''Anastenaria'' is a triptych cycle of compositions for SATB chorus, male chorus and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

by Greek composer

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

. It is, also, one of his most successful early compositions. The three movements of this cycle were composed between 1952 and 1954.

Composition

After winning the first prize in the Bucharest Music Festival in 1953 for ''La colombe de la paix'', one of his unpublished works, Xenakis decided to complete the first and the second movement of his ''Anastenaria'' trilogy, strongly influenced by his Greek roots. He was then studying with

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss-French composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For Halbreich, '' Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher'' is "more even ...

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

and, most especially, with

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

, who even made several changes to the original conception of this work.

Conception

Xenakis claimed that the work is based on a Greek Ritual which, after

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

, it has been reinterpreted to be a Christian ritual. In this ritual, Xenakis distinguishes up to three different phases: * Phase A: the procession of the priests, the "Anastenarides", and the crowds from several villages, thus performing a ritual in which the ceremony is centered on instrumental and choral music. The priest say prayers while the Anastenarides ladle out holy water for the people to drink or to wash themselves with. * Phase B: On the evening before 21 May, a holy steer is brought from the fields to the church. A huge fire is lit out on the church square and the Anastenarides dance effusively on hot coals with their bare feet, as part of the ritual. Xenakis decided not to compose the third phase, in which the steer blessed by Orthodox priest is sacrificed on 21 May.

Analysis

This work consists of three movements, which are often performed individually. The movement list is as follows: #''Procession aux eaux claires'', for large orchestra, SATB chorus of 30 voices and male chorus of 15 voices (1952/1953) #''Le sacrifice'', for large orchestra (1953) #'' Metastaseis'', for 61 solo instruments (1953/54) The first movement is largely tonal, unlike the rest of the work. According to Hans Rudolf Zeller, the

divisi In musical terminology, ''divisi'', or as typically printed ''“div.,”'' is an instruction to divide a single section of instruments into multiple subsections. This usually applies to the violins of the string section in an orchestra, although v ...

in the choral parts create musical phenomena of mass resulting from the individualization of the leading voice. It is also based on the principle of overlapping, which makes each voice to proceed from its own melodic, harmonic or rhythmic personality. The second movement, which treats the evening before the sacrifice, is conceived purely instrumentally; this movement is clearly closer to the style of his contemporaries. However, from this movement on, Xenakis would no longer be constrained by serial techniques, and would explore his musical viewpoints and perspectives by using

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...

s and discontinuous pitches. The third movement was the result of this change, even though it would still not be considered stochastic music, which Xenakis would explore further in ''

Pithoprakta ''Pithoprakta'' (1955–56) is a piece by Iannis Xenakis for string orchestra (with 46 separate solo parts), two trombones, xylophone, and wood block, premièred by conductor Hermann Scherchen in Munich in March 1957. A typical performance of ...

''. However, Xenakis removed completely any trace of serial music and started working to bring his vocal compositions to the same level as that of his instrumental and electroacoustic compositions. According to the composer himself, the third movement was separated from the rest because it was "such a step forward".

References

{{Authority control Compositions by Iannis Xenakis 1954 compositions