Viola Sonata (2023)

for Viola & Piano 

Duration: 24 minutes

Instrumentation: viola & piano

Dedication: to my parents

Premiere: Forthcoming

Audio examples (midi - demo only)

I. Adagio ma non troppo e con moto

II. Zephyrs (Intermezzo)

III. Adagio cantabile

IV. Allegro molto

V. Andantino

Program Note

I composed this sonata in late Winter of 2022 and Spring of 2023. Anyone familiar with my earlier work will hear this as a departure; and while it is not new ground for the history of music, it is new ground for me. 

It is work that is (mostly) triadic, tonally-centered, with moods that most listeners would recognize as gentle and even pastoral. It is full of compositional ideas important in my prior work but applied in new (and more direct) harmonic and affective contexts. I wanted to see how far I could travel and still have the work feel authentically mine. Or rather, could I find a different authenticity that was more direct and to what extent could I newly engage my listeners emotions and intelligence? I have played and studied the viola for a long time (although no longer professionally or publicly) and still identify with it as “my instrument.” This anchor, I believe, let me cast my ideas and ambitions in new directions. 

The Viola Sonata is not a classical or even neo-classical sonata even though I am interested in the historical architectures, relationships, and trajectories of those types of pieces. Rather, in this sonata the movements are more like a suite where each movement is a new starting point elaborated along different paths; perhaps like strangers daydreaming in the same park: this one wistful, this one earnest, another flowing, another meandering. 

The central movement, due to its length, directness, and earnestness, along with its more ambitious form, will probably sound like the work's center of gravity. 

The two other interior movements are gentle scherzi, each mildly obsessive in different ways: Zephreyes has a breezy ostinato that the viola reflects and hovers over. The fourth movement uses 18th century ritornelli forms that are tightly organized but which the players must perform in a way that is completely rhythmic but sounds carefree. 

The outer movements are gentle fantasias that analytical descriptions would spoil. So I invite listeners to just enjoy them.

- Matthew Barnson