This piece was written on commission by the Georgia Music Teachers Association, an affiliation of the Music Teachers National Association, in 2015. Originally composed for Hollie Lifshey, affiliate artist professor of truhttps://georgiamta.org/index.phpmpet at Georgia State University at the time, the piece was premiered at the GMTA Conference in Atlanta in November 2015. Hollie performed the third movement at the New Works Recital of the ITG Conference in Hershey, PA (2017).
This is a fairly standard sonata in three movements, fast/slow/fast. Movement one is a lively piece with a lot of sixteenth note pentatonic patterns and quite a few melodic leaps of a major seventh.. The middle section moves into a slower 6/8 section, but features a good bit of triple-tongued figures. The movement ends with a return to the open theme.
Movement two is perceived as a quasi-jazz ballad, but the middle section switches to a medium tempo samba. Again the movement returns to the opening idea to round out the form. Movement three was conceived as a sort of a gigue in 6/8 time with a brisk tempo. The middle section morphs into a swing groove with a 12-bar blues melody. There is a solo section, complete with chord changes for those who are comfortable improvising. There is also a written solo for those who prefer to read what they improvise. The gigue returns at the end to offer one last flourish.
This piece is challenging but playable. Excellent multiple tonguing is definitely required, however.
Unfortunately the premiere was not recording but you can listen to the MIDI version for an idea of the piece.
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