The Humanistic Pathos of Iannis Xenakis’ Choral Musical Legacy
The Humanistic Pathos of Iannis Xenakis’ Choral Musical Legacy

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to study of the substantive vectors of Iannis Xenakis’ choral music. The author elicits the crucial themes declared for the rst time in the 1960s, which have preserved their relevance during the course of the composer’s entire choral output. Also, the author di- scusses particularities of the interactions between the text and music, and the speci city of the timbral solution of the compositions, making it possible to speak of both the in uence on the choral writing of the composer’s contemporaries and of the individuality of the creative man- ner of Xenakis himself. Within the framework of textural analysis, the main varieties of texture characteristic for Xenakis’ compositions of that time period are educed: along with the newest techniques of “arti cial reverberation” and elements of diagonal organization, we can enco- unter the types of musical exposition characteristic for compositions of romantic composers – homophonic-harmonic, chordal, homophonic-polyphonic, and strata texture, as well as the classical techniques of juxtaposition of soli – tutti. Such a combination of traditional and the newest techniques of choral writing is analogous to the coexistence of techniques of phoneme composition and a strict adherence to ancient literary sources. In total, all of this stipulates the brilliant individuality of Iannis Xenakis’ choral musical legacy.

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