Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Seconds

A Commissioning Consortium Partnership with the San Francisco International Piano Festival

Commissioning should be easy and accessible.

The Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Seconds Commissioning Consortium has allowed for the commissioning of a new solo piano work from composer Kurt Erickson, with initial premieres and performances taking place during the 2022–2023 season. The new work pays homage to the 300th Anniversary of the publication of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, as well as the recent passing of jazz great Chick Corea.

I’ve always envied the freedom of jazz.

Always.

Classical scores have a chiseled perfection, but I want to smudge the sheet a little bit: repeat a motive a few extra times, choose a melody or gesture from a number of possible options, respell a chord or harmony, maybe even add something completely new and different that isn’t written or implied.

It’s exciting to create a piece in real time, just listening to the music and reacting to what you hear and feel. This is something I want to give to performers: an opportunity to experience the ecstasy of the journey, the messy parts where discoveries are made and decisions are in flux.

I want performers of my music to be equal partners in the compositional process, which is why the score will include elements of structured improvisation, alternate options, and many other techniques that allow performers to shape their own unique performances. No two performances can or should be alike.

Want to know more?

Why a Commissioning Consortium?
How Does This Work and Why Is It Important?

For the past thirteen years I’ve been building innovative multi-year composer residencies and commissioning projects with arts organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. (My recent Here, Bullet Global Commissioning Consortium was a huge success in the 2019-2020 Season.) The innovative Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Minutes Piano Commissioning Consortium is a unique approach that removes barriers to participation by waiving my normal commissioning fees in exchange for increased performances.

With the San Francisco International Piano Festival serving as the Lead Commissioner, the new 10-12 minute solo piano work titled Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Seconds will be premiered by a select group of renowned artists during the 2022-2023 season.

This project gives performers a unique opportunity to not only introduce a new work into the repertoire, but proactively shape the performance history. This is a valuable experience. We can’t go back in time and do this with works already in the canon. Brahms doesn’t text, Stravinsky isn’t on Instagram, Debussy doesn’t tweet or do pre-concert talks. Contemporary projects afford us unique opportunities not found elsewhere.

Why the title?

Seventeen Minutes and Twenty Two Seconds references the 300th Anniversary of the publication of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier in 1722. A significant portion of my new piece began as an attempt to mirror the overall approach of the Bach C Major Prelude, de-contextualizing it with completely new gestures, textures, and harmonies. Fragments from other Preludes and Fugues enter and exit the composition like ghosts.

By contrast, the minutes-seconds part of the title references John Cage’s 4’33” and my interest in the exploratory approach to art and art making. Honoring both is of vital importance.

Chick Corea pops in too. I’ve always wanted to write a hyper-virtuosic and slightly surrealistic jazz-classical hybrid composition. I toyed with calling the work Chick Correa on Acid, a title I hoped would be seen as a compliment, similar to the playful creativity referencing Berlioz’s opium-themed work Symphonie Fantastique. But life had other plans: some seven months after starting the piece, Chick Correa passed away tragically from a rare form of cancer.

Gone in an instant was the whimsical title, even if the spirit and syncopations remain.

FROM THE COMPOSER

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PERFORMANCES

For pianists and presenters

Interested in performing or programming Seventeen Minutes and Twenty Two Seconds? Please reach out to composer Kurt Erickson.

Piece Information

Length: 20-25 Minutes
Scores available for Commissioning Consortium members starting June 1, 2022

Composer Kurt Erickson is available for talks, presentations, coaching, and consulting.

A note from the composer:

Performances of my own music seldom align exactly with the scores I create. It’s more of a jumping off point. I want to give that freedom to others

As performers we are used to replicating scores where every detail has been chiseled clean, but we miss the ecstasy of the journey, the messy parts where discoveries are made in real time and decisions are in flux. As a composer I live in these grey areas and want to share these experiences with colleagues.

Performing contemporary music should be a uniquely inspiring and powerful experience.

-Kurt

(Composer Kurt Erickson is available for talks, presentations, coaching, and consulting.)