Kraanerg: Xenakis' ambitious ballet

Klangforum Wien performs Kraanergby Iannis Xenakis: intriguing ballet music, which is linked to the social unrest of '68.

Ballet without a linear narrative
At 75 minutes long, Kraanerg for chamber orchestra and four-channel soundtrack is Xenakis' most extensive and ambitious work. The composer wrote it in 1968 for the French choreographer Roland Petit. One of the important characteristics of Xenakis' music is its non-linear form. Already in his 'opus 1', Metastaseis (1954), there is little connection between the monolithic opening and the subsequent serial counterpoint. The point of departure for the composition is the mathematical group theory, which causes the work to present itself as an aural mosaic. So it is not a linear musical narrative, but an alternation of contrasting segments in which orchestral groups, electronic sounds and silence alternate.

Music from times of social unrest
The title is a composition of the Greek words for 'accomplish' and 'energy'. Xenakis was referring to the personal struggle to overcome obstacles, but also to the social unrest of the time, which undoubtedly reminded him of his own activities as a resistance fighter in Athens in the 1940s. It resulted in raw music, which had not been heard in a Dutch concert hall before.