This relatively short (ten minutes) sonata for piano is a very attractive piece in modern tonal harmony, with a clean, American sound. Chester Biscardi, who was born in 1948 in Kenosha, WI, has an undergraduate degree in Italian Literature, a master of music degree from the University of Wisconsin, and a doctorate in music composition from Yale. His music typically seeks to explore the ways in which literary works or paintings can influence the composition of music.

This work stands aside from the typical music composition that simply seeks to translate the visual image of a work into a musical description or to evoke the mood of a painting or piece of literature. In this sonata Biscardi relates not only the structure and effect of the artwork that inspired it, but also in some measure to relate the unusual form of this sonata to the creative history of the original painting. The sonata is a reaction to a visual work by artist Jasper Johns called Voices 2. Biscardi said that as Johns did in Voices 2 he uses material from earlier works of his, uses repetition of material as patterns in the music, and overlaps and extends material into each other.

Voices 2 was originally a triptych of oil and collage painted in 1971. In 1982 Johns transformed it into a three-panel lithograph, and later into a nine-panel series made from the 1982 lithograph. The last version can be displayed in any order. Biscardi's sonata is divided into three sections, reflecting the triptych. Biscardi also uses three basic musical textures in the work. One is represented by the opening, with pulsing piano figurations and chordal patterns under hard, angular material. The second is fast, with runs and chords, and the third is lyrical. These three textures appear in each of the three main sections, resulting in nine linked divisions of the score (plus a coda).

The harmonies tend to reflect Phrygian-derived chordal structures that are frequently heard in modern jazz, though otherwise there is not a jazz influence on the sonata. Biscardi composed it for pianist Anthony de Mare, who presented its premiere performance during his New York City debut recital in 1986.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide