Commissioned by the Boca del Río Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico, 2016.

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The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical device designed to calculate the positions of stars and planets in the sky. It was discovered beneath the remains of a shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera, and is believed to be over two thousand years old.

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Based on a complex system of gears, this machine could reproduce the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known at that time, using the zodiac calendar as a reference. The gears are made with such advanced technology that, before its marine rescue in 1900, this type of gearing was considered an invention of Renaissance clockmakers.  

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The calculations performed by the gears are the result of the difference between their teeth. For example, if a gear with 20 teeth drives one with 10 teeth, the axis of the 20-tooth gear will rotate once, while the 10-tooth gear will rotate twice. Thus, by multiplying and dividing whole numbers, this extraordinary mechanism could, with a simple circular movement of its crank, govern the movement of several pointers arranged on its front side.  

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In musical terms, this machine is a kind of barrel organ that transforms a constant circular motion with a certain frequency into a multiplicity of frequencies. These frequencies, obtained as a result of multiplying and dividing whole numbers, can be calculated with fractions, which allows the same proportions to be translated into time signatures, intervals, harmonics, and polyrhythms.