Sixxen info

Sixxen-info-seekers:

From a colleague who had to prepare Sixxen for recent performances:

"I believe the score isn't as specific as to mention enough to details to
lend one to come up with a specific Pleiades 'scale', the pitches are indeed
unevenly distributed but the mention of 1/4 tones relates to the
relationship of the six instruments, i.e. if a bar on instrument 1 is an
F-natural, then the equivalent F-natural on the other 5 instruments will be
within a 1/4 tone of each other - an acoustic chorus if you will. The sets
of sixxen that have been recorded reflect the fact that the scale and range
are very different but all possess the chorus quality. In the case of the
UC set, we chose the pitches of the 'master' sixxen through trial and error
and taste and then built the others to fit within the 1/4 -tone requirement.
I have not gone through and made a map of what pitches we actually have - as
related to an equal-temperment scale, but it is decidedly not typically
tonal. What is truly amazing about the way Xenakis wrote the material for
this movement is that it transcends the instrument, you could play it on any
appropriately tuned instruments and it would sound like Metaux."

HTH,
Jon

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
Real Life: Orchestral Percussionist
Web Life: "Corporeal Meadows" - about Harry Partch
http://www.corporeal.com/