Sonata for Cello and Piano was originally drafted from January to March of 2020, and subsequently revised over the following year. In lieu of a premiere performance, the piece debuted on an album recording, alongside the composer’s oboe sonata, and two works by Jordan Holloway: a cello sonata and an oboe sonata as well. This piece is inextricably related to its companions on the album, serving as a “sister sonata” to the composer’s oboe sonata, and even co-opting a theme from the Holloway cello sonata for use in the Scherzo. All four movements of the sonata, aside from being motivically related throughout, also begin with the same musical “air”, a brief passage which guides the listener into the work and provides some respite between each movement.

Fantasia is an optimistic, upbeat movement on the whole, largely inspired by the music of Debussy and Poulenc. After the air, and a dramatic introduction of the cello, we hear the first melodic motif that will show up throughout the work: a simple, descending three-note shape consisting of a step and a small leap down. The music continues to flow along from scene to scene, introducing some other recurring motifs, namely, a wavy ascending scalar figure that is featured in the later movements as well.

The Elegy features an incredibly long, drawn-out melody, supported at the beginning by a very simple accompanimental texture. It meanders its way up, repeatedly building and getting brighter only to be suddenly darkened again and again, before eventually reaching an extended moment of stillness on a high harmonic. This leads into the middle section, a lush, forest scene, which then gives way to another extended high harmonic. The music builds back up through a dark, obscure harmonic area until it reaches the recapitulation of the melody, now in counterpoint with the ascending scalar motif introduced in the 1st movement. The movement ends with a third moment of stillness, fading away into nothingness.

The Scherzo is the shortest and least serious of the movements. After the long, drawn-out Elegy, the Scherzo sounds like carnival music, turning flips and cartwheels and generally being playfully mischievous. It is music to be chuckled at, utterly bastardizing the intensely passionate theme from the 2nd movement (“Now with Alberti bass!”). After a false recap, the movement quotes a theme from the Holloway cello sonata: an inside joke for which any and all explanation, for reasons of saving face, will here remain omitted...

The Finale of the sonata is a heroic seven-part rondo form in C minor. At each episode, our hero pays homage to each character in turn, making its way back through the clownish Scherzo, the intimate and dark Elegy, and finally the optimistic Fantasia to round out the unlikely bunch. With each movement having been revisited, the Finale culminates with an athletic fireworks display, a strong exclamation mark at the end of the story.

Download contains PDF score and part.