The Xenakis Sieve as Object: A New Model and a Complete Implementation

Abstract

40 Computer Music Journal In numerous publications from 1965 to 1992, composer, architect, and theorist Iannis Xenakis (1922– 2001) developed an elegant and powerful system for creating integer-sequence generators called sieves. Xenakis used sieves (cribles) for the generation of pitch scales and rhythm sequences in many compositions, and he suggested their application to a variety of additional musical parameters. Though sieves are best calculated with the aid of a computer, no complete implementation has been widely distributed. Xenakis’s published code is incomplete and insufficient for broad use. This article demonstrates a new object-oriented model and Python implementation of the Xenakis sieve. This model introduces a bi-faceted representation of the sieve, expands Xenakis’s use of logic operators, employs a practical notation, produces sieve segments and transpositions, and easily integrates within higher-level systems. This modular implementation is deployed within athenaCL, a cross-platform, open-source, interactive commandline environment for algorithmic composition using Csound and MIDI. High-level, practical interfaces have been developed to provide athenaCL users with sieve-based tools for the algorithmic generation of pitches, rhythms, and general parameter values.