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Sonate (2000) |
For violin and piano - c. 17'
The opening Allegro vivace, naive in style, light and fantastical, is based on the Branle de l'Official by Thoinot Arbeau. This tune is better known in the English-speaking world as the Christmas carol Ding dong merrily on high. The thematic variations are organised in lied form with a coda.
From the low register of the violin the middle movement, Andante sostenuto, develops a gentle, melancholic theme, accompanied on the piano by dense clusters of harmony in amphibrach rhythm. A central section, lighter and more graceful, is a free paraphrase of an Alsatian carol O Tannenbaum, which also provides the generative cell of the movement. The re-exposition is followed by a particularly expressive coda, Affettuoso, accompanied by a long harmonic pedal. The appoggiatura of the generative cell is repeated in a rising sequence until it reaches the extreme high register of the instruments, in search of an opening onto the eternal, and announcing the final line of the main theme of the finale ich bin im Himmel schoo! (I am already in Heaven).
The final part, In tempo di ballo, is a brilliant rondo-sonata with variations on several themes that recalls the joyously rhythmic character of the first movement. Its main theme, a perpetuum mobile in semiquavers, was inspired by a mountain song from Colmar, Uff em Berjel, bin ich g'sässe (When I am on the mountain). One of the episodes quotes a Danse de Champagne by Claude Gervaise.
First performance: by Marion Delorme, violin, and the composer, piano, 6 December 2001 in the Church of the Trinité, Paris.
Naji Hakim has also arranged Trois Noëls for a cappella chorus with solo violin ad libitum (published by UMP, London) that is based on the main themes of this Sonata.