Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor, Third Movement, Allegro agitato

This is the third and final movement of my Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor. It’s probably the most perplexing movement of music I have ever composed. For me it’s a struggle between Beethovenian heaviness (Es muss sein!) v.s. Unbearable lightness of blues (trying to imitate the style). Even though the first and second movement of the same Sonata has been commented as “random” before, I believe this one the most random of all haha. I once challenged myself whether to keep the eclecticism of the movement or not, but decided to leave it unchanged since all the styles were what I was thinking of and feeling at the moment.

Here are the previous movements posted on YC before:

1st mov:

2nd mov:

Piano Sonata no.3 in C-sharp minor 3rd mov.pdf

The structure of the movement is a bit weird for me. It’s in Sonata form but the exposition and recapitulation never leave tonic key C-sharp minor at all, as the contrast of the 1st and 2nd subject is not achieved by key, but by style. In fact I only realized I was going for a Sonata form only when I almost finished the development section. Here is the structure of the movement:

0:00 Exposition, 1st Subject, 1st Theme: The falling fourth motive attacks immediately at the start of the movement in a passionate fashion, reminding himself of the pain he suffered after the more serene 2nd mov. It cools down in 0:31 and even keeps denying (or rather me denying my own sadness) by German sixth harmonic progressions, instead of normal dominant-tonic progression.

0:59 Exposition, 1st Subject, 2nd Theme: A deliberately repressed theme consisting of the inversion of a fourth, i.e. fifth, later gets more agitated with the Chopin Revolutionary Etude like L.H. accompaniment. It keeps on boiling until reaching the transition. I got crazy there thus I wanna try escaping…

2:28 Exposition, 2nd Subject: This section is made of 12 bar blues elements, thx to Arjuna’s @expert21 suggestion, although I already originally wanted some nihilistic jazz elements to contrast with the heavier 1st Subject. The pattern is repeated thrice, first just the “accompaniment”, then with the falling fourth motive theme added, and lastly an “electric-guitar-like” melody thx to of course my buddy Vince @Thatguy v2.0, as I won’t ever try to write something in jazz without his piano preludes. The locrian melody of course is a quotation from the 2nd mov opening!

3:46 Development, 1st Part: The opening falling fourth motive attacks again and modulates to keys I didn’t where it would go when composing lol, and finally reaches C# Locrian which confuses even me! It ends with a bridge of the locrian in L.H. quoting a little of the blues theme to the next part.

4:48 Development, 2nd Part: This part first develops the 2nd theme of 1st subject, then ends in confusion again. Suddenly a new theme emerges in the distant E-flat major and repeats again in relative major E major in a more passionate manner, until it boils down to a marvellously passionate retransition in 6:39 which I believe is the most beautiful section of the entire movement. It’s by composing this passage that I knew my creative power had finally come back. The passage ends in a desolation which leads back to the recap.

7:17 Recapitulation, 1st Subject, 1st part: A weird section. I finally could not refuse to admit my sadness by having a normal dominant-tonic progression, but still tried to escape by quoting the reminiscence of the blues themes like in a film montage jump cut in a Godard style (or, Stravinskian juxtaposition).

8:40 Recapitulation, 1st Subject, 2nd part: The 2nd theme of the expo 1st subject reappears in the L.H., and then a beautiful variation which I was probably laughing at myself for my weakness. The music goes on and gets more agitated until going to the 2nd subject.

9:32 Recapitulation, 2nd Subject: The previous “light-hearted” blues theme is transformed to an enraged Rachmanioffian roar. It subsequently cools down and tries to go for hope in the coda.

10:18 Coda, 1st Part: I tried to find peace by quoting the beautiful theme in the development plus 2nd mov’s 1st theme in counterpoint, repeat twice, 1st time in major and 2nd time pentatonic. The Locrian theme in the exposition is then transformed to a pentatonic plus the blue note of flattened sixth, signifying my attempt to find peace…

11:16 Coda, 2nd Part: However it’s futile. I realized that my sadness could not be “transcended”, at least not here, and finally realized my pain. The heavy falling fourth motive keeps attacking, and finally I was able to make a simple dominant-tonic chord progression to admit my pain, when the question is laid unanswered from the beginning of the entire sonata. The movement and the whole Sonata ended in utter desolation, as I had no energy anymore to fight as in the 1st mov and 2rd mov, nor create an imaginary utopia for myself as in 2nd mov and 3rd mov…

The movement was primarily composed from Dec 2024 to Jan 2025, under a state of depression and confusion, due to what I had suffered in my full time job. I struggled a lot whether I should have a happy or sad ending for the whole sonata, but my mind gave me the answer. I could not pretend to be happy or hopeful at that time by forcing a meaningless Picardy-3rd at the end as in many of the Romantic Sonatas or pieces. I had to admit my sadness then. Paradoxically by doing that, I left all the negatives here so I had the 200% positiveness for my Sextet, which is my best piece and probably the most optimistic piece I ever composed.

I tried my best at playing the movement already despite some slips haha. Hope you enjoy the movement and even go back to the 1st movement to listen to the whole Sonata! Thank you for listening,and possibly reading through this and commenting!!!!!

Btw, here's Vince Preludes which inspire me:

Prelude no.7:

Prelude no.9:

Prelude no.3:

Henry

Hey @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu!

Really great job!  My favorite part has to be measure 81 marked "Nihilistically Scherzando" and whenever that reoccurs.  It kinda reminds me of the following excerpt from Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.3 - 1st movement.  I know you don't like piano concertos since you think the interaction between the piano and the orchestra is too adversarial, but if there's one thing I wish you tried to compose sometime in the future is a piano concerto.  With your piano skills you could even play your own concerto and record your performance and mix it into the orchestral rendition!  I'm sure it would be awesome.  Btw - did you accidentally include two links to the 2nd movement of this sonata up above?  Thanks for sharing!  I will listen to the entire thing one of these days and hopefully give it a more thorough review.

Hey Peter, thx for your quick review!

23 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Really great job!  My favorite part has to be measure 81 marked "Nihilistically Scherzando" and whenever that reoccurs.

I don't know how on earth do I get the idea from, maybe from playing the naughty @Thatguy v2.0's preludes haha 🤪! But I really love that passage too!

23 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

It kinda reminds me of the following excerpt from Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.3 - 1st movement.

This is wonderful and 10 times better than mine lol!

23 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I know you don't like piano concertos since you think the interaction between the piano and the orchestra is too adversarial, but if there's one thing I wish you tried to compose sometime in the future is a piano concerto.  With your piano skills you could even play your own concerto and record your performance and mix it into the orchestral rendition!  I'm sure it would be awesome.

I will if you commision me to write one and play me $99999999999999999999999999999! But I have to know how to orchestrate first of course!

23 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Btw - did you accidentally include two links to the 2nd movement of this sonata up above?

Yup, stupid me! I removed it immediately and thought no one would notice it, but thx to you everyone knows!!!!

23 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I will listen to the entire thing one of these days and hopefully give it a more thorough review.

Waiting for your book-length review!

Henry

I'll put the most notable parts of your movement in bullet points. Then I'll give you my thoughts at the end.

• Very powerful intro, that hooks right into your motif from the first movement.
• I definitely am getting strong Chopin vibes from 1:00 - 2:25.
• The blues section was definitely surprising to me, but it was a really fun section! 
• Then we get brief hints of Rachmaninoff at 4:30.
• At 5:30, this is a nice change of melody. Love how the right hand and left hand share the melody here.
• 6:40 looks brutal, 16ths notes against 16th notes at that tempo? I remember you telling me that this part was definitely as hard as it looks!
• Then you take the first motif from mov 1 and merge with the blues style, which is very fun.
• At 8:40, you have a nice variation of one of your first melodies, which is my favorite part.
• Then at 10:20, we have the return of the pentatonic! Without a doubt, the most most relaxing part of this piece, a nice contrast to the rest of your movement which is mostly energetic and fast paced.
• Love how the ending brings us back to your main motif from first movement again in powerful octaves.

I think this piece can teach us that music is more than just melody or harmony. It's also about structure and storytelling. And this is something that can only come from the heart and the creative mind. The fact that I was able to categorize your piece into the above bullet points shows us how well organized this movement is. You use familiar styles to convey your message, but you also broke out of your comfort zone with the blues style. The reason why this was so effective, is because you didn't go overboard, you gave it to us in small bite sizes. Very beautiful work, and excellent performance!

Chopin background with difficulties within difficulties

the transition to the blues section was impressive. the reversion less so imo. but then I have no solutions

I also felt the 2nd movement theme is a bit out of place in the middle of the piece, but then you do need it being there to prime for the coda for this theme to come out one last time

On 6/4/2025 at 12:19 PM, PCC said:

Chopin background with difficulties within difficulties

yeah it's really difficult and does take me a lot of time to practice. But it definitely worths it even though I still make some mistakes on the recording!

On 6/4/2025 at 12:19 PM, PCC said:

the transition to the blues section was impressive. the reversion less so imo. but then I have no solutions

Thx! I actually like the sudden attack idea of the 1st subject so I don't arrange a longer transition after the 2nd Subject!

On 6/4/2025 at 12:19 PM, PCC said:

also felt the 2nd movement theme is a bit out of place in the middle of the piece, but then you do need it being there to prime for the coda for this theme to come out one last time

Haha yeah I feel like the 2nd mov is out of place in a good way, since it is there I try to find peace between two bombardous movements! And I do like its reappearence at the end here.

Thx very much for listening and commenting!

Henry

How many takes do you need to get a recording of this length to your satisfaction?  Bravo!  I really enjoyed the transition at bar 63. (The "crazy" section).  It works well as a bridge between the classical beginning and later jazz styles.  I also particularly enjoyed the 130s (Allegro agitato) where you switched back in the other direction.   

And I heartily agree with Chopin's comment above about the value of structure and storytelling in music.  To tackle such a lengthy project that becomes perhaps the most important concern.  How can the same material be brought back and developed in a way that tells a story?  

You are further along on that journey than I am!  Well done!

Hi Maggie!

23 hours ago, pateceramics said:

How many takes do you need to get a recording of this length to your satisfaction?  Bravo!

Thx! The recording is far from perfect, it took me the 4th take to get this recording. The rent of the studio lasts only an hour so I took the last recording as the best one. I did get touched playing this recording, esp. after the final C sharp minor blow I can barely made those 3 digs of graves of that C sharp minor chords, due to desolation in myself as well as in the music.

23 hours ago, pateceramics said:

really enjoyed the transition at bar 63. (The "crazy" section).  It works well as a bridge between the classical beginning and later jazz styles.  I also particularly enjoyed the 130s (Allegro agitato) where you switched back in the other direction.   

Thx! I like them too, esp. the crazy section since it's indeed a bit hard and technical to change btw styles.

23 hours ago, pateceramics said:

And I heartily agree with Chopin's comment above about the value of structure and storytelling in music.  To tackle such a lengthy project that becomes perhaps the most important concern.  How can the same material be brought back and developed in a way that tells a story?  

Yeah for me coherence is always the most crucial aspect in my own music. I have to make the movements in a multimovement work is indeed connected in a meaningful way temporally, otherwise they shouldn't be put together in the firt place. Through reappearence and variation the same theme and motive will have different narrative and emotional significance.

Thx for your review!

Henry

ok promised I'd c+p lol

Hey @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu!

I just thought I'd have another go at some random impressions to your random sounding 3rd movement!  LoL

1. I feel like measures 8 - 10 should be more different sounding rhythmically from 11 - 12.  Right now they sound really similar even though the rhythms are clearly supposed to be different, which I think is just a result of your lazy right hand!  LoL
2. The chord in measures 16 - 18 sound really muddy and thick in the bass range (which is very Beethovenian of you!).  I am not a particular fan of that aspect of both yours and Beethoven's music though.
3. I like the confused allusion you make at measure 20 to one of the other movements of this sonata (I don't remember which right now and I'm too lazy to check LoL).  It does really sound strange and confused like the music momentarily doesn't know where it's going.
4. I like how you invert the main Allegro theme in the bass in measure 29.  Cool canonic imitation!
5. I thought the transition at measure 38 could have been milked further for a longer amount of time to give a more complete sense of transition (especially since you had just finished a 12 bar phrase and keeping the number of bars even numbered in each phrase might have been more appropriate here).
6. I like the transition to a Revolutionary Etude style of accompaniment in measure 39!  But in your favorite key of C# minor instead of C minor as in Chopin's piece, which I think makes it a little bit more difficult to play.
7. Nice Locrian inflection at bar 47 which also seems like an allusion to the Revolutionary Etude since Chopin kind of does the same thing with the harmony at a certain place.
8. I like how you gradually foreshadow the Nihilistically Scherzando section in the crazy part (63 - 71).
9. I totally neglected to realize and mention how the Scherzando is both a 12-bar blues and includes a melody from somewhere before interweaving in between the crazy dotted rhythms!
10. The constant juxtapositions between quick Allegro Agitato phrases and slow Adagio question-like phrase derived from another movement are really musically interesting and dramatic!
11. I don't really feel like the transition at measure 183 does a good job at preparing the listener for the beautiful sweet appassionato melody you expose in the next bar (which I know is another quote of a melody from one of the other movements but I don't know which LoL).
12. Nice canonic alternation between the right and left hand playing the melody in the appassionato section.
13. I know you consider bars 221 - 241 as the most impressive part of this movement, but I don't really like it that much personally.  I know it must have been difficult to play and it's a great technical feat to be able to execute!  But musically it just doesn't do it for me LoL.
14. I like how the recapitulation creates another juxtaposition between the crazy 12-bar blues material and the Adagio allusion.
15. Are the pentatonic scales the quote of your Sextet?  I think it's note entirely out of place in this piece.
16. Nice ending - it sounds quite conclusively finished after a monumental work.  Bravo!

Thanks for sharing!

A great work (movement).
The shift from romantic to jazz language is quite surprising, but I think that transition is very natural and adds a lot of value. You don't notice that it moves from one place to another, musically speaking.

8 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

A great work (movement).
The shift from romantic to jazz language is quite surprising, but I think that transition is very natural and adds a lot of value. You don't notice that it moves from one place to another, musically speaking.

Thx Luis! The shift is also surprising to me to be honest, I never know the music will turn that way until I got that inspiration. I tried to make the transition as smooth as possible since I know it would sound abrupt if the transition is not well handled. The retransition is abrupt since for me it's more a shock call from escapism of jazz.

Henry

23 hours ago, PCC said:

ok promised I'd c+p lol

LoL haha!

Yeah there are a lot of themes here given how tumultous my thoughts were then. I didn't aim the blues theme as a surprise though, but rather (sondern in German I just learnt this morning lol) an escape from the heavy emotions I was facing. I actually like the abrupt retransition as a wake up call from that escape!

Thx for your 2nd reply haha!

Henry

Interesting mixture of styles you have here Henry.

On paper it shouldn't work; but I think you've pulled it off!

Especially like the bluesy section.

The lefthand figure from Chopin's Revolutionary Study made me laugh, because I once used that ostinato years ago for one of my own works.

Hi Alex!

On 6/12/2025 at 10:39 PM, Alex Weidmann said:

Interesting mixture of styles you have here Henry.

On paper it shouldn't work; but I think you've pulled it off!

Especially like the bluesy section.

Haha yeah who knows why I put the bluesy section into the otherwise Beethovanian and Chopinistic movement! I like the bluesy section myself too, it really does sound nihilistic.

On 6/12/2025 at 10:39 PM, Alex Weidmann said:

The lefthand figure from Chopin's Revolutionary Study made me laugh, because I once used that ostinato years ago for one of my own works.

Hahaha! Thx for commenting!

Henry

Hi Mike! Lemme reply in bullet points too haha.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

Very powerful intro, that hooks right into your motif from the first movement.

Yup it's the first thing I think for the third movement to build the connection between movements.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

I definitely am getting strong Chopin vibes from 1:00 - 2:25.

Yup especially the Revolutionary-etude like accompaniment! I quite like the section.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

The blues section was definitely surprising to me, but it was a really fun section! 

Yup it's just a fortituous product when I was taking a bus but it works surprisingly!

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

Then we get brief hints of Rachmaninoff at 4:30.

Oh actually I haven't linked there with Rach but more with Prokofiev! I think 9:32 is more Rachmaninoffian for me!

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

At 5:30, this is a nice change of melody. Love how the right hand and left hand share the melody here.

It's a sudden thought and I once was afraid whether it will break the coherence of the piece, but I just let it remain because I love the theme so much. And it's boring to have right hand playing melody all the time so I invite the left hand here too.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

6:40 looks brutal, 16ths notes against 16th notes at that tempo? I remember you telling me that this part was definitely as hard as it looks!

It IS indeed brutal and took me a lot of time to practice this section alone, but I absolutely love this part! And I feel very happy to be able to play this part out!

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

Then you take the first motif from mov 1 and merge with the blues style, which is very fun.

Yup I deliberately have the juxtaposition here to represent how contradicted I was then.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

At 8:40, you have a nice variation of one of your first melodies, which is my favorite part.

Yeah I like that part too especially the Sacratisco passage.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

Then at 10:20, we have the return of the pentatonic! Without a doubt, the most most relaxing part of this piece, a nice contrast to the rest of your movement which is mostly energetic and fast paced.

Yeah I quote the 2nd movement melody there again to try to save myself from tragedy, but obviously it's futile and I sadistically love it muahahaha.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

Love how the ending brings us back to your main motif from first movement again in powerful octaves.

Yup I love that too, as the tragedy is not preventable and I must admit that myself.

On 6/4/2025 at 8:28 AM, chopin said:

I think this piece can teach us that music is more than just melody or harmony. It's also about structure and storytelling. And this is something that can only come from the heart and the creative mind. The fact that I was able to categorize your piece into the above bullet points shows us how well organized this movement is. You use familiar styles to convey your message, but you also broke out of your comfort zone with the blues style. The reason why this was so effective, is because you didn't go overboard, you gave it to us in small bite sizes. Very beautiful work, and excellent performance!

Thx! I love that you love the whole Sonata!!!

Henry

Henry, I apologize for taking so long to reply to another great piece of yours. After many repeated listenings, this is clearly a programmatic piece in my opinion. There is anguish, anxiety and a false sense of repose. The juxtaposition between light and heavy themes, minor and major works effectively to convey the message of your piece. 
 

I have a few reservations about the random pauses that come after the blues. I feel they interrupt the flow at times, and as for the blues itself I think the f double sharp in the theme would sound better if it were changed to a g sharp. Those are just my thoughts tho; the climax and the aftermath of it is quite well done. I am glad you were able to find peace and transcendence in your sextet.