Sonata in One Movement (ca. 17')

Hi all!

Been a while since I posted again as I've been extremely busy with both school and my writing. I'll be slowly uploading some of the pieces I've been working on over the last few months as we head on toward the summer. I hope to be much more active here over the coming months, as I'll have more time to engage with a community such as this.

Anyway, this is a sonata I more or less began on a whim back in March. It is dedicated to my childhood piano and voice teacher, a close personal friend as well as someone who shaped my musicianship. She is the person that encouraged my earliest efforts at composition, so it only seems right that my first keyboard piece in a few years (and by far my largest-scale keyboard piece) should acknowledge her influence and friendship. Eventually I do hope to get an actual recording of this piece made because I'm really proud of it, and if that comes to fruition I will gladly share it here.

The piece is cast in a single movement. While I have written single movement freestanding pieces, this is my first completed attempt at a fully functional sonata form movement. Additionally, this piece is also my longest single piece of continuous music (my symphony is longer but it is in three movements). I decided to write the piece after an intensive study of Beethoven's sonata forms in my first year of conservatory, using the sonata theory developed by Hepokoski and Darcy.

I will not get into a full analysis of my own piece as I generally try to avoid picking apart my own works, but the general outline (including the tonal structure) is as follows:

Exposition:

• Off-tonic (B major) introductury passage
  • Split into a few sub-sections
• First subject (E major) - cheery march with some crunchy dissonance
  • Split in two parts - first in E major, second in A-flat
• Transition
• Second subject (c-sharp minor) - lilting theme, pastoral and gently sighing
• Closing material (c-sharp minor) - a few ostinati form the backbone of this passage

Development:

• Restatement of opening transposed (D-flat major)
• Fragments of first subject mixed with motive from introduction (B major at first)
• Central episode (pantonal) - this part of the piece uses a technique called tempo fugue. The term was invented by György Ligeti to describe multiple simultaneous rhythmic consisting of statements of a fixed amount of musical material. Essentially, a fugue that takes place in rhythm and time instead of tonal harmony. My implementation here is personal, and the "fugue subject" is based on the second subject.
• Episode based on transitional material (B-flat major, furthest point of tonal distance from the root of the piece) -  primarily serves as a segue from the tempo fugue and the following march music
• March passage (B-flat major) - taking advantage of the expressive and structural effect of being as far from the tonic of the piece without going fully atonal/pantonal, a new theme emerges out of texture from the exposition's closing material
• Grand build-up to recapitulation (modulatory) - pulls on a somewhat hidden tune that was stated much earlier in the piece (bonus points to whoever finds it!). Features substantially flashier keyboard writing, which I am now struggling to learn (lol)

Recapitulation:

• First subject (just first part, E major - e minor)
• Transition (e minor) - more bonus points to whoever figures out what the new material here is
• Second subject (e minor)
• Closing material/first subject pt.2 (E major) - the second half of the first subject is worked together with the closing material from the exposition, leading to a lush half cadence

Coda (E major):

• Order of sub-sections changed to reflect more effective pacing for this part of the piece.

There are a few critical motives that undergird the whole of this really almost over-wrought structure, but they will go unmentioned and I would discourage any serious attempts to try and find connections that may or may not exist.

Happy listening!