Piano Sonata No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)

Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36, is a piano sonata in B-flat minor composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1913. Rachmaninoff revised it in 1931, with the note, "The new version, revised and reduced by author."

Background

Three years after his third piano concerto was finished, Rachmaninoff moved with his family to a house in Rome that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky had used. It was during this time in Rome that Rachmaninoff started working on his second piano sonata. However, because both of his daughters contracted typhoid fever, he was unable to finish the composition in Rome. Instead, Rachmaninoff moved his family on to Berlin in order to consult with doctors. When the girls were well enough, Rachmaninoff traveled with his family back to his Ivanovka country estate, where he finished the second piano sonata. Its premiere took place in St. Petersburg in December of 1913.

Composition

The sonata is in three interrelated movements:

It gives the impression of being a single movement due to being joined by two Non allegro bridges. The piece follows sonata form strictly.

Piano Sonata No. 2 (Scriabin)

Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, (Op. 19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. It was finally published in 1898, at the urging of his publisher. The piece is in two movements, with a style combining Chopin-like Romanticism with an impressionistic touch. The piece is widely appreciated and is one of Scriabin's more popular pieces.

The first movement Andante begins with echoing effects, followed by two lyrically themed sections. After a short climax, the piece modulates to E major (also C-sharp minor) and lyrical sections are restated with a slightly more complicated accompaniment. The second movement Presto, in sharp contrast to the first movement, is very fast and intense. In fact, at the given tempo indication, the second movement averages nearly 15 notes per second, making it comparable to an étude. Alternating crescendos and decrescendos may give the listener the impression of waves.

The precedent of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata allowed Scriabin the luxury of an opening slow movement to his Second Sonata, whose programme reads thus: "The first section represents the quiet of a southern night on the seashore; the development is the dark agitation of the deep, deep sea. The E major middle section shows caressing moonlight coming up after the first darkness of night. The second movement represents the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation."

Piano Sonata No. 2 (Chopin)

Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 35, popularly known as The Funeral March, was completed in 1839 at Nohant, near Châteauroux in France. However, the third movement, whence comes the sonata's common nickname, had been composed as early as 1837.

Movements

The sonata comprises four movements:

The first movement opens with a short introduction, followed by a stormy opening theme and a gently lyrical second theme in D♭ major. After the development comes again the lyrical second theme - but this time in B♭ major (in which the movement ends). The second movement is a virtuoso scherzo in E♭ minor with a more relaxed melodic central section in G♭ major. The third movement begins and ends with the celebrated funeral march in B♭ minor which gives the sonata its nickname, but has a calm interlude in D♭ major. The finale contains a whirlwind of unremitting parallel octaves, with unvarying tempo and dynamics, and not a single rest or chord until the final bars with a sudden fortissimo B♭ octave and a B♭ minor chord ending the whole piece. James Huneker, in his introduction to the American version of Mikuli edition of the Sonatas, quotes Chopin as saying, "The left hand unisono with the right hand are gossiping after the March." Arthur Rubinstein is said to have remarked that the fourth movement is the "wind howling around the gravestones". The Sonata confused contemporary critics, who found it lacked cohesion. Robert Schumann suggested that Chopin had in this sonata "simply bound together four of his most unruly children." (See Schirmer's modern reprint of the Mikuli edition.)

Piano sonata

A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Scarlatti, Scriabin, Medtner), two movements (Haydn), five (Brahms' Third Piano Sonata) or even more movements. The first movement is generally composed in sonata form.

The Baroque keyboard sonata

In the Baroque era, the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) or sonata da camera (chamber sonata), both of which were sonatas for various instruments (usually one or more violins plus basso continuo). The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composers.

The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (of which there are over 500) were the hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were for the most part unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime. The majority of these sonatas are in one-movement binary form, both sections being in the same tempo and utilizing the same thematic material. These sonatas are prized for both their technical difficulty and their musical and formal ingenuity. The influence of Spanish folk music is evident in Scarlatti's sonatas.

Piano Sonata (Reubke)

The Piano Sonata in B-flat minor is a work written by Julius Reubke between December 1856 and March 1857. Although it remains very obscure and is little performed (unlike the composer's Sonata on the 94th Psalm for organ), it combines the Lisztian technique of thematic transformation, colourful harmonies, virtuosic piano writing and a wide array of characters and sentiments.

Description

The work opens with an Allegro maestoso, characterised by a dramatic, rising forte first subject. This rising motif (a minor semitone followed by a major third jump), is a significant theme of the movement, recalled at various points throughout (including the cadenza-like passagework). The main theme is built over a chordal structure of i, bII6, viio7, i4-3, v, and VI6/4. The work has other, similarly interesting modulations, presented as undecorated chordal series. The second theme, marked Quasi Recitativo is written in a free and vocal style. Its melancholy second subject, in the distant key of E major, recalls something of Reubke's own sadly short life.

Piano Sonata (Grieg)

Edvard Grieg's Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7 was written in 1865 when he was 22 years old. The sonata was published a year later and revised in 1887. The work was Grieg's only piano sonata and it was dedicated to Danish composer Niels Gade. The sonata has four movements with the following tempo markings:

A typical performance lasts around 20 minutes.

In the first movement he used a technique probably most famously used by Bach and Shostakovich: his own name, more precisely his initials E-H-G (H being the German name for note B), begins the melody in the first two bars, which is reiterated in octaves and even echoed by the left hand in bars 13 and 14. He used the same method in his two compositions of the Lyric Pieces: "Gade", Op. 57, No. 2 and "Secret", Op. 57, No. 4, using the name of his admired colleague Gade.

In a 1944 letter to Ella Grainger, Percy Grainger mentioned planning to orchestrate the sonata. He apparently did so, but only a sketch is extant. However, an orchestration of the Menuetto by Danish composer Robert Henriques exists.

No. 2 (band)

No. 2 was an American indie rock band that originated in Portland, Oregon in 1996 and consisting of Neil Gust (guitar and vocals), Gilly Ann Hanner (bass, backing vocals; later to be replaced by Jim Talstra) and Paul Pulvirenti (drums).

History

No. 2 was formed by frontman Neil Gust after the breakup of Heatmiser. The band's name is a reference to the fact that this was Neil Gust's second band with Virgin Records:

The band quickly picked up where Heatmiser left off, with songs on their debut album No Memory that echoed the sound and feel of Mic City Sons. No Memory quickly earned the band praise for its melodic hooks and finely crafted songs. No. 2 began small, with Neil Gust asking a few friends to help record some material for a new album.

The band's first release, a 7" vinyl called "Allistair Chestnut", was released in mid-1999. The A-side, titled "Allistair Chestnut", is a song about falling for someone who is more interested in 'playing the field' than a relationship. The band's first full album, No Memory, was released within months of the "Allistair Chestnut" 7". A full tour followed, mostly opening for former bandmate Sam Coomes's band Quasi. A second album, What Does Good Luck Bring? followed in 2002.