Copyright

Bill Manaris

Published On

2024-10-09

Page Range

pp. 635–660

Language

  • English

Print Length

26 pages

38. The Algorithmic Music of Iannis Xenakis–What’s Next?

  • Bill Manaris (author)
Chapter of: Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies(pp. 635–660)
Iannis Xenakis was a pioneer in algorithmic composition of music and art. He combined architecture, mathematics, music, and performance art to create avant-garde compositions and performances that are still being analyzed, performed widely, and discussed. Xenakis’s musical contributions are deeply algorithmic in nature, inspired by his understanding and appreciation of mathematics and controlled randomness; i.e., stochastic processes. His work was made possible through his use of early computer programming languages, such as FORTRAN and BASIC, and the formalization, standardization, and replicability such languages provide. This chapter explores the intersection of science and art, Xenakis’s early computational techniques for a non-technical audience, and how algorithmic music composition has advanced since his passing. It includes the retelling of one of his early works, Concret PH; a reimagining of UPIC; and musical examples derived from blending artificial intelligence, advanced algorithms, modern technology and smartphones, and user interaction, into the body of techniques introduced by him.

Contributors

Bill Manaris

(author)
Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Computing in the Arts program at College of Charleston
http://manaris.org

Bill Manaris is a computer science and algorithmic arts researcher, educator, and musician. He is Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Computing in the Arts program at the College of Charleston, USA. He works in the intersection of computer science (including artificial intelligence, big data, and human-computer interaction) with computer music and art. His lab explores interaction design, modeling of aesthetics and creativity, sound spatialization, and telematics. With his students, he designs systems for computer-aided analysis, composition, and performance in music and art. He studied computer science and music at the University of New Orleans and holds MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the Center for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Louisiana. Manaris has published a textbook on Computer Music and Creative Programming, and is co-developer of the JythonMusic environment (http://jythonmusic.org). For more information, see http://manaris.org