Xenakis' first compositon in musique concrète: Diamorphoses

Diamorphoses is the first electroacous0c work by Xenakis. Composed in the GRM, the historical studio of musique concrète, it uses the laKer’s techniques: recordings of sounds are transformed via tape opera0ons and mixings. The recordings belong to various sources: earthquakes, jets take‐offs, skips’ shocks, musical instruments (bells, winds), etc. While using the techniques of musique concrète, Diamorphoses does not belong to its aesthe0cs as conceptualized by Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer introduced noise into music, but he retained from tradi0on the defini0on of music as a language, a defini0on which involves the idea of a double ar0cula0on: material and syntax. But the new material (noise) was rather difficult to be subjected to a hypothe0cal syntax. That is why Schaeffer developed the theory of the “sound object”, which treats noise as a new minimal unity, like the tradi0onal musical note. For this reason, Schaeffer says, the sound objects should not be too long, neither eccentric, etc. Diamorphoses is in opposi0on to this point of view. Its sounds are “too” long, they are “eccentric”! Their sources are quite o[en recognizable, while a “sound object” should be an abstract sonic unit, etc. As in his instrumental music, Xenakis’ electroacous0c music breaks the opposition material/syntax. So, one of the main aim of Diamorphoses is to build complex sonori0es emerging directly from the basic sound sources. That is why this piece is characterized by the mel0ng of noises – and not by their combina0ons.