Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Bloch was a preeminent artist in his day, and left a lasting legacy. He is recognized as one of the greatest Swiss composers in history. As well as producing music ...
's Violin Sonata No. 1 is a
sonata
Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...
for
violin and
piano. It is regarded as one of the masterpieces of the violin repertoire.
Composed in
Cleveland in 1920, the work makes considerable demands of both technique and endurance from the violinist.
Bloch himself described the sonata as a "tormented work",
and
Roger Sessions described it as having a characteristic "mood of pessimism, irony and nostalgia".
[ uoted in]
Structure
There are three
movements:
#''
Agitato''
#''
Molto quieto''
#''
Moderato
Moderato may refer to:
* ''Moderato'', an Italian musical term; see Glossary of music terminology#M
* Moderato Wisintainer (1902-1986), Brazilian footballer generally known as Moderato
See also
* ''Moderato Cantabile
''Moderato Cantabile'' is ...
''.
The first movement begins with driving,
toccata-like idea which transitions to a characteristic Hebrew-inflected melody; these materials are extensively developed leading to a tormented, expressive
coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
. The second movement begins gently, with a sustained cantilena for the violin over a quiet piano
arpeggio
A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves.
An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...
s, but introduces more agitated material as it proceeds. The final movement is launched with heavily-chorded dance measures, but as the movement proceeds material from the opening two movements is revisited before the work ends quietly.
Premiere performance
The work was premiered in
New York City in February 1921 by
Paul Kochanski and
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist. .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Violin Sonata No. 1 (Bloch)
Compositions by Ernest Bloch
Bloch Bloch is a surname of German origin. Notable people with this surname include:
A–F
* (1859-1914), French rabbi
*Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), Austrian entrepreneur
*Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter
* (born 1972), German motor journal ...
1920 compositions