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.)
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.)