Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 3

Hi,

This is my recently completed first movement to a violin sonata I am writing. Please enjoy and leave comments if you feel necessary! :)

Sonata in A major, Op. 3 - I - Moderato - Andante - Piu Mosso.pdf

Sonata in A major, Op. 3 - I - Moderato - Andante - Piu Mosso.mid

Sonata in A major, Op. 3 - II - Lento.mid

Sonata in A major, Op. 3 - II - Lento.pdf

Piano_Sonata_in_C#_Minor_-_III_-_Vivace_Energetico.mid

Yay! A thread.

Unfortunately, in short, I didn't like this. Your piano trio is much better.

Some comments:

While I like you trying to incorporate a "neo-classical" or "Beethoven-esque" or whatever-you-want-to-call-it style, if you're going to do so, at least do it right IMO. The theme does not have a solid harmonic foundation, which is the problem. I might sound old-fashioned, but there wasn't enough relationship between I-V. I know this isn't a requirement in music, but when you're writing so boldly in this style, it sounds awkward without it. Also, your B in the melody doesn't correspond to a chord and always clashes for no reason which really bothered me throughout.

The most problematic part was actually the devlopment for me. It was too darned predictable! I literally could figure out just by the context and style that you were going to repeat that section in a 3rd lower than before... kinda like an early Tchaikovsky-an development. I didn't like it.

On the bright side, your violin music was all playable, almost too much so. You didn't really challenge the player at all. Lets see some virtuosity especially in the cadenza!

Sorry.

I'm confused!

How is this Classical in any sense?

The relationship between the themes is Tonic to Subdominant first of all, and yes you're right, there is no "solid" harmonic basis for the theme because a large part of the music is non-functional harmony. A lot of the chords are sevenths that don't rely on circle-of-fifth motion to go between chords... It's more of a textural thing. I find the harmony to be solid.

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*sigh*

I guess I should explain where I went with this sonata, then...

The theme begins very traditionally, of course... period theme construction, which pretty easily leads to the dominant. However, I deviate from the traditional form by beginning my development of the first theme a little bit after the shift to dominant.

Afterwards, there is a short bridge that begins the deviance from traditional writing... The first theme is based on the fifth, which is common in classical writing, BUT the second theme is based on the fourth, where the fifth is almost a dissonant interval.

So ideas from the second theme are passed between the piano and violin until a modulation to A minor and a repeat of the first theme to begin the development. This does NOT usually happen in a sonata... I just took the liberty of doing so because I originally wrote the theme in a minor key and really enjoyed that sound. At this point, the themes start to fuse together and the qualities of the first theme become mixed with the qualities of the second theme (causing some pentatonicism).

I used some motivic development and started to mix the harmonies as well (major seventh chords/neapolitan). After being in a hectic section for quite some time, I decided to mix it up and throw in a lighter section where 4th harmonies and 5th harmonies were intertwined (again, with major sevenths). This results in a variation of the bridge/B theme that I use later, after the cadenza. Then, there is more sequencing of the mixed motives of the first theme and second theme. Finally, the culmination of the combination of the two themes is voiced by the violin and that is taken to the cadenza...

After the cadenza, yes, I DO repeat the first theme almost literally, but this time with more seventh chords attached (a few more). After that, the bridge is lowered to be in the flat-seventh region so it can modulate to the home key and I added a little motivic sequencing as well. Finally, to end the piece, *because* my form was not traditional, I decided to use a mixture of the two themes to finish.

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As for the violin part... I'm glad that it's all playable... To me, virtuosity is about the music *sounding* hard... not actually *being* hard... not when I've got a story to tell.

Thanks for the listen and the comments, though! Greatly appreciated :)

Well I sure didn't suffer from a lack of V-I relationship. Probably because I find most strict "traditional" music boring. I would quite categorize this as "traditional" whatever that means, but I really think there is a lot of sensitive writing here. There are some nice contrasting sections from a bit showy to very beautiful and I really enjoyed that. I love the harmonic language around 100..very nice pentatonic-y sounds. As far as difficulty, that has never mattered to me as a performer or composer. All good music is difficult to play well, no matter the technicality of moving ones fingers. I found the part around 150 sound a bit tiring on the midi, but that could just be the playback, but I didn't love the cadenza, but I generally don't and feel it is normally just an unnecessary interruption to otherwise good music...but that is how I feel about almost all cadenzas. I think you have a really nice piece here. I would consider leaving it at a one movement work as I feel it stands well on its own. I also suggest giving it a real title.

Overall; I liked it.

For me, the change at 98 is not so good and the end of the phrase at 129 (g to eb) could be better.

I quite like the main theme and bars 33-36 (and again toward the end), 49-51, 61-64 and 76-80.

Hi,

This is my recently completed first movement to a violin sonata I am writing. Please enjoy and leave comments if you feel necessary!

Hi, I went to the website you mentioned and it isn't working. My website: www.anantbalijepalli.tk?? Is there another url?

Hi, I went to the website you mentioned and it isn't working. My website: www.anantbalijepalli.tk?? Is there another url?

Hi, this is quite an old post! I actually uploaded a complete version to the new site. As for the website, it was created 5 years ago and I took it down last year for construction... A new version will go up soon this summer with all of my current pieces.