| Oophaa | |
|---|---|
| Chamber music by Iannis Xenakis | |
 Iannis Xenakis in 1975 | |
| Composed | 1989 |
| Performed | 17 September 1989: Warsaw |
| Published | 1989: Paris |
| Scoring | Amplified harpsichord and percussion |
Oophaa is a composition for amplified harpsichord and percussion by Iannis Xenakis, finished in 1989.
Oophaa was composed shortly after finishing Okho and marked Xenakis's return to the unusual chamber ensemble of harpsichord and percussion, after Komboï . [1] According to Xenakis, its name is not based on lexical roots, but it is rather taken from individual phonemes. [2] Scholar Andreas Kouras argues that it could be "a Greek exclamation used while dancing and celebrating". [3] It premiered on September 17, 1989, [4] at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, [5] a venue that the composer visited frequently, where he also premiered a number of his previous works. It was first performed by the dedicatees of the piece, percussionist Sylvio Gualda and harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka, [6] who had been performing together as a duo in many modern music festivals at the time and commissioned many compositions for them after Komboï. It was published by Éditions Salabert later that year. [5] [6]
Oophaa is in one movement and has a total duration of about nine minutes. The piece has a total length of 81 bars and starts with a tempo marking of 60 eighth notes per minute, although the tempo changes multiple times throughout the piece. [6] It is scored for an amplified harpsichord and percussionist playing seven ceramic flower pots [2] and seven skin instruments (bongos, three tom-toms, and two bass drums), meant to be placed in a wide fan-shaped layout. [6] Xenakis specified that the percussion instruments should be as far apart from each other as possible, so that the difference in sound quality could be heard clearly. [6] In terms of instrumentation, Oophaa's percussion part has a high degree of similarity to other chamber pieces with percussion, such as Dmaathen , Kassandra , Rebonds , or Plektó , which allows for performers to be able to use the same layout when performing several Xenakis's pieces live. [7] The harpsichord part is composed of three layers of chord sounds. [2]
Despite being the last harpsichord piece composed by Xenakis, [1] it is one of his least challenging pieces for harpsichord: it is one of the pieces for chamber ensemble with the least polyrhythmic structures (only six 3:4 polyrhythmic cells can be found on the percussion side), the rhythm is practically steady through the whole piece (with tempo changes) and the harpsichordist part only includes chords. [7] As in Komboï, the different chords and percussion combination of simultaneous sounds are meant to complement each other, creating sound saturation and complex, superimposed rhythmic material. [7]
The piece also features several solo passages, both for the harpsichord and the percussion. [2] The percussionist is also asked to play some skin-instrument fragments both with his hands and mallets. A practice that was commonplace among many of Xenakis's works, Oophaa was written as a manuscript with little regard to how the music would be performed in terms of practicality. This caused harpsichordist and frequent collaborator Elisabeth Chojnacka to state that, in order to play the piece, one should have "exceptionally" large hands, and the most common way to play the piece would be for the performer to either divide some chords and play them with both hands or rewrite the chords altogether. [6] Chojnacka also stated that, upon tackling the piece, she chose not to take into account the many changes of register indicated in the score, and that the harpsichordist should feel free to take inspiration from them when attempting to play the piece, as a choice should be made by the performer whether to play them or not, given the extraordinary difficulty of Xenakis's output. [6]
Oophaa has not garnered much attention since its publication, probably because it is less technically demanding than the other harpsichord pieces and the structure is much simpler and devoid of dramatic construction. Critic James Harley described the timbral and harmonic aspects of Oophaa as "gamelan-like", remarking on Xenakis's interest in Javanese music, [1] while noting the "Harry Partch-like ringing sonority of the ceramic flowerpots first used in Komboï ". [2] On the other hand, scholar and harpsichordist Andreas Skouras feels the piece is slightly lacking "imagination and inspiration" and that "Oophaa is probably the most neglected" of Xenakis's harpsichord pieces. [3]
Recordings of Oophaa are rare. Following is a list of notable recordings of the piece:
Iannis Xenakis was a Greek-French composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalized citizen of France. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances.
Metastaseis is an orchestral work for 61 musicians by Iannis Xenakis. His first major work, it was written in 1953–54 after his studies with Olivier Messiaen and is about 8 minutes in length. The work was premiered at the 1955 Donaueschingen Festival with Hans Rosbaud conducting. This work was originally a part of a Xenakis trilogy titled Anastenaria but was detached by Xenakis for separate performance.
Persephassa is a piece for six percussionists composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1969. The piece was commissioned jointly by the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) and the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of Arts, held at the historic site of Persepolis. The title is one of the variant names of the goddess Persephone / Proserpina, and also refers to the names "Perseus", "Perceval", and "Persepolis". It was performed in its premiere by Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France) for whom it was written.
Elisabeth Chojnacka was a Polish harpsichordist living in France. She was one of the world's foremost harpsichordists specializing in the performance of contemporary harpsichord music.
Psappha is a musical composition for multi-percussion solo by Greek modernist composer Iannis Xenakis. The work does not include specific instrumentation, although the composer calls for three groups of wood and/or skins and three groups of metal instruments. The actual printed performance score is written in a unique graph notation and consists of 2,396 segments. It presents a greater demand on the performer due to this unique style. Together with Rebonds, composed between 1987 and 1989, Psappha is one of the two compositions for solo percussion by Xenakis.
Pléïades is a composition for six percussionists composed in 1978 by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, originally commissioned by the percussion ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg. It is notable for its use of the sixxen, an instrument Xenakis had constructed specifically for the piece.
Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen, also known as HKKS, is a Norwegian percussion and cimbalom player,
Troorkh is a composition for trombone and orchestra by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. It was commissioned by Swedish Radio for Swedish trombonist Christian Lindberg, to whom it is dedicated, and was completed in 1991. It was premiered on March 26, 1993 at Berwald Hall in Stockholm by the Swedish Radio Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, with Lindberg as the soloist.
Komboï is a 1981 stochastic composition for amplified harpsichord and percussion by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. It is one of the two compositions for harpsichord and percussion written by Xenakis, the other one being Oophaa.
Rebonds is a composition for solo percussion by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. It was composed between 1987 and 1989 and, together with Psappha, is one of the two compositions for solo percussion by Xenakis.
Synaphaï is a composition for piano and orchestra by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. It was finished in 1969 and premiered in 1971.
Aroura is a composition for strings by Greek/French composer Iannis Xenakis. It was composed in 1971.
Antikhthon is a ballet for orchestra composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1971.
Keqrops is a composition for piano and orchestra by Greek/French composer Iannis Xenakis. Due to the prominent role of the piano soloist, it has often been classified as a piano concerto. It was completed in 1986.
Jean-Pierre Drouet is a French multi-instrumentist percussionist and composer.
Alain Damiens is a French classical clarinetist.
Okho is a composition for three percussionists by Iannis Xenakis completed in 1989.
Andreas Skouras is a Greek-German pianist and harpsichordist.
Khoaï, also referred to by its original Greek title, Χοαί, is a 1976 composition for solo harpsichord by Iannis Xenakis.
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