Piano Sonata No. 1 in A flat Major Op. 4 (2013)
I. Allegro piacevole
II. Adagio
III. Allegro piacevole
My first piano sonata was completed in the winter of early 2013 for my friend at the University of Chicago, Nathan Harris. The piece is suffused with a kind of warm, tender lyricism. This is the first piece I wrote where I thought more of motives and phrases and less of themes or melodies. The first and last movements are both marked “Allegro piacevole,” fast and pleasantly. While the first movement is more boisterous and dramatic, the last is more like a rustic dance alla Beethoven. The lyrical slow movement, with its long arching melodies, is characterized by tender yearning and melancholy.
Piano Sonata no 1 in Ab