On a Clavier Day (2025)
for fortepiano (or modern piano)
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PROGRAM NOTE
On a Clavier Day, commissioned in 2025 by Keiko Shichijo, is a solo work for five-octave 18th-century fortepiano (though modern piano may be substituted). The piece comprises 30 movements, each 60 seconds in duration, that parallel a portfolio of 30 silkscreen prints created by Agnes Martin in 1973. Martin’s On a Clear Day is a collection of abstract geometric images crisply rendered in gray ink on cream-colored paper, proceeding from bordered x/y grids (nos. 1–12) to equidistant horizontal lines (nos. 13–17) to grids without borders (nos. 18–30). In musical response to the visual art, each print’s unique geometric proportions are reflected in the rhythmic and formal structures of the corresponding piano pieces. All pitch material is derived from segments and transformations of a 12-tone row employed by Charles Wuorinen in his Twelve Short Pieces for piano (also, coincidentally, from 1973). On a Clavier Day may be performed sequentially as a complete set, or in smaller suites of movements presented in any order. Support for the project was provided by Edition Domberger (Stuttgart), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum, and Matt Fish.