Nomos Alpha
Nomos Alpha (
During his lifetime, Xenakis was a vocal critic of modern Western music since the development of polyphony for its diminished set of outside-time structures, especially when compared to folk and the Byzantine musical traditions. This perceived incompleteness of Western music was the main impetus for the development of symbolic music and for composing Nomos Alpha, his most well-known example of the genre.
Nomos Alpha consists of 24 sections divided into two layers. The first layer consists of every section not divisible by four, while the second layer consists of every fourth section.[2]
Layer 1
Layer 1 of Nomos Alpha is determined by the 24-
Layer 2
Layer 2 of Nomos Alpha—in contrast to Layer 1—is not determined by group theory, but is instead, a "continuous motion of registral evolution".[3]
References
- ^ DeLio, Thomas. "The Dialectics of Structure and Materials: Iannis Xenakis' Nomos Alpha". Cited in DeLio (1985). p.xii
- ^ DeLio, Thomas. "Iannis Xenakis' Nomos Alpha: The Dialectics of Structure and Materials", Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1980), pp. 63–95; Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the Yale University Department of Music. Citation on p. 63.
- ^ DeLio. op. cit. 83
Sources
- DeLio, Thomas, ed. (1985). Contiguous Lines: Issues and Ideas in the Music of the '60's and '70's. ISBN 0-8191-4330-8.
- DeLio, Thomas. "The Dialectics of Structure and Materials: Iannis Xenakis' Nomos Alpha". Cited in DeLio (1985).
- Xenakis, Iannis (1971). Formalized Music, pp. 219–236. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
External links
- Nomos Alpha performed by Moritz Müllenbach
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