VIDEO: My Piano Sonata No. 4

[lateromantic]

Finally, as promised, I've produced a recording of my Fourth Sonata, which I completed back in 1992 and worked up again within the last year.  That sonata, in my opinion, is the high point of my piano solo work.  It consists of a single movement in sonata-allegro form, with an introduction and coda, in which the thematic material is closely linked by thematic transformation.  Although it has a highly unified thematic and tonal structure (I can elaborate if anyone is interested), it also encompasses a variety of moods and tempi and I strived to convey a rhapsodic sense of free-flowing Romantic expression.  As I noted in the youtube description, this sonata was intended "as an affirmation of the human spirit as it experiences struggle, longing and aspiration, love of life and lust for life, exuberance, and joy."

Although parts of the work sound quite virtuosic, I sought to make it fit easily under the hands--particularly for performers like myself who don't have the reach of a Rachmaninoff or the facility to make a lot of death-defying rapid, accurate leaps across the keyboard.

The work is about 26 minutes in length.  I've made both a video and an audio recording.  The audio file is slightly over Piano Street's 20Mb limit, so I had to link to it elsewhere.  If there is sufficient interest, I may also try to develop a "score video" of the work.

Audio: https://tinyurl.com/mohtwlf/PianoSonataNo4.mp3

[awesom_o]

Bravo! I am really enjoying your work. This is a considerable musical achievement. Your pianistic skills are also at a very high level.

A most ambitious work indeed, and successful in so many ways.
I hear echoes of Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Prokofiev, Liszt, and Berg.

A very unique and appealing sound world that you have created! I look forward to hearing more.
I recently completed my own first piano sonata, which is also a single-movement work in a tonal style.


How long did you work on this monster? Do you compose with pen and paper?

I love your second theme here. Daring in a romantic way!

[lateromantic]

Thank you, you are very kind.  Although I studied at Juilliard in my youth, I don't think my present-day pianistic skills are at that high a level.  Rather, the piece shows off what skills I have to good advantage.

You're also right in hearing those echoes of other composers.  My PhD work was on Rachmaninoff (several years after this work was written), and I was also aware that parts of it were reminiscent of Liszt and Prokofiev (the "march" within the development seems Prokofiev-like to me).

As best I recall, composing the work took me the better part of a year, although I wasn't working on it full time.  I didn't use "pen and paper" (although my earliest compositions did!) but an early music-writing software that has long since gone defunct.

Have you posted your own sonata here, or are you planning to do so?  When I first set out as a composer (I was an undergraduate in the late 1960s), tonal writing was taboo, and I am immensely gratified that such is no longer entirely the case and that others are now writing tonal and/or Romantic works.

[awesom_o]

I would like to produce a video of my sonata with professional audio and professional video synched together. I intend to self-publish my scores, which are all handwritten.

I never got  on well with notation software. I compose strictly using the old methods. I think if pen and paper were good enough for the Great Ones, they should be good enough for us.

[ajspiano]

I think if pen and paper were good enough for the Great Ones, they should be good enough for us.

Don't you think it better fosters creativity? I hate writing at the computer - drives me nuts. I always transfer scores into a digital format once they are finished in pen/pencil. Notation software is for publishing not for writing.

[lateromantic]

I hate writing at the computer - drives me nuts. I always transfer scores into a digital format once they are finished in pen/pencil. Notation software is for publishing not for writing.

I don't literally compose at the computer--or at least, not usually.  Usually, I start out with paper and pencil (sometimes at the keyboard, sometimes not) to get the basic idea down, often as sketches that no one else could make sense of.  I then translate that into the computer in a more finished fashion.  So for a work under development, the more finished parts are already in the computer score (which I'll print off periodically), while the newer parts are in sketches or in my head.  At a later stage, I'll print it all off the computer, do final editing, and then enter those changes into the computer.

During periods of active composition, I also keep paper and pencil by the bedside to record any ideas that are in my head when I wake up.

[awesom_o]

Don't you think it better fosters creativity? I hate writing at the computer - drives me nuts. I always transfer scores into a digital format once they are finished in pen/pencil. Notation software is for publishing not for writing.

Absolutely! Good point about it being for publishing, not writing! In many ways, it is just like a printing-press: amazing for publishing, but it won't help you to write a good novel whatsoever!

[awesom_o]

During periods of active composition, I also keep paper and pencil by the bedside to record any ideas that are in my head when I wake up.

I'm curious as to what enables you to have more/less active periods of productivity!