My Grandfather Played the Piano (2022)

for Solo Piano

Commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Written for Gilbert Kalish

Dedicated to Gilbert Kalish, with admiration and gratitude, and to Paul Nathan, in loving memory

Duration: 10 minutes

About the piece

My earliest musical memories are of sitting and watching my grandfather play the piano. He would play in the stride piano style, with its roots in ragtime, reminiscent of the showtunes and songs of his youth.

As I began composing this piece, I thought about my relationship to the piano. I mainly play for myself at home but use the instrument to compose for others to perform on the concert stage, as pianists or as symphony orchestras. In the moments when I sit alone at the piano, just to play and not to compose, I find myself reaching for books of J.S. Bach and stride piano, and I often end up improvising something in between. I imagine that many pianists may also have coexisting private and public relationships with the instrument—the long hours practicing alone and the relatively fleeting moments upon a recital stage; the playing we do for only ourselves and that we do for others.

I began to imagine following a thread connecting Bach, ragtime and my own music, but soon found myself on a path traversing life’s lived experience: thinking of grandparent and grandchild, old age and childhood, then and now, birth and remembrance—of memory itself. My piece walks along various paths, musing on the new and well-worn and finds itself somewhere between a sonata, lullaby, hymn and rag—wherever that may be.

My Grandfather Played the Piano was commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is written for Gilbert Kalish. It is dedicated to Gilbert Kalish, with admiration and gratitude, and to Paul Nathan, in loving memory.

– Eric Nathan

With Gilbert Kalish, pianist (Photo credit: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center)