SONATA FOR BASSOON AND PIANO

Composed: 2025
Commission: Sue Barber, Professor of Bassoon; with support from The College of Visual and Performing Arts, James Madison University
Premiere: June 2025
Duration: 11 minutes
Instrumentation: bassoon and piano

PROGRAM NOTES

I.Andante
II.Allegro

The Sonata for Bassoon and Piano is a study in contrasts, featuring the clear, pristine, sometimes crisp, sometimes liquid, sometimes haunting sound of the bassoon.

In the Andante, the piano creates blurred, murmuring clouds of sound while the bassoon floats and sings sometimes peacefully, sometimes hauntingly above and through them.

In the Allegro, the bassoon’s mastery of short, crisp notes, leaping around the spectrum of high and low registers is on display.  The bassoon and piano speedily chase each other through the music, often in a lively repartee. In a middle section,  the bassoon wends it way above, below and through the mass of somewhat menacing clouds of sound created by the piano.