''Diamorphoses'' ( gr, Διαμορφώσεις) is the first electroacoustic composition by Greek composer
Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...
. It was created between 1957 and 1958 and is considered a masterpiece in several academic books on history of
electroacoustic music.
Composition
After the creation of the
Radio France studio by
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His inno ...
in 1948, Iannis Xenakis became very interested in the possibilities of
concrete music and electroacoustic music. By 1955, Xenakis started working in this studio as part of the ''Groupe des recherches musicales'' (french: Musical Research Group). In the particular case of Xenakis, just like Schaeffer, the sounds used in recordings were extracted from engines, trains and other natural and mechanical phenomena.
Xenakis released a set of recordings between 1957 and 1962, from which ''Diamorphoses'' was the first and most notable one. It was eventually finished and presented on October 5, 1958, in Brussels.
''Diamorphoses'' was created on a 2-track tape and, therefore, has a fixed total length of 6 minutes and 57 seconds. It is typically played on at least four speakers.
References
{{Authority control
Compositions by Iannis Xenakis
1958 compositions
Musique concrète
Electroacoustic music albums