A Reading of Xenakis’ Oresteia

Pedro Bittencourt (Université de Paris VIII, France)

Oresteia is the only complete trilogy (Agamemnon, The Choëphori, The Eumenides) that remains from Aeschylus’ tragedies. It tells how human justice, as opposed to the justice by the gods, was first born to judge Orestes and to stop a spiral of violence after Agamemnon’s “victorious” return from the war of Troy (he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra as he arrived). Xenakis’ Oresteia (for mixed choirs and 11 instruments) long version (1h40min) was first performed in the USA in 1966, in the English language, to celebrate Ypsilanti’s Greek origins. At that time, Xenakis was disappointed for several reasons. He decided after this first performance that the Greek language should be employed on future concerts. Oresteia was first staged in 1987, in Gibelina (Italy), in a shorter version (about one hour), which included Kassandra (for baritone and percussionist). The last insertion, La Déesse Athéna (for baritone and 11 instruments), was written in 1992, when Xenakis also made the last modifications on the edited score. We can identify different sources in Oresteia’s composition: Aeschylus, Greek tragedy, Japanese Noh theatre, Byzantine music, and the xenakian sonorities. Nevertheless, the composer did not try to make any historical reconstitution at all, even though some Greek tragedy theatre conventions were maintained. Xenakis suggested that Noh Japanese theatre could deal with some aspects of Greek tragedy (he even accepted Noh masks and Japanese phonetics when Oresteia was played in Tokyo). The relative simplicity of the choir, as well as the instrumentation and its orchestration, were composed (in general) to make the text understandable when pronounced (for those able to understand ancient Greek), and also to generate concentred sonorities (“un fort condensé sonore”) in order to reflect Aeschylus poetics. This was achieved without using mathematical methods: after choosing the text parts (at first, without changing the chronological order of the verses), Xenakis worked using hand drawn graphics. Oresteia is his only touched-up piece a posteriori: shorter version, Mycènes Alpha played as an electronic “prelude” in Gibelina, two virtuous soloist pieces inserted, a few changes in the order of Aeschylus’ verses, and several corrections throughout the score. If, on first hearing, Oresteia could maybe sound as a minor piece, by its simplicity if compared to others from the same period (Nomos Alpha, Medea, Nuits), one should consider that the piece was written to be staged. Its analysis (including the choice of the text, the development of the score, and the scene) reveals its importance and singularities, and problems of interpretation that future versions of the trilogy will have to face as well. 

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1975. Pedro Bittencourt graduated in radio-communication (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) and studied saxophone performance (DEM and Perfectionnement with M.B. Charrier at CNR Bordeaux/France). Parallel to his musical training, he pursued his interest in Xenakis’ music and completed in 2005 the requirements for a Masters’ degree (DEA Arts et Societés Actuelles/Musique – Université Bordeaux III) with a thesis about Xenakis’ Oresteia. He is currently researching on mixed music for saxophone as a doctoral candidate at Université Paris VIII, under the direction of H. Vaggione and M. Solomos. His main areas of interest include researching on electronic interaction, performing on chamber music and improvising.