Mestiere
Chester Biscardi
About this work:
Mestiere, for piano (1979)
Published by Merion Music, Inc./Theodore Presser Co.: No. 140-40044
Recorded: Chester Biscardi • David Olan, CRI CD 565 (Anthony de Mare);
Chester Biscardi • At the Still Point, CRI CD 686 (Robert Weirich); Music By My Friends, Albany Records TROY695-96 (Bennett Lerner)
Commissioned by Tulane University for the Festival of Piano Music, 1979, under a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the Enrichment of the Humanities. American Composers Alliance Recording Award, 1981. Dedicated to To Robert Weirich
Mestiere, for piano (1979), is a celebration of the contrasting sonorities - incisive and lyrical - which are natural to the piano. The Italian title is translated as “craft, business, occupation, whatever is necessary to one’s profession or art.” “Mestiere” is what one is and does, what is integral to one’s life and work. Here, the word is used as it is in the title of Cesare Pavese’s collected journals, Il mestiere di vivere (The Business of Living).
Mestiere may be performed together with Di Vivere, for clarinet in A and piano with flute, violin and violoncello (1981) - which may be performed as a quintet or a duet for clarinet in A and piano.
The quintet, the duet or the piano solo may be performed individually or in one of the following combinations:
I. Di Vivere duet and quintet
II. Mestiere and Di Vivere duet and quintet
III. Mestiere and Di Vivere quintet
IV. Mestiere and Di Vivere
Year composed: 1979
Duration: 00:05:00
Ensemble type: Keyboard:Piano
Instrumentation: 1 Piano