Performed Wednesday, April 24, 2024
PROGRAM NOTES: Eikosany Study
Eikosany Study takes what I have learned from my prior electronic microtonal music and translates it for a (mostly) acoustic ensemble. Eikosany Study is also my first attempt at exploring the harmonic possibilities of an Eikosany—a 20-note scale built around just-tuned intervals (partials 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 in this case) arranged in a multi-dimensional lattice. The harmony moves through twenty 4-note, 6-note, and 10-note chords, modulating through common tones approximately every 30 seconds. The tempi are loosely based on the frequencies of the single pitches that I’m using as a tonic in each section. The stringed instruments are retuned to allow them to play notes of the Eikosany with natural harmonics (partials 2-7). The chimes divide the Eikosany into two octaves, with 10 notes in each octave. The synthesizer can play all 20 notes, but every two octaves on the synth equals one actual octave. Meanwhile, the piano plays only the two pitch classes that fit directly into this Eikosany: A and Eb. The music is a sort of gestural chorale, with 4 types of gestures: staccato notes, long tones, rhythmic pulses, and cloud-like arpeggiations. Each of these 4 gestural types are dominant at some point, and the piece very gradually changes how prominent each gestural type is. The chimes for Eikosany Study were made with support from a UCSD Dept. of Music Travel/Research Grant.
DANIEL CORRAL is a mixed heritage Filipino-American composer/performer born and raised in Eagle River, Alaska. Based in Los Angeles since 2005, his creative work includes microtonality, combinations of pop culture and experimental music conceptual rigor, unique instrumentation, performances in outdoor and/or public spaces, consideration of the relational values of performances, and pieces that address current issues. Corral’s music has been commissioned and presented around the world, and Corral taught at CalArts 2016-2020. In 2022, the city of Los Angeles awarded him an “Individual Master Artist” grant, after having declared him a Cultural Trailblazer in 2019. Past residencies include APPEX, Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, I-Park, the Banff Centre, Djerassi, Loghaven, and Ucross. His music has been released by Populist Records, Orenda Records, Innova Recordings, the wulf. records, MicroFest Records, and independently. His MFA is from CalArts, where his teachers included James Tenney and Anne LeBaron.
Corral is also Operations Director of the Grammy-winning PARTCH Ensemble and on the board of MicroFest LA. The focus of People Inside Electronic’s (PIE’s) programming is electroacoustic music, a genre rich in history and possibility. Its history comprises both a fraught relationship to institutions that reinforced financial and educational barriers to access, and a long tradition of experimental artists that shaped electroacoustic music into a field less bound to tradition than classical music. PIE believes that arts organizations function as a reflection of the communities they serve; that this music can be a wide world of possibility in which underrepresented voices and non-conformist methods and approaches can take root; that continuing to improve access to the field for women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and other underrepresented voices will nurture the future of electroacoustic music while also honoring the thread of openness and inclusiveness that has been with it since its inception.