1 JULY 2007 / SONATA
Violin Sonata 2
- Allegro Delirando
- Courante quasi Baroque
- Poco Pesante
NOTES
I wrote this piece while living in Ithaca, New York after returning to the US from New Zealand. The opening of the first movement is a frantic blast of scurrying notes that eventually gives way to a contrapuntal first theme from which a sort of twisted sonata form emerges. There are many cheeky, sarcastic quips throughout this movement, making it sort of balance midway between serious concert music, and a piss-take of serious concert music. You can hear a lot of classical and baroque era influence in all of the movements. The second movement is my version of a three-part invention, again walking the tightrope of respectable concert music (whatever that is) and a bastardization of it. The third movement, a finale of sorts, further magnifies these radical mood changes, rhythmic changes, and style pitted against one another. There is some very expressive, almost romantic writing in this movement. I came into writing this way quite gradually. I think it may have started after hearing David Feurzeig’s “Stride Rite,” a kind of Rite of Spring meets stride piano, I loved how the music could at once make some listeners think it is ‘high-brow’ ‘classical’ while at the same time make other listeners think it is a kind tongue-in-cheek parody.
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