Metastaseis (Xenakis)

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Metastaseis (Greek: Μεταστάσεις; spelled Metastasis in correct French transliteration, or in some early writings by the composer Métastassis) is an orchestral work for 61 musicians by Iannis Xenakis. His first major work, it was written in 1953–54 after his studies with Olivier Messiaen and is about 8 minutes in length. The work was premiered at the 1955 Donaueschingen Festival with Hans Rosbaud conducting. This work was originally a part of a Xenakis trilogy titled Anastenaria (together with Procession aux eaux claires and Sacrifice) but was detached by Xenakis for separate performance.[1]

Metastaseis requires an orchestra of 61 players (12

strings) with no two performers playing the same part. It was written using a sound mass technique in which each player is responsible for completing glissandi at different pitch
levels and times. The piece is dominated by the strings, which open the piece in unison before their split into 46 separate parts.

A ballet was choreographed to Xenakis' Metastaseis and Pithoprakta by George Balanchine (see Metastaseis and Pithoprakta). The ballet was premiered on January 18, 1968 by the New York City Ballet with Suzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell.

Title

The Greek title Μεταστάσεις was transliterated by the composer himself in various ways when writing in French: Les Métastassis, Métastassis, and Les Métastaseis. The Greek digraph ει is pronounced as "i" in modern Greek, and the correct French transliteration is Metastasis.[2]

The title page of the published score gives MetastaseisB in the composer's handwriting, and it appears typeset in this form on the score cover as well. The title, a

portmanteau,[3] in the plural,[4] Meta (after or beyond) -stasis (immobility), refers to the dialectical contrast between movement or change and nondirectionality.[5] According to the composer's own description, "Meta=after + staseis=a state of standstills—dialectic transformations. The Metastaseis are a hinge between classical music (which includes serial music) and 'formalized music' which the composer was obliged to inculcate into composition".[6] These transformations include both the glissando mass events and the permutation of the tone rows.[7][verification needed] The "B" (beta) refers to the revisions suggested by Hermann Scherchen: reduction of the strings from 12-12-12-12-4 to 12-12-8-8-6.[4]

Sketch showing string glissandi
, mm. 309–14

Analysis

Metastaseis was inspired by the combination of an

non-retrogradable rhythms
; Xenakis wished to reconcile the linear perception of music with a relativistic view of time. In warfare, as Xenakis knew it through his musical ear, no individual bullet being fired could be distinguished among the cacophony, but taken as a whole the sound of "gunfire" was clearly identifiable. The particular sequence of shots was unimportant: the individual guns could have fired in a completely different pattern from the way they actually did, but the sound produced would still have been the same. These ideas combined to form the basis of Metastaseis.

While in Newtonian physics time flows linearly at a universal rate, the Einsteinian view describes it as a function of matter and energy; change one of those quantities and time too is changed. Xenakis attempted to make this distinction in his music. While most traditional compositions depend on strictly measured time for the progress of the line, using an unvarying tempo, time signature, or phrase length, Metastaseis changes intensity, register, and density of scoring, as the musical analogues of mass and energy. It is by these changes that the piece propels itself forward: the first and third movements of the work do not have even a melodic theme or motive to hold them together, but rather depend on the strength of this conceptualization of time.

The Philips Pavilion, showing hyperbolic paraboloids originally used in Metastaseis.

The second movement does have some sort of melodic element. A fragment of a

Convent de La Tourette was built on this principle. See: Modulor
.

Xenakis, an accomplished

hyperbolic paraboloids like those used to model the musical "masses" and swells of his string glissandi. Yet unlike many avant-garde
composers of this century who would take such a thing as the completed score, Xenakis notated every event in traditional notation.

References

  1. John Tyrrell
    (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
  2. ^ Barthel-Calvet, Anne-Sylvie, "MÉTASTASSIS-Analyse: Un texte inédit de Iannis Xenakis sur Metastasis", Revue de Musicologie 89, no. 1 (2003): 129–87. Citation on p. 160n72: "Le phonème « ει » se prononçant « i » en grec moderne, la transcription exacte en français est « Metastasis », orthographe couramment adoptée a l'heure actuelle". (in French)
  3. ^ Bois, Mario (1967). Iannis Xenakis, the man and his music: a conversation with the composer and a description of his works, p.18. Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-415-97145-4
    . "The word metastaseis is to be understood as being in the plural form, and is in fact often misspelled through overlooking this fact.
  5. ^ Harley (2004), p.10.
  6. ^ Xenakis, Iannis, preface to the score, MetastaseisB (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1967).
  7. ^ Hoffman, Peter (2007–2010), "Xenakis, Iannis", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online

Further reading

External links
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