Product Description
About the Sonata Hymnica
Series
Program Note
Composer James Siddons draws on the
ethos of American rural hymns and spirituals to create evocations of the
deeper, larger meaning of familiar church melodies. These sonatas for piano
solo explore these deeper meanings in a variety of contemporary musical
influences, while keeping in mind the acoustics of small rural churches of the
late nineteenth century, with wooden floors and walls, high ceilings, and
dimensions determined by local builders who knew how to shape a room for
excellent acoustics in an age of no electricity and no microphones. These sonatas
are but partly about the specific melodies and words, and mostly about their
meaning in spiritual contemplation . . . and the piano, resonating,
reverberant, sometimes whispering---as a sacred harp.
Although these sonatas have no specific titles, the first sonata may be
thought of as the Prayer Sonata, the second as the Travel Sonata, as in a
spiritual journey, and the third sonata is about our greatest fear, that of
being alone and without God.
Performance Note
The pianist must keep in mind that
these sonatas are about playing the piano as much as playing a composition.
Musical effects characteristic of the piano and descriptive of the memory in
American culture are the substances of these piano solos. Touch is important:
in many places, several dynamics are called for on the same beat. All three
pedals on an American piano (damper, sostenuto, and sustain) are needed.
The orchestral and cinematic structure of this music requires extensive use of
three staffs, which may consist of two treble and one bass staff, or one treble
and two bass staffs. In basic grand-staff passages, the two staffs may both be
treble or both bass. The musical influences in these sonatas include religious
song in rural America, the chromaticism and Expressionism of Arnold Schoenberg
and his followers, and the tone colors of the music of Japanese composer Toru
Takemitsu.
Durations
Sonata
Hymnica No. 1 --- 15
minutes.Sonata Hymnica No. 2 --- 11 minutes. Sonata Hymnica No. 3
--- 9 minutes.
About the Composer
Composer, musicologist, and pianist
James Siddons studied composition with Dika Newlin, a protégé of Arnold
Schoenberg, and electronic music with Merrill Ellis, founder of the electronic
music program at the University of North Texas, where he also earned a PhD in
musicology. After a year at the University of London, where he studied musical
analysis at Kings College and electronic music at Goldsmiths College, Siddons
spent two years in Japan as a research scholar at Tokyo University of Arts,
participating in the Ethnomusicology Seminar of Fumio Koizumi. Siddons has also
studied theology and liturgy at the Duke University Divinity School. In
addition to books and articles on contemporary music and music in Japan,
Siddons was written compositions in many genres. Recordings of his piano
performances are available at online streaming services.
His website is www.JamesSiddons.com
His performing rights organization is ASCAP.
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