Sonata for Solo Violin (after J.S. Bach)
Instrumentation
Duration
Performance Information
Score
Program Notes
After I wrote a sonata for my mother, I felt that I had to write a sonata for my sister, who is a professional performing violinist after all. So I presented her with this sonata for Christmas 2021. It was inspired by the forms and patterns of the great solo sonatas of J.S. Bach, while taking advantage of modern harmony and violin techniques invented since Bach’s time. I made it as fiendishly difficult as I possibly could, and her verdict was that it was “mostly playable.” It is divided into four movements:
- Largo (6 minutes)
- Fugue (5 minutes)
- Adagio (4 minutes)
- Presto possibile (3 minutes)
Each movement has its own structure and themes, but each incorporates the A-B♭-C-B-D-C♯ motif somewhere (possibly inverted, reversed and/or transposed). It features rather prominently as the basis of the fugue subject in the second movement. There are other Easter eggs hidden in each movement.