Makis Solomos

Makis Solomos (born 1962) is a Franco-Greek musicologist specializing in contemporary music, particularly the works of Iannis Xenakis and Theodor W. Adorno.^[1]

Makis Solomos
Born	1962 (age 62–63) Athens, Greece
Education	Paris-Sorbonne University
Occupation	Musicologist

In 2005, he co-founded the magazine Filigrane, which aimed to broaden the field of musicology.^[2] His research focuses on issues related to sound ecology and decay.^[3]

Biography

Makis Solomos was born in Athens, Greece in 1962. Early in his life, Solomos was placed in the Gyaros concentration camp alongside his mother. Following their time in the concentration camp, his family was exiled to France. Solomos has lived in Paris since 1980. He studied musical composition with Yoshihisa Taira and Sergio Ortega, and musicology at the Paris-Sorbonne University.^[4]

He taught at the University of Montpellier Paul Valéry until 2010. He is a professor at the Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis, and a junior member of the Institut universitaire de France.^[5]

Research areas

Solomos' research encompasses a range of analytical, historical, and hermeneutic approaches. While much of his work has focused on Iannis Xenakis, he has also written on composers such as Webern, Varèse, Boulez, Criton, Vaggione, and Di Scipio. His interests span various genres, including spectral music, electronic music, and even aspects of popular music. He also addresses aesthetic questions informed by the philosophical writings of Adorno.^[6]

Adopting a broadly modernist perspective, Solomos engages critically with contemporary music aesthetics, often challenging trends he perceives as conservative, particularly those associated with neoclassicism and postmodernism.^[7]

He also critiques historicism - particularly the notion of a linear musical evolution centered exclusively on canonical composers. In contrast, Solomos argues for a more pluralistic understanding of musical development as a complex interplay of diverse aesthetics and conceptions.^[6]

In his recent work, he has explored topics such as the emergence of sound as a central musical parameter, sound ecology, and the concept of decay in contemporary music.^[8]

Bibliography

Source:^[9]

• Le devenir du matériau musical au XXe siècle, in SOULEZ Antonia, SCHMITZ François, SEBESTIK Jan (ed)., Musique, rationalité, langage : L'harmonie, du monde au matériau, Cahiers de philosophie du langage (No 3), Paris, L’Harmattan, 1998; (pp. 137–151)
• Notes sur la spatialisation de la musique et l'émergence du son, in GENEVOIS Hugues, ORLAREY Yann (ed)., Le son et l'espace, Lyon, Aléas, 1998 (pp. 105–125). (Musique et Sciences).
• Schaeffer phénoménologue, in Ouïr, entendre, écouter, comprendre après Schaeffer, Paris, Buchet-Chastel / INA, 1999, (pp. 53–68) (Bibliothèque de Recherche Musicale).
• Le ‘Savant’ et le ‘Populaire‘, le postmodernisme et la mondialisation, in Musurgia, vol. IX/1, Le Savant et le Populaire, 2002.
• Analyse et idéologie chez Xenakis, in BARDEZ Jean-Michel (ed). Analyse et création musicales, Colloque (1995, Montpellier), Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001, (pp. 87–100) (Musique et Musicologie).
• Du projet bartokien au son : L’évolution du jeune Xenakis, in SOLOMOS, Makis (ed.), Présences de Iannis Xenakis, colloque (1998, Paris), Paris, CDMC, 2001.
• De la musique contemporaine à la société, in Filigrane, No 1, Musicologies ?, 2005, (pp. 49–61)
• Notes pour une comparaison des paradigmes technologiques des musiques électroniques savantes et populaires, in BARBANTI Roberto, LYNCH Enrique, PARDO Carmen, SOLOMOS Makis (ed.), Musiques, arts et technologies : Pour une approche critique, symposium (2000, Montpellier, Barcelone), Paris, L’Harmattan, 2004, (pp. 281–290) (Musique Philosophie).
• Iannis Xenakis, Mercues, PO Editions, 1996; (updated in 2004)
• Formel / Informel in SOLOMOS, Makis, SOULEZ, Antonia, VAGGIONE, Horacio, Formel Informel : Musique – Philosophie, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2003. His article De l'apollinien et du dionysiaque dans les écrits de Xenakis can be found in SOLOMOS, Makis, SOULEZ, Antonia, VAGGIONE, Horacio, Formel Informel : Musique – Philosophie, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2003, (pp. 49–90) (Musique Philosophie).
• L’espace : musique-philosophie (with Jean-Marc Chouvel: Paris, l’Harmattan, 1998),
• La métaphore lumineuse. Xenakis-Grisey (Paris, l’Harmattan, 2003)
• Musiques, arts, technologies. Pour une approche critique / Music, arts and technologies. Towards a critical approach / Musicas, artes y tecnologías. Por una aproximacion critica (avec Roberto Barbanti et Carmen Pardo: Paris, l’Harmattan, 2004)
• Horacio Vaggione: Composition theory (Contemporary Music Review vol 24 part 4+5)
• Makis Solomos(éd), Espaces composables : essais sur la musique et la pensée musicale d'Horacio Vaggione, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2007, ISBN 978-2-296-02832-6 (ouvrage reprenant en grande partie en version française les textes de "Horacio Vaggione: Composition theory)
• Rythme, temps et émergence in Rythmes de l'homme, rythmes du monde, Séminaire de l'École normale supérieure de la rue d'Ulm 2006-2008, under the direction of Christian Doumet and Aliocha Wald Lasowski, Éditions Hermann, 2010