Violin Sonatina in A, First Movement

This sonatina is based on a piano and violin work written earlier . My purpose was something that I could play both technically (being a denizen of Suzuki Book One land) and solo, there not being a pianist readily available. The middle section has been rewritten completely since the duet version relies on interplay between the piano and violin. The stepwise half notes, rising and falling, are from the opening two notes and the figures in bars 7, 14, and 15. The recap is in A exclusively; no need pedagogically to focus as much on D. The final bars went though a lot of writing-playing-revising. At one point, the penultimate bar was quarter note E5-D5-E5-E4, then E5-B4-E5-E4, then dropped all together because the quarters were too slow. That seemed to end too abruptly, so the measure was added back in but with the eighth note figure from bar 40 extended and ending on A4, which was a bit lame and anti-climactic. The final form works best, perhaps because it mirrors the opening rise from A4 to A5.

Gradus ad Parnassum

Steps to Parnassus, the title of an ancient treatise on counterpoint, serves as the text for this two-part counterpoint. Parnassus is the home in Greek legend of the muses of poetry, music, and learning. The music is intended to be a meditation on learning counterpoint. If my editorial eye is correct, it even follows the rules and conventions of sixteenth century polyphony. In setting the text, I avoided different syllables starting simultaneously, which should make the text easier to understand when sung. There are only two vowels; “a” is most prominent and “u” is the final vowel for the two primary words. I tended to avoid sounding the two vowels simultaneously as well. Click here for an audio file, sung on "oh" rather than the words.

Piano Sonata in F, Episode 7

This is the end of the second movement, where the marching ostinato makes its third appearance. The right hand manipulates the motive E-C#-D# starting in bar 123 with parallel sixths added. A block chord version follows that fades but the ostinato brings the music back. A retrograde of the motive is stated once, then an embellished variant with sixths or thirds added. A descent from a high C# leads to the motive re-ordered to E-D#-C# which continues the descent to the motive as a chord in bar 134.



In bar 135, the motive is inverted and spread out as triplet quarter notes, then it soars up on triplet sixteenths to a D# and the motive scattered over two octaves. The re-ordered variant from bar 132 makes a second appearance in bar 138 followed by a descent that goes deep, growling with the motive as a chord that is freely extended. Rising out of the depths on triplet sixteenths, the motive appears inverted at different pitches until it is no longer the motive but a sequence of three descending notes.



Those descending triplets dive once more, but briefly, into the bass, then soar up to an F#, then floats back down to a final simple statement of the motive in bar 148. The ostinato continues for one bar alone, then abruptly quits.

Piano Sonata in F, Episode 6

The second movement follows the first as soon as the last note has died away. The falling opening melodic line is the motive C#-B-E stated four times in various rhythms, which merges into the ostinato and sets the tempo at a long march pace, purposeful but not a parade-ground march (quarter note = 50). The ostinato establishes the key of b minor. Over the ostinato, the three-note motive is repeated with various rhythms, in retrograde (bar 7), partly inverted (bar 9), reordered (bar 10), and imbedded in a melismatic passage (bars 11 and 13). The intent with these variants is to break up the monotony of the ostinato.



Bars 14 and 15 have the ostinato doubled on the third (plus an octave), which functions as a modulation to D major, as well as switching the ostinato from left to right hand. The bass then takes over the role of melodic variations of the three-note motive in bars 16 through 19 at a pace that quickens gradually. Bars 20 and 21 are a free counterpoint to the ostinato, except for the end of bar 21 which is the three-note motive transposed up a fourth. The melodic pace reaches its peak with running sixteenths that contain echoes of the three-note motive’s shape in bar 22, then transposed versions of the motive. The section concludes with an augmented version of the motive.



In overall plan, the second movement is a rondo of seven parts. The three episodes will be somewhat wild interruptions of the ostinato-based theme, with the third episode being the wildest. Bar 120 is a placeholder for the kind of texture intended for the third episode. The concluding occurrence of the theme brings the movement to a calm close with more variants of the three-note motive.

Piano Sonata in F, Episode 5

The recapitulation starts with the first nine bars of the first subject, then restates the antecedent (bars 149-157) in F rather than C. The transition to the second subject (bars 158-163) is in C as a bridge to the lyrical second subject in G, which is simplified compared to the exposition. The lyrical melody repeats (in C) in the bass, doubled, with simple open chords in the treble. The coda recalls the introduction, rising to a concluding, fading repeated A. Click here for audio.

Piano Sonata in F, Episode 4

The development gets off to a dense start in C, then rumbles from the depths through c minor to the heights in E-flat with the more melodic second subject. A hint of fugue follows in A-flat, only to be interrupted by block chords in f minor. The motive from the first subject makes a brief appearance in A major, followed by an elongated bit from the end of the second subject in D major, which leads naturally to G major and C major, and finally the recapitulation starting in bar 141.