Pythagorean Pacific Music Festival 2020 - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19
San Francisco’s second just intonation festival comes to the Old First Church on Saturday, March 21, 2020 7-11pm
TICKETS HERE - ******POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19*************
Come explore the world of natural resonance and pure ratios.
*We like our numbers rational*
San Francisco’s second festival celebrating 'just intonation’ compositions with an all-star lineup of Bay Area performers from experimental to traditional styles
Featured Performances:
World premiere of Symphony in A by Ben Johnston, Conductor John Kennedy with the Ben Johnston Symphony players.
World premiere of Jung Yoon Wie PPMF Commission performed by Del Sol Quartet
Music performed and composed by various Bay Area just intonation musicians, Stephen Kent didjeridu, Giacomo Fiore, Marguerite Brown, XLOKK Quintet.
Performance by the Cornelius Cardew Choir
Learn more about this year’s performers here!
Most music traditions …
…around the world tune musical intervals as whole number ratios of frequencies. The Pythagoreans did this, playing the monochord, a single-string instrument that generates simple divisions of the string to create music. Touch the string at ½, ⅓ or other fraction of the length, and you get tones that create beautiful resonant intervals. In Europe, the rise of the piano, designed to move between keys without being retuned, forced a compromise in this mathematically rational system.
San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet presents San Francisco’s first festival to return to the world of pure intervals often called “just intonation.”
The Bay Area is the birthplace of American just intonation composition, from archetypal outsider artist Harry Partch to composer Ben Johnston, and continues to nourish this tradition. The Del Sol Quartet brings together the just intonation specialists of the Bay Area for a four hour festival at Old First Church in San Francisco.
This first festival also launches a new commissioning arm of Del Sol Performing Arts Organization to produce future works in just intonation, including works to be premiered in 2020.
Just Intonation Commission Proposal
This year we are happy to present a new commission from Jungyoon Wie for a new piece in Just Intonation for string quartet to be premiered by the Del Sol String Quartet.
