Persephassa

Persephassa is a piece for six percussionists composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1969. The piece was commissioned jointly by the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) and the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of Arts (presided by the Empress of Iran), held at the historic site of Persepolis (Gluck 2007, 22). The title is one of the variant names of the goddess Persephone / Proserpina, "the personification of telluric forces and of transmutations of life",[this quote needs a citation] and also refers to the names "Perseus", "Perceval", and "Persepolis" (Gaillard 1971, 751). It was performed in its premiere by Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France).