Iannis Xenakis (1 of 2) Filmed Interview in English with German subtitles

Iannis Xenakis English interview with German subtitles. Includes extracts of interviews with Volker Banfield Heinz Otto Peitgen.

Iannis Xenakis was born on May 29, 1922 in Braîla (Romania) as a son of Clearchos Xenakis and Fotini Pavlou. Around the age of five, he settled, with his father, in Greece. From 1947 he started studying at the Polytechnical Institute in Athens, where he was also part of the anti-fascist and later anti-English underground movement. Because of these activities he was sentenced to death in 1947. The same year he fled to France where he started working as an architect, being an assistant of Le Corbusier. He continued working with Le Corbusier until 1960. In these years he realized a.o. the Couvent de La Tourette (1955) and the Philips Pavilion at the Expo in Brussels (1958).
His first musical studies were around 1948 with Arthur Honegger, Nadia Boulanger and Darius Milhaud. In 1949-50 he studied with Olivier Messiaen, who encouraged him to develop his musical ideas.
In 1953 he married Françoise Gargouil. In 1965 Xenakis founded the Centre d'études de Mathématiques et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris. Between 1967 and 1972 he was Music Professor as well as founder of the Center for Mathematical automated Music (CMAM) at the Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. From 1972 to 1989 he was Professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris and in 1975 he was Professor of Music at the City University of London.
Xenakis received many awards and titles such as the Manos Hadjidakis Prize in Athens (1963), the Nippon Academy Award (1971), Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite in Paris (1985) etc.etc.

Iannis Xenakis died on Sunday, February 4, 2001. He is survived by his wife Françoise and his daughter Makhi.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Iannis
• Xenakis
• intrview
• Volker
• Banfield
• Heinz
• Otto
• Peitgen
• Stephan
• Calder
• Andrew
• Toovey
• Alperton
• Community
• School

[AndrewToovey]

I'm putting more performances and interviews up later - but I love this man and his music!

[minasgekos]

A man born in Romania, who fought for Greece, lived in Paris, giving an interview in English to German interviewers and known for composing a music that had no borders. Mr Xenakis the perfect cosmopolitan in the Diogenian meaning of the term.

[LesbianStraightGay]

What a man! He changed my perception of music and live in general.

[theo9952]

@JamesAlexanderGale

Must have been in 1990 or 91 in the roman theatre in Athens. The first work to be performed was an electronic composition  titled MYKINAE A. Xenakis manipulated the controls of the sound consol. This was followed by a performance of compositions for amplified harpsicord and percussion played by Elizabeth Chojnacka and Sylvio Gualda.

[JamesAlexanderGale]

@theo9952 What was he playing/doing in the performance he participated in it?

[theo9952]

I feel so privelaged to have been twice in performances that took place in his presence... He even ...participated in one !

[deductionism]

Thanks very much for uploading

[mroit]

When did this interview take place?? I'm fascinated!

[japanesesweet]

Inspiring interview-he's especially perceptive when he clamps down on the dogmatism of the some of the Darmstadt crowd.

[milesbangs]

Its funny because in case of the term "deterministic thinking" at 8:36 there are some interesting statements came from the interviers. That leads us to the question! is the demiurg of this kind of musical piece, the composer or the musician :-)

in every case xenakis stands above