Iannis Xenakis

Greece, 1953–2001

Greek-French composer and architect who brought mathematics into music — stochastic processes, game theory and set theory as compositional engines. Works like Metastaseis and Pithoprakta treat sound as vast statistical clouds; a founder of electroacoustic and computer music.

MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Iannis Xenakis and 0 artists Iannis Xenakis influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Iannis Xenakis?

• Olivier Messiaen — Messiaen was Xenakis's teacher in Paris and gave him the decisive advice: to abandon conventional harmony study and build music from his mathematics and architecture instead.
• Edgard Varèse — Varèse's conception of music as spatialized masses of organized sound was the acknowledged precedent for Xenakis's sound clouds and his work at spatial electronic music.