Flute Sonata No. 4 – (The Spanish Sonata)

Flute Sonata No. 4 The Spanish Sonata in 3 movements

Mvt 1 – 8:00

Mvt 2 – 5:40

Mvt 3 – 8:00

MOVEMENT 1:  The first movement of the Sonata is based on a “mozarabic chant” one of the few which survive in a legible script. This chant for “preces” is musically reinterpreted in the opening piano rhythm.

MOVEMENT 2: Inspired by the devotional songs of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, the second movement combines jazz and French influences to convey a desperate pathos reaching a climax of hope and release.

MOVEMENT 3: – Inspired by 16th-century music written for the vihuela de mano, the opening piano rhythm serves as the catalyst for much of the movement’s material. Secondary material, inspired by Spanish pirate music, quickly dovetails the inevitable motivic force of the undulating piano line.

Exercising a basic influence of the early Spanish music which inspired this work is the Arab element. The entire Sonata attempts to avoid explicit nationalism by rejecting folk elements to achieve a contemporary modern Spanish newness.

The work was written specifically and dedicated to Marianne Gedigian