David Heinick, composer
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Sonata for two pianos (2006)

i    Prelude
ii   Aftermath
iii   Intermezzo: Softshoe
iv   This Petty Pace

29 minutes

       The Sonata was written at the request of two of my colleagues, the outstanding pianists Paul Wyse and François Germain.  They specifically wanted a piece to pair on a program with the two-­piano version of Le Sacre du Printemps.
I set out to write a piece that would contrast effectively—and the first music I wrote was of course as Sacresque as anything I’d ever done.  (This music survived in the faster portions of the final movement; the end of the
second movement inhabits the same neighborhood.)

    The time when I was writing the Sonata found me in a state of mild depression (is that a psychological recession?) potent enough to make me feel that it might be the last piece I ever wrote.  Even the prettier and catchier moments have, at least for me, a bleak and hollow undercurrent.  The final chords of the last movement, as well as the nocturne­like section that precedes them, are based on two hexachords that figure strongly in two earlier works that I think of as milestones in my composing life; if this had turned out to be the last piece I wrote, I wanted to end with those sounds.

    (As it turns out, the depression passed, and I’m still writing.  Hopefully that's a good thing.)