The Sacher hexachord (6-Z11,

musical cryptogram A musical cryptogram is a cryptogrammatic sequence of musical symbols, a sequence which can be taken to refer to an extra-musical text by some 'logical' relationship, usually between note names and letters. The most common and best known example ...

on the name of Swiss conductor

Paul Sacher Paul Sacher (28 April 190626 May 1999) was a Swiss conductor, patron and billionaire businessperson. At the time of his death Sacher was majority shareholder of pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche and was considered the third richest person i ...

) is a

hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six-note series, as exhibited in a scale ( hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial theor ...

notable for its use in a set of twelve compositions (''12 Hommages à Paul Sacher'') created at the invitation of

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well ...

for Sacher's seventieth birthday in 1976. The twelve compositions include

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...

's ''Messagesquisse'',

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

's ''Capriccio'',

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyma ...

's ''Sacher Variation'', and

Henri Dutilleux Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer active mainly in the second half of the 20th century. His small body of published work, which garnered international acclaim, followed in the tradition of ...

's ''Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher''. ''Messagesquisse'' is dedicated to Sacher, but Boulez's '' Répons'', ''Dérive 1'', '' Incises'', and '' Sur Incises'' all use rows with the same pitches.Edward Campbell, ''Boulez, Music and Philosophy'', . (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010): 206. . The hexachord's complement is its Z-relation, 6-Z40.

References

External links

eSACHERe
Cryptography Hexachords Musical set theory {{music-theory-stub

See also

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External links