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This sample is from the Violin with Live Electronics version of this work
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Performance by Ensemble Offspring from the CD Between the keys |
Versions of this work
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Products featuring this work
| Format | Title | Version | AMC Library | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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CD |
Duos: Vibraphone, other string | Available for loan | $POA | ||
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Score |
Some shade of blue : underchin tarhu & centaur vibraphone / Damien Ricketson. |
Duos: Vibraphone, other string | Available for loan | $POA | |
|
Score |
Some shade of blue : version for solo violin and electronics / Damien Ricketson. |
Violin with Live Electronics | Available for loan | $POA |
Work Overview
Some Shade of Blue is a microtonal work based on a
19-notes-per-octave just intonation system proposed by Kraig
Grady and Terumi Narushima. The metaphor of colour is associated
with the evolving and growing palette of intervals heard as the
work unfolds. The slow intense ascent of the melodic line shadows
the violin solo in the final movement of the Quartet for the End
of Time by Messiaen: a composer whose use of pitch is
intrinsically tied up with colour ('synesthetically' so). The
colour blue is often used to symbolise eternity, the end-point
for Messiaen's quartet. The colour is also used to describe the
subtle flattening of notes in Jazz and Blues music. Although I do
not seek to directly evoke such musical traditions, the idea of
the "blue note" - a note of heightened expressive potential lying
between the cracks of the piano - is of poignant relevance.
Some Shade of Blue was originally scored for solo
underchin tarhu: a newly designed instrument by Australian Peter
Biffin. The violin-like instrument features a unique acoustic
system that provides enhanced timbrel and dynamic diversity as
well as a set of 7 sympathetic strings. The work also features a
vibraphone that has been modified by composer and tuning theorist
Kraig Grady to his own 7th-limit just intonation system called
'centaur tuning'. The work was composed for Ensemble Offspring's
'Partch's Bastards': an ongoing project exploring microtonality
and instrument building.
Subtitled a 'plainsong for undachin tarhu (plus halo)', Some
Shade of Blue is a slow song-like solo set over a resonant
aura provided by electronic means. The work was originally
written for a newly designed string- instrument by Peter Biffin,
the undachin tarhu and a detuned vibraphone. It was later adapted
for violin combined with electronics realised together with the
young composer Marcus Whale.
Work Details
Year: 2011
Duration: 11 min.
Performances of this work
15 Dec 2018: at Absent Other (Bowen Terrace Studio). Featuring Lachlan O'Donnell.
14 Sep 2013: at Ensemble Offspring: Slow Flipping Harmonies (The Engine Room (Old Fire Station), Bendigo). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
12 Sep 2013: at Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (The Capital, Capital Theatre).
11 Sep 2013: at Ensemble Offspring: Slow Flipping Harmonies (The Vanguard). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
11 Sep 13: The Vanguard, Sydney. Featuring James Cuddeford, Marcus Whale.
8 Jun 2013: at Between the Keys (The Street Theatre, Canberra). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
25 May 2013: at Between the Keys (Wollongong Art Gallery). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
23 May 2013: at Between the Keys (Armidale New England Regional Art Museum). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
21 May 2013: at Between the Keys (Riverside Theatres, Parramatta). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
4 Sep 2011: at PARTCH'S BASTARDS (Riverina Conservatorium of Music). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
2 Sep 2011: at PARTCH'S BASTARDS (Sydney Opera House, Utzon Room). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
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