Tower, J :: Hexachords

Hexachords

Tower, J

Joan Tower s monumental Hexachords, for solo flute.

Joan Tower broke with academic serialism completely in 1976, but there were signs of the coming break long before then. Hexachords, written for flutist Patricia Spencer, illustrates one step of Tower's departure. This piece uses six pitches exclusively (thus the title), but uses them without a specific order; its methods and effects stray from the serial ideal. This piece is by no means tonal but it has, nevertheless, an appealing fluidity and organic feeling.

Rather than manipulate the pitches as a tone row, Tower concentrates on exploring the capabilities of the flute in relation to these six pitches. She varies the length of vibrato, contrasts the upper and lower extremes of the flute's register, and changes dynamics, rhythm, and tempo with assured quickness. All these changes create a volatile atmosphere in which the music seems about to shift even when it is still. This feeling is emphasized by her division of the piece into five sections, which, she has written, are most easily differentiated by a sense of either going somewhere or staying somewhere.

Yet there always seems to be a musical logic to the movement, a feeling that the music is developing from itself rather than from an abstract principle - a sensation absent from much academic serial music but almost always present in Tower's work. The rhythms succeed each other in interesting ways; snatches of tunes are taken up repeatedly, and the different registers sometimes seem to assume distinct characters.

Tower writes that the counterpoint of tunes...[in Hexachords]...hopefully keeps the listener's attention, and the hope is well placed.

- Review by Andrew Lindemann Malone (AllMusic)