Product Description
This Sarabande is the third of a four-movement sonata composed in 2018. Publication
of the entire sonata is forthcoming. In the interim, I am offering three movements, the
Passacaglia, Sarabande and Gigue, as single standalone works. I have performed them in
my own concert programs both as part of the larger sonata and on their own and believe
that they work equally well both ways.
The typical Sarabande is written in slow triple time with an emphasis on the second
beat. Hemiola rhythms in which two groups of three beats are followed by three
groups of two beats are also often used. Most Sarabandes, though not all, are written
using binary structure, often with repeats. The Sarabande offered here adheres to this
tradition in most ways. It is in 3/4 time and evokes a wistful character, despite the pieces
overall major-key tonality. It also features shifting rhythms, although the hemiola form is
suggested rather than followed exactly.
Harmonically, it features an invented scale inverse to the one used in the Passacaglia and
Gigue. The latter two pieces use an E harmonic minor scale with an added (structural)
B flat to blur any sense of strict tonality. The Sarabande, in contrast, employs an E major
scale with two altered tones: B flat and C natural. The piece modulates to a similarly
altered G major scale for the second section before returning to E major to end the
piece. Phrases in the first half are generally five measures in length but grow more varied
in the second section.
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