Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Seconds
A Commissioning Consortium Partnership with the San Francisco International Piano Festival
Seventeen Minutes and Twenty Two Seconds is my love letter to the piano and piano writing in all its forms.
The work was written for a consortium including the San Francisco International Piano Festival and an additional 20 pianists across North and South America. The title 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.
I’ve always envied the freedom of jazz.
Always.
Classical scores have a chiseled perfection, but with this piece I wanted 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.
The piano is central to my life, so it was simply not possible to spend two years writing for an instrument so intimately intertwined with my identity and not have it emerge without autobiographical elements. Originally conceived as a work I assumed would be under ten minutes in length, the piece evolved naturally into a three movement, twenty-four minute tour-de-force.
Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Seconds was written for a commissioning consortium led by the San Francisco International Piano and a group of some twenty pianists from across the globe. Rolling premiere performances started in the 2022-2023 season with performances continuing.
FROM THE COMPOSER
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: 24 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.)
CURRENT COLLABORATORS
