{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.026246719160104987, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005249343832020997, 'mean_word_length': 5.577586206896552, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Review of Arts/Sciences: Alloys by Iannis Xenakis

The author reviews a transcription of Xenakis’s ‘thesis defense’ for the ‘Doctorat d’Etat’ at the Sorbonne in 1976 and finds it a welcome and essential addition to the literature documenting the composer’s ideas. Each dialogue transcribed introduces a different thinker and colleague of Xenakis, and each focuses on a different realm of Xenakis’s compositional and aesthetic philosophy. The informality and interdisciplinary nature of the discussions contributes new and valuable insights into Xenakis’s work. Xenakis’s dialogue with Messiaen is of particular interest, because of Xenakis’s extraordinary rapport with his former teacher, and because of the unusual candor with which these two composers spoke.