[2] It was first performed at L'Aquila on March 3, 1979, by the Divertimento Ensemble conducted by Sandro Gorli,[3] who also went on tour in several Italian cities in a programme also including Anaktoria and two other piece by Sylvano Bussotti.
[1] It was dedicated to Adriana Panni,[1] the President of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana,[4] and subsequently published by Editions Salabert in 1986.
[3] Palimpsest is scored for eleven musicians: an oboe (with an English horn), a B-flat clarinet (with a bass clarinet), a bassoon, a French horn in F, a piano, percussion (two bongos, one tumba, three tom-toms, and timpani), and a string quintet (first and second violins, a viola, a cello, and a double bass).
Among the avant-garde techniques Xenakis used in Palimpsest are complex polyrhythmic structures, microtones, prominent glissandi, polyphonic arborescences, and timbral sound exploration.
In this sense, arborescences are the main driving force, as all instruments employ this technique to a greater or a lesser extent.