Score & Part
Where all is blue : for percussion and electronics / Alice Humphries.
Library shelf no. 786.8/HUM 1 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
Where all is blue explores the scientific phenomena of how colours seem to disappear the deeper you go underwater utilising petal percussion and sine tone glissando. Different wavelengths of light penetrate to different depths in the ocean, creating the illusion that coloured objects change in appearance as they descend underwater. The longest wavelengths reach the greatest depths, and these are represented by the colour blue. Sonic illusions reflective of these underwater visual illusions are created in this work by blending the vibraphone with crotales, resonant aluminium tubes and subtle electronics. The music slowly drifts, slides, and descends from a colourful timbral and higher frequency palette, evolving to a pure and constrained sound world of lower frequencies, where all is blue.
Work Details
Year: 2023
Instrumentation: Percussion and electronics:vibraphone, crotales [C6, Eb6, E6, F6, G6, Ab6, B6, Eb7, E7], 3 x aluminum pipes tuned to E5, C5, and Bb4, laptop to run stereo electronics playback.
Duration: 8 min.
Difficulty: Advanced — Suitable for professional and advanced tertiary and secondary students
Commission note: Commissioned by Sound Collectors, Louise Devenish.. Dr Louise Devenish is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE200100555) funded by the Australian Government.
First performance: by Louise Devenish — 30 Mar 23. West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, WA
Additional sine tone programing by Michael Terren.
Performances of this work
30 Mar 23: West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, WA. Featuring Louise Devenish.
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