Sonapartita – Noch Nach Bach (2001)

Violin and Piano – 12 mins.

Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

Sonapartita (Noch Nach Bach) was written for the Brussels-based duo of Daniel Rubenstein and Muhiddin Dürrüoglu-Demiriz for inclusion on their CD of new music for violin and piano inspired by the Baroque. Sonapartita is indeed influenced by an antique style period — the late 1960’s, when composers like George Rochberg (whose harpsichord piece “Nach Bach” is celebrated in the subtitle) took to heart T.S. Eliot’s dictum that artists should steal rather than borrow. This is particularly true of Sonapartita’s third movement (Presto), in which the violin part is an exact replica of the final movement of Bach’s G minor Partita for solo violin, while the piano (in a manner that ‘60’s new-music fans will remember from Lukas Foss’s Baroque Variations) colorizes various structural notes (it’s almost Schenkerian) and exaggerates Bach’s dramatic shapes. The other three movements hearken back to an even more ancient style period, resembling the sound and attitude of Stravinskian neo-classicism more than ‘60’s stealism; there are no quotes in these movements (at least not intentionally), but the present composer hopes that his life-long immersion in the music of Bach resonates in this music.

The title “Sonapartita” is an obvious amalgam: Bach’s six works for unaccompanied violin alternate between Sonatas and Partitas, and so do the 4 movements of Sonapartita. The first and third movements (Adagio and Presto) are more sonata-like; the 2^nd movement (Passepied – a lively old French dance) and 4^th movement (Siciliano — the composer should be congratulated for resisting the appending of “ma non Mafioso”) are dance inspired.