A New Year's Day

by Misha V. Stefanuk

Download the sheet music

When I was asked about six months ago to be a monthly columnist for Creative Keyboard, I got very excited. The chance to be heard on a regular basis is rare and extraordinary in contemporary music life. So when it happened, I started to think about all the people I know who did similar things. There was a music critic for New York Times I have met, interviewers from the Russian Music Paper, Nashville Banner, Moscow Pullman News, and my amazing music history teacher Ekaterina Tsareva, who wrote program notes for the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory.

However, the first person who came to mind was Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, who in 1876 was commissioned by St. Petersburg magazine, Nouvelliste, to write one piano piece per month. The twelvepiece cycle represents the never-ending reappearance of life. Moscow Conservatory as well as Moscow Conservatory School from which I graduate, is named after Tchaikovsky. The two largest Moscow concert halls are the grand hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory and Tchaikovsky Hall, and Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow is the greatest competition in the world that started the careers of such pianists as Barry Douglas, Mikhail Pletnev and Van Clibern.

As far as I know the writing of a twelve-piece monthly piano composition for a publication has not been repeated yet, and the idea of following in Tchaikovsky’s footsteps sounds simply too fantastic to resist. So, here is the first piece from my cycle The Seasons op. 104:

The Gregorian Calendar we are using was designed by Aloysius Lilius and was made official in 1582 by the pope Gregory XIII. Romans called winter a season without months, with March being the first month of the year. Therefor January was one of the last months to be added to the calendar. January is named after Janus, the Roman god of gateways and has 31 days. New Year's Day is celebrated at different times by different cultures. Julius Ceasar moved the New Year's celebration to January. Before that, the Romans started New Years in March, as did the Babilonians. Celts and Egyptians celebrated New Years in autumn, while Chinese have theirs between January and February. Japan celebrates New Years on January 1st. In Islam, New Year's Day moves 11 days each year, being the 10th of February in 2005. Most people celebrate New Years Day by eating holiday foods, singing and visiting with friends and family.