Sonata

Program Notes

In the summer of 2012, I was a fellow at the Fontainebleau Conservatory in France, and was asked to compose a duo for violin and piano in advance of my visit. This new work would be premiered at the Chateau d'Fontainebleau, a historic and regal palace, which had stood for centuries. As I set out to compose, my mind began to wander, thinking of the Chateau's stone bricks and winding inner passageways (which I had seen in pictures), and I imagined someone sitting in an inner lair of the building before it had electricity, with candlelit shadows, glowing light, and rising smoke all evaoprating into the night. The first notes we hear from the violin explicitly reference the idea of flickering light, and smoke rising up from acandle, as a fragile sustained pitch slowly turns into gentle "white noise" bowed on the violin's bridge. The rest ofthe piece unfolds almost in a dream, as small fragments and episodes dip in and out. There are two halves: candlelight, the first section, which is gently singing throughout; and, darkness, the second section which is filled with strange silences, interruptions, and fragments that recall the opening.

- Daniel Temkin