Interpréter/Performer Xenakis 3
Lundi 29 mars 2021, 15h30Amphi X, Université Paris 8
Réalité augmentée autour d’Evryali pour piano seul de Iannis Xenakis.
Mélange des espaces symboliques et physiques à travers la capture de mouvement
Pavlos Antoniadis, piano & concept
Aurélien Duval et Jean-François Jégo, scénographie interactive (réalité augmentée et capture du mouvement)
Suivi d’un débat avec Pavlos Antoniadis, Aurélien Duval, Jean-François Jégo, Makis Solomos
EUR-ArTeC / MUSIDANSE / INREV-AIAC
Son: Cedric Namian
video documentation: https://youtu.be/D-vhOX88NfM
Evryali is the second major solo piano work by Iannis Xenakis, created in 1973 for the French pianist Marie-Françoise Bucquet. The etymology of the title (‘open sea’) and its mythological origins (Evryali was one of the fearsome three Gorgons, next to the rather more infamous Medusa and Stheno) evoke both its main compositional / technical characteristic, the arborescence, and its notorious performance practice history, which accentuates the near impossibility of realisation and its sensorimotor aspects.
Arborescences are expanding polyphonies of lines branching out of other lines, originating in Xenakis’ graphic designs transcribed into music notation. Possibly alluding to the ungraspable infinity of the sea or to the uncontrollable energy of flooding, this polyphonic expansion in pitch space is the main determinant of the task’s impossibilities. Very often, the ensuing textures are indeed both mentally and physically impossible to grasp, and often not realisable in the tempo assigned at the beginning of the piece.
Rather than accentuating the spirit of transcendence and effort very dear to Xenakis himself, I attempt to counterbalance it through the conscious decision to play all the notes, contrary to the usual approaches of note omissions aiming at keeping a steady tempo. Playing all the notes is achieved by employing techniques of multidirectional broken chords and rapid stride-like arm displacements. The physical effort to grasp the ungraspable is thus projected through conscious variations of tempo according to the texture. Last but not least, the plastic projection of Xenakis’ arborescent polyphony is not prioritised against the subtlety of complex sonorities.
pavlosantoniadis 