Opus 651

Sonata for Flute and Piano (2005)

for Flute and Piano

Carol Hall, flute; Pascha Gordon, piano

Duration: 12.5 min.

Dedication: for Brook Ferguson and in memory of Meyer Kupferman

Commission: Commissioned for Brook Ferguson

Publisher: Musik Fabrik

Performance materials available from the publisher.

Sonata for Flute and Piano (2005) was written for and is dedicated to flutist Brook Ferguson. It is in two movements. It was inspired by her support and activity with contemporary music. The work is also dedicated in memory of composer Meyer Kupferman (1926-2003), with whose music the composer was spending a great deal of time during the composition of this sonata.

The first movement, Chanson, is an extended “song” that develops through a variety of textures. The opening song material is centered around G#. In turn, this G# is revealed to be a quasi-dominant of a D centered sonority. (A brief coda returns to G#, in preparation for the D center of the second movement.)

The second movement, Fantasy Variations, is cast as two presentations of the theme surrounding five free variations, plus a coda. The theme serves as the basis of the musical material for each variation as well as the structural template for each. Also, each variation contains material referring back specifically to the previous variation.

The opening theme is declamatory and massive. The first variation is fast and limber. The second variation is introspective and stratified. The third variation is fleeting. The fourth variation is distant and spare. The fifth variation is fast and driving. The final theme begins whispered and slowly regains its declamatory nature before an intensely hammered coda ends the work in a blaze.