Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Evryali (Shall Be Exalted?)

Johnson's Rambler (no relation) hosts this awesome clearinghouse of YouTubed contemporary music, which, okay, you've probably seen already. I'd have to say that one composer who benefits most greatly from the A/V treatment is Iannis Xenakis, whose music is actually designed to be heard as a set of points and curves. My father the schoolteacher might say that I am a visual learner, so it does give me a greater appreciation of Xenakis's stuff to get a virtual tour of, say, his sketches for Metastasis (best viewed full screen): or the "score" for Mycenae Alpha (ditto—also, be warned, it is loud and nasty): but my favorite online Xenakimation, again thanks to the Rambler, is the side-scrollin' Evryali graph that John Mark Harris has whipped up to accompany his performance of the (literally unperformable) piece, so you can watch it roll by like player-piano music. Has anybody performed Xenakis on Disklavier? (Defeats the purpose, I know, but still interesting.) Conversely, has anybody come up with MIDIfied visual maps like this for the music of Conlon Nancarrow? Would be fascinating to see...

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great stuff. Shows his music in the way I hope that he would want it to be heard. Shows the architect and mathematician in him.

March 12, 2008 at 4:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is a barrel organ version of Herma.

March 12, 2008 at 7:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, this is all very cool material but isn't it a little late for valentine's day?

March 13, 2008 at 9:04 AM  
Blogger Grrg said...

anonymous person: why not give us a link?

(Or, as the kids say, "LLoGtFO"... not that I would descend to that level of vilgarity.)

March 13, 2008 at 12:26 PM  
Blogger Dan Johnson said...

Grrg: I found that barrel-organ Herma on YouTube... I think you'll agree it is kind of amazing:

Herma - Iannis Xennakis

March 13, 2008 at 3:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Could you kindly provide a link?

March 13, 2008 at 3:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

whoops. my bad.

March 13, 2008 at 3:53 PM  
Blogger Grrg said...

I hate you, Daniel Stephen Johnson. I hate you to hell!

March 13, 2008 at 7:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

grrg, please have a sense of humor! Dan's a very sweet man and wouldn't want to make anyone feel bad.

March 13, 2008 at 8:03 PM  
Blogger Dan Johnson said...

Grrg just got RENEE ROLLED!!!!!!1!

Ell.

Oh.

Ell.

March 13, 2008 at 9:13 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Ahahaha you clever bastard, you went and did it!

(disclaimer to all: this is, of course, an affectionate use of the word, given how hard I was laughing over the idea a few weeks ago)

March 14, 2008 at 8:36 AM  

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