Work
Fractured again : multimedia work for three performers, electronic music, glass installation and video
by Damien Ricketson (2010)
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Score
Fractured again : multimedia work for three performers, electronic music, glass installation and video / Damien Ricketson.
Library shelf no. 785/RIC 1 [Not for loan]
Work Overview
Fractured Again is a show-length multimedia work exploring the medium of glass.
Future images are often founded in the objects of the past. In
trying to compose as of yet unheard music I find myself drawn to
that which has fallen silent. Lost and forgotten musics are a
creative impetus for me. The relics of such musics - ancient
manuscripts, depictions of instruments, even legends or fables
about music - provide a rich landscape of musical ruins; not for
historical reconstruction but for fantasy. The Glass Harmonica,
its angelic sound, its beautiful repertory, its reputation for
triggering insanity and its virtual extinction was fertile ground
to explore in the creation of Fractured Again.
The fact that the instrument is made of glass makes it
distinctive. The medium of glass - from ancient Mesopotamian
beads to gleaming city towers - captures paradoxical impressions
of antiquity and modernity. Reflecting and refracting the world
around it, the optical qualities of glass have made the medium
visually and conceptually central to object arts, as well as
installation, architecture and poetic imagery. The musical
qualities of glass, however, remain a poor cousin. Obscure as it
may seem today, the Glass Harmonica is but one example of a rich
and diverse world of glass-derived sound. From the ancient sounds
of the Chinese Shui Chan or Arabic Tusut to the contemporary
sounds of Toronto's Glass Orchestra or the sculpted (and
sometimes blood-spattered) noise of Sydney's own Lucas Abela, the
sounds of glass are numerous if not ubiquitous. One of the most
noteworthy contributions to the world of glass music comes from
the Melbourne-based Glass Percussion Project. Founded by
installation artist Elaine Miles and percussionist Eugene
Ughetti, several of Elaine's glass instruments are featured in
Fractured Again including chimes, a glass xylophone and glass
panels.
The metaphor of glass in Fractured Again, however, runs
more deeply than the use of glass instruments as a sound source.
Much of the music scored for the more conventional instruments of
clarinet, violin and vibraphone has been derived from repertoire
written for the Glass Harmonica. For example, there is a faint
reflection of Mozart's Adagio for Glass Harmonica in a clarinet
solo towards the centre of the work and a couple of allusions to
the 'God Music' movement of George Crumb's Black Angels; a
contemporary string quartet that included a symbolic Glass
Harmonica in the form of bowed crystal glasses. The references to
Mozart and Crumb, however, are misshapen as though they were
viewed through a strange and distorted lens. The most tangible
reference occurs at the opening of Fractured Again with a rewrite
of the 'mad scene' from Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor.
When Lucia descends into madness after she kills her unwanted
husband, her beautiful aria was originally to be accompanied by a
Glass Harmonica (in most productions this melody is played by a
flute). In Fractured Again, this scene is quite literally
'fractured' into thousands of pieces and reassembled like a
mosaic, each tiny shard collated to gradually reveal a new
form.
The process of fracturing time is also characteristic of the
electronic music technique of granular synthesis where the
looping and reordering of microscopic samples are used to create
something new out of something old: a musical approach that is
exemplified by Pimmon whose electronic music in Fractured
Again also is mostly derived from the sound of glass
The theme of glass forms a conceptual gathering point by which diverse media, sound-sources and approaches to composition are melded into a multifaceted whole. Although the presence of the Glass Harmonica is felt throughout Fractured Again, it is heard only fleetingly towards the end of the work. Just as relics remain evocative by what is missing, the reputation of the instrument - the idea of the instrument - resonates more loudly than its delicate actuality. With its reputation preceding it, the instrument finally awakens with a strangely frail and softly-spoken passage before receding into a future no less fragile than its past.
Work Details
Year: 2010
Instrumentation: Three musicians (clarinet, violin, vibraphone, glass harmonica, glass instruments, electronic music), live video and installation.
Duration: 60 min.
Difficulty: Advanced — requires staged production
Dedication note: Dedicated to the memory of Victor and Betty Calnan
Commission note: Commissioned by City of Sydney, MLC School (Sydney), Ian Potter Cultural Trust.. Commissioned by Ian Potter Cultural Trust, MLC School (Sydney), City of Sydney.
First performance: by Ensemble Offspring — 21 Jan 10. The Great Hall, University of Sydney
Video preview can be viewed at Curious Noise. Limited Edition DVD may be available at Curious Noise: http://www.curiousnoise.com/LookListen.html
Awards & Prizes
Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for/to |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Instrumental | Finalist | Damien Ricketson |
Analysis
Resonate article: Ricketson at work: the fragile and the secret by Anni Heino
Performances of this work
4 Mar 2018: at Tessera by Ensemble Offspring (ArtisTree: Taikoo Place ). Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
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.
21 Jan 10: The Great Hall, University of Sydney. Featuring Ensemble Offspring.
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