The ''Sonata for Solo Violin in D minor ‘Ballade’, Op. 27, No. 3'' is a sonata in one movement written in 1923, as the third sonata from the set of
Six Sonatas for solo violin by
Eugène Ysaÿe. It is dedicated to the Romanian violinist and composer
George Enescu.
History
During the 20th century, this sonata was the most often played out of the six sonatas, and it still remains one of Ysaÿe’s most popular works.
Ysaÿe himself wrote of the sonata, “I have let my imagination wander at will. The memory of my friendship and admiration for George Enescu and the performances we gave together at the home of the delightful Queen
Carmen Sylvia have done the rest.”
Structure
The sonata is a single movement written in two sections.
The first section, marked ''Lento molto sostenuto'', is a slow introduction in the manner of a recitative, which hints at some of the motifs to be heard later in the piece. It makes use of the
whole tone scale, as well as many
disjunct melodic leaps, and a large amount of
dissonance and
chromaticism
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...
.
The introduction leads directly into the main section of the piece, marked ''Allegro in tempo giusto e con bravura''. It is in 3/8 meter, and is characterised by agitated dotted rhythms, as well as many
double and triple stops. After a calmer middle section with rapid legato triplet passages, the dotted rhythm theme returns. The piece ends with a brilliant coda of very fast
demisemiquaver
In music, a thirty-second note (American) or demisemiquaver (British) is a Musical note, note played for of the duration of a whole note (or ''semibreve''). It lasts half as long as a sixteenth note (or ''semiquaver'') and twice as long as ...
passages.
References
External links
*
6 Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27: Scores at the
International Music Score Library Project
{{Eugène Ysaÿe}
Ysaye
Ysaye
1923 compositions
Compositions by Eugène Ysaÿe
Compositions in D minor