Ptolemy's Onion
amplified bass flute and amplified string quartet
Performances:
• Ensemble Offspring
'Whirlwind of Time', Sydney Conservatorium, 24th June 06
• Sydney Alpha Ensemble
Subscription series, Sept. 2000 Sydney
• MusikFabrik (Germany)
Gaudeamus International Festival, Sept. 1999 Amsterdam
• Ensemble Offspring
'Premiere' (inaugural season for the opening of The Studio), March 1999, Sydney Opera House
• Spring Ensemble
Ninth Sydney Spring Festival of New Music, Aug. 1998
(world premiere)
"Damien Ricketson's Ptolemy's Onion showed refined colouristic sensitivity, from its opening terse telegraphic sounds, through to more ecstatic timelessness, to a simple recorder solo at the end like a child offstage who brings an abrupt end to the astral musings." Sydney Morning Herald 26/06/06
“The final work that was considered for the prize was from Australian Damien Ricketson (1973). His Ptolemy’s Onion for bass flute and electric string quartet, which was treated as one compact sound-mass, was reminiscent of the somewhat wrought-up continuous sound of the didgeridu” NRD Hanelsblad, Amsterdam 13/09/99 [Translated from the Dutch by Helen Bledsoe]
About Ptolemy's Onion:
The title Ptolemy’s Onion refers to the ancient astronomer Ptolemy who worked in the second century in Alexandria. Ptolemy proposed an elaborate astronomical system in which the relative motions of the sun, moon and planets could be explained via a system of concentric rotating spheres that centred on the Earth. The ‘Onion’ in the title refers to the concentric spheres of the Ptolemaic system as well as alluding to the layering of different strata of compositional organisation that occurs throughout the work. Ptolemy’s Onion is based upon eight simple folk-like melodies. These melodies, however, are never literally heard. Rather, three ‘orbiting bodies’ manipulate the melodies influencing the purity or impurity of tone production, the harmonic consonance or dissonance and the general homogeneity or heterogeneity of the ensemble. As the patterns and alignments of these imaginary bodies cycle over time, they pull and shape the raw musical material like gravity. (Damien Ricketson)
Extended essay by Damien Ricketson
Access Ptolemy's Onion:
An audio excerpt and the score of this work may be available to download on the Music page
