Sonata (2007)

This Sonata (like my Canzona that received its first performance at AFNOM 2006) started life as a student composition, to which I returned many years later. In choosing to write a three-movement sonata, I have distanced myself to a certain extent both from the 'liturgical' tradition of organ-music, and the Romantic, symphonic style. The scale and structure of this work could best be described as 'neo-classical', in the tradition of Bach's six Trio Sonatas, and the three organ sonatas of Hindemith, rather than those of Mendelssohn or Rheinberger. The first movement is thus a classical Allegro, contrasting an assertively contrapuntal first subject against a more homophonic, lyrical second. The central Adagio has a somewhat restless air, hovering uneasily between major, minor and chromatic modes. This ambiguity is broken by the final Allegro, which takes up some of the rhythmic complexities of the first movement, but in a broader, less intricate harmonic and textural structure, which allows the music a more open, even 'brassy' expressivity. The classic journey of a sonata, from a certain cerebral abstraction, through periods of quiet and intimacy towards an extrovert finale is thus re-traced in this piece, without any deliberate irony or reserve.

Listen to Robin Walker premièring the Organ Sonata on 20th October 2007 at St John the Evangelist Islington

Duration: 12mins
Available from: the composer
Price: £10.00