Sonata for Violin and Piano (score & 1 part)
by Dan Forrest
Violin Solo - Sheet Music

Chamber Ensemble Violin & Piano (violin piano) - medium difficult

SKU: CN.15840

Composed by Dan Forrest. Chamber Music. Score & 1 part. Duration 18:30. Published by C. Alan Publications (CN.15840).

The first movement contrasts an angular, aggressive theme with a more lyrical theme. The second movement presents a long-breathed lyrical melody that unfolds farther and farther with each repetition. The third movement is a lively, humorous rondo with three themes that are more closely related than they might first appear. After a cadenza for the trombone, the themes return jumbling together in an exuberant coda.

Movement one opens with a brooding theme which introduces the key to the construction of the entire sonata- half-step motions or 'transformations' between triads. The first sonority in the piano is a triad with two half-step additions- a split third, and an added flat-six. This lyric theme is contrasted by a more declamatory second theme which nevertheless still features half-step transformations between chords. After a development and a recapping of both themes, the piano and violin intermingle both themes in the coda, further emphasizing the underlying similarities between the two themes. Movement two is an aggressively energetic scherzo which is composed entirely of a few basic elements: a chromatic upper neighbor, a descending-third interval, and a chromatic scale. The half-step relations of the first movement are still in full force here, manifested in numerous ways throughout the movement. Movement three, entitled 'Romanze,' spins out long-breathed lyric lines of tonal melody in a quasi-siciliano style. The tension of the half-steps which controlled the other two movements is now relaxed into the warmth of the whole-step added tones in the piano. After a thoughtful middle section, the main idea returns as a canonic love-duet between the piano and violin, with the piano taking the lead and the violin following, in a slow and graceful dance. Movement four, entitled 'Alla Tarantella,' returns to the tension inherent in the first two movements through harmonic means (half-steps) as well as relentless motion in a furious tempo. The half step relations create both alternation of major and minor thirds here, as well as more 'transformations' between chords. The sonata as a whole becomes rounded near the end of the movement, before a furious drive to the final cadence.