The Granularity Paradigm in the Electroacoustic Music of Iannis Xenakis

Abstract

"The cultural legacy left to us by composer Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001) is impressive and undoubtedly had a massive impact on some generations of musicians. His artistic ideal stands as proof. Fueled by science and engineering, his inheritance has been eagerly discussed in numerous books, studies, and doctoral theses. Our study underlines the viability of I. Xenakis’s compositional model. Xenakis painstakingly circumscribes scientific theories and laws in his method of composition in the instrumental and electroacoustic genres. We will emphasize the hypothesis that the granularity paradigm traverses his musical works Concret PH, Analogique B, and GENDY3. Keywords: Granularity paradigm, stochastic synthesis, random walk, architecture, mathematics, music "