![]() Hence, all of his music consists of different selections of the 8 pitches that make up the interval of a perfect fifth, all carefully structured within the constraints of my Dyad System. “This ratio is also that of the perfect fifth in musical terms. The album cover shows these two objects, and apparently Archimedes had that figure inscribed on his tombstone. ![]() It seems that Archimedes himself felt his most important mathematical discovery was the ratio of the volume of a cylinder to the volume of its inscribed sphere - 3/2. When Marcellus and Archimedes meet in Act III the music is an interplay between these two ensembles. Marcellus is characterized by a chamber group that grows over the course of the piece, from just four instruments at the start to a small chamber orchestra, mainly featuring harp, viola, alto flute and flugelhorn. His growth and maturation are matched by the gradual timbral change of the different guitars over time. Here, Archimedes is generally characterized by guitar sounds of different kinds. The narrative is set in motion by noted Shakesperian actor, Philip Kerr, beginning the poetic, witty and dramatic libretto by Cary Plotkin with Ted Weiss.Īny opera worth its salt has hidden structural elements that underpin the drama. Recorder virtuoso Antonio Politano contributed many extraordinary multiphonic sounds to the score and eleven year old Madeleine Albus convincingly played the role of Child. Jennifer Zetlan’s super high (beyond the Queen of the Night) pitches in the surrealistic Demiurge were other-worldly, Brian Giebler’s high and medium tenor blending splendidly with her. There is something about experiencing musical events in space, not just in a line across a stage, that is quite moving for the human sensibility.”įor the recording, Brian Zeger of Juilliard brought together some of the finest freelance opera singers in New York, including Michael Kelly as Archimedes, Martin Bakari as Marcellus, and Adrian Rosas as Hieron. The synchronization of musical phrases, rhythms, harmonies, textures with their movements around the planetarium (the spatialization) adds a whole new expressive dimension to the musical experience. The music keeps the sense of the audience being in the midst of the action, not as outside observers. “The opera utilizes always the full surround effect, even when visually the live singers are in the usual positions of traditional theatre, in front of or in the middle of the audience, fixed on a stage. The omen was good, and he dedicated the next nine years to the immersive multimedia project for live voices, pre-recorded instruments, and electronic sounds, heard on this release for the first time. It was only later that he learned Archimedes had in fact invented the first planetarium (a mechanism that demonstrated the planets rotating around the Earth). ![]() That hemispherical stage of scientific wonderment is the perfect venue for James Dashow’s monumental opera, Archimedes.Īfter witnessing some epic laser and electronic music shows that took place in science museum theaters, Dashow – a distinguished electronic music pioneer – decided this venue would be perfect for bringing the Ancient Greek mathematician’s story to life. ![]() From Mantua and Bayreuth to warehouses and wilderness, opera composers have often created dramas for particular kinds of spaces.
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