Viola
SKU:
HL.48024561
Composed
by Robin Holloway. Boosey
& Hawkes Chamber Music.
Classical. Softcover. 18
pages. Duration 1440
seconds. Boosey & Hawkes
#M060134159. Published by
Boosey & Hawkes
(HL.48024561).
ISBN
9781784543518. 0.078
inches.
This Sonata
for Viola (unaccompanied)
was written in 1999. The
soloists C-string is
tuned down a semitone for
the entire piece, giving
a duskier quality to the
tone-colour, and setting
up in the very first bar
the characteristic
melodic/harmonic shape
that infiltrates all four
movements. I - slowish
and thoughtful -
gradually expands this
opening idea into
cantilena and pattern, as
prelude to II -
Vivacissimo - played
muted throughout, a
tremolando tarantella,
with contrasting section,
chunky double-stops,
alternating withsomething
of a gigue. III - adagio
- rhapsodic and
quasi-improvisando,
enclosing a simple
self-contained melody,
and linking into IV,
where the gigue-like
material from the scherzo
provides the principal
substance, expanding into
an ardent cantabile, and
calminginto the Coda not
just the finale but, in
its reminiscences of I,
to the sonata as a
whole.
