Légende d'Eer

Xenakis' 46-minute electro-acoustic masterpiece for eight-track tape, "La Légende d'Eer" is based loosely on the Myth of Er the Pamphylian, which closes Plato's Republic. Like the comparatively more succinct "Concret PH" (composed for the 1958 World's Fair and played within the sweeping eaves of the Philips Pavilion), "La Légende" was conceived as an architectural sound event. It was originally planned for the opening of the Centre George Pompidou in 1978 and, as at the Philips Pavilion, was to have been played within a structure of Xenakis' design. "La Légende d'Eer" also incorporates some of Xenakis' first experiments with the UPIC, a compositional device he designed to translate hand-drawn sketches into audible sound. ~ Sean Cooper