Brass Quartet and Rhythm Section

Movement I (4:14) - April 1996 (MIDI)

Movement II (2:06) - April/May 1996 (MIDI)

Movement III (2:11) - May 1996 (MIDI)

I never really liked composing piano sonatas (even though my tally was running at one). So when my teacher asked for another sonata, I decided to write for something other than piano, and in a jazz style.

Movement I

This is the first of three movements. It is in Sonata Allegro form, like Sonorous Sonata. There are some good uses of cascades and whole tone scales but I think overall it's too harmonically thin and too long. I think it might have been better had I shortened some of the repeated phrases, but I try not to change my compositions once I've labelled them as "finished." (I've found copious rule-breaks in earlier compositions, but if I ever changed them, I couldn't track my progress).

Movement II

The second movement of a sonata is supposed to contrast the first so I switched meters and started to experiment harmonically. I was getting tired of my chord repertoire, so I started experimenting with ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. It ended up as mostly a first trumpet feature although I hadn't intended for that to be the case.

Movement III

My final movement was supposed to be written in Rondo form (i.e. ABACADAE...). My main theme is in normal 12-bar blues style but I tried to make the countermelodies as diverse as possible. I had lots of fun creating this one.