Études, Book I, by Jonathan Howard Katz

ÉTUDES, BOOK I (2024) by Jonathan Howard Katz

for solo piano

29 pages (score)

9 in. x 12 in. bound score

Program note:

This is the first installment of a project I have long wanted to undertake. As a pianist and as a composer who has written extensively for the piano, a series of études is a vehicle for exploring the instrument more deeply, even codifying my approach to it. I view each piece as addressing one or more questions relating not only to piano technique but to harmony, texture, color, image, rhythm, process, or form. The first étude evokes a sense of echo, with one hand leading and the other hand responding as a hazy reflection, slower and more diffuse. My sense of the second étude is of building a logical, steady scaffold from which increasingly chaotic figures scurry from point to point, eventually taking over. The third étude is a more traditional perpetual-motion study, but the asymmetrical meter ensures that it’s always slightly off-kilter.

Winston Choi gave the world premiere performance of these études on March 31, 2025 at Drake University in Iowa. I gave the New York premiere on December 13, 2025, at Tenri Cultural Institute.

This work is available for retail purchase from Theodore Front Musical Literature.
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ISMN 979-0-800356-00-1