#NataliaOnAMission: Women Composers and the Piano Sonata
Natalia Kazaryan, Illustration courtesy of Key West Impromptu Classical Concerts
I have always been drawn to large-scale compositions - particularly sonatas. This musical form demonstrates a composer’s mastery of their art, because it takes a great deal of creativity to come up with enough interesting musical material to create a large-scale sonata. Composers then need serious training and a mastery of structure to make that material into a cohesive whole. Thanks to this form, we have some of the greatest music ever written. Just think of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas!
Naturally, when I started researching works by women, I looked for piano sonatas. Since women were not allowed to formally study composition for centuries, my hope was to find enough sonatas written in the 20th century. To my surprise and delight, I found more sonatas than I expected, discovering some real gems in the process.
In this post, I want to share with you my two current favorite female sonatas. Grazyna Bacewicz’s Piano Sonata No. 2 is now a staple in my repertoire, and I am currently learning the Piano Sonata No. 3 by Emma Lou Diemer, an exciting musical kaleidoscope. Both sonatas adhere to the general rules of fast-slow-fast sequence of three movements, where the first movement, also in three parts, introduces the main themes in the exposition, develops them in development section, and brings them back in the recapitulation, all while traveling through different areas of the key of the movement.
What impresses me most with these sonatas is how the individuality of the composers’ language shines through this challenging and often limiting set of rules. They could have deviated from the rules like many of the their male contemporaries did, but they chose to demonstrate their skills at constructing a complicated form, while unleashing their unique voices.
Bacewicz’s Piano Sonata No. 2 was my first discovery, and it blew me away with its unapologetic power, passion, and force. Dark and stormy in character, the first movement requires vivid imagination and virtuosity. The second movement is a moment of introspection and poetry, though it never lets up the intensity even in the most lyrical passages. The toccata seals the work with an exciting tour-de-force conclusion. For most audiences, it is their first time hearing this work, but it has become a show-stopper to end my recitals that I am sure is bound to become a more widely performed audience favorite.
The Piano Sonata No. 3 by Emma Lou Diemer, a contemporary American composer, combines her many stylistic influences, including her affinity for Ravel, jazz, and the older masters like Bach and Mozart. The melodies are catchy, and the writing is colorful and exciting thanks to her masterful use of the entire range of the instrument. Her use of atmospheric harmonies and exciting rhythms gives the three movements so much life that I come away either humming the music or wanting to dance to it.
Do you know this piece? Hint: It is a piano sonata by an American female composer.
With these works, I was less interested in how strictly they follow traditional rules of the Sonata form. Rather, I wanted to learn how they made musical ideas come together on a larger canvas. I feel like I discovered a gold mine of skill and creativity with these two sonatas, but my search for more great sonatas by women continues!