34 Facts About Iannis Xenakis

Giannis Klearchou Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer.

Iannis Xenakis integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances.

Iannis Xenakis's parents were both interested in music, and it was Pavlou who encouraged the young child to learn more about it: the young Giannis was given a flute by his mother, and the family visited the Bayreuth Festival several times, due to his father's interest in opera.

Iannis Xenakis's early death in 1927, when Xenakis was five years old, was a traumatic experience that, in his own words, "deeply scarred" the future composer.

Iannis Xenakis had previously been infected from measles and died after giving birth to a stillborn daughter.

Iannis Xenakis was educated by a series of English, French, and German governesses, and then, in 1932, sent to Greece to study at the Anargyrio-Korgialenio boarding school on the Aegean island of Spetses.

Iannis Xenakis excelled in both academics and athletics and sang in the school's boys' choir, where the repertoire included works by Palestrina, and Mozart's Requiem, which Xenakis memorized in its entirety.

In 1938, after graduating from the school, Iannis Xenakis moved to Athens to prepare for entrance exams at its National Technical University, studying Ancient Greek.

Iannis Xenakis was encouraged by his friends and family to do so due to his interests in physics and mathematics.

Iannis Xenakis became involved in street fighting against British tanks.

Iannis Xenakis was wounded and facially disfigured when shrapnel from a tank blast hit his cheek and left eye, which was blinded; the fact that Xenakis survived the injury has been described as a miracle.

Iannis Xenakis worked as an engineering assistant at first, but quickly rose to performing more important tasks, and eventually to collaborating with Le Corbusier on major projects.

The experience Iannis Xenakis gained played a major role in his music: important early compositions such as Metastaseis were based directly on architectural concepts.

Iannis Xenakis worked long and hard, frequently far into the night, and sought guidance from a number of teachers, most of whom ultimately rejected him.

Such was the case with Nadia Boulanger, who was the first person Iannis Xenakis approached about lessons.

Iannis Xenakis then tried studying with Arthur Honegger, whose reaction to Xenakis's music was unenthusiastic.

Iannis Xenakis, who was by that time well acquainted with music of Debussy, Bela Bartok, and Stravinsky, all of whom used such devices and much more experimental ones, was furious and left to study with Darius Milhaud, but these lessons proved fruitless.

Annette Dieudonne, a close friend of Boulanger's, then recommended that Iannis Xenakis try studying with Olivier Messiaen.

Iannis Xenakis approached Messiaen for advice on whether he start studying harmony and counterpoint.

Iannis Xenakis was considered to be part of the Darmstadt School, but later broke with the group of composers, who he believed focused too heavily on serialism and controlling all aspects of composition.

On 3 December 1953, Iannis Xenakis married the journalist and writer Francoise Gargouil, who he met in 1950.

In late 1954, with Messiaen's support, Iannis Xenakis was accepted into the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrete; an organization established by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, dedicated to studying and producing electronic music of the musique concrete variety.

Shortly after that Iannis Xenakis met conductor Hermann Scherchen, who was immediately impressed by the score of Metastaseis and offered his support.

In 1960, Iannis Xenakis was well known enough to receive a commission from UNESCO for a soundtrack for a documentary film by Enrico Fulchignoni.

Iannis Xenakis became especially known for his musical research in the field of computer-assisted composition, for which he founded the Equipe de Mathematique et Automatique Musicales in 1966.

Iannis Xenakis taught at Indiana University from 1967 until 1972, and worked as visiting professor at the Sorbonne from 1973 until 1989.

Iannis Xenakis frequently lectured, and teaching composition.

Iannis Xenakis's works were performed at numerous festivals worldwide, including the Shiraz Arts Festival in Iran.

Polish musicologist Zbigniew Skowron, describing Ais, wrote "In accordance with his atheist views, Iannis Xenakis emphasizes the finality of death as the ultimate event of human life, and this is probably why wild shrieks and moans punctuate his score".

Iannis Xenakis thinks with his belly and feels with his mind.

Iannis Xenakis completed his last work, O-mega for percussion soloist and chamber orchestra, in 1997.

Iannis Xenakis's health had been getting progressively worse over the years, and by 1997 he was no longer able to work.

In 1999, Iannis Xenakis was awarded the Polar Music Prize "for a long succession of forceful works, charged with sensitivity, commitment and passion, through which he has come to rank among the most central composers of our century in the realm of art music, exercising within its various fields an influence which cannot be readily overstated".

Iannis Xenakis was outlived by his wife, who died on 12 February 2018 in Courbevoie, and his daughter.