Sonata #3 in A minor (Wind of Time) Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.976504

The "Piano Sonata #3 in A minor" was written as an expansion of a rock song entitled Wind of Time, composed in 1973 when the composer was the lead guitarist with the Molay Band, a group that regaled the bars and frat parties of Westwood during those tumultuous years. The composer returned to the song in order to develop the harmonic peculiarities and improvisational qualities the Wind of Time theme offers. The tempo of the sonata is Allegro strepitoso, and is cast in one movement following the traditional sonata-allegro form. The opening theme is characterized by a sustained rhythmic ostinato that is elaborated with unresolved suspended 2nd and 4th harmonies. This is followed by a contrastingly lyrical passage that unfolds through a series of sequential gyrations. The development is a fantasia that employs improvisational techniques associated with rock music, and lends the piece a sense of freshness and spontaneity. The sonata returns in the recapitulation to the athleticism of the principal theme, concluding in a powerful unresolved suspension that seems to ask an unanswered question, the answer to which may someday be found in blowing on the Wind of Time. This sonata was first performed by fifteen-year old pianist Sarah Knauer in a contemporary music competition sponsored by the Music Teachers’ Association of California West San Fernando Valley Branch, in which she took first place. Ms. Knauer subsequently performed the piece in recital at Pierce College on April 13, 2008.