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[symbolism of l. ron]

deleted.

[vviola]

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[retrouvailles]

I may be a Xenakis fan, but I won't take up a cudgel. Xenakis DID write a lot of music that just wasn't that good from a purely aesthetic perspective, but he does have some works that are quite pleasant, and those works are to be found on both ends of his compositional life, in my opinion. There is an early set of piano pieces called Trois Chansons which is very nice. Also, his latest works, such as Keqrops, Aïs, and many of his percussion works (late or not late) are quite good and don't require ears of steel to listen to. The thing I really enjoy is the amount of energy and rhythmic innovation present in a lot of these works. The reason why most people here dislike his music is purely because his most notorious works (the ones most people have heard) are simply the most strident ones on the ears, such as Synaphai, Evryali (I still love this work), and Herma. Just give the works I recommended a try and you will enjoy some of his music.

[retrouvailles]

Why did you delete your opening post? It might have turned into a good topic.

[furtwaengler]

I did get to read that deleted post, and I must agree with retrouvailles, both in his question of the deletion and his actual response. It could be that certain people view the role of music differently. Music is not limited to a certain set of emotions, or merely to "pleasant" sounds. We could not limit words in such a way and expect to be civilized, disciplined people...but I guess to some music is a background, just something to enjoy, and to others it is another world unto itself, a language with unlimited expression. Some music is ugly, but some music needs to be ugly...realizing what lead Xenakis to write Nuits may help in understanding why Nuits by nature, could not be pretty. But maybe the first group would need such an explanation and the second would not (sorry I'm not eloquent). Anyway a lot of the sounds Xenakis fashioned were probably fashioned more out of his fascination with the sounds than anything else (or that's more my sense and fascination with Xenakis.).   

My gateway into Xenakis was the violin and piano piece, Dikhthas - there is hardly a single piece that so totally blew me over and away, then did Dikhthas. I highly recommend the recording with Jane Peters and Aki Takahashi. I do, to tell you the truth, really love the bigger pieces with the 60 note chords and the relentless energy. I think Xenakis liked sound, but he also knew how to arrange sound in a room...to display sound dramatically (note his connection with architecture). But as retrouvailles already pointed out, this was not all he was or all he did. Give those pieces he mentioned a try, and also have a listen to the three milder compositions uploaded on the Avant Garde Project site: https://www.avantgardeproject.org/agp99/index.htm

You may be pleasantly surprised.

[weissenberg2]

I did get to read that deleted

What was the original post?