This work was commissioned by the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Mexico.

​

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical device designed to calculate the position of the 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.

​

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

​

The calculations performed by the gears are the result of the difference between their teeth. For example, if a gear with 20 teeth carries one with 10 teeth, the shaft 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.

​

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