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FRXAS: music material, composition strategy, and performance tips
The factor is to explain ‘why’ and ‘how’ the balance is achieved and thus the music works; can be used for an effective interpretation.
Biography
Athanasios Zervas, DMus-composition and MM-saxophone (with Dr. F. Hemke), Northwestern University. BA-music (sax performance & jazz, with Bunky Green), Chicago State University. Presently: Associate Professor of Music Theory-Music Creation at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki Greece. Professor of Saxophone at the Conservatory of Athens Greece. Founder of the Athens Saxophone Quartet (and soprano saxophonist). Chief editor: mus-e-journal (at www.muse.gr). Former president: Hellenic Saxophone Association, Greece.
More information
XAS (1987) is one of the major compositions for the saxophone quartet literature twenty seven years after its creation. Xenakis’ composition strategy in terms of the organization of rhythmic and pitch material, the linear and vertical formations, the functions of ‘musical cells’ in various structural levels, and the textural fluctuations will be studied through pitch-class set theory analytical system. The overriding factor of the analysis here is to explain ‘why’ and ‘how’ the balance is achieved and thus the music works; information that can be used for an effective interpretation (performance).