UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date: January 10, 2007

I, Reiko-Christine Höhmann, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:

Doctor of Musical Arts in:

Piano Performance It is entitled:

Four twentieth-century Sonatinas for Violin and Piano

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: Dr. Steven Cahn

Dr. Piotr Milewski

Prof. Frank Weinstock

______

Four twentieth-century Sonatinas for Violin and Piano

A document submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Musical Arts

In the Performance Studies Division Of the College-Conservatory of Music

February 2007

by

Reiko-Christine Höhmann

Diplom, 1998 Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg

AD, 1999 CCM, University of Cincinnati

Committee Chair: Dr. Steven Cahn

ABSTRACT

This thesis discusses four different sonatinas that represent the variety of compositional styles and forms in the twentieth century. These are the sonatinas for violin and piano by

Carlos Chávez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, William Bolcom and Hans Werner Henze. In the development of the sonatina the twentieth century sees an increase of sonatina writing as well as a new flexibility of form paired with a variety of compositional methods. In this thesis the four sonatinas are discussed in chronological order after summarizing the history of sonatina writing. This gives an idea about the development of sonatina writing from the seventeenth century up to 1979. A genre study shows different trends in sonatina writing, as for example in the Classical sonatina and the French sonatina. The four pieces show the continuation of that historic development in the twentieth century.

The Sonatina by Chávez (1924) is an example of Mexican nationalism and is a cyclical piece, while Stockhausen’s Sonatina (1951) is serial with a centricity on C. The Sonatina by Bolcom (1958) is composed with short rhythmic units and sets, while Henze’s

Sonatina (1979) is neo-romantic and uses baroque compositional techniques. Several new aspects to sonatina writing can be found in those four pieces, as well as traditional elements. The sonatina in the twentieth century is mostly a performance piece, whereas earlier sonatinas, such as those in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were most frequently written for didactic purposes. All four of these sonatinas are performance pieces and compositions, which are worth while studying.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The long-term project of this document that took around three years to write was a great challenge for me and I am happy to conclude it. The writing of the paper required not only my involvement, but also the kind help of my friends, who contributed to the document with their ideas, translation, corrections and the performance of the pieces. I am grateful to mention Dona Nouné-Wiedmann, violinist of the Dayton Philharmonic

Orchestra, who learned the sonatinas for me. My thanks also go to Daphne Fetting, Chan

Kiat Lim, Jéssica Garduño and Mr. Robert Johnson. For their patience, love and support I would like to thank my family.

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... v LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES...... viii-x

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION...... 1

2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND...... 6

Sonatinas of the Nineteenth Century ...... 9

Sonatinas of the Beginning of the Twentieth Century...... 12

3. ANALYSIS OF FOUR TWENTIETH CENTURY SONATINAS. . . 19

Carlos Chávez...... 19

Cyclicality ...... 21

Motivic Interrelationships ...... 22

Nationalistic Elements ...... 27

Karlheinz Stockhausen...... 33

Rowforms ...... 36

Tonal Elements ...... 40

Subsets ...... 42

William Bolcom...... 48

Eclecticism ...... 49

Interval Motives and Treatment of Rhythm ...... 54

Pitch Sets ...... 58

Hans Werner Henze...... 61

Pollicino ...... 61

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Neo-romanticism ...... 64

Baroque Techniques ...... 68

4. CONCLUSION...... 72

APPENDIX 1: TABLE OF FORMS ...... 76 APPENDIX 2: DRAWING BY STOCKHAUSEN...... 78 APPENDIX 3: CHART OF BOLCOM, II ...... 79

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 80

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MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Example page

CARLOS CHÁVEZ, SONATINA FOR VIOLIN AND PANO

3-1 Shifting triads in the first movement of Ch ávez’s Sonatina. . . . 23

3-2 Ostinato pattern in the Scherzo movement...... 24

3-3 Symmetrical pattern through stepwise motion in Left Hand . . 24

3-4 Pattern leaping up and down ...... 24

3-5 The set 3-7 (025) as part of the pentatonic scale...... 25

3-6 The set 3-7 (025) in the Molto vivace section...... 25

3-7 Two overlapping sets in the violin part...... 26

3-8 Main theme in Largo with B natural ...... 26

3-9 Black keys versus white keys ...... 27

3-10 Xochipizahua ...... 29

3-11 Rutuburi ...... 30

3-12 Latin American rhythm...... 31

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN, SONATINA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

3-13 P 0, the twelve-tone row of the Sonatina...... 35

3-14 The beginning of the first movement of the Sonatina with

three equal voices ...... 36

3-15 Trichords and tetrachords of P 0 and two dyads of R 2 appear

vertically...... 39

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3-16 Rhythmic changes...... 40

3-17 Intervals of a fifth in the first movement: D-flat/A-flat

and E-flat/ B-flat ...... 40

3-18 Tetrachords of R 2 in the left hand...... 42

3-19 The lowest voice of the beginning of the first movement with

ordered pitch intervals ...... 43

3-20a Dyad C-B of the row I 7 in the second variation of the

second movement...... 44

3-20b Dyad C-B of the row I 0in the fourth variation of the second

movement ...... 44

3-21 Trichords with differing contours...... 45

WILLIAM BOLCOM, SONATINA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

3-22 Closing section with syncopated motive ...... 50

3-23 Undulating figures on pitches G and C ...... 52

3-24a Rhythmic unit x...... 55

3-24b Rhythmic unit y...... 55

3-25 Combination of x and y...... 55

3-26 Rhythmic motive in retrograde...... 56

3-27 Rhythmic motive z in the third movement of

Bolcom’s Sonatina . . . . . …...... 56

3-28 Fragmentation of the motive x...... 57

3-29 Sets 3-4(015) and 3-8 (026) in third movement...... 60

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HANS WERNER HENZE, SONATINA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

3-30 Fate motive in first movement of Henze’s Sonatina ...... 64

3-31 Triads in context of C...... 66

3-32 Ground bass with twelve-tone row...... 67

3-33 Repetitions as motivic elements are recurring throughout. . . . 69

3-34 Lamento bass ...... 70

3-35 Canon at a fourth ...... 70

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this document is to show that the sonatina has developed new features when compared to the nineteenth century sonatina, and also compared to the ones written in the beginning of the twentieth century. By making a thorough analysis of each sonatina I will come closer to identifying the structural differences between the twentieth-century sonatina and its predecessors. In my thesis I will show that the development of sonatina writing led to a number of short, highly artistic compositions that emancipated themselves from the traditional model. Whereas the sonatinas of the eighteenth and nineteenth century are all based on a similar structure (Clementi’s sonatinas are seen as prototype), the twentieth century sonatina frees itself from the standard form and from the implication as a pedagogical work. I chose four sonatinas for violin and piano, as works in this medium best represent the variety and individualism in the genre. The sonatina as performance piece in the twentieth century is a novelty and creates new works for the medium of chamber music, which is one of the reasons for pointing it out. Also, all four composers are significant in the twentieth century and their pieces are worth performing. The four sonatinas are by Carlos Chávez (1924), Karlheinz

Stockhausen (1951), William Bolcom (1958) and Hans Werner Henze (1979). Although they are pieces by well-known composers, they are infrequently performed and deserve some attention.

Several authors wrote on the twentieth-century sonatina for piano in which they drew conclusions on the development of the sonatina in the twentieth century. Scott A.

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Carrel writes, that authors approach the topic in three different ways. 1 Some authors, such as Eleanor Anne Carlson, write about one composer: Carlson has written exclusively about Maurice Emmanuel’s sonatinas. 2 Others, such as Alvan D. Cazedessus present a group of compositions from different time periods and nationalities. 3 A third group limits discussion to specific time periods and geographic locations like for example

Kathy J. E. Charles’ thesis A Study of the Contemporary Shortened Piano Sonata

(Sonatina) 4 and Janelle Ganey’s A Pedagogical Analysis of Solo Piano Sonatinas by

North and South American Composers, 1963-1983 .5

Although there are many theses on the piano sonatina, there are no major writings concerning sonatinas for violin and piano in the twentieth century. The Sonatina by William Bolcom is discussed in the doctoral thesis of Tze Yean Lim, and the Sonatina by Carlos Chávez in a doctoral thesis by Charles R. Heiden 6. Both theses present summaries of the composers’ works for violin and piano with an analysis of each work.

For example, Lim’s thesis discusses a few analytical aspects of the sonatina, but leaves

1Scott A. Carrel, “The French Sonatina of the Twentieth Century for Piano.” (D.M.A. thesis, University of North Texas, 1999), 11. 2Eleanor Anne Carlson, “Maurice Emmanuel and the Six Sonatines for Piano” (D.M.A. dissertation, Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts, 1979; Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 7420471) 3Alvan D.Cazedessus, “The Study and Performance of Selected Contemporary Piano Sonatinas” (D.M.A. dissertation, Columbia University, 1967: Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 688975) 4Kathy Jo Edsill Charles, “A Study of the Contemporary Shortened Piano Sonata (Sonatina)” (D.M.A. dissertation, University of Missouri – Kansas City, 1990: Ann Arbor Michigan: University Microfilms International, 9026054) 5Janelle Ganey, “A Pedagogical Analysis of Solo Piano Sonatinas by North and South American Composers, 1963-1983” (D.M.A. dissertation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1985) 6Tze Yean Lim, “Works for Violin and Piano by William Bolcom: a Study in the Development of his musical Style” (D.M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2002); Charles R. Heiden, “Violin Sonatas by leading Latin-American composers” (D.M.A. thesis, Northwestern University, Chicago, 1960).

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out several important facts and is far from a thorough analysis. In both theses the pieces serve as examples of the composers’ styles and developments in a certain period of their lives, rather than as subject for comprehensive analysis. Merely one short essay by Robin

Maconie has been published on Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Sonatina. 7 There is no published analysis of Hans Werner Henze’s Sonatina, but Henze himself wrote one article about the children’s opera Pollicino , of which the Sonatina is a part. 8 As most of the writings have been on the sonatina for solo piano, I will consider also the chamber music aspect of these sonatinas and the sonatinas’ effectiveness as performance pieces.

I will analyze the pieces by means of traditional harmonic analysis, set theory and twelve-tone analysis for Stockhausen’s Sonatina. Carlos Chávez’s Sonatina is in one movement, containing five different sections. The piece is polytonal and uses a large range in keyboard writing; virtually the entire range of the keyboard. Material of the beginning returns at the end, which gives the piece a cyclic structure. Compared to the nineteenth-century sonatina, one finds progress in form, harmony and texture. Carrel writes that the French sonatina of the twentieth century took over several features of the nineteenth century sonata, such as cyclicality, interlocking of movements, and thematic interrelationships. 9 This sonatina falls into a similar category with its cyclic structure, the recurrence of motivic elements like the interval of a fourth, and the connection of several sections or movements.

7Robin Maconie, The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen: with a foreword by Karlheinz Stockhausen (New York: Oxford University Press), 19-20. 8Hans Werner Henze, “Pollicino: An Opera for Children,” Musical Times 121 (Dec. 1980): 766-68.

9Carrel, “The French Sonatina,” 112.

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Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Sonatina uses a twelve-tone row, which is serialized in pitch and rhythm. I will analyze this piece using set theory and twelve-tone analysis. The first movement is contrapuntal and in three voices: violin, right hand, and left hand. This texture is kept throughout the piece. In the three-voice texture, two to three row forms constantly overlap. Stockhausen uses six different row forms for the first movement.

Four of them (P 0, I 0, R 2, R 10 ) start on the pitch C and create a pitch centricity on C. In the second movement, Stockhausen lets two rows run parallel to each other: I 7 and I 11 , later he adds another row, I 3, such that all three rows form parallel triads. In the third movement the discrete trichord 3-4(015), which is inherent twice in the prime row, is used as a recurring motive.

William Bolcom wrote his Sonatina during his first year at Mills College where he studied with Darius Milhaud. 10 His later interest in eclecticism already shows in this

Sonatina. The second movement is constructed out of an intervallic cell. An analysis of

Bolcom’s use of rhythm and intervallic relationships will show their internal connection.

Also in this Sonatina I will apply set theory for a thorough analysis of the piece.

Hans Werner Henze’s Sonatina is derived from his children’s opera Pollicino .

Two of the movements, the first and third, are interludes between the scenes, and the second is the instrumental accompaniment to a sung dialogue. The piece is atonal and meant to be played by adult performers. The piece is neo-romantic in style, although the texture is often contrapuntal. The last movement is a passacaglia, which is constructed following Baroque procedures. The last movement contains a twelve-tone row.

10 Lim, “Works for Violin and Piano,” 30.

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For a proper comparison between the “new” and “old” sonatinas, I will include examples of earlier sonatinas, such as Dvorak’s op. 100. I will compare the sonatinas by parameters such as form, length, difficulty, style and compositional methods. My paper will also include a short summary of the development of the genre. This serves to provide the reader with a background of the genre’s origin. I will establish the sonatina’s traits, which provide the foundation necessary for a comparison of sonatina writing from

1920-1980 with the earlier sonatina. I will include biographical information only insofar as it is helpful for the analysis, for example, when circumstances influenced the compositional style.

The four sonatinas were written over a time span of 55 years from 1924 to 1979.

They show diverse ideas and compositional techniques of the twentieth century put into the small form of the sonatina. This creates an artistic und sophisticated small work, which deserves to be played by professional artists.

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CHAPTER II

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In the Baroque period the sonatina was a first movement or an introduction of an instrumental suite. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the sonatina lost the introductory function. It became an independent piece usually for amateurs, written for didactic purposes. In 1703 Sébastian Brossard still defines the sonatina: “Diminutive of

SUONATA; a small sonata serving as prelude or preparation for some large piece.” 11

Georg Friedrich Telemann’s Six Sonatinas for Violin and Harpsichord were published in

1718 and show the sonatina as an independent piece. The pieces were written for a concert performance for amateur musicians of the Collegium Musicum in Frankfurt:

The chamber music composed by Telemann for these concerts includes a set of Six Sonatinas for Violin and Harpsichord, first printed in 1718. Each piece consists of four movements (slow-fast-slow-fast), except for the last, a fast –slow- fast threesome. The diminutive title, sonatine reflects the brevity of the works and of their component movements, as well as the limited technical demands imposed on the violinist.12

Many sonatinas were still in one-movement form, like Georg Sorge’s three sets of six sonatinas from 1735-45 dedicated to J.S.Bach, or Georg Benda’s 33 one-movement sonatinas in the collection of Assorted Keyboard and Vocal Pieces for Skilled and

Unskilled Players from 1780-87. The six one-movement sonatinas by Carl Philipp

Emanuel Bach are examples for study purposes and appear in his Versuch über die wahre

Art das Klavier zu spielen in the revised edition from 1787. Other interesting

11 Sébastien de Brossard. “Suonatina,” Dictionnaire de musique Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1703, trans. and ed. Albion Gruber as vol. 12 of Musical Theorists in Translation (Henryville, Penn.: Institute of Medieval Music, 1982) 12 Abram Loft, Violin and Keyboard; The Duo Repertoire (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973), 90.

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compositions are C.P.E. Bach’s 15 Sonatinas for one or two harpsichords with orchestra of around 1760, which can count as experimental variants of his concertos (Wq 96-110).

Those pieces require diverse wind instruments and the movements are in the same key, like the movements of a suite. They are of light divertimento character. 13

Many composers wrote accompanied sonatas or sonatinas for piano with violin or flute; Johann Christian Bach’s two-movement accompanied Sonatas became an example for Mozart’s Violin Sonatas. In general the emphasis was mostly on the piano in the accompanied sonata, the violin doubling the piano part and taking a minor role so that most of those pieces cannot be called a significant addition to the violin repertoire.

In the late eighteenth century until around 1830 the sonatina became a piece written for pedagogical purposes at the intermediate level, usually for keyboard in three movements. The most well known pieces are by classical composers, such as Friedrich

Kuhlau, who wrote the sonatinas op. 20, op. 55 and op. 88 from 1820, 1823 and 1827, and Muzio Clementi, whose op. 36 from 1797 is recognized as the prototype for any sonatina. To the well known sonatinas count also Mozart’s K. 545 in C Major, called sonate facile and Beethoven’s op. 79 in G Major; Dussek’s Sonatinas op. 19 and op. 20 as well as Diabelli’s Sonatinas for solo piano are worth mentioning. They are usually in three movements of short length. The New Grove Dictionary defines the sonatina as follows:

The sonatina in the second half of the eighteenth century is a short, easy or otherwise ‘light’ sonata, especially a piece whose first movement, in sonata form, has a very short development section (the term ‘sonatina form’ has occasionally been used for a movement with no development

13 Andreas Friesenhagen, Die Brüder Bach ed. András Batta (Cologne: Könemann, 2000), 232.

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section). The sonatina flourished in the late Classical era, mainly as work for piano solo or with violin accompaniment. 14

Sonatina writing declined during the course of the nineteenth century. The composers who still wrote sonatinas for didactic purposes were Jean-Baptiste Cramer, Ignaz Pleyel,

Carl Czerny and Ignaz Moscheles (op.4), all of whom were well-known pianists and active as pedagogues. Their studies belong to the still-played repertoire, while most of their other compositions are forgotten nowadays. According to William S. Newman, a

distinct dichotomy. . . developed in the 19 th century between sonatas designed for the concert hall and those designed for teaching. One would be tempted to oversimplify this dichotomy by calling it art versus pedagogy. . . But the real dichotomy is more of kind than of degree. It is the dichotomy of new style versus old style. When Clementi wrote his delightful sonatinas, their lightness, efficiency, naivety, and characteristic idioms were inherent in the current Classic language. When the Romantic composers continued to employ the same styles, with little or no modernization, in their teaching sonatas or sonatinas, all the way from Kuhlau to Nicolai von Wilm, they were perpetuating a language and idioms that were no longer current at all. 15

Thus, in the romantic period the genre of the sonatina ceased to develop with few exceptions. After the decline of the pedagogical sonatina in the early nineteenth century, the short salon- and character pieces became popular in the repertoire played by amateurs and replaced the function of the sonatina, so that the emphasis shifted towards a different genre in the pedagogical repertoire of the nineteenth century.

Among the few nineteenth century sonatinas for violin and piano are Schubert’s three Sonatinas for violin and piano, opus 137, No 1-3, D. 384, 385 and 408, Dvorak’s op.100 and Smetana’s Sonatina for violin and piano from 1878, a rarely performed piece.

14 Stanley Sadie, “Sonatina” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 2001), 701. 15 William S. Newman, The Sonata since Beethoven (New York: W.W. Norton, 1972), 64.

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Dvorak’s Sonatina op.100 and Schubert’s three Sonatinas are significant for the violin repertoire as they are the only popular and frequently performed sonatinas for violin and piano. In the following I will give some details on those sonatinas and draw a comparison between them in order to be able to demonstrate features of the nineteenth century sonatina.

SONATINAS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The three Sonatinas by Franz Schubert appeared as a set. They were written in

1816, when Schubert was 19 years old but were not published until 1836 by Anton

Diabelli. They show Schubert’s early compositional style. Martin Chusid summarizes elements of Schubert’s early style:

The music has symmetrical phrase structure, uses conventional, classical form (no thematic transformation), it makes use of inversion and freely imitative counterpoint in two parts. It shows a growing preference for mediant and submediant relationships. One can find in his music a beginning of what he uses later more extensively: playing with major and minor modalities and use of distant key areas. He makes use of a germ motive. 16

The three sonatinas show all the above-mentioned features. There can be observed in the three sonatinas a development towards more expressivity and use of multiple key areas. The first sonatina is in three movements, while the following two are expanded to four movements. The first is the simplest of all, the second is harmonically and rhythmically more advanced, and the third is Beethovenian in approach and shows an expanded harmonic language. Evan West writes about the second Sonatina, which is in

A Minor:

16 Martin Chusid, “The Chamber Music of Schubert” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1961), 79-143.

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This more highly charged style is continued in the second and third sonatas, where the choice of a minor key offers Schubert greater potential for expressive writing. (In this connection it should not be forgotten that around this time he was also engaged on the Fourth Symphony, through whose c minor tonality he explored hitherto uncharted tragic depths in his instrumental writing.) 17

Schubert’s second and third sonatinas have four movements in the order of a classical symphony. The third movement is a Menuett. In character they are close to Haydn and

Mozart: Abram Loft talks about Schubert’s sound being similar to Mozart’s in his

Sonatina in D. 18

Dvo řák’s Sonatina has four movements. He chose the Sonatina to be his 100th work and dedicated it to his six children. It was inspired by American music and written in the United States in November and December of 1893. The second movement was the most popular and has been arranged (by Simrock without the permission of Dvo řák) and performed separately by Fritz Kreisler as “Indian Lament.” The arrangement is a shortened version of the second movement with changes that include dynamics and instrumentation.

One of the happiest anecdotes of his American sojourn describes him pausing before a view of the Minnehaha Falls near St. Paul, Minnesota, to scribble down on his starched shirt cuff a theme later used in the second movement. 19

Native American elements in this piece show in the use of the pentatonic scale, syncopations and the lowered seventh degree. Although this Sonatina is relatively easy to play “it requires a great degree of poetic insight and professional musicianship to bring

17 Evan West , Steeped in the Viennese Tradition, CD booklet, Sony Classical SM 2K 64528, 1996, CD. 18 Loft, Violin and Keyboard , 298. 19 John C. Tibbetts, Dvorak in America 1892-1895 (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1993), 279-283.

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it off.” 20 It surpasses the Schubert Sonatinas in size and offers a more elaborate development section than the earlier sonatinas. Dvo řák writes to his publisher in 1894:

“It is intended for young people (dedicated to my children) but grown-ups, too, let them get what enjoyment they can out of it.” 21 Dvo řák’s Sonatina replaces the Menuett with a

Scherzo, which is very lively with folk-like elements. Compared to Schubert’s

Sonatinas, Dvo řák’s Sonatina exceeds those of Schubert in length and dynamic contrast.

Dvo řák “involves the violin and piano in some delicious imitative interplay.” 22 The violin takes a more independent role. Dvo řák’s Sonatina, though written at the end of the nineteenth century, has the form and length of a full classical sonata.

With the use of folkloristic elements and pentatonic melodies of Indian origin

Dvo řák uses similar compositional methods as Chávez does in his Sonatina. Both

Sonatinas have themes that are built out of a pentatonic scale. In Dvo řák’s Sonatina it is the first theme of the first movement, the first theme of the fourth movement as well as the middle section of the Larghetto. Chávez uses the pentatonic scale in the melodies of the Scherzo, the third and fourth movement. Both composers apply those Indian sounding tunes preferably in lively folkloristic passages. Compared to Dvo řák who applies the pentatonic scale in descending order, Chávez uses it in several ways: disjunct, with repeated notes or incomplete (only four of five notes).

20 Ibid., 282. 21 Otakar Šourek, The Chamber Music of Antonin Dvorak (Czechoslovakia: Artaria), 172-77. 22 Tibbetts, Dvorak in America , 280.

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SONATINAS OF THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The twentieth century experienced a revival of the genre. The number of sonatinas increased again, as did the number written by famous composers such as Ravel,

Bartók and Prokofiev. While most of the composers tried to preserve the characteristics of the sonatina, their application of new compositional methods, in addition to their desire to replace the “old” sonata form with either another form or an updated version of sonata form, produced many very interesting compositions. They usually are experiments with form and thus very individual in their approach, which makes them worth studying. Egon Voss writes:

The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed changes both in the character and function of the sonatina, and the term began to be applied to pieces that were far removed from the kind of music that was traditionally unpretentious and primarily designed for educational purposes. Hitherto in the shadow of the sonata, the sonatina now not infrequently became its counterpart. Examples are Ravel’s Sonatine , published in 1905, Busoni’s Sonatina seconda of 1910, and also, at least in part, Reger’s Op. 89 Sonatinas of 1905 and 1908. 23

In those sonatinas, written in the beginning of the twentieth century, one finds an increase in technical difficulty. The pieces are written for concert performances and no longer for teaching purposes. Musically some of them are very demanding; such is the case with Busoni’s Sonatina, which is one of the first atonal pieces written at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the later course of the twentieth century, the development towards an individual approach to the sonatinas continued. Also, after the invention of the twelve-tone technique and serialism, the use of sonata form became less

23 Egon Voss, preface to Sonatinen, by Max Reger (Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1993).

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popular. Examples of twentieth-century sonatinas are the French sonatinas for flute and piano, of which Pierre Boulez’s Sonatina of 1946 is an important example.

The French piano sonatina, which became more popular from the end of the nineteenth century on, (Charles Henri Valentin Alkan’s Sonatine op. 61 from 1861 for example is the first work that goes beyond the mere pedagogical piece and is written for the advanced pianist), reaches a highpoint in the composition of Ravel’s Sonatina of

1905. Scott Allen Carell writes:

The sonatina lacked the profundity and academic rigor associated with traditional sonata composition, which was at that time primarily of Austrian and German descent; yet, it offered a concise and flexible form that could accommodate various compositional styles. Thus the sonatina as a genre appealed to the musical and formal sensibilities of many French composers and, as suggested by the limited number of pre-twentieth- century French sonatinas, offered more opportunities for exploration. It was not until the publication of Ravel’s Sonatine that French composers began to understand more fully the possibilities latent in the sonatina genre. 24

This shows the importance of Maurice Ravel’s Sonatina for the further development of the genre. A discussion of Ravel’s Sonatina is crucial as it is a cornerstone of the piano repertoire in the 20 th century.

Ravel’s Sonatina was initiated by a competition of the Anglo-French journal, the

Weekly Critical Review , in Paris. Ravel composed the first movement for this occasion in

1903. Due to financial difficulties however the competition was cancelled. Ravel added the other two movements in 1905. Durand published the Sonatina and from then on remained Ravel’s main publisher. Ravel performed this piece himself in his first public appearance abroad at the Société des Concerts Français in London, at which it was well received. On his trip to the United States, he played it instead of the originally suggested

24 Carrell, “The French Sonatina,” 11.

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Piano Concerto in G. The piece is cyclical and in three movements. Stuckenschmidt writes:

The impulse of a single interval, the fourth, sets the themes of all three movements into motion: the theme of the first movement, marked modéré; that of the Minuet where falling fourths become rising fifths; and finally that of the Toccata where the fourth, now rising, again appears, only to return to its original descending form in a quiet secondary theme. 25

The Sonatina by Ravel is significant in the sense that it is one of the first piano sonatinas considered to be a compositional masterpiece, which is frequently performed. It is foreshadowing neo-classicism in its simplicity and its use of the traditional form scheme of a classical sonata. The first and third movements are in sonata form, the second in ternary. It is cyclical as well. Material from the first movement appears in the second theme of the third movement; additionally the unifying element of the fourth is present all over the piece. This is one of the important facts that contribute to the development of sonatina form. Ravel takes over aspects of the romantic sonata into the classical sonatina scheme. Allen Scott Carell writes that “the compositional approaches for achieving unity in the Romantic piano sonata were finally applied during the twentieth century to the piano sonatina.” 26

The piece includes virtuosic elements of piano technique, like brilliant figurations and fast arpeggios blurred with the pedal, as well as meter changes, sonorities with dissonances, long pedal points, whole tone scales, and ostinato patterns. The sonata form movements use a mostly traditional key scheme. In the first movement, centered on F- sharp minor, the key of the second theme in the recapitulation, G-sharp minor, is unusual.

25 Hans Heinrich Stuckenschmidt, Maurice Ravel (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1968), 70. 26 Carrel, “The French Sonatina,” 112.

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In the third movement the second theme of the exposition is in E minor, the seventh scale degree. That also foreshadows twentieth-century practices of moving in stepwise motion from one section to the next. Stravinsky and Hindemith, for example do employ these stepwise motions in their compositions.

Norman Demuth writes that this piece is the perfect introduction to modern music:

[It] is with this work, and with Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie , that “modern music” is usually opened to the student and the mysteries of sonorities shed their first light upon the hitherto classical vista which the student has faced. 27

The piece is, in that sense, a pedagogical piece, but it was not written for children or for teaching purposes. Hélène Jordan-Morhange explains that the name Sonatine comes from its modest dimensions, 28 while Norman Demuth states that the composition of the

Sonatina unfortunately makes Ravel look like he was only a writer of small trifles. 29 In a discussion of Chopin’s small forms, Kallberg tries to defend the small form: “it would demand that we finally remove the veil of aesthetic suspicion from smallness.” 30

Kallberg writes that there is an expectancy of a genre by the composer as well as the audience. He gives Chopin’s Nocturne in G Minor op. 15, no. 3 as an example of expanding the boundaries of a genre, by fusing elements of two different genres, like the mazurka and the nocturne and the polonaise and the fantasy, which gave the pieces more originality, bigger size and more weight. “Generic mixture has long been employed to

27 Norman Demuth , Ravel (London: Dent, 1947. Reprint, Westport, Conn.: Hyperion Press, 1979), 57. 28 Vlado Perlemuter and Hélène Jordan-Morhange, Ravel According to Ravel (White Plains, N.Y.: Pro/Am Music Resources., 1988), 11. 29 Demuth, Ravel, 60. 30 Jeffrey Kallberg, Chopin at the Boundaries; Sex, History, and Musical Genre (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press: 1996), 158.

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expand the range of possibilities in a genre, to communicate the unknown through the known.” 31 In the case of the sonatina the boundaries have been stretched very slowly, faithfully holding on to the classical form scheme into the beginning of the twentieth century. In the further course of the century the traditional forms, which we find in a sonatina, like sonata form and ternary form, finally were replaced by other forms, or new elements were fused with old ones. Kallberg writes that works, which seem somehow to lie on the edge of it, can play a key role in genre studies. 32 Several of Ferruccio Busoni’s

Sonatinas, which derive from the traditional form scheme, like for example the Sonatina

No. 2, are certainly the first radical examples of seeing something completely new in a sonatina. Sergio Sablich writes about Busoni’s Sonatinas:

Indeed they are works of varying character and substance that, by avoiding conventional formulas, manage to communicate something very intense and concentrated, as imaginatively free as they are technically solid. This may well explain Busoni’s use of Latin titles for the Six Sonatinas; to emphasize that detachment from convention which forms the basis for a “new classicism.” 33

Curiously the Sonatina No.6, which is the Kammer–Fantasie über Bizets Carmen , has some predecessors. Czerny published 15 easy Sonatinas sopra i più accreditati motivi d’opere accuramente . And Giuseppe Verdi wrote 72 Suonatine da diverse opera,

Ernani, Traviata, Rigoletto, etc. for piano.

One of the significant pieces to establish neo-classicism is Eric Satie’s Sonatine bureaucratique from 1917, as it displays characteristics to be found in many neo-classical

31 Ibid., 8. 32 Ibid., 7. 33 Sergio Sablich, preface to Sonatina In Diem Nativitatis Christi MCMXVII by Ferruccio Busoni (Milano: Ricordi, 1986).

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works written later on. It shows extended tonality and parody while reviving the balanced structures and forms of the classical era. Robert P. Morgan writes:

In the same year as Parade , Satie composed the brief Sonatine bureaucratique for piano, a satiric paraphrase of music by the eighteenth- century composer Muzio Clementi that is significant for anticipating the neo-classic fascination with earlier styles. 34

Two works of the violin literature of the first half of the twentieth century are worth mentioning. One is the Sonatina by Arthur Honegger for 2 violins from 1920 and the second is the Sonatina by Bohuslav Martin ů from 1937 for violin and piano, a piece not frequently played.

According to Leon Botstein’s article modernism, Bolcom appears as student of

Messiaen and Milhaud in the tradition of French-Russian neo-classicism, Henze in tradition of German expressionism and Stockhausen as follower of the Second Viennese

School. Chávez appears as indigenous modernist. Botstein categorizes modernism after

1933 into five different strands in which the four composers of the sonatinas are included.

He states that modernism is one of the main and most important trends in the twentieth century, before postmodernism and neo-romanticism take over in the last quarter of the century. 35

Historically, in the eighteenth century the classical sonatina form was not yet established and one can find diverse examples under the name sonatina, from one to multiple movement works. By the end of the century a standard form for the classical sonatina took shape, which developed parallel with the growing popularity and use of the

34 Robert P. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music , (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), 160. 35 Leon Botstein, “Modernism” in New Grove Dictionary for Music and Musicians , 2d ed. (London: McMillan, 2001), 868-873.

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pianoforte. The sonatina was usually a work in three movements for solo piano or for piano with violin or flute accompaniment written for didactic purposes. The nineteenth century continued to use the classical form but expanded the number of movements to four. In the beginning of the twentieth century the sonatina was object of experimentation in the search of new simplicity and appears in connection with neo- classicism. Features of the Romantic sonata form, like cyclicism, were integrated into the sonatina at the same time. Carrell writes that the twentieth-century French sonatina shows elements of the nineteenth-century sonata, like cyclicality, expansion of length, a flexible formal structure and contrapuntal texture.36 The further development in the twentieth century is interesting insofar as it picks up new characteristics that lead away from the expected form scheme and the implied use as a pedagogical piece. Twentieth- century modernist composers applied their compositional practices using the genre of the sonatina as vehicle, which was one of the reasons for an increase of the number of compositions and the variety of approaches in that genre in the twentieth century. With the following discussions on four twentieth-century sonatinas, I will show that the sonatina has developed new features when compared to the nineteenth century sonatina, and also when compared to those written at the beginning of the twentieth century.

36 Carrell, “The French Sonatina ,” 112.

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CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS OF FOUR TWENTIETH CENTURY SONATINAS

CARLOS CHÁVEZ

The Sonatina for violin and piano by Carlos Chávez (1899-1978), written in 1924, is typical for a sonatina of the beginning of the twentieth century. It resembles pieces like Ravel’s Sonatina and the French sonatinas in terms of form and structure: the form is cyclic and shows features of the Romantic sonata form. The piece also is a vehicle for new experiments and shows originality and individualism through Chávez’s Mexican nationalism.

At the time he wrote the piece Chávez was 25 years old and the civil war, which had lasted nearly for ten years, had finally ended in Mexico. The new government under

Alvaro Obregón was socialist-inspired and tried to reunify the country by establishing a new identity, supporting art that helped restore a lost self-confidence by featuring historical Mexican traits. Artists like Diego Rivera (1886-1957) 37 and Carlos Chávez for example worked for the National Preparatory Department to contribute in their own way to a public awareness of Mexican Art that should lead away from imitating and fetishing

European artworks. “The Mexican Renaissance led young Mexican musicians to

37 Diego Rivera, Mexican painter was politically active in the Mexican revolution and throughout the rest of his life. His famous large-scale murals were influenced by socialist ideas. He was also deeply inspired by the ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures. He was married to painter Frida Kahlo.

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discover Mexican tradition in its fullest extent.” 38 Chávez became the most well-known composer of the Post-Mexican revolution, enunciating a new nationalism.

Herbert Weinstock places the Sonatina into Chávez’s second compositional phase. This phase was very fruitful for him and he was commissioned his first important works, like El Fuego Novo and the Ballet-Symphony Los Cuatros Soles . Carlos Chávez wrote three sonatinas during this period, one for piano, one for violin and piano and another for cello and piano. Weinstock compares Chávez compositional style from 1921 to 1928 to the art of Diego Rivera, similar in expression of a Mexican and very personal style, writing with increasing self-assurance. 39 Chávez presented his works to an

American audience in 1928 in New York, where the three sonatinas, the piano sonata and

Los Cuatros Soles were performed. The New York critic, Paul Rosenfeld wrote about this event praising Chávez’s talent and originality. He finds that the music evokes the landscape of an America with a respectable cultural heritage. He writes about the sonatinas:

The sonatinas are architectural, modal, simply polyphonic: and play in strictest time. Sere effects, tattoo-like themes and precise staccato volumes abound in them, particularly in their many scherzo like passages…40

Rosenfeld attributes to them some European influence as French impressionism and

German Romanticism.

The music of Chávez clearly shows influence of Indian music. Also in the

Sonatina for violin and piano one can find features of Mexican traditional music. The

38 Herbert Weinstock. “Carlos Chávez.” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 22 (Oct.1936): 435-45. 39 Ibid., 438. 40 Paul Rosenfeld, “The Americanism of Carlos Chávez,” in By Way of Art; Criticism of Music, Literature, Painting, Sculpture, and the Dance (New York: Coward- McCann, 1928), 273-83.

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following characteristics can be ascribed to Pre-Hispanic music and Chávez uses those in his compositions.

1) alternating duplets and triplets

2) use of the pentatonic scale (Chávez frequently uses four notes out of five)

3) a mix of different meters, like: 9/8, 6/8, 5/8

4) mixed modality

5) use of primitive wind instruments

6) use of percussion instruments

Robert Parker writes about Chávez’s nationalism:

When Chávez wrote music evocative of Pre-Hispanic culture, he made a careful study of indigenous instruments and of the accounts of ancient music encountered by early Spanish historians. 41

It is therefore important to take into account historical aspects in order to be able to understand the compositional style of Carlos Chávez.

Cyclicality

The Sonatina for violin and piano by Carlos Chávez has four connected movements. The Largo returns in the last movement of the Sonatina, which gives the piece its cyclical structure. Through this type of form one is reminded of piano sonatas, like Liszt’s B Minor Sonata, which also has four movements, or Beethoven’s Sonatas quasi una fantasia. Nevertheless this piece leads away from the traditional sonatina scheme insofar as it does not have any movement with the sonatina form nor with any of

41 Robert Parker: “Carlos Chávez,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 29 April 2006), < http://www.grovemusic.com >

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the traditional forms usually apparent in a sonatina. (See Appendix I) The Scherzo is in a sort of variation form. There are three parts each time with different accompaniment:

Theme Variation 1 Variation 2

a - b a’ - b’ a - b’’

31- 42 43-49 55- 65 65-69 70- 81 82-89

The short movements sound like connected character pieces that are evocative of

Mexican landscapes and characteristic of old Mexican music. The recurrences of several compositional devices link the movements. The choice of key area already reflects symmetry and this is one of the unifying elements of this Sonatina.

The key scheme forms an arch structure:

I II III IV

Largo Scherzo – Molto vivace Adagio Largo

D minor C major E major C major D minor

Symmetry is also present on micro level with little compositional blocks mirrored, inverted and set against each other throughout the whole piece. The piece is highly structured on the one hand but full of emotional content on the other side.

Motivic interrelationships

All four movements are connected through motivic elements and structural mutuality. Characteristic for this piece are symmetrical structures as well as a variety of different patterns that are woven into the piece. Motivic building blocks are derived from the pentatonic scale.

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A recurring feature throughout the whole Sonatina for example is the shifting triad, ascending as well as descending as shown in example 3-1. The example shows shifting triads that lead to parallel motions of the bass line and the upper melodic line.

They include parallel fifth and the melodic line moves in parallel seventh to the bass line in measure 17. In other examples those appear in contrary motions as well. In the first movement ascending triads also occur in m. 24 and descending ones in m. 27. Shifting triads can be also found in the Scherzo and Adagio movements, for example in mm. 50-

57 in the left hand of the Scherzo.

Example 3-1 Shifting triads in the first movement of Chávez’s Sonatina

Chávez uses a wide variety of accompaniment patterns that are very angular. The following three examples are taken from the Scherzo. The square shapes are in strong contrast to the romantic melody of the first movement for example. They have a visual implication, looking like decorative lines in Mexican paintings or art works. During the fast Scherzo those angular patterns take over and become a frenzied dance, culminating in the wild Molto vivace. The rhythmic ostinati are pulsating and driven rhythms that

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have machine like qualities. This might reflect the socialist idea of folk art, combining art and technology, as to be found in Diego Rivera’s murals as for example Detroit

Industry or Man and Machine .

Example 3-2 Ostinato pattern in the Scherzo movement

Example 3-3 Symmetrical pattern through stepwise motion in Left Hand

Example 3-4 Pattern leaping up and down

One of the building blocks in this piece is the set 3-7 (025), which Chávez uses in the Molto vivace, the Adagio and one last time in the final Largo. The set 3-7 (025) is part of the pentatonic scale. In the beginning of this chapter I explained that the pentatonic scale is one of the foundations of Pre-Hispanic Music (see also the chapter

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Nationalistic Elements, p. 27) and that Chávez adapted many characteristics of Mexican music into his compositional style. This explains the occurrence of the set in this piece.

The following example shows the scale and its pitch content in an inverted form of the pentatonic scale <02479>.

Example 3-5 The set 3-7 (025) as part of the pentatonic scale

Here are several examples of 3-7 (025) as they appear in the Sonatina. In the Molto vivace section the set forms an important part of the triplet figures in the piano part as they appear in extreme registers and speed.

Example 3-6 The set 3-7 (025) in the Molto vivace section

In the Adagio in m. 111 the melody of the violin contains the pitches 3-7 (025). In m.120 the set 3-7 (025) appears in two voices of the piano simultaneously. Two interlocking sets of 3-7 (025) in this movement are shown in the following example:

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Example 3-7 Two overlapping sets in the violin part

In the first two measures of the return of the Largo, a B natural is used instead of the initial Bb. This also creates the set 3-7(025) in the melodic line.

Example 3-8 Main theme in Largo with B natural

The pentatonic scale, which is used as basic scale of Pre-Hispanic music, belongs to

Chávez’s stylistic trait marks. The Sonatina with its many Pre-Hispanic features, reminds of melodies and dances of the past.

Other inherent characteristics are extreme dynamics and registers. Especially in the middle movements the dynamic range is wide and the registers are far apart. There are multiple of articulation signs, like the dash, the accent, the tenuto sign, staccato and portato. The shifting from one type of articulation to the next divides compositional units from each other. Chávez makes use of different types of scales: like the C major scale

(II, mm. 65-68) and the pentatonic scale (mm. 50-58). He also sets passages using only black keys against those with only white keys as shown in example 3-9. Occasional

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pedal points give the piece an impressionistic, Debussy-like texture as for example in mm. 12-13 or 154-160. The harmonic treatment also reminds one of impressionism.

After m.146, bitonality occurs and there is some multitonality. The interval of a fourth appears throughout and the last chord is a chord built out of intervals of a fourth, so that the piece ends with unclear tonality.

Example 3-9 Black keys versus white keys

Nationalistic elements

As mentioned in the introduction Chávez derives many features from old Pre-

Hispanic music that is brought to us by sixteenth century writings and descriptions. As most of that music was forbidden by the Spanish conquistadors because of its heathenish content, only some facts are known today.

Oral tradition was very popular during Pre-Hispanic Mexico; however, thirty years after the Spanish conquest, the Concilio Provincial Mexicano of 1555 restrained the freedom for native Mexicans to sing their Pre- Hispanic folksongs as the Concilio considered its content profane. Many of the songs were about Pre-Hispanic gods. 42

42 Gabriel Saldivar, Historia de la Musica en Mexico (Mexico: privately printed, 1934), 28-29. (translation Jéssica Garduño)

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Music was performed at festivities like dance ceremonies, for religious purposes as well as entertainment. There was also music for the military. Aztec poetry, which was more contemplative and lyrical in character, was usually sung as well. Fray Juan de

Torquemada, a Spanish missionary of the sixteenth century describes the music and festivities of the Indians: The principal Fiestas took place every twenty days in the bigger plazas. The instruments, which were placed on a mat in the middle of the plazas, consisted of two main instruments plus additional percussion instruments. One was a very high, round, wooden and hollow instrument, which was covered with a deer skin.

Through pressing the skin different tones were produced. It must have been somewhat similar to a Dudelsack. This instrument played along with the singers. The other instrument was elaborate as well and served as a contrabass. Both instruments were loud enough to be heard from far away. The large drum, a huehuetl , was played with hands while the other percussion instruments were played with sticks. The two best singers were the leaders. Two dancers were guiding the dancers in two large groups that sometimes could comprise over thousand dancers at a time. The dancers danced synchronized after the movements of the leaders. The dances started out slowly and with low pitch. Each chant, which could last up to an hour, started a pitch higher and was livelier than the one before. 43

The Sonatina contains a lot of alternating duplets and triplets in both Largo sections and also in the Molto vivace. The characteristic rhythm of the first movement is the eighth note duplet against the eighth note triplet. This rhythm is derived from traditional Mexican music. The following two examples show those characteristics:

43 Herbert Weinstock, Mexican Music ( New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1940), 5-7.

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The first example describes the pilgrimage of Poyahutlan in which the oldest Pre-

Hispanic singer, known as Tequanitzin Chchimecatl Tecuhtli, sings about a battle, which took place in Tlaxcala (important Pre-Hispanic city), where it had been founded. The music, though altered, still survives in an old manuscript and was also published by

Campos in his El Folklore y la Música Mexicana. 44 The song is known as

Xochipizahua .45

Example 3-10 Xochipizahua

Another song is already a mixture of new influences by foreign invaders and old traditional elements. The dance called Rutuburi, was believed to have been introduced by the Turks. It was usually a dance in front of a bonfire, and after the conquest monks introduced several new elements. The harmonic and melodic structure is based on only three pitches from what is believed a pentatonic scale. Other similar melodies in the same dance have up to five pitches. The following example presents elements that might have been included after the conquest, like a bigger variety of pitches. Still it presents strong elements from the oldest melodies like the mixed 9/8 and 6/8, the wide leaps and

44 Rubén M. Campos, El Folklore y musical de México (México: Secretaria de Educatión Pública, 1946), 47-49. 45 Saldivar, Musica en Mexico, 29.

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intervals. 46 The pentatonic scale was one of the first scales used, as the sea shell produces a natural pentatonic scale. Many songs were thus invented based on that scale, like the song Rutuburi .

Example 3-11 Rutuburi

Chávez inserts the pentatonic scale into the Scherzo of his Sonatina in mm. 54-57.

He is known for using four notes out of five of the pentatonic scale in his compositions.

For example the violin melody in mm. 11-16 contains the pitches of a pentatonic scale as well as the return of the Largo, measures 140-145.

Chávez also applies changing meters. The meter of the first movement is 9/8 and switches to 3/4 in m.17. The Scherzo and Molto vivace are mostly in 6/8 meter. The

Adagio has alternating meters between 3/4, 2/4 and 4/4. The 6/8 and 9/8 meters carry the possibility of shifting accents, which is common in Latin America. Chávez makes use of this rhythm in the beginning of the Scherzo. Example 3-12 shows this Latin American rhythm.

46 Ibid., 50.

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Example 3-12 Latin American rhythm

That rhythm is found in Mexican popular music as well in music of other Latin

American countries and shows Spanish influence.

the music it plays is commonly in a rhythmic meter that is very evocative of similar meters from the Spanish colonial heritage. In this meter, sometimes called sesquiáltera [changing sixes] in colonial times. . . a 6/8 metrical feel alternates with a 3/4 emphasis. . . The colonial villancico , a type of song particularly popular during Christmas season, was often characterized by this sort of meter… Sesquiáltera appears not only in Mexican folk music, but in the folk music of many Latin American countries; 47

In Chávez’s Sonatina the piano takes over the role of a percussion instrument at times.

The rhythms are very percussive in the fast sections, while the violin either imitates voices or high instruments. The melody in the beginning of the Scherzo in the violin sounds like a folk tune but on an instrument that is out of tune. One could easily imagine the sound of a primitive wind instrument like a clay vessel which one finds in many

South American countries.

There are some folk elements in the string writing. For example the second variation of the Scherzo is accompanied by the strumming of the violin like a guitar while the piano has the melody. In the Molto vivace the violin plays broken chords this time arco. The way of fast broken chords is reminiscent of fiddle playing. In the Adagio section Chávez indicates: “Without vibrato during the entire Adagio section.” This also enhances the rough, purposely uncultivated and folkish impression. The tendency for the

47 Daniel Sheehy, “Popular Mexican Regional Folk Music,” in Music in Latin American Culture , ed. John M. Schlechter (New York: Schirmer, 1999), 34-43.

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music to become faster and faster in the traditional dances is imitated in the Sonatina in the Scherzo section. Also the fact that the Molto vivace uses a very high pitch range fits the description of a dance event that is about to culminate.

Gabriel Saldivar, a Mexican musicologist, talks about the use of wide leaps in

Mexican music. 48 Chávez uses this feature extensively. Although the two examples of the Pre-Hispanic songs don’t show this characteristic, mixed modality was a feature of old Mexican music. Chords like in mm. 39 - 42 contain a major triad as well as a minor triad. In mm. 70-73 shifting triads contain major as well as minor chords.

Chávez’s Sonatina is rooted in nineteenth century tradition in terms of form: His

Sonatina has a cyclic structure. It also has four movements, like several nineteenth- century sonatinas. The general character of the piece is romantic in its mission to elevate the past or a dream of the past. In the twentieth century many French sonatinas are modeled after Ravel’s Sonatina. Chávez’s Sonatina follows that direction in terms of cyclicality, the motivic work and texture, which reminds of impressionism. The old

Mexican features, though, give the piece a strong Mexican character. Some of them appear like contemporary compositional practices, like for example mixed meter, while they are also Pre-Hispanic folk elements. As an example of a twentieth-century sonatina this piece shows new features in terms of forms, all movements have very individualistic forms, no movement is in sonata form or ternary form for example. New for the sonatina is also the integration of strongly nationalistic elements, the expansion of registers and the difficulty of performance. Chávez’s piece is very unique and contributes to the development of the sonatina as an individualistic and artistic performance piece.

48 Saldivar, Musica en Mexico , 49.

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KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN

Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Sonatina for violin and piano from 1951 is one of the earliest works he wrote. Influenced by the serial movement the piece is based on a twelve-tone row. The following passages give some background information on the composer’s early years and the Sonatina itself: Karlheinz Stockhausen studied piano and music theory beginning in 1947 at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne and music education beginning in 1948. In the fall of 1950 he entered the composition class of

Frank Martin. His graduation thesis, which he finished writing in July of 1951, was about Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Stockhausen’s early style can be described as influenced by early twentieth-century composers such as Schoenberg,

Webern, Bartók and Hindemith.

Stockhausen had lost his parents during the war; his mother, who was mentally ill, was killed in the euthanasia program of the Nazi government in 1941, and his father, who was a teacher, died as a soldier in Hungary. Stockhausen was ordered to help in a military hospital by the Nazi Jugend in 1944. He then toured with the magician Adrion for two years improvising during his shows to finance himself. Those early experiences undoubtedly formed his personality. Of this, Jonathan Harvey states:

For a barometer as sensitive as Stockhausen, these years of historic extremism cannot have been without fundamental impact, though his creative life, as opposed to his formative life, has been lived in a time of reconstruction, a time of starting anew with a clean slate.49

Some of these sad experiences show in Drei Lieder , the text of which he wrote himself.

Stockhausen incorporates the song O, du lieber Augustin into the last movement of the

49 Jonathan Harvey, The Music of Stockhausen , (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 13.

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Sonatina for violin and piano. This song also appears as a quotation in Schoenberg’s second string quartet. It has a grim background as it relates to the plague in the 17 th century.

O du lieber Augustin O, dear Augustin ‘s Geld ist weg, ‘s Maedel hin! money is gone, girl is gone, O du lieber Augustin, O, dear Augustin Alles ist hin! Everything is lost! ‘s Geld ist weg, ‘s Maedel hin, money is gone, girl is gone, O du lieber Augustin! O dear Augustin, O du lieber Augustin, O dear Augustin, Alles ist hin! Everything is lost! 50

His first works, Chöre für Doris , Drei Lieder (1950) and the Sonatina were published in a collection called Frühe Noten by Universal Edition. 51 Stockhausen applied with Drei Lieder to the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt.

His work was rejected for the reason of being too old-fashioned and the texts too brutal. 52

Nevertheless he participated in the summer course in 1951, which was of major importance for his further development as he met Luigi Nono and Karel Goeyvaerts, who introduced him to Webern’s works, the compositional methods of Messiaen, and other

serial methods. 53 This led to the composition of his first significant composition

Kreuzspiel in November of 1951.

50 The song appeared around 1678 in Vienna, when the plague was going through Europe. The plague killed approximately one fourth of the Vienna population in 1679/80. Augustin N. b. 1645 d. 1685 in Vienna, piper and poet, was supposedly in 1679 thought to be dead after lying heavily drunk on the street and was thrown into a mass grave with the corpses. He was found alive and continued to live. 51 Karlheinz Stockhausen, Frühe Noten, (Wien: Universal Edition, 15174, 1971). 52 Imke Misch und Markus Banduhr , Karlheinz Stockhausen bei den Internationalen Ferienkursen für Neue Musik in Darmstadt 1951-1996, (Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 2001), 2-3. 53 Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, Karlheinz Stockhausen – wie die Zeit verging . Musikkonzepte, Heft 19 (Munich: edition text+kritik, 1981), 5-7.

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The Sonatina was finished on March 19, 1951. On the book cover of Frühe

Noten 54 the beginnings of the Sonatina and Chöre für Doris are printed in color, which gives some insight into Stockhausen’s compositional procedures. Harvey finds

Stockhausen’s Sonatina with simple serial procedures conventional, reminiscent of

Schoenberg and Martin. 55 The Sonatina was first recorded for the Cologne Radio in 1951 with Stockhausen and Wolfgang Marschner, who was then concertmaster of the West

German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since then Stockhausen withdrew the Sonatina until 1971, when it was played in Paris at a SMIP concert with Saschko Gavriloff and

Aloys Kontarsky. 56 All three movements, which continue without rest, are drawn from a single row for melody, rhythm and dynamics. Example 3-13 shows the twelve-tone row of the Sonatina for violin and piano.

Example 3-13 P 0, the twelve-tone row of the Sonatina

Discrete trichords of P 0:

3-4 (015), 3-2 (013), 3-8 (026), 3-4 (015)

Discrete tetrachords of P 0:

4-8 (0156), 4-23 (0257), 4-14 (0237)

Discrete hexachords of P 0:

6-Z17 (012478), 6-Z43 (012568)

54 Karlheinz Stockhausen, Frühe Noten. 55 Harvey, The Music of Stockhausen , 15. 56 Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sonatine für Violine und Klavier , Deutsche Grammophon 2530827, 1977, LP.

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Row forms

The first movement of Stockhausen’s Sonatina is entirely serial, while the other two movements are only partially serial. The rows appear in context of rather traditional forms: the first movement is in a ternary form, the second movement is a variation movement and the third comes close to a sonata form. In the following I will show the row forms of each movement as well as other characteristics of the movements.

The first movement is contrapuntal in three voices: violin, right hand and left hand. This texture is kept throughout the piece.

Example 3-14 The beginning of the first movement of the Sonatina with three equal voices.

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In the three-voice structure two to three row forms constantly overlap. All voices are of equal importance as shown in Example 3-14. Through entrances of row forms the movement sounds polyphonic and like a fugato. The form of this movement is as follows: mm.1-5 A lento espressivo I 0, P 0, and R 2 mm.6-10 B vivacetto irato 4xR 2,2xP 0, I 0 mm.11-14 Tempo 1, piu mosso P 1, P 0 mm.15-17 a tempo I R 2, P 0, P 2 mm.18-25 A’ wie zu Beginn P 0, RI 10 ,I 0

The last section is a return of the first section, but with a different distribution of voices and row forms. The B section uses the row R 2 and a contrasting rhythmic texture compared to the A section. This movement makes use of 6 different row forms.

The second movement is in variation form. The piece has four variations of the same melody:

mm. 26-34 1. variation melody in piano: P 0 mm. 35-45 2. variation melody with the interval of a sixth: I 7, I 11 mm. 46-53 3. variation melody in violin in thirds: I 11 , I 7 mm. 54-65 4. variation melody in piano in triads: I 7, I 3, I 11

A continuous ostinato in the bass in dotted rhythm runs through the whole movement. It sounds like a slow boogie-woogie, alluding to popular music. Like the first movement it starts and ends with P 0. In the second variation Stockhausen allows two rows to run parallel to each other: I 7 and I 11 (mm. 35 in the right hand of the piano). In the third variation, beginning in m. 46, the same procedure continues with doublestops in the violin. The fourth variation adds another row, I 3, such that they form shifting trichords.

The structure becomes thicker through addition of voices: the three-voice texture expands over a four-voice to a five-voice texture in the last section. Each section is separated

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through one inserted measure: mm. 45 and 53 (P 9). The second movement uses ten different row forms.

The piece starts off in a three-voice texture like the first movement. A second voice, which is set parallel to the main melody, is playful and in character contrasting to the main melody. Stockhausen indicates it with liberamente . Throughout it is notated in compound rhythm. In the third variation the tempo gets faster, Stockhausen indicates stringendo . This is enhanced by diminution of the triplet, eighth note triplet instead of quarter note triplet.

The last movement is the longest and the most dramatic of the three. It is multisectional and reminds of the sonata form. Like in the first movement there is a return of A at the end of the piece. Sections are contrasting: the B sections shows an interesting texture with short sixteenth over slurred quarter notes that the violin imitates, while the C section has humoristic qualities. The C section is not developmental as it would be in a sonata form, but prepares the return of A. This is the form of the piece with the occurring row forms: mm. 66-77 Intro P 0 mm. 78-99 A(heiter) P 0, R 2, P 3, P 4, P8,P 1 mm. 100-128 B I 7, P 8, I 4, I 9, RI 1, P 2 (P 9) mm. 129-167 C P 0, P 10 , P 5, P 7 mm. 168-189 Cadenza and transition mm. 189-201 A’ R 2 mm. 202-302 Coda P 0

The Coda of this movement contains the song O, Du lieber Augustin .

The ending of the song appears in ff dynamics and concludes the whole piece like a final statement. The melody is written in half notes, while the right hand plays P 0, doubling the pitches of the melodic line in a heterophony. This is contrasting to the lively and interwoven voices in dotted rhythm of the previous section.

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Nearly all the rows in the whole Sonatina appear horizontally. In the third movement there are few exceptions: Example 3-15 shows measures 77-80, the end of the introduction and the beginning of the A section. This example contains vertical subsets of P 0 and R 2. It shows Stockhausen’s use of rows in this movement, which is not entirely serial. For example the first chord after the double bar contains pitches of P 0, vertically, which he does in the whole Sonatina for the first time. While the violin plays the first trichord of P 0, the left hand of the piano has the second tetrachord of P 0.

Example 3-15 Trichords and tetrachords of P 0 and two dyads of R 2 appear vertically

The rhythmic series of P 0 is used not as strict as the row of pitches; repetitions occur, and the rhythm is a matter of change, as example 3-15 demonstrates. The rhythmic motive of the series is a long note of differing length plus an added eighth note, which is the rhythmic background of nearly every rhythmic unit. (view Stockhausen’s autograph, Appendix II)

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Example 3-16 Rhythmic changes

Tonal elements

The row, which Stockhausen uses for this Sonatina, contains tonal elements which he exploits in the generally atonal setting. Other factors contribute to the impression of tonality as well in the Sonatina, for example the repeated occurrence of the pitch C and the use of trichords, thirds and fifths. Robin Maconie writes that the row

57 bears strongly tonal implications . It contains two intervals of a fifth: in P 0 the intervals are D-flat /A-flat and E-flat / B-flat and three intervals of a third: G/E, F-sharp/A, and

F/D. The first movement ends with P 0 in both voices, bringing out the fifths of the first and last tetrachords of the row. The ending sounds consonant due to the use of the two fifth of the row.

Example 3-17 Intervals of a fifth in the first movement: D-flat/A-flat and E-flat/B-flat

57 Maconie, Karlheinz Stockhausen , 19-20.

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With the exception of P 1 and P 2, all the other row forms in the first movement start on the pitch C. They are the most frequently used rows. C is emphasized in the slow introduction through repetition (beginning) and a long trill on C at the end of the section. It is treated the same way, in the last section mm. 18-25, so that a feeling of return is created and a pitch centricity as well. The last note of the same row is a B that serves as a leading tone to P 0, the last section emphasizing the pitch C. In the example 3-

17, the pitch C in m. 23 is the only note emphasized by an accent and also by the long trill. The second movement starts on C as well, which is the beginning pitch of both instruments, while the ending on G has dominant character, creating expectation for the last movement. The set 3-4(015) of P 0 contains the pitch C, which appears frequently throughout the third movement. The A section has a pitch centricity on C; it starts and ends on C. The return of A’ in m. 190 brings a return to C as well. This movement starts and ends with 3-4 (015). In the Coda the quoted song O, Du lieber Augustin is in C and ends on C.

Different sections have different tonal elements. The B section of the third movement has changing pedal points on intervals of fifths in the bass. Those sound like changing key areas. In mm. 92-95 the left hand has a row of fifth: P 1 and P 8. P 1 is indicated by the composer through accents. The C section makes repeated use of the C minor chord.

The use of parallel thirds and trichords in the second movement of Stockhausen’s

Sonatina evoke tonal music, especially in the setting of variations: The same melody appears first in sixth, then in thirds and last in triads. The octave ostinato is not serial and gives the piece its swinging character. The use of the repeated sigh-motive evokes

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tonality and a past style. The virtuosic cadenza in the third movement also reminds of an older style and is not serial. The Sonatina relates to the traditional sonatina not only in terms of forms, but also in terms of tonality. The row contains tonal elements and the piece is centered on the pitch C. Some of the above mentioned features are taken from past styles as well.

Subsets

In this Sonatina subsets have an important motivic function, which unify the three movements. In his colored version Stockhausen groups the row into discrete tetrachords.

This is also evident by short units of four notes, sometimes divided by rests. Example 3-

18 shows mm. 6-7, where, especially in the left hand, units of four notes are visible. The three discrete tetrachords of P 0 are [0,1,5,6] [0,2,5,7] and [0,2,3,7]. In his colored autograph, Stockhausen marks triplets in blue, the first tetrachord in orange, the second tetrachord in red (I, R), which is rhythmically expanded and the third with differing color; see Appendix II. In the beginning of the piece, mm 1-6, the highest pitch can be found in the second tetrachord of all three rows; one of them is pictured in example 3-19. As they correspond to each other, a declamatory speaking quality characterizes the melodic lines.

Example 3-18 Tetrachords of R 2 in the Left Hand

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Discrete tetrachords of R 2:

4-14(0237), 4-23(0257), 4-8(0156)

Example 3-19

The lowest voice of the beginning of the first movement with ordered pitch intervals

Stockhausen indicates groups of two through slurs. This already points towards the use of dyads in his Sonatina. The second movement focuses on the half steps in the row. In this movement the falling half step is of motivic significance and is an invariant throughout the piece. The row P 0 contains three of those dyads: 01, 87 and 23. The following example is the series written in pitch-class integers with dyads in P 0:

0 1 8 7 4 6 9 11 5 2 3 10

The dyads are constantly repeated in different row forms, so that the piece is saturated with the occurrence of those various dyads. The first dyad [0,1] is transposed and inverted. The index number of [1,0] and [2,3] is 3. T 3I will map 0 and 1 onto 2 and 3.

Also the index number of [1,0] and [7,8] is 8. T 8I will map 0 onto 8 and 1 onto 7. Some of the later statements have same pitch contents. For example in m. 35, the dyad C-B of the row I 7 occurs and is repeated several times. The same half step returns in m. 61 taken from the row I 0. Both rows also share the dyad E-F. Stockhausen uses the pitches D, E- flat especially at the end of the piece, in m. 61 and in the bass before the last measure.

The last measure, though, has the dyad [8,7] in the bass. The falling half step is the sigh-

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motive; it gives the piece the character of a lament on an ostinato which also contains the falling half step at times. The following two examples show invariants in two different row forms:

Example 3-20a Dyad C-B of the row I 7 in the second variation of the second movement

Example 3-20b Dyad C-B of the row I 0 in the fourth variation of the second movement

The B section of the third movement uses mainly R 2. Dyads of R 2 appear unordered in measures 78 and 79. This reminds of the first movement, where

Stockhausen presents the first entrance of R 2 in groups of dyads (see example 3-19).

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In the third movement trichords have some significance. These are the discrete trichords of the row:

P0: 0 1 8 7 4 6 9 E 5 2 3 T

Prime forms: 0 1 5 0 1 3 0 2 7 0 1 5

By looking at the discrete trichords one can notice that the row contains 3-4 (015) twice.

Stockhausen splits off 3-4 (015) and uses the set frequently throughout. In the introduction Stockhausen exploits various combinations of the pitch classes C, D-flat and

A-flat. They form the set 3-4(015) and the first trichord of P 0. The trichords appear in different ways. The following examples show the contours of trichords in the introduction:

Example 3-21 Trichords with differing contours

In m. 152 two forms of 3-4 (015) with different contours occur simultaneously, forming a symmetrical figure. In the Coda of the piece, both appear in alternation. The middle section of the piece, poco più mosso , replaces the development of the sonata form, but it also prepares the return of A. It resembles the introduction in texture and makes use of the set 3-4(015) as well. The rather long C section plays with the motive and then leads up to a dramatic cadence, after which the former material returns as if nothing had happened. A tremolo in the piano leads to the new section

In this movement the set 3-4 (015) appears in all sections except in the B section of the piece. For example, Stockhausen inserts it several times into the middle of P 0 in m.

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202, like an interruption that keeps coming back. In the C section the set is a melody in the violin part titled parlando , that again interrupts the piano part. Other occurring rows in this movement are not grouped into trichords. P4 and P 2 for example appear in tetrachords. Not all rows are complete and in the right order, f. ex. R 2 in m. 114, which appears in dyads.

The Sonatina by Stockhausen relates to the classical sonatina insofar as the forms lean towards already existing form schemes. The first movement is in ternary and the last one is similar to a sonata form. The second movement is in variation form, a form one actually rarely finds in an earlier sonatina. The first movement is short and the last is the weightiest, which reminds of the forms of some of the nineteenth-century sonatinas, like

Dvorak and Ravel. Stockhausen’s Sonatina still relates to tradition as it keeps a sense of tonality through pitch centricity on C. This is enhanced through the insertion of the song

O, Du lieber Augustin in C Major, which gives the piece its humoristic, grotesque character ( Galgenhumor ). His compositional style reminds of Schoenberg with a musical language using many traditional elements. Schoenberg’s second string quartet op. 10 quotes the same song in the scherzo (2. mvt, mm.165-171). With the use of the sigh- motive, traditional form schemes and the insertion of a cadenza on the one hand the

Sonatina combines features of older music with newer compositional methods like motivic work with the subset 3-5 (015) and the use of serialism. Some of the above analysis shows the complexity of the simple structure of the Sonatina, which makes the piece challenging for the performer. The Sonatina is one of the few existing serial sonatinas, unified by the same row for all three movements. New features in a twentieth century sonatina are therefore the use of serialism, integration of new types of forms, like

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the variation form for example and the technical performance level combined with an intellectual demand.

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WILLIAM BOLCOM

William Bolcom wrote the Sonatina for violin and piano in 1958. At that time he was a student of Darius Milhaud at Mills College, where he studied from 1958 until

1961. He had taken composition lessons since he was eight or nine years old with

Frederick Mc Kay and John Verral at the University of Washington. Next to a formal education through both teachers, he developed an early interest in non-classical music.

Tze Yean Lim writes that outside his formal music studies, Bolcom had shown great interest in the vast staple of American popular music from the mid-‘40s to the 1950s. He spent hours at the piano playing Broadway tunes and was freely exposed to swing bands, the advent of bop and cool jazz, country music, and the birth of rock and roll. 58 Bolcom first studied with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music Festival during the summer of

1957. In 1958, the year he wrote the Sonatina, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington, before continuing a Masters Degree with

Milhaud at Mills College. Michael Feingold writes:

He [Milhaud] and Bolcom became instant friends- “I think we had the same kind of mishegoss ”- and Bolcom turned down a full scholarship to study with Hindemith at Yale, in favor of work with Milhaud- and less money- at Mills College. 59

A year later he followed Milhaud to Paris where he studied for two years with both

Milhaud and Messiaen.

Bolcom was highly influenced by Milhaud’s compositional style of blending classical elements with jazz: In 1922 on tour in the USA Darius Milhaud had heard the

Paul Whiteman Band, and on his return composed the Trois rag caprices. In 1923, one

58 Lim, “Works for Violin and Piano,” 6. 59 Michael Feingold, “Bolcom goes for the Gold,” The Village Voice , Sept, 1992: 37, 35; Research library pg. 89.

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year before Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, came La creation du monde , a highly successful blend of jazz and classical elements. The fusion of popular music with classical music has remained Bolcom’s trademark throughout his life. In the article

“Musician of the Month: William Bolcom” Jack Hiemenz writes about his conversation with Bolcom, who pleads for less separation between the classical music scene and the pop music scene. Jack Hiemenz calls him “the quintessent crossover composer.” 60

The Sonatina is traditional with short movements in conventional forms. It includes elements of swing, with its constant use of syncopation; the texture is light and transparent. The second movement is short and aphoristic. In its light-heartedness it reminds one of works by Milhaud, which are often of easy-going character.

Eclecticism

Several different stylistic elements are combined in this piece. Bolcom uses popular music elements like syncopation; at the same time he gives the piece Baroque characteristics with passages that remind one of J.S.Bach. He also combines tonality with the contemporary compositional method of pitch sets. In two movements he inserts the pentatonic scale. The Sonatina uses traditional forms for the movements, the first ternary, the second binary and the third in sonatina form. (A diagram of the forms is given in Appendix I). The fusion of different types of characteristics in a traditional setting makes the piece a witty and successful invention.

The main element in this Sonatina to establish its swinging mood is syncopation.

Bolcom applies it in all three movements of this Sonatina. In the three short movements

60 Jack Hiemenz, “Musician of the Month: William Bolcom,” High Fidelity/Musical America , September 1976, 4-5, 39.

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of this piece, Bolcom works with short rhythmic units. One of them is a syncopated figure, which appears for the first time in measure 5 of the piece. Syncopation saturates the music. A rocking feeling is created through undulating syncopated figures on C and

G in the opening section of the first movement: mm: 7-9, 15-17 and 35-36. (See example

3-23) The B theme of the last movement contains syncopated figures and is marked by dashes and separate notes, giving it a strong rhythmical emphasis. The closing section repeats the rhythm of the B section in unison and appears legato and very soft. It has a swing feeling to it. Example 3-22 shows the beginning of the closing section with two two-bar groups in swing rhythm. In the Brockhaus dictionary swing is described as follows:

After the establishment of Big Bands, the swing came into fashion towards the end of the 1920s and remained the leading style of playing jazz from 1930 to 1945. (Bandleaders: Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman). Characteristics of the swing are artful arrangements with reserved parts for improvised soli, instrumental effects and extension of harmony leaning towards impressionism. 61

Example 3-22 Closing section with syncopated motive

61 Jürgen Hunkemöller, “Jazz,” Brockhaus Riemann Musik Lexikon vol. 1, ed. Carl Dahlhaus and Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Mainz: Schott’s Söhne, 1978), 606 .(translation mine)

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Contrasting to the swing element are the hymn-like passages in this piece, such as the beginning of the Sonatina. The B section of the first movement sounds like a prelude by Bach, but with inserted dissonances. It has continuous sixteenth notes in the piano part, a Baroque characteristic, running in sequences in measures 57-62. The left hand has a descending motion of falling fifth in the bass. Jürgen Hunkemöller writes:

By virtue of the complete fusion of the measures with the principle of beat and off-beat in the swing, all music with an even meter could be played in such way, that it swings. (turning older music into jazz f. ex. J.S. Bach) The swing had a decisive influence on jazz, therefore jazz was frequently equalized with swing during that period. 62

The texture of the piece is mostly a three-voice one, the crossing voices and motives sound mostly polyphonic which also reminds of Baroque music. Both elements of swing and religious simplicity fuse well. This combination reminds of music played in church congregations in North America. For example the passages in rhythmic unison in the third movement have gospel-like character.

The tonality is obscured through use of many dissonances and added flats and sharps. The Sonatina is filled with non-harmonic tones with accidentals and dissonances.

TzeYean Lim attributes the inserted dissonances to Renaissance music. The use of chromaticism and cross-relations remind him of compositional techniques used in madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo. 63 This shows definitely an extension of harmony.

Although the first and last movements are in C, the tonality is not clear from the start of the piece. The second movement is atonal but stays in the frame of the tonality of

C. The first movement for example starts in F major after the three introductory measures. During its eight-bar theme it modulates to C major. From measure 35 on a

62 Jürgen Hunkemöller, Jazz, 606. 63 Lim, “Works for Violin and Piano ,” 30.

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pedal point on G occurs which marks the ending of the first section. The G has a dominant function at that place, leading to the middle section. The undulating syncopated figures are on the pitches G and C as shown in example 3-24 and form an ostinato. The middle section has several long bass notes on A. It starts in A minor, the relative minor of C. The return of the first section again begins on F, moves away from it and towards C (80-85). The last chord combines C major, C minor and the tritone F- sharp.

Example 3-23 Undulating figures on pitches G and C

The second movement is atonal using the pitch sets 3-2(013) and 3-3(014).

Nevertheless Bolcom keeps the movement in the tonal frame of the key C. The piece begins on the pitch C in the violin and also in the piano part in m. 3. The climax of the piece is in measure 9. Here again the pitch C is reached at the end of the pentatonic scale, two octaves higher then the initial middle C. In the second part of the piece the violin line rises further to F, the highest pitch of the piece. The pitches C and F are thus focused and this reminds of the tonality of the first movement. The last three measures of

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that movement contain the pitches G-F, which form the dominant seventh to the beginning of the next movement in C.

The third movement is in sonatina form, which implies a traditional key scheme.

The following diagram shows the form of the third movement:

A mm. 1-9 Transition mm. 10-15 B mm. 16-22 B’ mm. 25-32 Closing section (rhythm of B) mm. 3-44 C mm. 46-59 A mm. 60-69 B mm. 70-83 C ( with added B’ in violin) mm. 84-99 Coda mm. 100 – 122

Although the beginning of the piece indicates the key area C through a pedal point on C in the first four measures of the piece, the tonality is obscured. The first chord for example contains the pitches of d-minor over C. All the following measures include at least one accidental, like F-sharp or D-Flat. Therefore even if the pedal points are used the music does not sound like C Major or G Major. The transition is atonal and the B section provides another pedal point in the violin on G. The closing section is in D major. The development starts in the dominant key of G in m. 46. It is very short, kept in soft dynamics and makes use of continuous rhythms with syncopations. The recapitulation starts in measure 60, a third lower than in the exposition. The key would be A, but there is no pedal point on A, except an occasional appearance of A on the downbeat in the left hand. The B section has a pedal point on G and E. The C section

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brings the main key of C back and the piece ends on C. These are conventional key relationships, nevertheless they are hardly audible at times.

In the second as well as the last movement Bolcom inserts the pentatonic scale.

In m. 8 of the second movement a pentatonic scale of five pitches: d, f, g, a, c, lead to the climax of the piece in the violin part. In the third movement the violin has a rising pentatonic line in measure 24, which reminds of the one in the second movement. The pitches are a b d e f-sharp. The Sonatina sounds more atonal then tonal, it is a strange blend of multiple elements. Pentatonic scales appear in the middle of the tonality of C, which is so obscured by dissonances that one can hardly detect its tonality. Baroque characteristics and swing elements are fused, so that the Sonatina provides another example of a fusion of jazz with classical elements.

Interval motives and treatment of rhythm

In the former chapter I already talked about syncopation. Other rhythmic processes are significant for the structure of the piece as well. Bolcom makes use of different rhythmic motives, his music contains diminutive and additive processes and he slows down the music through fragmentation. The first movement uses two rhythmic elements, of which the second is the syncopated figure as shown in examples 3-24a and b. The second appears by itself and in combination with the first. Example 3-25 shows both motives combined.

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Example 3-24a Rhythmic unit x

Example 3-24b Rhythmic unit y

Example 3-25 Combination of x and y

The two rhythmic motives appear for the first time in mm. 4- 5. During the course of the piece the motive appears also in retrograde, see example 3-26. Bolcom states the motives repeatedly in the first movement of the Sonatina, where the short syncopated motive saturates the piece. A short, repeated two-bar motive is typical for the swing.

Hunkemöller defines:

Riff, a kind of background in Jazz music, a rhythmic, melodic and characteristic motive of two to four measures, a phrase which is constantly repeated and appears in a call-and -response principle. 64

64 Jürgen Hunkemöller, “Riff,” in Brockhaus Riemann Musik Lexikon vol. 2, ed. Carl Dahlhaus und Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Mainz: Schott’s Söhne, 1978), 402.

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In the return of A (mm.72-95), which is shorter than the first section, the motive x is stated four more times. First it appears in the piano in left and right hand. In mm. 76 and

77 a combination of x and y takes place. Then the violin has two motives, x, in mm. 83 and 84 and x in retrograde in mm. 88 and 89. In the Sonatina the call-and-respond principle is imitated by the piano and violin through a constant dialogue.

Example 3-26 Rhythmic motive in retrograde

In the third movement Bolcom makes use of a different rhythmic motive. In the

A section, mm. 1-15, Bolcom uses a characteristic rhythm z four times. In the recapitulation the A section is shorter. It is only 10 measures long instead of 14, but the texture is thicker through addition of a middle voice. Here the rhythmic pattern z comes back two times in mm. 64 and 66.

Example 3-27 Rhythmic motive z in the third movement of Bolcom’s Sonatina

Bolcom uses fragmentation in the first as well as the last movement, which creates the effect of a natural ritardando . In the first movement after measure 89, x is

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fragmented and only parts of it are played separated by rests. The Coda of the third movement is similar to the closing section with its rhythmic unison between two voices.

Through additive processes the effect of a ritartando is created. Every four measures the music is interrupted by an insert marked pianissimo leggiero , which gets longer each time. First one bar is inserted in m. 104, then two bars in m. 109 and in m. 116 three bars. In the transition between the A and the B section of the third movement the groups of eighth notes become gradually shorter in a diminutive process. In measure 10, there is a group of five eighth notes, in measure 11, a four- note group. Then follow five three- note groups separated by an eighth note rest. In measure 15 there is a two-note group and also two single notes:

5433333121

Example 3-28 Fragmentation of the motive x

Bolcom disguises the meter through hemiolas, overslurring and eighth note units of different length. The beginning of the first movement gives the impression of a 3/8 meter by omitting the downbeat and displaying a 3/8 rhythm three times. This disguises the actual meter in 2/4. The second movement is in 5/4 meter. It is static and uses few

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different note values, mostly half notes and quarter notes. Also in this movement Bolcom uses the slow syncopation to shift different appearances of the pitch motives along on different levels. In the third movement the 6/8 meter is set against the 3/4 meter. For example the violin plays in 3/4 while the left hand of the piano plays in 6/8 rhythm in the beginning of the piece.

Through an insert Bolcom indicates the end of sections: In two places the change of meter for only one measure indicates the end of a section: in m. 62 of the first movement a 3/8 meter ends the middle section of the B section. In m. 69 of the third movement a 5/8 meter ends the A section.

Rhythm is an important compositional means for Bolcom to construct his music.

In a nutshell, he uses rhythmic motives and patterns, fragmentation, and additive and diminutive processes. He also juxtaposes two different meters in the third movement and marks sections by changing of the meter. He fragments the rhythmic motives, sometimes by adding several fragments in a row.

Pitch sets

The second movement contains pitch-class sets with the prime forms 3-2 (013) and 3-3 (014). The phrases, which are not longer than 3, 4 or 5 beats, are indicated by slurs or rests. The movement, which consists of 18 measures, is atonal and aphoristic.

All the sets presented in the first half of the movement, mm. 1-9, appear horizontally. In the second part, mm. 9-18, all sets, except two, appear vertically. The same groups of pitches are repeated until the end, while in the first part, the sets appear in different transpositions. (See Appendix III)

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Dynamically the movement starts out pianissimo and leads to m. 9 in forte dynamics. In the second half the dynamics get softer and the movement ends in piano.

The set structure as well as the dynamics divides the movement into two symmetrical halves. In m. 8 a pentatonic scale of five pitches: d, f, g, a, c, lead to the climax of the piece in the violin part. Both pitch sets appear in 6 different transpositions as shown in the diagram below. In each group of sets only one set is doubled.

The following diagram shows the occurrence of 3-2 (013) and 3-3 (014) in the second movement of Bolcom’s Sonatina:

3-2 (013) in 6 transpositions

1.) m.1: c bb db 2.) m.2 and m.5: cb bb db 3.) m.6: bb g ab 4.) mm. 6/7: f# f eb 5.) m. 8: f ab gb 6.) mm.9-18: g a bb

3-3 (014) in 6 transpositions

1.) m.5: cb g bb 2.) m.6: f f# d 3.) m.7: eb c b and a bb db 4.) m.8: b bb g (same as m.5) 5.) m.9: gb f a 6.) mm.9-18: a gb bb

In the third movement Bolcom uses the sets 3-4 (015) and 3-8 (026).

Measures 10-15 form a transition to the B theme, where the above sets appear as shown in example 3-29. In the last measure of the B theme the left hand of the piano contains the set 3-8 (026).

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Bolcom’s Sonatina is eclectic through the combination of popular music elements, and baroque-like passages. Tonal elements are mixed with atonality. It is also a compositional study with small rhythmic and intervallic motives, which lend the second movement especially a sparse, aphoristic character. The simple appearance of the music belies a complex construction. In that sense it is neoclassical, using traditional forms and a light texture. Stylistic features that are new in a twentieth-century sonatina are eclecticism, use of the compositional method with sets and rhythmic complexity. Of the four sonatinas this is the easiest to perform.

Example 3-29 Sets 3-4 (015) and 3-8 (026) in 3.movement

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HANS WERNER HENZE

Pollicino

Hans Werner Henze’s Sonatina is derived from his children’s opera Pollicino. In

Chapter 2, I mentioned earlier examples of sonatinas by Verdi and Busoni, in which operatic themes are used as musical material like in a paraphrase. Henze’s is another example of a sonatina taken from an opera, although the movements are based not on its most popular tunes, but rather on three interludes of the opera.

Henze wrote Pollicino for the children of Montepulciano, in Italy, where he made his home. The opera, which was written in 1979/1980 has been performed successfully numerous times. The premiere took place on August 2, 1980. Henze studied with

Wolfgang Fortner, a student of Hindemith, and with René Leibowitz in Paris. Rexroth describes his style as a “typical texture between heterophony and polyphony, quasi imitatory, short-breathed”. 65 Henze is usually seen as opera composer, his music being operatic, containing magic, masquerade, exclamation, pathos and boufonade. 66 The style of many compositions around that time period is generally titled neo-romantic; in this opera there are many tonal aspects to find as well, among others the Tuscan folksongs, which Henze incorporates.

The opera Pollicino (it. little thumb) is based on the story of Tom Thumb.

The story of Tom Thumb appears in various versions in English, French, German, and Italian fairytales. The small hero and his brother, driven out of their home by their impoverished parents, cleverly escape their fate many times but are finally forced to seek shelter among evil strangers, until. . . It is precisely that point where the various fairy tales diverge. 67

65 Diether Rexroth, Der Komponist Hans Werner Henze (Frankfurt am Main: Schott, 1986), 230. 66 Ibid., 235. 67 Steffen Georgi, The Plot , Wergo 66642, 2003, CD.

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From the different versions of Grimm, Perrault and Collodi, Henze follows the Italian version of Collodi. (Collodi is also the author of Pinocchio.) In Henze’s version the children meet the ogre before they escape together with his daughters.

The instrumentation of the opera includes next to recorders, guitars, instruments of the Orff School and other percussion instruments, a concertante violin, the harmonium, and the piano. Henze arranged three scenes that feature the violin accompanied with piano and some additional instruments for violin and piano alone and gave it the title sonatina.

I wrote a piano part and a solo violin part into the score. These are supposed to be played by professionals; in school performances they would be taken by teachers. They have a double function: to help the young players to keep in tune and in time, and to relax the ear, from time to time, from the sound of the recorders. They also have the task of telling the story: the violin is the voice of the grandmother, who narrates of and moralizes about Pollicino and his brothers, about Clotilde, the Ogre, winter and spring. 68

The “Interludio I” of the opera, which connects the fourth and the fifth scene has been arranged as the first movement of the Sonatina. The plot is as follows: The father wants to abandon the children. The whole family wanders into the woods, where the children start working. The interlude introduces the scene in the woods. The original instrumentation of this scene is for violin, piano and percussion instruments. It has an eerie character and imitates sounds of the woods, like birdcalls, rustling, etc.

The second movement is derived from the second scene. Pollicino overhears a conversation between his parents. The father wants to abandon his children and the mother tries desperately to argue against it. The original instrumentation is for piano,

68 Hans Werner Henze, “Pollicino: an opera for children,” Musical Times 121 (Dec. 1980): 766-68.

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violin and recorders. This movement reflects the lost feelings of the child, the desperation of the mother and the harshness of the father.

The third movement occurs at the end of the opera. It is a passacaglia and at the same time the fifth interlude. The children have fled from the house of the cannibal.

They are walking away from the house and have to cross a river in a storm. The original version is for piano, violin and percussion ensemble. The passacaglia depicts the long journey and its different stages towards a new life. Jobst Liebrecht writes:

And then at the end there is a river the children must cross, a rushing river. At the time Henze studied intensely Bruno Bettelheim’s interpretation of fairy tales. Elements that unfold as a kind of intense crisis in Henze’s earlier work— like his great Symphony No. 7 or Barcarola, in which the Styx, the river of the underworld, has to be crossed — reoccur here in a simpler form. They are toned down in a fairy tale style for the children, and not just for the children. One might say they are sublimated. 69

Beate Gille sees a numeric relationship between the twelve parts and eleven variations of the fifth interlude with the opera, as the Interlude connects the eleventh and the twelfth scene of the opera. 70 Some motives recur throughout the opera in the manner of

Leitmotivs . One has a certain similarity to the beginning motive of the fifth Symphony and Beate Gille thus calls it the fate motive ( Schicksalsmotiv ). The vertical chords of this motive contain the set 3-5 (016), which is the interval of a second and the tritone, usually symbolizing a fateful event, evil, or doom.

69 Jobst Liebrecht , Pollicino in Berlin: A Report from the Workshop , Wergo 66642, 2003, CD. 70 Beate Gille, “Die Märchenoper “Pollicino” von Hans Werner Henze” (Mag.- Schr., Hamburg, Univ., FB Kulturgeschichte, 1989),

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Example 3-30 Fate motive in first movement of Henze’s Sonatina

Neo-romanticism

Henze’s Sonatina is written later than the other three Sonatinas presented in this document, and therefore falls into a different compositional period of the twentieth century. Pollicino can be placed into the neo-romantic movement, starting since the mid-

1970s. The New Grove dictionary defines neo-romanticism as a movement, which has become synonymous with neo-conservative postmodernism, especially in Germany,

Austria and the U.S. The names of cited composers are Riehm, Rochberg, del Tredeci and Zwilich. Their music incorporates tonal harmony, tunefulness and forms rooted in the 19 th century. 71 Although Henze is not ordinarily cited as a post-romantic composer, several of his works have romantic features. He started using triads early in his music, at a time when others were composing strictly serial.

Henze’s early musical development . . . is in sharp contrast to the development of the avant-garde, which culminated in the growth of serial music around 1951. While Henze takes up serial methods in 1947, to complement traditional compositional methods, under the impression of Berg’s violin concerto and while his first rigid twelve tone compositions are obviously oriented towards the twelve tone technique of Berg’s violin concerto, which allowed the construction of traditional chord types, Boulez polemicizes in 1948 explicitly against Berg’s twelve tone technique and the emotional climate of his works. Everything, that must have fascinated Henze about Berg’s music Boulez appreciated least: The Romanticism and- one has

71 Jann Pasler: “Neo-Romantic” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 29 April 2006), < http://www.grovemusic.com >

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to unfortunately say it – his closeness to traditions…Boulez’s and his follower’s radical standpoint was one of the reasons why Henze started off as an outsider. 72

A piece by Henze that could be characterized as neo-romantic is the seventh symphony, one of Henze’s most important works. It was written shortly after the opera

Pollicino . According to Peter Petersen, Henze connects with this piece for the first time to the classic-romantic tradition of the big symphony. His earlier symphonies are in the style of Stravinsky and early-classical in approach and size. 73 The notation of the seventh symphony is conventional and the beginning starts with an E-flat minor chord.

One can find tonal aspects also in Henze’s Sonatina. Henze composes with triadic sonorities, as can be seen in example 31-1. The triads of C-sharp minor and F- sharp minor are occurring repeatedly in several movements of the piece. In the first two movements a B minor chord appears in the final measures. As the chords are not prominent but are woven into the texture they give an impression of tonality. As much as he uses triads Henze avoids functional harmony. Example 31-1 shows that Henze tends to bring distant harmonies into dissonant juxtaposition, which happens at other places in the piece as well. I don’t offer an analyse of example 31-1, measures 54-59, as it is outside the scope of my inquiry that is more stylistic.

The first movement is centered on C and in the second movement the second section ends in C. A centricity on C is implied through the pitch, on which the violin starts. The last chord of the piece appears over a pedal point on C. The return of the beginning takes place in m. 54, where three measures are set a fourth lower, therefore the

72 Rexroth , Der Komponist, 50 , (translation mine) 73 Peter Petersen, Hans Werner Henze, ein politischer Musiker, zwölf Vorlesungen (Hamburg: Argument-Verlag, 1988), 199.

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violin starts on G. Example 3-31 shows the return of the beginning with trichords G- sharp minor, A-sharp minor and B minor.

Example 3-31 Triads in context of C

The second movement does not have a traditional form scheme, but consists of three major sections:

A mm. 1-17 B mm. 18-36 C mm. 37-48

B and C sections have tonal elements. The B section ends on a pedal point of C in C major. The C section starts in E-flat minor and ends in B minor. The piece ends over repeated chords in B minor. (The final chord of the first movement was B minor on C.)

The last movement, which is the passacaglia , has a recurring ground bass pattern.

It reappears in all of the eleven sections except the last, which is shorter and forms the end of the piece. The melody in the left hand contains a twelve-tone row, the first twelve pitches of the passacaglia , see example 3-32. This row starts with an E major triad and in measure 3 descends to an E-flat major triad. The ground bass ends in measure 6 with

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the pitches F/ B-flat. This determines the movement’s tonality, which is B-flat. A canon, which starts of in m. 8 and continues through large parts of the piece, begins with the triads on F-sharp and C-sharp. The triad in F-sharp is also emphasized in m. 2 of the piece. This relates to the first movement where the same triads were used.

Example 3-32 Ground bass with twelve-tone row

Discrete trichords of Henze’s twelve tone row:

3-11(037), 3-6(024), 3-3(014), 3-1(012)

Discrete tetrachords of same row:

4-14(0347), 4-14(0237), 4-4(0125)

Discrete hexachords:

6-15(012458), 6-15(012458)

The texture--not in the whole Sonatina, but occasionally--is reminiscent of nineteenth century writing, using, for example, wide arpeggios in the piano accompaniment of the second movement, and repeated chords. The piece has a dream- like character at times and reminds one of times past, while the piece sounds contemporary. The main reason is the use of traditional features like triads and the passacaglia , the sigh-motive, the use of thirds, etc. The sigh-motive is apparent

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especially in the second movement; it is the mother’s lament on losing her children. The movement ends with the sigh repeated in the violin in mm. 34-48.

The form of the first movement is in four sections, while the second movement is in three sections. Henze often lets the music develop towards a climax, which is followed by a relaxation of tension. This shows especially in the dynamics. A good example is the first section of the first movement, which has the following dynamics: p/pp - mf- pp. Also in two sections in the second movement the dynamic level raises towards the middle of the sections, then returns to a lower level again. This can often be found in romantic music. The biggest climax in the first movement is towards the end of the movement in the third section before the return, which brings out the arch-shaped structure. In the second movement the climax occurs in the last section. In the last movement the dynamic level in the climax reaches a fffff!

The Sonatina shows neo-romantic features in terms of tonality, texture and dynamics. Henze’s movements have a pitch centricity, they use triads and next to polyphonic passages he does employ arpeggios, repeated chords and chromaticism. The melodies, especially in the second movement sound romantic. The texture is thick at times and supports big climaxes.

Baroque techniques (passacaglia, counterpoint)

If some aspects of this piece are close to romantic tradition, the texture is at the same time polyphonic, dense and somewhat complicated. Several things are going on at the same time, which is especially true for the first and third movements. In the first movement next to the triads there is another rhythmic motive that recurs several times. It is a chain of repeated sixteenth-note chords as shown in example 3-33. The repeated

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chords give the piece its nervous and anxious character, as it describes the feelings of the children and the noises in the woods. They saturate the piece and underline the climax and other agitated points in the movement. The short motive appears with changing intervals throughout the movement.

Example 3-33 Repetitions as motivic elements are recurring throughout

Another element that reappears is chromaticism, which can be found in two movements of this Sonatina. In mm.1-7 of the first movement the violin plays eleven pitches of the chromatic scale, except E which appears in the piano in measure 6. In mm.23 - 24 the bass line is F, E, E-flat. These measures also mark the end of the first section of the first movement. In the second movement a chromatic descent starts in m. 7 that ends in the tenor voice. In the B section four descending half steps occur in the violin part, mm. 26-29, while the treble in the piano is also descending chromatically.

Mm. 1-10 are full of chromaticism. The continuously descending half step is a sigh or lament which expresses the mother’s grief about the loss of her children ( Seufzer-

Motivik ). In the third movement the descending half step does appear as well, first in the opening two pitches of the melodic line, and also in two places in the twelve-tone row.

There are no longer chromatic lines to be found in that movement. In context with the plot, the chromaticism gives the movement a sad and tragic character as found in a

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baroque opera. The ground bass has features of the baroque Lamento bass. Example 3-

34 shows that the pattern contains a descending chromatic line.

Example 3-34 Lamento bass

During the course of the piece the passacaglia tune moves to different registers.

In variation 9 the passacaglia tune is doubled by the violin. Every variation focuses on a rhythmic feature and introduces one new element. For example, in variation 2, there is a regular eight-note motion. In variation 3 a dotted rhythm is introduced. The rhythmic motion becomes gradually faster and the texture more complex. In variation 7 consists of continuous triplets and in variation 8 the use of syncopation and eighth notes form a chain of continuous sixteenth notes. In variation 8 a stringendo starts and adds to the excitement of the piece. The fastest variation is no. 10 ancora piu mosso ; after that the motion slows down.

Another baroque feature is the use of a canon between the violin and the right hand of the piano over the ground bass pattern, as in Bach’s Goldberg-Variations. It is a canon at the fourth that starts in variation 2, in m. 8. The right hand follows the violin at a half-note distance. The canon is sometimes handled freely and ends in variation 8.

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Example 3-35 Canon at a fourth

In terms of form Henze’s Sonatina is very unconventional. None of the movements are in the forms usually used for the classical sonatina. Henze’s Sonatina relates to the past through baroque features, like polyphonic texture, the use of a passacaglia and the canon. It also incorporates romantic characteristics, like expressive melodies, arpeggios and repeated chords. New features in this sonatina are therefore eclecticism, unconventional forms and a polyphonic texture. In that way the piece is an eclectic composition with much flexible, experimental adaption of traditional elements, in order to enhance an operatic effect and stir the fantasy of the listener.

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In the previous chapters many different compositional techniques and forms were discussed, all of them connected with the short form of the sonatina. One of the main aspects of my document is to find structural differences between the twentieth-century sonatina and its predecessors and point out “new features” compared to the older sonatinas. The main novelties in those twentieth-century sonatinas I analyzed can be summarized as formal freedom, eclecticism, new compositional methods like serialism, and use of more complex textures, which includes an increase of polyphonic passages.

While in the beginning of the twentieth century many sonatinas, especially the

French, were influenced by Ravel’s Sonatina and showed nineteenth century characteristics, like cyclicality, interlocking of movements and expansion of length, the concept in the later twentieth century verged towards more freedom in terms of form with usually disconnected movements, motivic interrelationships between movements without cyclicality and no further expansion of length. The discussion on four Sonatinas shows that in the twentieth century composers take the freedom to apply any type of form to that genre, usually with the tempo relationships fast-slow-fast. In fact, composers take the liberty of adding unaccustomed forms, like the variation form or the passacaglia ; they change the order of standard patterns, use incomplete sonata forms by leaving out sections, or simply make up new forms. Composers apply new methods and combine them with the old forms or with their chosen type of form.

In terms of eclecticism the composers fused elements of popular music, Mexican nationalism and baroque music into the structure of the sonatina. All four Sonatinas

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represent different compositional trends in the twentieth century. Each sonatina retains certain elements that connect them with the past, either style, form or elements of a past period, nevertheless each sonatina introduces new elements into sonatina writing:

Mexican nationalism, twelve tone writing, fusion of jazz and classic, opera and sonatina.

The sonatinas are traditional in the sense that they all have a tonal center or relate to tonality in some ways while using compositional methods like serialism, sets, scales like pentatonics, dissonances etc. In Chávez’s Sonatina the nationalistic idioms of the

Pre-Historic Mexican culture and a very individual tonal language with the use of the pentatonic scale are set into the context of a D minor tonality. Stockhausen uses the twelve-tone row, which unifies all three movements starting on the pitch C. This results in a pitch centricity on C, the C being an important pitch throughout the piece. In spite of

Bolcom’s eclecticism and use of sets the piece is centered in C. All movements start on the pitch C and the last movement ends in C. Henze’s Sonatina connects to the baroque period through the use of the sigh-motive and the chromatic lamento bass. In this

Sonatina there is no common tonal center. The first two movements end in B major, while the third cadences in B-Flat.

The sonatinas hardly contain modern performance practices like aleatoric elements, singing and speaking, etc. In that sense they are not avantgarde, but conservative modern. The notation is traditional for all four sonatinas. Only the first movement of the Henze Sonatina asks for a plucked string in the piano, and the guitar- like strumming in Chávez’s Sonatina requires some experimentation on the part of the violinist.

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As the sonatinas were written at different times in the twentieth century, they reflect compositional trends of that time period, but they show the composer’s peculiarity, his predilections and ingenuity as well. The sonatina form on account of its brevity and compactness inspired composers of the twentieth century as the compositional material presented and developed is condensed into a compressed form. A famous example of a short dense composition is Alban Berg’s piano sonata op. 1, where all material is derived from the beginning figures. Adorno calls it a Gesellenstück , an apprentice work, which already shows the latent possibilities of his later compositions. 74

Three of the sonatinas are early works as well, the ones by Stockhausen, Chávez and

Bolcom. The sonatina lends maybe especially the young composers a form to experiment with, due to its ‘concise and flexible’ form. 75 The works reflect some of their basic ideas, which root in their work germ-like to be developed in a later stage.

Throughout the twentieth century most sonatinas were written for the concert artist, therefore they became more elaborate and more difficult to perform. The only piece of the group of four sonatinas, which would be in intermediate level, is the Sonatina by William Bolcom. The other three sonatinas require more maturity from the part of the players. The writing for violin is generally not very virtuosic. The more difficult passages are the double stops in Stockhausen’s Sonatina and the octaves in the Chávez’s

Sonatina. For the pianist Henze’s Sonatina is difficult due to its polyphonic texture and a tonal language, which takes time to comprehend. In Chávez’s Sonatina one finds the textures of nineteenth century pianism with octaves. The sonatinas are very demanding

74 Theodor W. Adorno, Berg Der Meister des kleinsten Űbergangs (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1995), 83. 75 Carrell, “The French Sonatina,”11. 74

from a rhythmical aspect. From a chamber music aspect they require some experience to play effectively in performance. Due to their small-scale structure tempo changes occur often, requiring good communication between the players. Some of the rhythms are complicated. The pieces require a great deal of rehearsal time to prepare for performance.

The four sonatinas have been performed at the College-Conservatory of Music in

Cincinnati in 2004 by Dona-Nouné Wiedmann, violin and Reiko-Christine Höhmann, piano. Recordings exist only from the Stockhausen Sonatina, with Saschko Gavriloff and

Alois Kontarski and the Henze Sonatina has been recorded in the context of the opera, but not as separate piece.

There are many pieces for violin and piano that are worthwhile performing but are seldom heard on the concert stage. The sonatinas are good examples of this repertoire.

They are interesting compositions and deserve to be performed more often.

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APPENDIX I

CARLOS CHÁVEZ, Sonatina for violin and piano, 1924

I II III IV

Largo Scherzo-Molto Adagio Largo vivace Scherzo: variation form

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN, Sonatina for violin and piano, 1951

I II III

Lento espressivo- vivacetto irato Molto moderato e cantabile Allegro scherzando

ABCA’ Variation form Intro A B C A’ Coda

WILLIAM BOLCOM, Sonatina for violin and piano, 1958

I II III

Moderato Andante Allegro

ABA AB A trans B B’ clos. C A B C ternary Coda

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HANS WERNER HENZE, Sonatina for violin and piano, 1979

I II III

Allegretto Moderato assai Passacaglia, Moderato

ABCA ABC 12 sections

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APPENDIX II

© Copyright 1971 by Universal Edition A.G., Wien / UE 15174

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Stockhausen, Karlheinz. Frühe Noten . Wien: Universal Edition No. 15174, 1971.

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Stockhausen, Karlheinz. Sonatine für Violine und Klavier , Deutsche Grammophon 2530827, 1977, LP.

Tannenbaum, Mya. Conversations with Stockhausen . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.

Woerner, Karl Heinrich. Stockhausen: Life and Work . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

HANS WERNER HENZE

Bräuer, Heinz-Jürgen. “Neues Musiktheater für Kinder am Beispiel des “Pollicino” von Hans Werner Henze.” Univ., Diss., Freiburg (Breisgau), 1990.

Geitel, Klaus. Hans Werner Henze . Berlin: Rembrandt-Verlag, 1968.

Gille, Beate. “Die Märchenoper “Pollicino” von Hans Werner Henze.” Mag.- Schr.,Hamburg, Univ., FB Kulturgeschichte, 1989.

Henderson, Robert. “Hans Werner Henze.” Musical Times 117 (1976): 566.

Henze, Hans Werner. Bohemian Fifths; an Autobiography . London: faber and faber, 1998.

Henze, Hans Werner. “Pollicino: an Opera for Children.” Musical Times 121 (Dec. 1980): 766-68.

Henze, Hans Werner. Neue Aspekte der musikalischen Ästhetik . Frankfurt: Fischer, 1979.

Henze, Hans Werner . Pollicino . CD booklet with essays by Jobst Liebrecht and Steffen Georgi. Wergo 6664 2.CD.

Pasler, Jann. “Neo-romantic,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 29 April 2006), < http://www.grovemusic.com >

Petersen, Peter. Hans Werner Henze, ein politischer Musiker, zwölf Vorlesungen . Hamburg: Argument-Verlag, 1988.

Rexroth, Diether. Der Komponist Hans Werner Henze . Frankfurt am Main: Schott, 1986.

Rickards, Guy. Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze . London: Phaidon, 1995.

Stephan, Rudolph. “Hans Werner Henze.” DR (1960): 29.

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WILLIAM BOLCOM

Finegold, Michael. “Bolcom goes for the Gold.” The Village Voice , September 1, 1992; 37, 35; Research Library pg. 89

Hiemenz, Jack. “Musician of the Month: William Bolcom.” High Fidelity/Musical America, September 1976, 4-5, 39.

Lim, Tze Yean. “Works for Violin and Piano by William Bolcom: a Study in the Development of his musical Style.” D.M.A.Thesis, University of Cininnati, 2002.

Rochberg, George. The Aesthetic of Survival: a Composer’s View of Twentieth- Century Music, ed. William Bolcom (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1984).

Wait, M. “Meet the Composer - Pianist: William Bolcom.” Piano Quarterly 142 (1988): 33-40.

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