Sacher hexachord

See also: Paul Sacher § "eSACHERe"

The Sacher hexachord (6-Z11, a musical cryptogram on the name of Swiss conductor Paul Sacher) is a hexachord notable for its use in a set of twelve compositions (12 Hommages à Paul Sacher) created at the invitation of Mstislav Rostropovich for Sacher's seventieth birthday in 1976.

Sacher hexachord^[1]Play^ⓘ: E♭ (Es) A C B (H) E D (Re)

Sacher hexachord

Component intervals from root
perfect fifth
perfect fourth
major third
major second
minor second
root
Forte no. / Complement
6-Z11 / 6-Z40
Interval vector
<3,3,3,2,3,1>

The twelve compositions include Pierre Boulez's Messagesquisse, Benjamin Britten's Tema "Sacher", Hans Werner Henze's Capriccio, Witold Lutosławski's Sacher Variation, and Henri Dutilleux's Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher.^[2][3] Further, Boulez's Répons, Dérive 1, Incises and Sur Incises all use tone rows with the same pitches.^[4]

The hexachord's complement is its Z-relation, 6-Z40.

See also

• Schoenberg hexachord