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Damien Ricketson - Some Shade of Blue

from Between the Keys by Ensemble Offspring

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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 the centaur vibraphone. The undachin tarhu is the only one of the new instruments not to be fixed in its temperament, however, in this work it is required to perform precisely in a 19-notes-per-octave extension of Grady’s scale proposed by Terumi Narushima. The seven sympathetic strings under the tarhu’s fingerboard are tuned to the new notes added to Grady’s scale to provide the instrument with a set of resonant sweet-spot frequencies while the remaining 12-notes of resonance are heard via the centaur vibraphone.
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. The title is also a loose play on David Hume’s “Missing Shade of Blue”: a philosophical proposition concerning the capacity of the mind to project an idea without being exposed to the relevant sensory experience (Is it possible to imagine a shade of blue that you have never seen?). The question similarly can be applied to musical situations such as our perception of pitch and has been a point of contemplation for me reconciling my theoretical understanding of microtonal tuning theories with my perceptual experience of previously unheard notes and intervals. Blue also just happens to be the colour I associate with my daughter Francesca to whom this work is dedicated. (DR)

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from Between the Keys, released January 1, 2013

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Ensemble Offspring Sydney, Australia

Ensemble Offspring are Australia’s leading new music group. Uniting the country’s most fearless instrumentalists under the leadership of internationally acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes, they subvert classical music traditions and deliver concerts that "burst with imagination, energy and inspiration” (Seesaw Magazine). ... more

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