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Jani Christou

GLOSSARY

CONCEPTS

AVANT-GARDE MUSIC

Avant-garde music takes a critical stance toward musical conventions or rejects them altogether, embracing bold innovations such as atonality, serialism, musique concrète, electronic music and experimental musical theatre. The concept of music is expanded: it is no longer necessarily beautiful, melodious or harmonious.

META-MUSIC

The term implies an extension of music into other, multi-disciplinary expressive realms, referring to music that is understood as more than an art of sounds.

GRAPHIC SCORE

In contrast to a conventional stave on which music is notated, a graphic score includes images, drawings, descriptive diagrams and textual instructions for the performers.

THE PHOENIX PRINCIPLE

A structural diagram that Christou used to represent the different stages in the cycle of the mythical Phoenix, the bird which bursts into flames at the end of its life and is reborn from its ashes: beginning – growth – culmination or drama – end or new beginning.

THE LUNAR PATTERN

The cycle of the Moon’s phases (Waxing Moon – Full Moon – Waning Moon – New Moon) is a fundamental pattern in Christou’s later creative period. Compared to the Phoenix Principle, the process of periodic recurrence it describes has an additional component: the eclipse. In Christou’s own terminology, it is also referred to as the lunar experience or lunar drama.

A tiny typographic note, because apparently I can’t resist noticing these things: the phrase “other – multi-disciplinary – expressive realms” is usually typeset with en dashes (“other – multi-disciplinary – expressive realms”) or commas, but I’ve transcribed it exactly as it appears in the image.

PATTERNS

Complex systems of diverse types of action (musical or non-musical, theatrical, etc.), used by Christou as primary material for the construction of a composition, much like melodies and harmonies in conventional music. In a composition, a group of musicians performs a series of patterns that may be constantly permutated as they are repeated.

CONTINUUM

A sound continuum or “continuity background” is a continuous, sustained sound. While resembling the ison of religious Byzantine music (a continuous drone note held on a fixed pitch), for Christou it expresses the restless flow from prehistory to meta-history.

PRAXIS – METAPRAXIS

The term Praxis is used to describe any purposeful action performed by an expressive medium within the boundaries of a normal performance and a specific logic, e.g. a violinist plays the violin. The term Metapraxis (or meta-action) encompasses any purposeful action intended to transcend the performative conventions of a specific medium and the overarching logic of the art form.

PROTOPERFORMANCE / ANAPARASTASIS

A concept used by Christou to describe the compositions of his late period (1966-1970), especially those characterised by ritualistic elements. According to the composer himself, the term alludes to human activities in distant prehistory, which include ritualistic re-enactments of the pattern of renewal, i.e., the lunar pattern.

ENANTIODROMIA

“Movement in opposite directions” or “counter-motion”. The idea of the unity of opposites belongs to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (c.535-c.475 BCE): Enantiodroma have a unified direction, since it is from them that the most beautiful harmony is born. Christou’s composition for orchestra Enantiodromia (1969) is constructed out of sonic and psychological patterns expressing a “play of opposites” in constant transformation.

A small note, because printed exhibition text enjoys keeping proofreaders awake at night: the phrase “may be constantly permutated” is reproduced exactly as it appears in the image, even though in standard English one would more commonly expect “permuted.”

SYMBOLS

AREA MARK

A visual indicator, analogous to a “traffic sign”, that marks the beginning of a specific chronological section or area of duration, displayed in seconds.

SCATTER

Addressed to a group performing the same pattern, this symbol directs each member to follow their own spontaneous variations within the pattern’s defined parameters, e.g. the chirping of birds, the murmur of a crowd, the sound of falling hail, the uncoordinated movements of people οn a square or the sound of them panicking.

STOP DEAD

The cut must be sudden and absolute, leaving behind no residual sound or unresolved material – an abrupt and total “switch-off”. Conceptually, this symbol is connected to the lunar eclipse.

AT RANDOM

A sign denoting randomness, employed in conjunction with other continuity signs to direct the performer to act unpredictably within the pattern’s defined parameters.

KEEP PERMUTATING

The material of a pattern within the brackets is constantly moved at random, up to the point shown by a duration indicator.

KEEP IMPROVISING

The separate components forming the pattern-sample within the repeat brackets are permutated at random, up to the point designated by the duration indicator.

JUST AUDIBLE

Only just audible; on the threshold of audibility.

Ψ

(The Greek ‘psi’). An indicator of the psychoid factor that drives an already intense situation to further extremes. It may signal a radical increase in intensity, or conversely, the further intensification of an existing state of silence.

M

A sign used to indicate the commencement of a metapraxis, instructing the performer to carry out an action “beyond” his normal function. Examples include a string-player’s cry, or a collective, panic-stricken outcry from the entire orchestra.

EATING / WALKING

Examples of patterns within a composition (Enantiodromia) to be performed in repetition.

PHOENIX YEARS

From the ashes of World War II, cultural life in Europe begins anew. The 23-year-old novice composer Jani Christou presents his first major composition for an orchestra: on March 5, 1950, Phoenix Music premiers amongst classical works at the Royal Opera House in London: a brilliant start for the young composer who stands out for the maturity of his work. During this initial period, his oeuvre includes works of symphonic form and religious content, while engaging with great poetry in the person of T. S. Eliot (1888–1965).
For the structure of his compositions, Christou develops the Phoenix Principle, a scheme for elaborating on the musical idea based on the symbol of the mythical bird which is reborn from its ashes. The orchestra is gradually and persistently led to a distinctive crescendo, only to return to the quiet initial motif, which contains the possibility of rebirth.

MYTH – DREAM

Myth and dreams are at the epicentre of Christou’s methodology. As he wrote, his purpose was [to] “connect mythic function with dream function”. The mythic interpretation of the world is a primary source of his inspiration.
These views were determined to a great extent by his engagement with analytical psychology, founded by the Swiss psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and philosopher Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) – as well as by his psychoanalyst brother, Evey Christou (1923–1956). The latter matured academically within the Jungian environment and Jung himself held him in high esteem.
Christou diligently recorded his dreams almost on a daily basis, a practice that analytical psychology considered a fundamental tool in connecting the individual to the subconscious. For his compositions, he often consulted these records for inspiration, a case in point being The Strychnine Lady, which he characterised as “a dream ritual”.

THE LUNAR EXPERIENCE

Most of Christou’s compositions usually have an extra-musical starting point: a concept, dream, or article. During the creative process, the thinker–composer recorded and archived his thoughts. As a result, we now have ample documentation of his philosophical and spiritual explorations.
His writings from 1968 show an attempt to draft an essay titled The Lunar Experience, which outlines both his vision of musical creation and the objectives of his artistic praxis from an anthropological perspective. In these, he develops his thought on the patterns (see Concepts) of life and the fears plaguing contemporary humanity, ideas which he then transmutes into musical and sonic terms within his compositions.
To Christou, the concept of the lunar experience encapsulates the primal terror of a sudden, total eclipse – an event equivalent to a major catastrophe or an unforeseen death. Since the death of his brother, the spectre of a sudden end permeates all of Christou’s work.

RITUAL

As observed by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), “in the ancient rites we have the use of an extremely developed gesture-language,” while “the ritual of the ancient myths was [in itself] a language”. The concept of ritual, understood as the link between man and the supernatural, is central to Christou’s work. It becomes a salient feature of the music he composes for various productions of Attic drama during the 1960s, in collaboration with the National Theatre and the Art Theatre of Karolos Koun (1908–1987). Christou was one of the first musical pioneers in Greece to compose for ancient tragedy, effectively introducing the use of electronic music within these works.
At the same time, he began to compose for the moving image, writing the score for an American TV production titled The Inner World (1963). Directed by Alexis Minotis (1900–1990), this production featured a compilation of excerpts from ancient Greek tragedies. In 1968, he completed the soundtrack for Oedipus the King, which is his only cinematic work.

ΙΝΤΡΟ ΤΕΧΤ

Jani Christou is one of the foremost figures of 20th century musical avant-garde, despite still being relatively unknown in the wider field of art. Born in Alexandria, he studied philosophy at Cambridge and musical composition in Italy, and engaged with analytical psychology through his older brother Evey (Evis) Christou, before finally settling in Greece in the early 1960s. He composed for large orchestras, small ensembles, and electronic media, as well as for ancient tragedy and performers who didn’t need to have any knowledge of music whatsoever. His brief creative career reveals a rare cohesion and consistency and is distinguished by its radical treatment of musical and broader artistic conventions. Ultimately, his compositions are characterised by their explosive emotional power.

Beyond, however, his musical practice, Christou was also a thinker deeply engaged with art and human experience. “I philosophise and the result becomes music,” he remarked, which is why today he may be described not merely as a philosopher of sound but rather as a sonic philosopher. The result of this reflective attitude is an expanded conception of music, marked by the functional incorporation of theatrical elements and psychodramatic parameters, the vision of a wordless score, and the pervasive presence of myth, the transcendental, the vitalising force of ritual, primal fears, and panic.

Ever since his sudden death in a car accident at the age of forty four, at the very peak of his creative powers, every reference to Christou’s life and work has followed a somewhat mythologised narrative, emphasising the anecdotal and mystical aspects of his biography. This exhibition constitutes the first major gesture toward introducing the composer via the primary records of his thought and practice, guiding visitors through the fascinating universe of his inspiration and method. Conceived in the form of a score as well as a two-way chronology, it traces the composer’s presence as it develops over time and expands across space. Ultimately, as in the Heraclitean view of the enantiodroma [the opposites] these trajectories form a circle where beginning and end merge into one.

The auditory experience of this exhibition is a synthesis of excerpts from Christou’s works, arranged across the exhibition space in the logic of a continuum. All of the material on view, most of which is presented for the first time, is courtesy of the Jani Christou Archive, housed at the Athens Conservatoire Research and Documentation Centre.

PROTOPERFORMANCE

From the early 1960s, Christou’s all-consuming creative preoccupations led him to expand his compositional tools, devising an entirely different system of music notation and performance instructions. As he once remarked, the stave was only adequate for “little [musical] notes”.
With the completion of Mysterion and Praxis for 12, his sonic language becomes emancipated. He incorporates features from other arts alongside new technological media such as magnetic tapes, while concepts originating in anthropology and science are transmuted into musical structural components. Autographic symbols and pictorial representations of performative action become the composer’s new vocabulary in the late phase of his oeuvre.
Christou refers to these late works as “attempts at protoperformance” – a term he used to describe representations of the primeval human experience of patterns and the rituals for their renewal.
To the composer, it is not the aesthetic veneer that matters, but the content of these re-enactments, seen as a vital way to forge a deep connection between humanity and the full spectrum of human experience.

METAPRAXIS

All the works of Christou’s later phase (Mysterion, Praxis for 12, The Strychnine Lady, Anaparastasis, Epicycle, Enantiodromia) are primarily defined by features that transcend the traditional perception of music: stage action, dramatic tensions, the irrational element, panic. The audience is no longer composed of mere listeners but of spectators and participants. The musical composition is now a gesture that calls for the transcendence of media, of the performative condition, and of art in general.
Christou coins the term metapraxis (meta-action) to describe an action that challenges the logic of the performer’s relationship to their expressive medium. They are called upon to perform an action that carries them beyond their normal manner of functioning – that is, beyond praxis.
The concept of these two “opposites” is reflected in both the composer’s personal work and his particular stance vis-à-vis the artistic act, not to mention his overarching rejection of Western culture and its systems. “Music is the sound of the common man’s steps”.

ORESTEIA

Magnum opus [great work] refers to a creator’s most ambitious and seminal work. In alchemical tradition, the term describes the method by which the prima materia (first matter) is transmuted to create the Philosopher’s Stone, the proverbial material which will serve as a catalyst for the individual’s spiritual transformation.
Oresteia is the most ambitious work that Christou conceived. His handwritten notes reveal that he had been labouring on the work’s framework since 1967, while its premiere – a production by the English Bach Festival – had been scheduled to take place in London on April 20, 1970, as part of an ongoing world tour.
Based on Aeschylus’ trilogy (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides), Christou described this work as a contemporary opera. The production was to feature soloists, a mixed chorus, instrumentalists, conductors and technicians in a multimedia ensemble that incorporated tapes and visual effects, departing radically from the stage conventions of both theatre and opera. The composition intended to incorporate some of his shorter works, such as Enantiodromia, and a selection of the approximately forty planned pieces of Anaparastasis.
We don’t have a complete picture of the work today. The car accident that claimed Jani Christou’s life in the early morning of January 8, 1970, left behind the material evidence of a fascinating yet unsolved mystery – a wealth of information but without the code to decipher it.

MYSTERION

Mysterion is a staged oratorio for an actor-narrator, triple chorus, orchestra, and tapes. It draws upon the sacred funerary texts of ancient Egypt, while its concept bears similarities to the visionary, albeit unfinished, Mysterium by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915). The script follows the journey of the sun-god Ra’s boat through the twelve divisions of the Underworld, as it sails along the river that merges with the celestial ocean by day.

“The whole work is like a nightmare,” says the composer in an interview. “The chorus will not sing as usual. They will express themselves in movements, whispers, cries, everyday words, but nothing will be distinctly comprehensible, as if they are speaking in an ancient language. The entire spectacle is like a sacred rite. The members of the chorus will wear masks and costumes reminiscent of mummies. As for the music, it is religious and primitive, as before musical forms were discovered. It will not simply be an artistic event. I composed this work in accordance with my musical Credo. The point is not to make art, but to be able to connect with the forces that surround you”.

By 1966, Christou has the work ready for performance but without the use of tapes. The premiere is announced by the Athens Festival later that year. The work is to be performed by the Athens Experimental Orchestra, directed by Manos Hadjidakis (1925-1994); the performance, however, is cancelled. In the summer of 1969, he works on the composition anew, so that it may be presented in its full stage version in a television broadcast in Denmark. While a number of rehearsals are held in Copenhagen, this plan, too, fails to come to fruition. Under the direction of Miltiades Caridis (1923-1998), the orchestral and choral parts are recorded.

After Christou’s death, the composers Stefanos Vassiliadis (1933-2004) and Haris Xanthoudakis (1950-2023) worked to combine the musical material with the tapes to produce a comprehensive audio record of the work. The version heard here is the work of musicologist Ianos Eliades (1976-); through a methodical study of the score and the entirety of the composer’s notes, Eliades has produced a new mix that serves as the first complete auditory performance of a work its creator never lived to hear.

AFTERMATH

The sudden death of Jani Christou in a car accident at the age of 44 and at his creative peak sent shockwaves across the world of music. In the first few years after his death, his associates and contemporaries organised a series of features, presentations of his work, and premieres of his compositions (Latin Liturgy (Messa), Symphony no.2, Toccata for piano and orchestra). Avant-garde music festivals all over the world embraced his music while, as evidenced by the numerous conferences and academic theses dedicated to his oeuvre, scholarly interest in his work remains undiminished to this day. The publication of his late works was made possible through the diligence and dedication of musician Nikos Avgeris, a close associate of the composer’s, who undertook the task of deciphering Christou’s graphical notation to produce the final performance scores.

Several music creators, such as Giacinto Scelsi, Richard Felciano, Christian Wolff, Mikis Theodorakis, Nikos Mamagakis, Stefanos Vassiliadis, Michalis Adamis, Dimitris Dragatakis, Giorgos Kouroupos, et al., have composed works in Christou’s memory.