Heptagrams

Heptagrams is a semi-improvisational piece for four singers, a conductor, and a MIDI-controlled player piano. The singers are assisted in their improvisation by a real time score, defined by Jason Freeman as “any notation, either traditional or graphic, which is created or transformed during an actual musical performance." The conductor triggers transformations in the score, indicating to the singers when to modulate to a new seven-note mode and triggering arpeggiations in the player piano. Heptagrams features sixteen of these modes, all with G as their root, ranging from church modes (Aeolian and Lydian) to equally-tempered versions of Carnatic rāgam (Mela Natakapriya).

—Nathan Turczan

This performance of Nathan Turczan's Heptagrams took place on the ninth day of April in 2019 at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). This piece was written specifically for Chordas Collective by Nathan Turczan using his scale navigator innovation.

Performers in this video: Travis Ciortan, Tanner Pfeiffer, Noah Schwartz, Nathan Turczan, Allán Vasquez-Lopez