Part 2 - What the heck is a Sixxen?
How to make a Sixxen…
Although instructions are available in the score for Greek composer/architect Iannis Xenakis’ piece “Pleiades” (as I mentioned in the last post, Xenakis invented the instrument), these instructions leave many questions unanswered.
The material we are using to make the bars for our Sixxen is aluminum U-channel. This is a construction material, so it isn’t available at your local Guitar Center. We ordered ours from http://www.mcmaster.com, which seems to be the go to place for the raw materials needed for any number of fun percussion building projects. We ordered a large quantity, then brought it to a machine shop so that each bar could be cut to the specified length.
Each instrument has 19 bars (like the keys on a piano), and though we cut each set of 19 bars to the same lengths, natural imperfections in the raw material create the slight difference in pitch that are the defining characteristic of the instrument (again, more on this in the last post). Here is a photo, courtesy of Montreal-based percussionist Philip Hornsey:
Once the bars are cut, we’ll build the frames. We’re thinking about using 2x2 poplar, a light weight wood that won’t warp, or so we’re told. Then the real kicker is that we have to also design damper pedals. This mechanism will allow us to stop the resonance of the instrument after we have struck the bars with a foot-operated pedal, keeping our hands free for acrobatic feats of French percussive mayhem.
The damper pedal is Philippe Manoury’s addition to Xenakis’ design for the Sixxen, and his piece “Le Livre des Claviers”, for which we are building the Sixxen, uses the pedal extensively. Not sure how we’re going to build it yet, but it will be well worth the effort as the ability to control resonance adds an entirely new dimension to the instrument.
