Description
Gabriel Erkoreka was born in Bilbao, Spain. He studied composition with Michael Finnissy at the Royal Academy of Music, where he obtained the DipRAM and a Masters degree with distinction, and was appointed Fellow of Composition 1997-98. Erkoreka’s work has been performed in the Venice Biennale 2004; the Musikverein in Vienna; the South Bank Centre, Spitalfields Festival, ICA and Wigmore Hall in London. His music has been recorded and broadcast by the BBC, WDR, RAI, RNE and other radio stations from various countries; several of his works are available on CD, edited by Verso, FNAC, LIM records and the Fundación Autor. Gabriel Erkoreka currently lives in London and teaches composition at MUSIKENE-Basque Country Conservatoire.
These four pieces could be considered a set of variations though the composer has spoken of them rather as photographs of the same object taken at different angles. The work as a whole is based on ‘Tiento’ by the Renaissance composer Antonio de Cabezon. Erkoreka suggests that his piece offers a new vision of the earlier piece.
There is also a version for accordion.
Programme Notes:
These four pieces could be considered as a set of variations although, given the static character of the different compositional strategies employed in each one of them, personally, I prefer to think of them as photographs of the same object taken from four different angles. I have considered those angles in relation to a closer or further degree of proximity to the sound-world and the rhythmic aspects of the original Tiento by Antonio de Cabezón upon which the piece is based, separating them in order to offer a new vision on this type of composition from the Renaissance.
