An interpretation of the Godowsky E minor Sonata

[panic]

(For anyone that knows this piece well.)

Whether Godowsky intended this or not, the sonata comes across to me as a farewell to the Romantic era in music and a reminiscence on all that was beginning to become yesterday's news at the time the piece was written (1896-1911). Although only the last movement is marked "Retrospect," the entire sonata seems to be in fact a retrospect as such. The entrance to the first movement creeps into existence perhaps like the beginning of a memory of something that is not present. The gradual swing over to the major within the movement seems a reminiscence on the thematic "triumphs" (minor pieces ending in major keys) achieved in so many Romantic-era pieces and in the pattern of darkness moving to light so commonly used in the era; but the minor reflective ending of the movement reminds us that this is all in the past. The three middle movements bring forth different "samples" of the era - the lovely Andante, the capricious third movement, and the sunlit fourth, which seems the most removed from reality. The last movement takes us out of the past and back into the present, and jolts us back to reality and cold reflection. It presents a number of commonly used themes of the romantic era - the B-A-C-H theme, the Dies Irae - each sounding more distant, the Dies Irae doubling as something of a funeral march for the Romantic era. The concluding E major section, in my opinion one of the most surreal passages ever composed for the piano, seems to stand at the very edge of existence and suggest that although the end of an era does not come without lament, one can be glad that it existed in the first place.

Godowsky did not give a program for this sonata. A reviewer at the time of the Sonata's publication, Victor Spencer, interpreted the sonata as representing the course of a person's life, the first movement representing the side-by-side heroism and uncertainty of youth. I disagree with this interpretation but do agree with Spencer's statement that the piece is programmatically driven in some way. This is my take on that program.

[jre58591]

thats a pretty well said summary of the sonata. i dont think there is much one can add to it.

[cmg]

Thanks for your interpretation.  Very thoughtful.  You've made me go back and listen to the sonata again.