In the underground labyrinths of New York Citys subway system; beneath the third rail of a long forgotten line; Saul Williams discovered scrolls of aged yellowish-brown paper rolled tightly into a can of spray paint. His quest to decipher this mystical ancient text resulted in a primal understanding of the power hip-hop has to teach us about ourselves and the universe around us. Now; for the first time; Saul Williams shares with the world the wonder revealed to him by the Dead Emcee Scrolls. I have paraded as a poet for years now. In the proc ess of parading I may have actually become one; but thats another story; another book. This book is a book that I have been waiting to finish since 1995. This is the book that finished me. The story I am about to tell may sound fantastic. It may anger some of you who have followed my work. You may feel that you have come to know me over the years; and in some cases you have; but in others...well; this is a confession.
#1084083 in eBooks 2006-02-01 2006-01-31File Name: B000FCKROM
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. compendium totality of the Xenakis oeuvreBy scarecrowJames Harley knows perhaps more of Xenakis than most;He has been there at Seminars;and performances of Xenakis music; although here he does rely for reference numerous times on Matossians excellent earlier book biography;(1981;translated; 1986); and the Interviews with Balent Andras Varga (1996); aside from that every work of Xenakis is written about herein; the compositional concepts surrounding each work; the context;performance;personnel and commissioning entity;All is organized in useful chapters in chronological means;Yet "flashpoints" that have animated Xenakis throughout his life; stochastic music;(the ST/ series of Works)use of early computer; symbolic music;architecture; and algorithm; the voice;Arborescences;Cosmic Conceptions;Polytopes;Sieves;Ensembles;Melody;Harmonic colour;Nonlinear Form; and the Late Works; Abstraction and Intensity;Harley much of the time writes in program notes-like narrative; play by play; line by line;which can get tedious I found; but you feel his analytical voice is one of commitment to his subject;He makes an excellent teacher in this respect; wanting a greater audience to know his subject;And his subject is the discourse of modernity itself; and its development in music;Xenakis has been an enduring subject altering and giving alternative means in the construction;the paradigm of the "science" of music; always trying to find ancient universals;timeless means for how sound; timbre; density;complexity engages the present of logevity; the very face of music itself.There are interesting anecdotal information you may find inspiring; I did; surrounding a work; like for example if Xenakis had traveled to wherever to witness the premiere;and we know he always spent his summers by the Mediterranean;He built a home in Corsica;Also revealed is who he had worked with closely on particular pieces;Irving Arditti; Robert Black; Arturo Tamayo; Yuji Takahashi;Roham de Sarem;Rascher Quartet;and Festivals that commissioned him numerously;To make high meaning of the work here you do need some acquaintance with basic concepts engaged through Xenakis life;And Harley explains it all to you;.To read Xenakis is difficult aside from introductory notes to his works; his one seminal text/treatise is the "Formalized Music"( 1971and the republished;reissued). A few chapters there are necessary; but Harley here gives good breakdown explications into all these theories of timbral transformations; how "clouds" of sounds come to be organized;even formative agendas as for example: 1)Initial conception;2)Definition of sonic entities;3)Definitions of transformations; 4)Microcomposition (choice detail);5)Sequential programming; 6)Implementation of calculations; 7)Final symbolic result;8)Sonic realization; many of these means remained with Xenakis although altered in some ways;as he developed from out of in application;Also there are flashpoints within this discussion that elicit/encourages self-education and understanding; for example if you studied the Cello Solo "Nomos Alpha";(1966)you find the concept of sieve theory; appraising the 196 events there(a point Matossian made); you have a comprehension of early Xenakis; that along with the first piano solo "Herma"; followed by "Akrata"; Later the works surrounding "Evryali"; the piano solo from the early Seventies;began an emanation of means; a "rhizomatic" thread of works;as then the piano concerto;"Synaphaii"; All of Xenakis work are inter-related;like a patrilinear context of meanings and associations; references that sparked creativity in his life; where works come from each other; also related backwards to architectural projects he did; as the Les {Polytopes}Sieve theory was a means of duplicating different events;as in "Nomos Alpha" quarter tones are the focus in the cello; much like parenthetical;held in abeyance spaces; "black holes" in some respects; in that Xenakis never preferred the internal dimensions of Western music how things get duplicated and structured; as through harmonic progressions and counterpoint; preferring instead the external means of sound;from Byzantine era of musical discourse;(this is explained and given a richness of context in Xenakis various interviews to gain his "Doctorat of State of France"; See "Arts:Sciences/Alloys"). This has been reissued; Sharon Kanach editor.In his latter music we find transformations engaged the concept "arborescence";events emanating from a root;a vein of movement in time and space;somewhat like Deleuzes "rhizome";Also density is a fascinating concept to appraise; and what Xenakis does/transforms it; how it is projected in space and transformed; as the earlier symbolic music and stochastic methods cloud formations;gave way to new approaches and electronic means;For many premiere or on-going performances of Xenakis music Harley has been there himself as well as witness;and taking seminars in composition with Xenakis round the globe;In the end you come away with an incredible understanding of a composer;and a neglect for many of the works you will read about here are for the first time;You also will find/discover how he engaged unpretentiously ideas;universals;modernity; concepts; paradigms in creating single works of music;0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Like X? You need this.By Bran EnglanderHarley used to write for me when I was Classical Director at All Music Guide. Hes good. Real good. This is a very important book about arguably the most under-rated and under-valued composer of the last century. (Where does the time go?) Like X? You need this.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Encyclopedic treatment of Xenakiss worksBy AutonomeusFor any Xenakis scholar; musicologist or composer; this is a 5-star work; without a doubt. The only reason I give 4 is to alert the Xenakis listener that this is a reference work that does not lend itself to reading straight through. Harley is a composer who studied with Xenakis; and while he writes in understandable English; avoiding mathematics; it does not make for gripping reading to analyze each and every Xenakis composition in chronological order.There is minimal context -- bare bones information on commissions; first performers and performances; and some biographical information at the beginning and scattered throughout -- but for the most part Harleys achievement is not one likely to be appreciated by the non-specialist.I found Chapter 3 to be the most compelling: "From Architecture to Algorithm." The outline is:"Metastaseis""Pithoprakta"The Philips PavilionMusique ConcreteStochastic MusicGame TheorySymbolic MusicThe ST AlgorithmIt was in these years; from 1954 to 1961; that Xenakis made his name and made his great initial theoretical breakthroughs. My interest dropped off precipitously after that; with five more chapters to go; despite the fact that the bulk of Xenakiss best works were composed in the 1960s and 1970s.In the later chapters I found most interesting the descriptions of his 1969 electro-acoustic masterpiece KRAANERG (commissioned as a ballet!); "Tetras" (1983); the best of his string quartets; and the polytopes -- installations for light and electro-acoustic sound. Harley quotes Xenakis from Matossian in reference to these works: "I want to bring the stars down and move them around. Dont you have this kind of dream?" (114)It seems to me that the best way for a Xenakis listener to use Harleys book would be to read the description of a work before listening to it. Reading the entire 254 pages in one sitting is not recommended.For an understanding of Xenakiss stochastic theory; his own FORMALIZED MUSIC: Thought and Mathematics in Composition is indispensable. While largely mathematical; there are great sections in the beginning and at the end that present some of the key ideas in the composers own words.Conversations With Iannis Xenakis; the composer interviewed by Balint Andras Varga in 1980 and 1989; is much more readable and engaging. And Matossians 1986 biography is perhaps the single best English-language book on Xenakis. Both of these are out-of-print.For anyone seriously interested in Xenakis; though; Harleys book is a treasure trove.I consider Iannis Xenakis to be one of the three best composers of the late 20th Century; along with Elliott Carter and Gyorgy Ligeti. See my XENAKIS: A LISTENERS GUIDE list for recordings and reviews.(verified library loan)