48. Polytope XXI: A Tribute to Iannis Xenakis
Fabrice Marandola, Myriam Boucher,
and Dominic Thibault
© 2024 Fabrice Marandola, Myriam Boucher, & Dominic Thibault, CC BY-NC 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0390.50
The Montreal-based Sixtrum percussion sextet presented this Polytope XXI concert-tribute on 25 May 2022, at the Salle Claude-Champagne at the Université de Montréal with works by Myriam Boucher, Dominic Thibault, and Iannis Xenakis.
Below is an excerpt of the program notes for this event.
Program
Myriam Boucher and Dominic Thibault | Polytope XXI (world premiere).
Presentation
Sixtrum Percussion is pleased to present an exceptional concert in tribute to the composer Iannis Xenakis, whose one hundredth birthday is being celebrated. Polytope XXI celebrates this architect, engineer, and composer, who wrote some of the most significant works for percussion of the twentieth century. It is also the name that composers Myriam Boucher and Dominic Thibault have given to their project of a monumental instrument, a sort of giant audio-luminous harp, augmented by electroacoustics.
This project was inspired by the first polytope by Xenakis, “an electronic sculpture that combines light, music and structure,” which was presented inside the French Pavilion during the Expo ’67 World’s Fair. The installation took the form of a giant spider web made up of a set of cables installed in the void in the central space of the pavilion, with a multitude of luminous points that appeared and disappeared in accordance with the soundtrack. The project stemmed from a scientific perspective, accompanied by an architectural and musical vision: a union of science and art.1 This re-imagined polytope is made up of large self-supporting structures with luminous cables running through them, a bit like a giant harp around which the percussionists will move to strike, rub, and pluck the cable strings. Integrated microphones that pick up vibrations amplify the sound of the instrument and help control the digital audio effects and the audio-reactive light system.
The second part of the concert will be dedicated to Xenakis’s monumental Pléïades for six percussionists, which was on the program of Sixtrum’s very first concert and which will close the fifteenth season of the Montreal-based ensemble.2
Performers
Sixtrum Percussion
Since 2007, the Sixtrum Percussion Ensemble has been relentlessly exploring the world of contemporary percussion. With dozens of collaborations with composers and hundreds of concerts, the ensemble has forged a signature in Montreal and on the international scene.
Sixtrum has performed at festivals such as Le Printemps des Arts (Monte Carlo), Présences/Radio France (Paris and Montpellier), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, Massachusetts), PASIC’15 for the opening concert of the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (San Antonio, Texas), and created the Rythmopolis event (Montreal), for which it received an Opus Award for the Event of the Year (2018–19). Other awards include the Coup de Coeur de l’Académie Charles-Cros (France) for the CD De la percussion, and the “Outstanding Contribution to Theatre” award for the music of the play Angélique (Montreal English Theatre Awards).
Sixtrum is in residence at the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal and is supported by the Arts Councils of Montreal (Quebec) and of Canada.
This concert event was part of the international program of the Meta-Xenakis Consortium, celebrating the centenary of the composer Xenakis.
Media 48.1 Polytope XXI: Hommage à Iannis Xenakis (2022). Composition: Myriam Boucher and Dominic Thibault. Performers: Sixtrum Percussion. Reproduced with permission.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12434/30ba3261
Sixtrum wishes to thank its partners:
Université de Montréal–CAC–CALQ–CAM–CIRMMT–META-XENAKIS
References
XENAKIS, Iannis (2008), Music and Architecture: Architectural Projects, Texts, and Realizations, compilation, translation, and commentary by Sharon Kanach, Hillsdale, New York, Pendragon.