Ein pentachromatischer Blick
A creation concert dedicated to the Sixxen, a percussion instrument invented by Iannis Xenakis in 1978.
Theôria is a tribute to Iannis Xenakis, for the celebration of his centenary in 2022. The Ancient history used this same word for speculation and contemplation, to which Christian times preferred the drâma. The sixxen is the legacy of a composer concerned with both art and science, he knew the danger of emotion without analysis or practice without theory.
Composing for the sixxen forces to think : the instrument has no specific pitches, and easy effects are not its purpose. Like the post-architectural sketches of Xenakis, the instrument encourages the composition of trajectories, from a single straight line in space to the sweeping of a frequency range, or some zoom effects that exhibit the grains of bowed percussion.
The six percussion setup integrates the sixxen into a larger metallic landscape. Our eyes shine for those instruments coming from the industrial revolution, but our ears keep searching for an explanation for what they hear; with them we have to think.
Program
- Daphné Hejebri, Σχίζειν – Schizein (2021), world premiere
- Gitbi Kwon, Um (2021), world premiere
- Zaca Maia, Slow, Text, Fast (2021), world premiere
- Anna Sowa, Seven (2021), world premiere
- Charles David Wajnberg, theôrìa α (2021), world premiere
Hochschule Basel Percussion Ensemble
- Percussionists : Ying Chen Chuang, Santiago Villar Martin, Pedro Tavares, Alexandre Silva, Ronan Gil, Paolo Fratello
- Conducting and artistic direction : Christian Diertstein, Ronan Gil de Morais