Nicolas Medtner by Barrie Martyn

Author:Barrie Martyn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351556354
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

The most contemplative, poetical and lyrical of the Sonatas, this one-movement work opens with what may be called the ‘theme of reminiscence’, heard again not only in the Sonata but elsewhere in the cycle. The crotchets informing the theme move step-wise up the melodic minor scale and then down, as if quiet recollection is stirring (see Example 72).

Forming a unit complete in itself, the theme also acts as a preamble to the exposition. Unusually, this gives the main subject two hearings, each being followed with a different song-like secondary theme, both characterized by a grave and gentle beauty. When agitation begins to take hold, calm is restored by a repetition of the theme of reminiscence.

A dramatic outburst launches the development (svegliando). The first of the secondary themes is now urgent and troubled, but eventually calms into a delicate wistfulness when combined with the main subject. In the second half, descending chromatic scales evoke a mood of haunted anxiety, and a sinister undercurrent of agitation gradually wells up again as the right-hand figuration traces a brooding version of the theme of reminiscence (tenebroso), moving step-wise in a painful but ultimately unsuccessful struggle to find its way out of the darkness. The episode reaches a sudden climax, culminating in two arpeggiated cries of despair.

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