Xenakis & Pleiades: Sixxen?

This afternoon I picked up a copy of Pleiades by Iannis Xenakis.
In the liner notes, IX describes a tuned percussion instrument
called the Sixxen. Tuned in a scale of "19 pitches unevenly
distributed, with steps in the order of quarter and third
tones and of their multiples."

Does anyone know what this scale is? A combination of sub-sets
of 24tet and 36tet maybe?

A Google search didn't turn up too much more. I might play
it on 49/32 in the morning.

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm
* http://mp3.com/davidbeardsley

David,

--- In tuning@y..., David Beardsley <xouoxno@v...> wrote:
> This afternoon I picked up a copy of Pleiades by Iannis Xenakis.
> In the liner notes, IX describes a tuned percussion instrument
> called the Sixxen. Tuned in a scale of "19 pitches unevenly
> distributed, with steps in the order of quarter and third
> tones and of their multiples."
>
> Does anyone know what this scale is? A combination of sub-sets
> of 24tet and 36tet maybe?

I'll send this along to a fellow who actually built sixxen for
performances at UCSD, with the resident percussion ensemble "red
fish, blue fish", led by the amazing Steven Schick. They performed
here in SD, in Los Angeles (and San Fran?) and went to the (1999)
Bang On A Can series, where they performed a Xenakis marathon. He
said they rented most of the equip in NY, but had a bitch of a time
transporting the sixxen back there. They utilized lengths of square
aluminum tubing, and I can tell you from seeing/hearing it twice they
were LOUD.

Don't know if it ever got released, but they recorded in the studio,
at UCSD, all the 6 player perc pieces that X wrote for percussion
(originally for the Percussion Groupe Strousberg), and mixed it in
the new Dolby surround (5.1 maybe?) to be made into a DVD-audio disc.
I heard one of the mixes in surround, and it was just like when I was
at the live show: sitting in the theater, surrounded by six
percussion setups.

I'll report back with info if I find out from him.

Best,
Jon

David!
Yes it is a really nice piece and my liner notes says quarter and
third notes but that is all!

David Beardsley wrote:

> This afternoon I picked up a copy of Pleiades by Iannis Xenakis.
> In the liner notes, IX describes a tuned percussion instrument
> called the Sixxen. Tuned in a scale of "19 pitches unevenly
> distributed, with steps in the order of quarter and third
> tones and of their multiples."
>
> Does anyone know what this scale is? A combination of sub-sets
> of 24tet and 36tet maybe?
>
> A Google search didn't turn up too much more. I might play
> it on 49/32 in the morning.
>
> --
> * D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
> * 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
> * http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm
> * http://mp3.com/davidbeardsley

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
http://www.anaphoria.com

The Wandering Medicine Show
Wed. 8-9 KXLU 88.9 fm

JSZANTO@ADNC.COM wrote:

> I'll report back with info if I find out from him.

Thanks. The DVD sounds interesting!

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm
* http://mp3.com/davidbeardsley

--- In tuning@y..., David Beardsley <xouoxno@v...> wrote:
> This afternoon I picked up a copy of Pleiades by Iannis Xenakis.
> In the liner notes, IX describes a tuned percussion instrument
> called the Sixxen. Tuned in a scale of "19 pitches unevenly
> distributed, with steps in the order of quarter and third
> tones and of their multiples."
>
> Does anyone know what this scale is? A combination of sub-sets
> of 24tet and 36tet maybe?

It's in a subset of 72-tET (Xenakis used quarter- and third-tones because of Aristoxenus), with
about 19 tones per octave, but if I recall correctly it doesn't repeat exactly from one octave to
the next.