Iannis Xenakis - Jonchaies (1977) pour grand orchestre

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Jonchaies (1977) pour grand orchestre [for large orchestra]
Composer: Iannis Xenakis (1922 - 2001)
Performers: Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg, dir. Arturo Tamayo
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"Written in 1977, over twenty years after his breakthrough score Metastasis, Jonchaies represents the apex of Iannis Xenakis’ orchestral output. As a trained engineer, the Greek composer spent much of his career experimenting with the application of complex mathematical techniques to the compositional process, implementing ideas from statistics, set theory and geometry to arrive at what he called stochastic music. Whilst Jonchaies is a culmination of many of these compositional practices, it is remarkable amongst Xenakis’ works for betraying a palpable sense of the composer’s personality, augmenting its more cerebral concerns with a prominent communicative dimension.

Scored for 109 musicians, Jonchaies is a piece on an immeasurable scale – even by this composer’s colossal standards – and, despite being cast in a single continuous movement, the score proceeds as a series of self-contained miniatures which explore wildly oscillating orchestral timbres. Devoid of any common thematic thread, the only thing binding the various sections together is their shared level of uncompromising intensity. This is extremely physical music; from the rasping, drunken brass glissandos to the ever-present incisive thrust of the strings, Xenakis magnifies and extrapolates each textural idea until the aural surface of Jonchaies is a teeming collage of exaggerated sounds and timbres. The variety and eccentricity of its orchestration is Jonchaies’ most enduring quality, transmitting the brutality of Xenakis’ musical vision in a vibrant stream of clashing colours and evocative imagery.

The viscerality of Jonchaies is directly at odds with the all too common characterisation of Xenakis’ music as overly clinical and scientific. Xenakis has said himself that his precise mathematical approaches to composition will only satisfy the listener if the composer displays a “certain flair”; indeed, his motivation behind developing these techniques was not to take the composer’s hand out of the creative process by enforcing a strict set of predefined rules. Instead, Xenakis aimed to free composition from the shackles of hackneyed conventions, unlocking a wealth of new possibilities for musical expression.

This ambition is brilliantly realised on Jonchaies. This music is saturated with a thrilling sense of drama and spectacle indicative of Xenakis’ desire to propel his music beyond its rigorous mathematical inception. Jonchaies could broadly be described as a duel between opposing sections of the orchestra, as thunderous clusters of brass and percussion collide with the insistent stoicism of the string section, crashing together in a glorious, elemental cacophony which is far removed from any sort of dry intellectual exercise: Jonchaies is tempestuous, naturalistic and utterly enthralling music.

Jonchaies can be divided into five main sections. [...] having opened with one of Xenakis’ characteristic glissandos, the piece settles into a highly lyrical passage comprising a web of strings punctuated by interjections from the percussion instruments. [...] a hesitant figure in the strings introduces the most rhythmically vitalised section of Jonchaies. The momentum of this passage is constantly derailed by various musical lines moving in opposition to the dominant pulse [...]. The fleeting third section [...] sees insistent statements from the strings and percussion supported by a backdrop of wailing wind instruments. The music then abruptly opens out into a spacious passage of glissandos in the brass before the strings re-enter [...] to begin the fifth and final passage of the piece. In this closing section the thrashing mass of musical elements gradually thins to reveal the high tones of the piccolos – as if Jonchaies has completely imploded, its energy compressed into a single piercing screech."

~Thomas May

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First time I listened to this I was pretty astonished at how violent and barbaric it was. I already loved pieces like the Rite of Spring so when I found out this was going to be playing at the BBC Proms, I was pretty skeptical at how it would be since I thought it was a bit overwhelming. Never in my experience of live performances had I encountered a piece with such power delivering an atmosphere which is indescribable. With each of the drums resonating with my whole body, this truly was an unforgettable experience, listening to this live. I really appreciate this composer and the complexity and depth of this piece, which is unlike anything I've ever heard.

bbblyestudio
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This makes me happier than it probably should lol

conradthe
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The audacity and sheer energy is incomparable. I'm in awe.

agramsci
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this is insane. the sound is almost paralyzing, especially if you listen to without moving and with blank mind for the first 5 minutes

uwuch
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this is the first time i've enjoyed listening to music in years.

reallyidrathernot.
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Xenakis, the embodiment of oragnized chaos.
I remember as a kid listening to him and wondering how he can make an orchestra sound like a jet engine.
"She dances in the wind ", Threnody for Frank Zappa "

saraondo
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Tonal
Textural
Unforced drama
Element of repetition
Sudden contrast
Love it!

joethelionjoethelion
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Excited to catch this along with the rite of spring this proms season! Clear derivations.

georgemorley
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Stochastic music is almost the opposite of serial composition which (like almost all earlier music) started from a musical microcosm, a single line, and grew it outwards (but sometimes in a rather rigid way). Instead Xenakis started from the overall principles governing the movements of massed sounds and worked down to the individual lines that make it up, only at the end. It was a response to music that had become too complex for the organisation to be audible.

davidjdjohnson
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This speaks to my soul in ways that I did not imagine like possible.
This is a delirious piece of art.

giuseppecirciello
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This is an amazing piece of music, challenging yet entertaining at the same time. You don’t need to grasp for even be familiar with the theory or formalizations behind it to be carried along with it.

channelnameintentionallyle
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phenomenal. this slaps so unbelievably hard

coasterdragon
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Καταπληκτικό
Υπέροχο
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Τέλειο!
Τρελαίνομαι 👏👏👏

amaliachr
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8:47
Love how he builds up to the sound of the tires screeching and the whistle. It sounds so good.

jacobbass
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Excelente!! Bárbaro increíble música, me encanta que hermosa es, excelente pleno 2023 !! ♥️♥️♥️🙌🙌🙌🙌🙏🙏🙏

PieroEm
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This is single-handedly going to destroy my eardrums

hauthot
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Holy shit! I had no idea! Why did nobody tell me? Life will never be the same.

audunstolpe
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Xenakis, who was born in Greece and studied music in Paris, was in the mainstream of European traditional music, but his music does not feel human.
 His music was about to go beyond humanity.

h.k.
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This is one of my favorite pieces of music, so raw and unhinged yet beautifully tragic in a way. Very nice :]

Dampzombieslayer
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Even though Xenakis felt he was not influenced by Eastern music, the beginning melody is very gamelan-like.

brianzayman
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