Sonata No. 3 in C Minor

Started: 12-19-1998, 8:03 PM
Completed: 12-19-1998, 8:32 PM
London, England

I've mentioned several times already that the 30 sonatas in this set were randomly pulled from a much bigger set, but I didn't mention that the way in which these sonatas were numbered was something I determined personally. As this sonata was written within days of its predecessor, I chose to number this sonata directly in sequence as no. 3.

It was the holiday season, but I'm afraid this sonata, like the last one, sounds rather more sinister than festive! Evidently Santa Claus was not on my mind. I can tell from looking at the score that I did have a particular figure in mind, though. More on that below.

This particular sonata breaks away at least in part from some of the earlier sonatas I wrote, which were in very strict binary form and didn't tend to introduce any new material in their second halves. I think this would be a fairly difficult sonata to play on instruments without actions that allow you to repeat notes fairly easily because it's built on figures that feature some pretty quick but short repetitions in both hands. I had those figures in mind when I set out to write the sonata; I wanted to produce a sort of echo effect. Broken octaves feature in this sonata, as in the previous, but this time they take place in the right hand rather than the left.

Enjoy!