Studies in Hexany I: Consonant Relations

by Phexioenesystems

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	1.	Fluorescent Black (Hexany 1-3-11-13) 05:42
	2.	Shining Sea (Hexany 1-3-5-7) 04:16
	3.	Squid Axon Canon (Hexany 1-3-7-9) 03:36
	4.	Conversant/Expansive (Hexany 1-3-5-9) 08:10

about

Over the last year or so I have been attempting to distance myself further and further from the western tonal landscape of equal temperament, its problematic adjustments, impurities and compromises.

In doing so I was keen to avoid what would effectively be to me (white, British) the cultural appropriation of “non-Western” tunings. Indian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese tonalities, albeit beautiful, are culturally and environmentally alien to me, and while I studied gamelan for a number of years, I am not from within the sound-world of pelog or slendro, nor could I honestly use an existent gamelan tuning without specifically referencing a particular location or group, let alone a culture, as each ensemble has its own unique tonality.

There are, thankfully, a myriad tuning systems created in the cultural isolation of mathematics: equal divisions of the octave (in numbers other than 12); 5-limit and 7-limit just intonations; divisions of the tritave; etcetera. Within this world of rarefied music and mathematics are the Combination Product Sets, a group of related tonalities created by Mexican-American music theorist Erv Wilson.

The Hexany is the name Wilson gave to the six notes in the 2-out-of-4 combination product set and is the simplest tonal structure possible within the framework. It is constructed by taking any four factors and a set of two, then multiplying them in pairs. For instance, the harmonic factors 1, 3, 5 and 7 are combined in pairs of 1*3, 1*5, etc. resulting in Hexany 1-3-5-7. Notes are then shifted to place them all within the same octave, with no effect on intervallic relations and the consonance of the triads.

Consonant Relations: Studies in Hexany I is the first collection of my music written in Wilson’s CPS tuning system, with each track exploring an individual Hexany (i.e. 1-3-5-9 or 1-3-11-13). Sonically, these tracks are no different from my previous work: quiet, meditative pieces with modular and hardware synthesisers, field recordings and treated sound. However at their core are pitch structures which break from the western world to explore beautiful, floating tonalities which – while a little alien to our indoctrinated ears – should not prove ‘difficult’, as so much academic microtonal music can be.

Composing and performing microtonal music remains logistically troublesome and I am eternally grateful to the following for their work designing, creating and promoting tools allowing for composition outside of 12EDO:

Stichting Huygens-Fokker
Sean Archibald (Sevish)
Tobias Münzer (Tubbutec)
Ashun Sound Machines
Raph Levien (Digital Suburban (Dexed))
Claes Johanson (Surge)

In Memoriam Ervin Wilson (1928-2016)

credits

released May 7, 2021

All tracks written and produced by Dominic Thurgood.
Photograph of Vassaraträsket, Gällivare by Dominic Thurgood

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about

Phexioenesystems London, UK

// composer of quiet electronic music
// just intonation & microtonality
// releases on Sound Holes, Salmon Universe, Castles in Space

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