What is "sextet"

Sextet \Sex*tet"\, Sextetto \Sex*tet"to\, n. (Mus.) See Sestet.

1841, altered (by influence of German Sextett) from sestet.

n. 1 any group of six people or things 2 (context music English) a composition for six voices or instruments 3 a group of six singers or instrumentalists

1. n. a musical composition written for six performers [syn: sextette, sestet]

2. the cardinal number that is the sum of five and one [syn: six, 6, VI, sixer, sise, Captain Hicks, half a dozen, sestet, sextuplet, hexad]

3. six performers or singers who perform together [syn: sextette, sestet]

4. a set of six similar things considered as a unit [syn: sextette, sestet]

5. six people considered as a unit [syn: sextette, sixsome]

A sextet (or hexad) is a formation containing exactly six members. It is commonly associated with vocal ensembles (e.g. The King's Singers, Affabre Concinui) or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six similar or related objects are considered a single unit.

Many musical compositions are named for the number of musicians for which they are written. If a piece is written for six performers, it may be called a "sextet". Steve Reich's " Sextet" is written for six percussionists.

In jazz music a sextet is any group of six players, usually containing a drum set (bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, ride cymbal), string bass or electric bass, piano, and various combinations of the following or other instruments: guitar, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, trombone.

In heavy metal and rock music, a sextet typically contains, but is not restricted to, a lead vocalist, two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, and keyboardist.

Sextet is a composition by Steve Reich. As the title indicates, it is written for an ensemble of four percussionists and two keyboardists. The percussionists play (at various times) three marimbas, two vibraphones, two bass drums, crotales, sticks, and tam-tam. Two percussionists double on piano during the opening "Pulse" section. The keyboardists play both pianos and synthesizers set to an electric organ sound. The piece was composed in 1984–1985 and is about 28 minutes in duration.

The piece is broken into five movements and, like many other Reich compositions, Sextet has an arch form: A-B-C-B-A. The paired movements share a tempo and a particular cycle of chords. These cycles use dominant chords with added tones to give it a darker, more chromatic sound, much like Reich's previous piece, The Desert Music.

Sextet plays with two aspects of music. First, it tries to overcome a natural acoustic limitations of percussion instruments. Vibraphones are normally incapable of sustaining pitches at the same volume like wind or string instruments; they act much like a piano, where notes are struck and then allowed to ring, eventually decaying. To counter this limitation, Reich employs the extended technique of bowing of the bars with a bass bow. A similar limitation in the percussion section is countered by the use of the synthesizers. At the time Sextet was written, keyboard percussion instruments capable of reaching into the bass range (5-octave marimbas or bass marimbas) were not widely available. To give the work more depth in the lower pitch ranges, the bass drum is employed with doubling from the pianos or synthesizers.

Second, the piece plays with ambiguity. In the third movement, a basic 12-beat pattern is ambiguous between a division into three and into four. In other parts of the piece, the line that was the melody becomes the accompaniment, even though the actual notes do not change.

The piece was co-commissioned by the Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians and the French government. An incomplete version premiered in December 1984, in Paris. It was reworked in early 1985 and received its American premiere in New York on October 31, 1985 during the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as the stage music for Laura Dean's Impact. It then was recorded by Steve Reich's ensemble on Nonesuch Records in 1986.

Sextet is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley released on the Watt/ECM label in 1987.

The Sextet is a two-movement composition for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, and piano by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The composition was written in 2000 and is, according to some critics, the composer's most substantial chamber work to date.

A sextet is a group of six people working together, usually musicians.

Sextet can also mean:

• Sextet (A Certain Ratio album), a 1982 album by A Certain Ratio
• Sextet (Carla Bley album), a 1987 Carla Bley album
• Sextette, a 1978 film starring Mae West

The Sextet is a chamber music composition written by Francis Poulenc for a standard wind quintet ( flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn) and piano. Estimates about the time of its composition range from between 1931 and 1932 and 1932 alone. The piece was extensively revised in 1939. Performed in its entirety, the piece lasts for 18 minutes.

Sextet is the third album by English band A Certain Ratio, released in 1982 by record label Factory. It is the first album by the band not to be produced by Martin Hannett.