A COMPARISON OF THE MUSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC THINKING OF XENAKIS WITH THAT OF ANCIENT CHINA: THE ARCHITECTURE OF SCALES AND THE NOTION OF LÜ.

Many consider Xenakis ' most important contribution to music to be his invention of stochastic music and sieve theory. This music philosophy has many parallels with ancient Chinese musical thinking despite obviously different sonic outcomes. This paper examines one particular aspect of his stochastic and sieve theories: the creation of scales in relation to the ancient Chinese notion of lü, or scale temperament. With his theories rooted in ancient Greek and Byzantine music, Xenakis differentiated between the "outside-time, in-time and temporal " musical architectures of scales and modes. He aimed to demonstrate "their abstract logical construction " and to express "in a simple but universal mathematical and logical language what was and what might be valid in time (transverse musicology) and in space (comparative musicology) " [8: 182-3]. A comparison with Chinese lü validates his claim in a uniquely different culture, illuminating essential qualities in Chinese music such as multiple temperament, an outcome which results from simultaneously embracing the three types of musical architecture. The discussion also examines related ambiguities surrounding the concepts of chance and determinism, and the boundaries of Chinese musical scales, and considers the limitations of human constructs over aural empirical experienc