Nomos Alpha of Iannis XENAKIS for cello solo : guide for performers [NOMOS ALPHA of Iannis XENAKIS for cello solo: guide for performers

Name: Josquin Buvat Main subject: Cello Supervisor: Patrick van Deurzen Master circle leader: Martin Prchal Title: Nomos Alpha of Iannis Xenakis: guide for performers Research question: how build one's interpretation of Nomos Alpha ? And practice it? Summary of result: Today, Nomos Alpha (1965-66) is greeted with loud applause each time it is performed. And the piece is considered one of the greatest pieces of the 20th century's cello solo repertoire, still it's also one of most difficult and “avant-gardiste”. Furthermore, the piece remains 'Difficult' for the listener: it is submerged in the torrent of 144 micro-events, an extreme fragmentation accentuated by the presence of many silences. That's why Nomos is only rarely played. Since the piece's creation in 1966, lot of cellists were aware of the existence of Nomos Alpha. Many cellists had the score, but hardly anyone played it. It seemed important to me to begin my research with an analysis of the piece and an explanation of the historical musical context of that time. Indeed, Nomos alpha is one of Xenakis’s most ‘formalised’ pieces, the structure and all the parameters are calculated down to the last details. For cellists, these knowledges are essential to understanding the piece and making the necessary choices to build its interpretation of Nomos Alpha. In last the last part of this research, I have maked a guide for performers for the cellist who would like to play Nomos Alpha. For this guide I will try to concentrate on some essentials aspects of the piece for the performers. To illustrate this guide I did an critic comparative analysis of the different versions of the piece. And finally to complete this guide I did some videos of tutorials on how to practice the piece. Biography After completing his studies at Pôle Supérieur Paris Boulogne-Billancourt in Michel Strauss's cello class, as well as his Bachelor's degree in Musicology at Paris-Sorbonne University, Josquin Buvat continued his studies in a Master's degree in Performance at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag. Josquin gives a special place to modern music and contemporary creation in his repertoire. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Nomos ensemble, with which he has appeared at several festivals, including the Presences festival at Radio France, a concert that will be recorded. He performs regularly in chamber music as well as in orchestra, with Les Siècles, Ensemble Appasionato, Ensemble A-letheia the OJIF, the JOEHB. In addition to his musical activities Josquin is also involved in the field of associations, for two years including one as President of the Students Office of the PSPBB.

Name : Josquin Buvat

Supervisor : Patrick van Deurzen

Resarch title : Nomos Alpha of Iannis Xenakis : A architectural cello solo piece.

Nomos Alpha of Iannis Xenakis is very impressive for the audience when you listen to it for the first time. It was my case when I heard this piece ten years ago. My second experience was when I played it. It’s a real performance to play Nomos Alpha for several reasons: there are many instrumental innovations; like a lot of quarter tones, and double stops with different dynamics on the two strings, and the piece is very long (20min). Nomos Alpha was composed in 1965-1966 and is a characteristic piece of Iannis Xenakis. He was an architect, and uses sciences and mathematics to compose music. In this research I will try to analyze Nomos Alpha and explain what kind of mathematical concepts he used to compose it.

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This research will be in three parts :

1 : Historical : What is the historical context (musical or not) ?

- The musical context after the traumatism of the World War II: Keywords are “Tabula Rasa”, the Darmstadt school, Serialism.

- Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)

biography: He was a resistant in Greece and a communist militant during the war. In 1947 he came in France, where he was a political refugee. He was an architect and worked with Le Corbusier…
His musical language: “stochastique” music. Why and how he used these mathematical concepts, and computer compose music?

2: Nomos Alpha analysis: How is Nomos Alpha organized? What is the role of the mathematical concepts in the compositions conception?
- Nomos Alpha is built on different mathematical concepts: The first and the principal one is for the structure of the piece. The piece has six principal sections and six secondary sections. They are organized by a mathematical concept: the twenty-four permutations of a cube in space. The eight vertices of the cube correspond to eight different “basic sound”. The cube’s permutation gives the apparition order of the “basic sound” in the section, for the next section the permutation changes. For the intensities, the lengths and densities it’s the same system with the cube’s permutations. There is another system for the other parameters.

3: Interpretation: How play this piece?

This piece is an intellectual conception and some passages are very difficult (or impossible to play). The cellist must imagine new techniques for practice and play the piece. For this part, I want to interview several cellists who play this piece in concert, and ask them how they approached, worked and then performed the piece. For the presentation I will play some extracts of the piece.

Bibliography:

Vandenbogaerde, F. (1968). Analyse de “Nomos Alpha” de I. Xenakis. Mathématiques et Sciences Humaines,

n° 24, 35-50.

Xenakis, I. (1992), Formalized Music: Though and Mathematics in Music, Pendragon Press

Xenakis, I (1996). Musique Architecture: Broché, Paris

Th. Delio, "I.Xenakis: Nomos Alpha", Journal of Music Theory vol.24 n°1, 1980, P.63-96

M.Solomos, "A propos des premières oeuvres de I.Xenakis. Pour une approche historique de l'émergence du phénomène du son", thèse de doctorat, Paris, Université de Paris 4, 1993, p.407-510

J.Vriend, "Nomos Alpha, Analysis and Comments", Interface n°10, 1981, p.15-82

I.Xenakis, "Vers une philosophie de la musique" 1966.

The first page of Nomos Alpha

The 24 cube's permutations in space

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