Creation : 30th September 2001, Festival Musica (Strasbourg)
State Command for the Percussions de Strasbourg
Composition : 2001
Number : 6 percussions (sextuor of Sixxens)
Duration : 12′
Edition : Jobert
The composition project for the Percussions de Strasbourg was to include, in addition to the Sixxens, a number of instruments with harmonic (vibraphone and marimbas) and inharmonic (cowbells, small tuned gongs) keyboards. However, I was very quickly absorbed by the Sixxens to the point of writing a sextet. These instruments have the peculiarity, apart from being totally inharmonic, of not respecting a strict chord between them. The same note, the same figure can be heard differently depending on whether it is played by one or the other of the six instruments. It is therefore this idea of the multiplication of figures that is at the centre of the piece (harmony and interval becoming very secondary elements), like a three-dimensional musical object that could be observed at the same time from several angles, thus leading to an appreciation of it, to consider it differently. I wanted to dedicate this piece to the memory of Iannis Xenakis, for whom the Sixxens were conceived.
Jean-Louis AGOBET