A commissioned-unpaid (i.e. they asked me to volunteer to write it) sonata for solo flute in four movements.
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Story behind the song
The whole piece is supposed to be a gradual pulling away from the darkness of atonality and into the light of harmony. Being for only one player, and one line at a time, it proved hard to create the illusion of harmonies, but I think I did well.
The first movement starts slow, and gradually becomes faster. The entire thing is atonal, starting in an assumed F# major, and ending in a sort of A-major. There are several sections:
Beginning: slow and very at the players liberty
Fast: The piece picks up after a long accelerando and goes into rapid notes and rapid tongueing.
Melodic: After a few scales, the piece goes into a lyrical melody, but the illusion is that it is entirely offset by a half-beat; what seems like the down beat is really the upbeat.
Cadenza: I repeat a melody line a total of 4 times, each time dividing the note duration by 2, making it seem like it is getting faster; I made this a cadenza for easier playing.
Finale: the end of the first movement is a rapid, one-beat-per-measure section eventually ending on a high A.