b'PROGRAM NOTESKATHERINE BALCHmusica pyralis (West Coast premiere)COMPOSER: Born August 17, 1991, San Diego, CAWORK COMPOSED: 2023. Co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Santa Rosa Symphony,Erie Symphony, and Ann Arbor Symphony.WORLD PREMIERE: Manfred Honeck led the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on February 16, 2024, at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PAINSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bongos, Capiz shell (or glass), coarse ceramic tile, crotales, guiro, hi-hat, snare drum, suspended cymbals, 3 triangles,Photo by Bluebird Photography UKtubular bells, vibraphone, wind chimes, piano, harp, and stringsESTIMATED DURATION: 10 minutesK atherine Balchs music captures the magic of everyday sounds, inviting audiences into a sonic world characterized by imagination, discovery, and textural lyricism. Inspired by the intimacy of quotidian objects, found sounds, and natural processes, she has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as some kind of musical Thomas Edisonyou can just hear her tinkering around in her workshop, putting together new sounds and textural ideas. Balch has been commissioned by leading ensembles and musicians worldwide, and she also maintains an active career as an educator. In 2022, Balch joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music, where she serves as Assistant Professor of Composition.Pyralis is the genome name of the common Eastern firefly, said Balch in an interview with Jim Cunningham on WQED Pittsburgh earlier this year. In the summer of 2023, I had just moved to rural Connecticut, where there is very little sound or light pollution. The nights are very loud and very bright, not with human lights or sounds, but the lights of the stars and the moon and the fireflies, and the sounds of the frogs and insects and the pond and the grass. I imagined what it would sound like if you could score a silent film of the fireflies evening dance.musica pyralis begins with an ostinato, or repeated rhythmic motif, that is shared between the piano and the harp, Balch continues. This gentle rippling chord progression is the core of the piece, from which other textures and little solos or choirs of instruments come forth and recede backone of the quirks of the piece is that I wanted to capture this blurry, fuzzy soundscape, so I asked the harpist to de-tune their instrument by a quarter-tone, which means that when they play with the piano, they sound kind of out of tune, an intentional out-of-tuneness that creates a fuzzy harmonic space from which other sounds can emerge as soloists.In her own notes for musica pyralis, Balch writes, Most of my music tries to filter the sights and sounds of my surrounding environment through the instruments Im writing for, kind of like a musical sieveNature is the best orchestratordespite the saturated soundscape, each noisemaker can hear and be heard as they occupy distinct registral and timbral niches. I try to capture a glimpse of this miraculously transparent density in this (mostly) brisk concert opener and set to the song of the gently omnipresent twinkle of the phontinus pyralis. srsymphony.org2024-2025 Season 15'