Piano Sonata
Chester Biscardi
About this work:
Piano Sonata (1986; revised 1987)
Written for Anthony de Mare
Published by C. F. Peters: Edition Peters No. P67200
Paul Revere Award, Music Publishers’ Association, 1990.
Recorded: Chester Biscardi • David Olan, CRI CD 565 (Anthony de Mare); Evocations: American Music from the Moscow Autumn Festival, North/South Recordings N/S R 1017 (Elena Ivanina); Powerhouse Pianists, American Modern Recordings, a division of Lumiere Records, Inc. AMR 1031 (Blair McMillen)
Piano Sonata (1986; revised 1987)
Since the early 1970s, I have been interested in the ways literature and painting influence musical ideas and forms - how literary images or use of color can inspire everything from the smallest melodic shape to a work’s overall structure.
The structure of Piano Sonata (1986; revised 1987) is based upon Jasper Johns’ Voice 2. Voice 2 has gone through three transformations: originally an oil and collage triptych (1971), later a three-panel lithograph (1982), and, in a final version, a nine-panel interchangeable series made of the 1982 lithograph. Johns borrows material from earlier works and utilizes overlapping, extension, and repetition as the main ingredients of form. Piano Sonata is divided into three sections which reflect three musical textures: angular and pulsating; fast runs and chords; and lyrical. As with Johns’ series, the three sections of Piano Sonata evolve into nine interactive sections and a coda.
Year composed: 1986
Duration: 00:10:00
Ensemble type: Keyboard:Piano
Instrumentation: 1 Piano