Piano Sonatina
Nikita Desjardins
The title "Sonatina" was used occasionally by J. S. Bach for short orchestral introductions to large vocal works, as in his cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106, a practice with precedent in the work of the earlier German composer Nicolaus Bruhns.[3] This is the only sense in which Bach used the term sonatina, although he composed many chamber and solo sonatas for various instruments.
As with many musical terms, sonatina is used inconsistently. The most common meaning is a short, easy sonata suitable for students, such as the piano sonatinas of Clementi. However, by no means are all sonatinas technically undemanding, for example the virtuoso sonatinas of Busoni and Alkan, and the Sonatine of Ravel, whose title reflects its neo-classical quality. On the other hand, some sonatas could equally have been called sonatinas: for example Beethoven's Op. 49, titled by the composer "Zwei Leichte Sonaten fr das Pianoforte" ("Two Easy Sonatas for Piano") comprise only two short movements each, a sonata-allegro and a short rondo (No. 1) or minuet (No. 2), all well within the grasp of the intermediate student. However, other works titled "Sonatina", such as the Sonatinas in G and in F major, have been attributed to Beethoven.
In general, a sonatina will have one or more of the following characteristics: brevity; fewer movements than the four of the late classical sonata; technical simplicity; a lighter, less serious character; and (in post-romantic music) a neo-classical style or a reference to earlier music. Muzio Clementi's sonatinas op. 36 are very popular among students.
The first (or only) movement is generally in an abbreviated sonata form, with little or no development of the themes. For this reason, a sonatina is sometimes defined, especially in British usage, as a short piece in sonata form in which the development section is quite perfunctory or entirely absent:[4] the exposition is followed immediately by a brief bridge passage to modulate back to the home key for the recapitulation. Subsequent movements (at most two) may be in any of the common forms, such as a minuet or scherzo, a slow theme-and-variations, or a rondo.
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Maurice Hinson presents a vast collection of some of the best-loved piano sonatinas, from the Baroque through the Modern eras. Includes 22 sonatinas from composers such as C.P.E. Bach, Clementi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Satie, Bartok and others. Each sonatina comes with background information and performance suggestions.
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) was an Italian-born English pianist, composer, teacher, and conductor among many other things. Out of his considerable compositional output, his sonatinas in particular have enjoyed considerable success and are widely used even to this day in piano teaching.
The sonatina featured here is the first and the easiest of the six contained in his Op. 36. For this reason, this is usually one of the very first sonatinas I have my students learn (usually just the 1st movement).
Interesting fact: In 1781, Clementi participated in a musical contest with Mozart in Vienna, where they took turns performing and improvising at the harpsichord for the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. The emperor declared it a tie!
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German pianist and composer who has had profound influence on almost every musical genre. Though he is mainly known for his larger and more complex works like symphonies and sonatas, there several sonatinas that are also attributed to him (we cannot know for sure that he was their actual composer). The one featured here is probably the most famous one in that regard - Sonatina in G Major.
Anton Diabelli (1781-1858) was an Austrian composer, music editor and music publisher. He composed works for piano as well as for guitar, and several of his compositions have enjoyed a level of popularity even to this day. This particular sonatina is one such example.
Piano sonatinas are an important topic in teaching and the starting point for numerous new experiences in dealing with more challenging literature. in the Brenreiter Sonatina Album for Piano there are, besides classics such as Clementi and Kuhlau, less well-known and newly discovered pieces of Bohemian composers. The 19th century, often underrepresented in such cases, is presented here with some interesting pieces. It is a selection that treats the training of technical skills just as important as the joy of making music and discovering new sounds.
The piano teachers of Katy Music Teachers Association in Katy Texas commissioned me to compose an earlier level sonatima. I found myself very fascinated by the numerous bayous and the animals that live in the bayous around Katy! While researching, I noticed Buffalo Bayou was close and really wanted to know where it originated. While Houston might claim Buffalo Bayou because it runs through Houston, it actually originates close to Katy, Texas. There are springs close to Katy that are part of the source of this famous bayou and I have always been fascinated by springs. How does water just bubble up from the ground?
Your compositions have been so well-received in my studio this fall. I started two 6th graders as beginners and they loved The Bold Escape and Savannah Stalk (actually had people rather arguing over who could play it at recital!) and the lovely View from a Canoe (the second movement from The Soggy Sonatina).
What a great piece! I use it every year with at least one student who needs a special showy piece, and this fits the bill. The glissandos are so much fun and make the piece really pop! A perfect piece for that intermediate student who needs a boost of confidence.
This book contains six sonatinas - some are well known, others are discovered gems, and two are by women composers. Every piece is in the original, complete form. Some titles/composers are: Little Sonata by Charles Wilton; Sonatina by Ferdinand Beyer; Blue Ridge Sonatina by Mary Leaf; and Sonatina: A Tale of Four Cats by Judith Strickland. This 32-page book includes thematics, discussion on sonatina form, listening activities, a dictionary, and notes about the pieces and composers - a great launch to this important musical form.
Zoltn Kodly and Bel Bartk are considered the founding fathers of modern Hungarian art music. In the first decades of the 20th century, both men, separately and in combined forces, gathered hundreds of wax cylinder recordings of peasant folk music throughout territories surrounding their home land that today lie within the boundaries of contemporary Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Bartk ranged farther into the Balkans and even North Africa. With their highly systematic methods of collection, notation, categorization and cross-comparison, Kodly and Bartk came to be regarded as true musical scientists, among the first of the great ethnomusicologists. They were driven to capture what was a quickly dying native musical culture, a well-spring of highly evolved regional art worthy not only of preserving, but possibly informing a new, modern school of distinctively Hungarian national music. As composers, both Kodly and Bartk sought to establish a fresh, personal musical language, distinct from the prevalent Western European lingua franca based on Germanic tradition as represented especially by Brahms. Kodly in particular pursued a vision of establishing a national music culture and an extensive pedagogy, particularly in the form of choral singing. Kodly and Bartk were colleagues and friends sharing a mutual respect for one another. It is fascinating that while Kodly and Bartk shared a common time period (they were only two years apart), a common national and academic identity (they both studied at the Academy of Music in Budapest under the same teachers), and literally a shared exploration of folk music, each composer was to find his own distinctive musical voice with widely divergent characteristics and a significantly different fate. Kodly remained within Hungary enjoying a long life and achieving a revered status as Hungary's greatest national musical icon, at least during his lifetime. Initially regarded with ambivalence and suspicion by his countrymen, Bartk, deeply unhappy with Hungarian communism, immigrated to the United States, suffering a shorter life eventually plagued by significant poverty and a sudden, fatal illness. Yet, Bartk has since emerged as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century with a significant reputation and influence that is decidedly international. Zoltn Kodly (1882-1967) Sonatina for Cello and Piano, 1922 Kodly wrote most of his chamber music during the relatively early period from 1905 to 1920 after which he concentrated on orchestral, stage and especially choral music. A self-taught cellist, Kodly's finest chamber music is for strings, the highlights of which are two string quartets, the duo for violin and cello, a sonata for solo cello and an unfinished two movement sonata for cello and piano written in 1910. Unsatisfied with the original first movement of the later cello sonata, Kodly left it unfinished, returning to it again twelve years later in 1922 with the intention of providing a replacement for the discarded first movement. Feeling that the resulting composition was significantly different in style than the original sonata, Kodly let it stand by itself as the beautiful, single movement Sonatina for Cello and Piano. While some have characterized it as thoroughly Hungarian in its melodic contours, it is also suggestive of the modern French music that made such an impression on Kodly and Bartk at the turn of the century and that often shares the spacious pentatonic tendencies with the Hungarian folk music they discovered in Transylvania around the same time. Bel Bartk, 1881-1945 Rhapsody for Violin and Piano, No. 2, "Folk Dances", 1928 In 1928, Bartk wrote the two Rhapsodies for Violin and Piano, often called "Hungarian Rhapsodies" and sometimes bearing the subtitle "Folk Dances". Each was written for a prominent Hungarian violinist of the day: the first for Joseph Szigeti, the second for Zoltn Szkely, the founder of the Hungarian String Quartet. The rhapsodies each employ a two-part form, the first part slow (lass), the second fast (friss, meaning brisk or fresh), a tradition in Hungarian dance music that features sectional contrasts of tempo and mood, the typical examples being the csrds and its ancestor, the 18th century army recruiting dance, the verbunkos. In Bartk's second rhapsody, the first part lass is moderate in tempo, bright, impassioned with soaring cries from the violin and phrases that are exotically "eastern" with their augmented intervals. In the second part friss, Bartk features striking rhythmic patterns, further tempo variations, spiky pizzicato, tart double-stops, sharp harmonics and lively melodic fragments that sound by turns like folk music, playful children's songs or exhilarating, improvised marches. The rhapsodies have folk origins but show the manipulation and development of Bartk the sophisticated art music composer. It has been said of both Kodly and Bartk that they seldom used actual folk music in their own compositions but rather had thoroughly assimilated the folk idiom to the extent that their personal vocabulary became a spontaneously stylized expression of the same musical impulse. Bartk transcribed the rhapsodies for violin and orchestra during the same year, the year in which he also wrote his most well known chamber masterpiece, the Fourth String Quartet. More Bartk: String Quartet No. 3 Kai Christiansen Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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