7. Iannis XenakisPersepolis
I’m a big fan of his methods and his processes. He used stochastic theory, where he transforms and develops different ideas through lots of processing of numbers, assigning different values to different elements of a note. Pitches, timbre, duration and dynamics are all determined, so there’s lots of methodical mathematical processing, and notes get built up through these processes. Learning about him was a big turning point for me, and has greatly influenced how I shape my own musical practices.
Persepolis was a site-specific performance, with lights made to be in a specific architecture, and sounds emitted from speakers in certain places. I saw how Xenakis would place sound and move it around as an object. It made me think, as an artist, “how is the audience really experiencing this?” With Xenakis, I think he was considering the whole experience, and then the fact that every audience member will experience it differently.
