St. Patrick's Day

by Misha V. Stefanuk

Download the sheet music

When I was asked some 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 my next piece from my cycle The Seasons op.104. Good Luck!

March is named after Mars, the Roman god of War and has 31 days. St. Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland was born around 385 AD. He is credited with converting Ireland to Christianity. Much of Irish folklore about St. Patrick is a myth, including him freeing Ireland of snakes. There is not much evidence that suggests that Ireland ever had snakes, so this could be translated as a metaphor for getting rid of pagans. Since 1762 March 17th has been the day for Irish parades in the United States and the tradition continues to this day.