Sonata No. 30 in C Minor

Started: 10-01-2009, 1:22 PM
Completed: 10-01-2009, 1:59 PM
Huntington Beach, CA

I wanted to end this set in a similar fashion to Scarlatti's Essercizi, so this is really more of a fugue than a binary sonata. It can't hold a candle to Scarlatti's bizarre but great K.30, but remember -- I set out to honor him, not best him. It might even be a little haughty of me to think that these meager efforts of mine could pay him any sort of honor, but I can truthfully say I had good fun writing, compiling, and presenting these sonatas, and that's ultimately what matters. In my mind, music is art, and art is entertainment first. It's meant to enrich us , and is valuable if it accomplishes this in even the slightest way, whether purely superficial or emotionally moving. I'd like to think that this project will in the near future entertain others, but at the very least it will have entertained me and some close friends, so already it's not for naught, so to speak.

If this is the first post you happen to see, I encourage you to check out the 29 or so previous ones and listen to what's there.

I thank you all for your time and await your feedback. I'll happily post more sonatas in the future if there's interest, so please feel free to let me know what you think of what you find here. In the meantime, take care, and, of course,

Vivi felice!

Sonata No. 29 in C Major

Started: 9-01-2003, 9:35 PM
Completed: 9-01-2003, 9:58 PM
Huntington Beach, CA

This little piece is a whole different cup of tea. I was happy to see that another slow sonata made it into the set, as most of the others picked are set at pretty quick tempi.

This is a plain and simple piece that moves from C to the relative minor (a) in the first half, then moves back to C before closing. I was going for something that opened sweetly and innocently, got momentarily sad, and ended on the same sort of sweet and innocent note on which it opened.

I'll admit a kindergartner could have written this piece, but, for whatever reason, it remains one of my mom's favorites among all the pieces I've written.

Enjoy!

Sonata No. 28 in D Minor

Started: 5-25-2008, 12:07 PM
Finished: 5-25-2008, 1:00 PM
Newport Beach, CA

I wrote this sonata in my office waiting for a client. This is one of those funny ones that started life as an idea scribbled somewhere (in this case at the bottom of a lease agreement) and ended up developing into a full sonata that I later went home and wrote out on actual manuscript paper.

This sonata moves along at a moderate pace; it's not overly fast or slow. I tend to think the point of hand crossings is to create natural popping effects and accents as the hands bounce around abruptly, but in this case the hand crossings are meant to be played much closer to a legato or portamento than than something pointy and articulated. No fireworks this time -- I'm going for something a little sexier here.

Enjoy!

Sonata No. 27 in G Minor

Started: 4-29-2007, 7:33 PM
Completed: 4-29-2007, 8:10 PM
Huntington Beach, CA

This sonata, like all the remaining ones in the set, is another standalone.

Though this is another melodically-driven sonata, it's actually in the left hand that most of the variety can be found, with figures ranging from straight octaves to tremolo effects. I couldn't resist adding some bounciness to the second half, this being shared between both hands.

Enjoy!

Sonata No. 26 in D Minor

Started: 8-13-2004, 3:31 PM
Completed: 8:13-2004, 4:36 PM
Santa Monica, CA

I wrote this sonata at my friend Colin's house. He and I are really night and day when it comes to playing harpsichord. His absolute god of music is JS Bach (and mine is, too, when it comes down to it, really, but Soler's good humor has won me over for life, I think), and he could really sit at an instrument and play Bach all day long. He plays very straight, very controlled, and very well. If Colin prefers to sing or talk to you with is instrument, I prefer to yell at you with mine. We meet in the middle in the French school of music, where he leans toward things like Couperin and d'Anglebert, and I prefer Duphly and particularly Forqueray. This is all irrelevant, I suppose, because this sonata is nothing like any of that. I've written lots of pieces in strict counterpoint for Colin to play for fun, but this certainly isn't one of them, even though I conceived of it at his house and sitting right next to him.

In terms of technical demands, I'd put this sonata in the middle. It uses a lot of wrist rotations in the left hand, and I think this can wear out beginners. I think it's a very fun technique once you're comfortable with it, and it creates a very exciting effect if you play it very rapidly. I personally go pretty wild with it in Les Cyclopes and La Marche des Scythes. It's at a more moderate tempo in this sonata and shouldn't be inhibitive to avid players.

Enjoy!

Sonata No. 25 in C Minor

Started: 3-15-06, 7:07 PM
Completed: 3-15-06, 7:50 PM
Huntington Beach, CA

This is one of my favorite sonatas of all the ones I've written. I think it's a very easy play and good fun; there's nothing tricky going on at all in either hand. It's certainly easy enough for beginners to play, and anyone even slightly more advanced would be able to play it at sight. There's nothing profound here at all -- just a melody supported by a very simple bass.

Enjoy!

Sonatas No. 23 and 24 in A Minor

No. 23
Started: 2-12-2006, 6:14 PM
Completed: 2-12-2006, 7:04 PM
Huntington Beach, CA

No. 24
Started: 2-12-2006, 7:12 PM
Completed: 2-12-2006, 7:56 PM
Huntington Beach, CA

This pair consists of two contrasting sonatas in a minor.

The first sonata in the pair is a straightforward and player-friendly piece driven by a melody supported by broken chords and arpeggi in the bass. I was going for something Spanish again in this sonata.

The second sonata of the pair is built entirely on hand crossing. It's a busy piece in terms of the left hand passing many times over the right (generally twice per measure), but it remains simple and entertaining to play. For the sake of humor, the final high and low As that sound in unison are played with very crossed hands, the right playing the note in the bass and the left playing in the treble.

Enjoy!