From Xenakis's UPIC to Graphic Notation Today

Book excerpt: On the legacy of Xenakis' innovations in music notation for contemporary composers Trained in mechanical engineering, Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) transformed mathematical models into architectonic musical entities. In the late 1970s Xenakis developed a digital apparatus that rendered waveforms drawn on a tablet as musical compositions. The device was called UPIC, or Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu, named for the French contemporary music research institute that Xenakis had helped found a decade earlier. The device proved to be an essential tool for the development of contemporary music--a version of the software is still used by today's composers. Featuring archival materials, this book examines the origins of Xenakis' UPIC. It also serves as a compositional tool: embedded QR codes allow readers to create their own sound-images from UPIC compositions.