Horn TrioPiano Sonata No. 1The Composer's Craft

Connected Movements

In all my large-scale compositions, one of my primary aesthetic goals has been to create a unified art-work.  That applies even to multi-movement compositions.  Even though the multiple movements are contrasting in character, tempo, and mood, they should come across as belonging to a connected whole.

One of the simplest devices for establishing connections between movements is quotation.  I am currently in the process of transcribing the handwritten manuscript for my Piano Sonata No. 1, which was my first significant composition (completed in 1982), into a modern Finale score.  The sonata is in four movements, and the first two movements are connected by the device of quotation.  The first movement, marked Allegro moderato, concludes with a dramatic ascending run in staccato octaves:

The last two octaves in the run, marked with accents and establishing a V-I cadence within the E-flat minor tonality, will serve as a direct link into the following movement, which is a scherzo.  The attacca indication at the end of the first movement means that the performer should proceed to the scherzo with only a minimal pause.

The scherzo, which is in the same key, begins with the same V-I pair of octaves, like an echo of what was just heard.  It quickly develops into the head-motive for the scherzo main theme, which begins after the caesura and fermata in bar 3:

In this same sonata, the first movement of this sonata opens with two dramatic pairs of octaves, which are quoted at the very end of the last movement.  Clearly, I conceived this very early composition as a unified work, not just as a set of four unrelated movements.

The quotation device is used in a more systematic way to establish intricate interconnections among the movements of my Horn Trio in A Minor, composed a dozen years later (1994).  This composition is a three-movement work for violin, horn, and piano.  The first movement is in sonata-allegro form.  Its principal theme, which might be described as “heroic,” is announced by the horn beginning in measure 7.  Since it is played by an F horn, the melodic line sounds a fifth lower than written.

This movement’s second and third themes have a contrasting lyrical character.  Within the movement’s coda, in mm. 170-172, the violin makes a brief, mysterious reference to another melody, which considered by itself seems to allude to the key of F major (with some suggestion of Lydian mode because of the B-natural):

If this passage seems puzzling, the puzzle is solved in the second (slow) movement, set in F major, where the fragment reappears as the opening phrase of the main melody, sounded by the horn (again, sounding a fifth lower than written) beginning in m. 7.

The melody exploits the eloquent Romantic potential of the horn, and the accompanying harmonies and syncopated rhythms are suggestive of soft jazz, eventually leading into a quiet, dreamy coda.  But the calmness is abruptly interrupted at m. 67 by a more animated figure in the piano part, answered by the horn.  Here the horn is displayed along with the upper staff of the piano part:

After this enigmatic interruption, the prevailing mood of serenity returns for the movement’s final five bars.

The final movement is an abacaba rondo, set in the work’s overall key of A minor.  The main a theme appears at the beginning of the movement, in 6/8 meter, which is evocative of the hunt.  In retrospect, the enigma near the end of the previous movement is now resolved, since that passage foreshadows this “hunting” melody.  In the earlier passage, as was shown above, the melody was announced by the piano and answered by the horn.  Here, the same hunting melody is initiated by the horn — an instrument which, or course, is traditionally associated with the hunt — and then answered by the violin.

This finale is a lively, energetic movement, where the b sections suggest a vigorous rustic dance and the c section is waltz-like.  Near the end, at the climax of the movement (beginning in m. 199), the piano takes over the main hunting theme in fortissimo octaves:

In counterpoint with this theme, the violin and horn together (an octave apart, since the horn sounds a fifth lower than written) re-announce the heroic theme from the beginning of the first movement, which was shown earlier.  Thus an unexpected basic parallelism between the main themes of the outer movements is revealed.

Considered together, the thematic links among the movements form a circular chain that unifies this large, complex work.

 

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