter.

[iwanttowatchsomethin]

So you've told us why you won't accept Xenakis, but what is your problem with Webern and Schoenberg?

[4fingeredfreak]

I'm sorry, but as a pianist I just don't see the musical beauty of a piece like this. It is a study in disharmony, and doesn't even have the basic structure that composers like prokofiev had.

If you honestly enjoy listening, thats fine, props. I just feel that both technically and musically, classics like Lizst's Etudes and Rhapsodies and Gaspard de la Nuit greatly surpass this.

[RayAtBristolUni]

I can sympathise with you over finding this music difficult to come to terms with (you might like 'Mists' by Xenakis more than this piece). But it sometimes takes years for even specialist listeners to detect the connections between the great classics and contemporary pieces. 'Gaspard de la Nuit' is one of the most imaginative piano works in the entire repertory, but after intensive study of Elliott Carter's 'Night Fantasies' I'm finding similar greatness there too.

[tonks75]

Perhaps. But sometimes I feel that musicians make dissonant music like this so people can say "oh how beautiful" and sound unique and artsy.

Prokofievs toccota and suggestions diabolique both have long dissonant sections, but underlying themes unite the piece. It seems like Xenakis just threw notes together and made sure they were second or seventh intervals in seperate keys.

That being said, it would be rough to play this song.

[iwanttowatchsomethin]

This charge that serious composers use dissonance to strike a kind of pose as artsy people is a very cynical attitude that I can't accept. I think artists do exist with this kind of attitude, but these ones can't produce work, year after year with such a flimsy motivation for doing it. Xenakis was a professional artist. If you really want to know what he was about the information is available. You don't have to rely on your "judgment of character"

[furthyrius]

me imagino que los primeros grandes compositores imaginaron que algun dia llegaria en que el ser no estaria satisfecho con la ilimitada fuente de armonias y progresiones, sino que cambiaria el significado de armonia y exploraria lo q en algun momento fuera una aberracion.

[typicay]

i love it

[TheBigBullshitDebate]

Where do you stand in the great bullshit debate? What are your views about bullshit? Is it a significant social force? Is it an important element of modern society? Has bullshit developed in recent years? Is the quality of bullshit as high as in the 1990s? Or do you not have views? Do you need advice from a bullshit guidance expert?

[GetScrewedTonight]

I think the whole world is relying on bullshit to get by from day to day, to be honest, especially newspaper critics who try to write about contemporary music when they don't understand a note of it.

[LoadOfJunk]

Bullshit can be quite fun if you enter into the spirit of it.

[10142043]

Bullshit rules the world, whether we like it or not.

[1099lp]

We can thank George W Bush for that.

[chashardy123]

Do we know when this video is from? I knew Yugi when he was teaching at Indiana U (briefly) while Xenakis was there (also briefly). That was late 60s early 70s. I remember more vigor when he performed this then, but I like this more tender rendering.

[bs2ktc]

This was the special program of NHK aired in 1998, congratulating Xenakis on winning Kyoto Prize.

Yuji was 59 years old. Now he rarely plays Xenakis.

[chashardy123]

Thanks for the information about the performance date and place. I have not followed him in the intervening years, and I presume I could find this out with a little research, but can you tell me if Yuji is not performing much at all now, performing mostly his own pieces, or ... ?

[bs2ktc]

You might want to visit his homepage.

Now he often plays classical music such as Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schuman and Buzoni.

[Alessandre]

this is a hard piece to play

i hate ppl ignorance you should read about lannis Xenakis works before start just criticizing

[Vespene]

I can't stop laughing.

[IchigoSora]

what the fuck is this? this can be called "music"?!

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

Xenakis's solo piano music is not the most accessible introduction for any newcomer to his music. It's probably better to start exploring Xenakis via his percussion pieces where his totally original sound world can make a positive impression, even on a newcomer. Xenakis was certainly a genius, but I can sympathise with those who find it difficult to make any sense of his music at first hearing.

Apart from 'SteveTheBiker' of course, whose comments (see below) are simply moronic ...

[canzona]

I donno, SteveTheBiker has a point... I probably am a psudo-intellectual wanker.

[thehappydustbin]

SteveTheBiker ... LOL!

He's got some great comments on the John Cage videos too!

[canzona]

It is music that requires a different ear than anything you'd hear on the radio. And even if you can't aurally understand what the pitches and rhythms are doing, you can at least appreciate the extreme virtuosity required to play something like this. Takahasi really rips it up.

[RockMusicIsCrap]

canzona: yes, I have a copy of the score (published by Boosey & Hawkes) and can vouch that Takahashi gives as accurate a performance as anyone can reasonable expect in music of such extreme difficulty.

[cleomagoolando]

Don't listen to it then. No one cares what the fuck your idea of music is or isn't

[NeoComposer]

Umm, for as long as have listened to Iannis Xenakis, it is so difficult for me to understand it... The harmonies are so eerie. What exactly is he trying to convey to his audience?

[fdaltrey]

It takes quite a brave musician to actually commission works from contemporary composers, and play the music with utmost respect. Bravo, Mr. Takahashi.

[aptmusic9]

i bet im reading ur comment wrong or somthing but i think this work was not a commission. xenakis has been dead for a long time. good riddance. it takes a brave person to subject themselves to the tomatos that would be flying at them on stage for playing crud like this.

[fdaltrey]

Takahashi did indeed commission this work from Xenakis back in the 60's, and gave a world premier in Tokyo.

It is an incredibly difficult piece to play because it intentionally eschews harmony and melody.

[fdaltrey]

It is also incredibly hard for the audience to digest for exactly the same reason.

[Rhinegoldt]

Well, maybe while I'm having my head examined you should have your spelling examined.

[ruizcomposer]

If you don't like it, why do you waste your time and energies listening to it and insulting to the people who likes it? Some kind of frustration seems to show up behind your words.

[GreggaryPeccary]

Wow, you`re really angry, aren`t you?

[45elephants]

Steve the Biker, your comments are crap. Bugger off, you wanker.

[mikeofcetacea]

is really a genius? hmm. questions that make you think...

[elevateme]

yeah, i really feel what the composer is trying to convey here. such expressive playing

[JeroenUyttendaele]

wow, Xenakis has strange affect on you guys

[berzerker123123]

人間業じゃねぇ・・・

[jatwell55]

Great video of a great performance of a great piece by Xenakis.

[saikunn]

コメントで猿って言われてるじゃんｗ外人に

[fanguism]

what a bunch of random bangings on the keys. my monkey can do better than that. LOL

[goobleglob]

Is "monkey" what you call your mother? because she gives great blowjobs too.

[fanguism]

no it's actually your mum cos she is a $2 dollar whore who gives blow job to anyone. Muahhahaha... loser

[goobleglob]

hahaha. i'll give you another chance; you didn't satisfy me-- much like your father doesn't satisfy your mom.

[fanguism]

yeah you can fuck your mum while getting screwed in the ass by your dad, you fucking incest product. your fucking dad should probably have worn a rubber before shooting his load in your mum's rotten cunt which gave birth to a cursed son like you biatch !

[goobleglob]

i agree! have a great day :)

[fanguism]

yeah u better.

[goobleglob]

well i do. i just love fucking my mom while my dad screws my ass. its so fun. wanna join some day?

[fanguism]

no thanks. u can just screw yourself u fuck head.

[goobleglob]

ok :)

[iggyfrance]

Damn, I'm supposed to be a stupid metalhead... and that stuff just freaks me out! It's awesome!

[santasprees]

Yuji Takahashi is one of the few pianists able to play and interpret some of the wilder scoring of the 20th Century avant-garde. A great composer in his own right too. For more Japanese avant and underground music visit channel: santasprees

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

Yes, Yuji Takahashi knows how to play this music ACCURATELY. I'm sick and tired of hearing rubbishy pianists who hide their poor technique by specialising in 20th-century non-mainstream music because they know that few people will realise how bad their performances are. Only a few pianists are able to do justice to this music and Yuri is one of them. He is a genius. So is Pierre Laurent-Aimard, who plays with amazing accuracy; you'll find a superb video of him playing Boulez Sonata 1 on YouTube.

[SweetSweetWaldo]

Agreed. What do you think of his daugher's interpretations of Xenakis (Aki Takahashi)? I enjoyed seeing Y.T.'s hands playing Xenakis. I couldn't do that in a million years!

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

I didn't know about his daughter, Aki!

[SweetSweetWaldo]

My mistake. Aki is Yuji's sister, not his daughter.

See: Mode Records, Iannis Xenakis "Piano Music."

[bernardranreb]

I believe Aki Takahashi is in fact Yuji Takahashi's sister, not daughter. She is also a phenomenal pianist,and her 3LP set of LPs called "Piano Space" is one of the seminal contemporary recordings of new piano music. Her recording of Toshi Ichiyanagi's "Piano Media" is kind of legendary..

[JJ77TTUU3]

this is Real Music you wanna talk some dirt about that? then why don't you go back home and listen to Britnay Spires ya chak thank you :)

[elevateme]

i swear hes the oracle from the matrix

[elevateme]

ugh what the hell is this??? you call this music????

[robcastellani]

Yeah I'd call it music. No, it's not exactly a pop song you'd sit and relax to, but it's an organisation of sound. Xenakis sat there and decided what notes he wanted where, no matter how bizarre. Similar to the Beatles sitting and deciding which chords to string together for their next tune, it's just that Xenakis amongst other similar composors chose to explore different sounds in their music.

[GreggaryPeccary]

BRILLIANT!

[jatwell55]

This is MY favorite Xenakis! Yuji Takahashi is fantastic. He made this piece part of the repertoire by his sheer persistance in performance. It was written for him, and he's been performing it for more than 40 years!

[ninjapunk76]

I love this piece! It's too bad there are these stupid voice over interruptions.

[underself]

yuji, i can't understand a word you're saying, please can you stop mumbling. i'll admit though, you do look like an older woman. secondly, thats probably some of piano playing ever. don't you think. must be all the martial arts. seriously. its helps.

[elephantine]

???

[underself]

hey guys, i meant to say it was some of the BEST piano playing I've ever seen, or best playing on any instrument period. I didn't mean any offence with the comment. was just being silly and stupid. I really have nothing but extreme admiration for Xenakis and Yuji Takahashi and anyone who is so inspired and uncompromising in their vision of art. They are pristine models of the true artist in my opinion. God bless 'em.

[pionata]

Superb masterpiece, but certainly not appropriate for the ignorants on youtube... (it seems)

[HagiaSophia]

Thank you so much for posting this.

Yuji and Xenakis are geniuses.

[1wibble2]

Thats the funniest thing I've seen in ages. ahhhh fuck man, made my day! lol

[zade77]

HAha lol, not funny.

People like you don't deserve to be allowed to post coments on any intelligent videos, in fact, you don't deserve to say anything at all.

I could go on and on arguing, but it comes down to the fact that Xenakis was brilliant and you're a moron.

[John11inch]

Pozzibly mah favorite 88 piece evah

[bet23]

Not my favorite Xenakis, but, Thanks for this video!

[damildlyshreddah]

Brilliant!

[Danjeli]

Xenakis works are impressive.. btw to play this piece of work is for piano virtuoso not for your 2 year old bro... idiot..

[vianocturno]

mi brother of 2 years old can play the same HAHAHAHAAHAAA

[AndriyBaran]

Woohoo! Yeah, right on!

[teacherschoice2006]

ha ha ha...

[opus3863]

When I was a high school student, I've experienced his live performance of HERMA.

He hardly saw the score as he says in this video.

And Additionally, he remained wearling his wristwatch!!!