589 and 589.6

A low-pressure sodium vapor lamp emits predominantly at two close spectral lines, 589.0 and 589.6 nanometers. Together, these frequencies are perceived as a single yellow light source. In this installation the lamp is accompanied by two speakers: one producing a sine tone at 589 Hz and the other at 589.6 Hz. Heard together, the tones merge into a single pitch with a faint beating effect.

In Iannis Xenakis’s string quartet ST/4–2,030762 (1956), numerical sequences derived from probability distributions drawn from statistical physics were mapped onto the parameters of pitch, rhythm, and dynamics in the score. Xenakis intended these mappings to bring the distributions of physical processes into music, extending the range of instrumental texture through numerical means. 589 and 589.6 can be read as a response to ST/4–2,030762. The four parts of Xenakis’s quartet are mirrored in the four elements of this work, two wavelengths of light and two sine tones. Both pieces map numerical values across domains. The piece suggests that the relationship is not carried by the numbers themselves but by how mappings between domains are constructed.