1 ANALYSIS OF IANNIS XENAKIS'S "POUR LA PAIX" FOR A CAPPELLA MIXED CHOIR

Iannis Xenakis's "Pour la paix " was composed after Françoise Xenakis's texts in 1981 in four different versions (I for unaccompanied mixed choir- II for mixed choir, four narrators and tape- III for four narrators and tape- IV for tape only). The present paper attempts an analysis of the version for a cappella choir. The analysis focuses mainly on the pitch structure of the piece, i.e. on the modification of the pitch material (certain pitches, pitch classes, intervals or scales) through the piece's ten parts and on the correlation between the resultant pitch formations. An attempt towards the explanation of Xenakis's choices is made through either the use of the sieve theory (which was thoroughly exploited by the composer at that period) or the use of the pitch class set theory. The paper also includes analytical remarks about the piece's morphological design, the rhythmical structure, the evolution of the musical texture and the setting of the text