Between the Keys
Between the Keys is an Ensemble Offspring project exploring new instruments and new tuning systems. The project is a reincarnation of our Partch’s Bastards project, first presented in 2011, finding inspiration in the music and ideas of maverick American composer Harry Partch.
LISTEN
On encountering the iconic Harry Partch you can’t help but wonder if the history of Western music took a wrong turn somewhere after Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. Partch’s musical ideas were so revolutionary that they could not be performed on existing instruments and he had to design, build and perform an entire orchestra of novel instruments himself.
Although Partch died in 1974, his legacy continues to grow with a young generation of musicians around the world keen to expand his theories. Partch’s innovative vision and do-it yourself aesthetic resonates strongly with Ensemble Offspring’s artistic mission and in this project we pay tribute to this luminary in our own exploration of just-intonation and instrument building.
Between 2010-11, Ensemble Offspring commissioned the design of entirely unique wind and string instruments from the Australian master instrument builders Peter Biffin and Linsey Pollak as well as commissioning a number of composers to write works that exploit their characteristics. At the centre of this project is Kraig Grady, a Californian-come-Wollongong musician who traces a very direct legacy to the Partch tradition particularly via his connection to the alternative tuning theorist Erv Wilson. For this performance Grady has shared with Ensemble Offspring a unique tuning system – centaur tuning – on which all instrument builders, composers and performers have based their music. He has also constructed the centaur vibraphone featured in the recording as well as composing a new work for the project.
It hasn’t been easy recreating music completely from scratch: from newly invented tuning theories to the design of new instruments to play them, not to mention the task of composing for them and the challenge of learning how to play them. The project has involved an artistic team of instrument builders, composers and musicians working to common themes. Ensemble Offspring is very grateful to all those involved for their creative contribution to an imaginative new world of musical colour.
Track List
Arana Li – Mysteries
Amanda Cole – Hydra I
Amanda Cole – Hydra II
Amanda Cole – Hydra III
Phillip Glass – Music in Similar Motion
Damien Ricketson – Some Shade of Blue
Kraig Grady – Akashic Torus
Terumi Narushima – Hidden Sidetracks
Performers
Claire Edwardes
Damien Ricketson
Jason Noble
Diana Springford
Anna McMichael
Bree van Reyk
Peter Biffin
Kraig Grady
Linsey Pollak
Credits
Ensemble Offspring would like to extend a special acknowledgement to Russell Staley who has generously supported both the commissioning of new instruments and new works. The Ensemble would also like to thank Kraig Grady for making available his Centaur tuning to all involved and to Terumi Narushima for facilitating the recording of this project.
This recording has been created with the support of the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Creative Arts.
Released 2013
