JAVS Spring 2010

Figure 6. Opening of the third movement of the Sonata for Viola.

ment of Krenek’s sonata is a chaconne reminiscent of the great Baroque examples of J. S. Bach, mainly the famous D-minor example from the Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 for solo violin. Here, in Krenek’s sonata, the formal structure of the Baroque chaconne is in altered form as the first theme is longer than the cus tomary eight-bar themes found in Baroque examples. In Krenek’s work, a nine-bar theme is employed, which does not reoccur unaltered at the end of the work, as was Bach’s practice. Krenek, however, does retain the essence of Bach’s chaconne, which was clearly modeled after the French orchestral chaconne, by retaining the rhythmic schema of dotted rhythms on the second beat (fig. 8). This final movement of the sonata includes references to each of the prior movements through the sequen tial variation formula that makes up the structure of the work. Krenek’s admiration for J. S. Bach reached a zenith in a work of 1950 titled Parvula Corona Musicali s, or Little Musical Wreath , scored for string trio. Krenek described this work, in the subtitle, as a composition “in honor of J. S. Bach composed according to the twelve-tone technique.” 2 The work is in three movements with subsections totaling six sep

arate sections, the last of which is a chorale-type five bar harmonization of the pitches that represents the name B–A–C–H. Consisting of seven variations, a compressed restate ment of the theme, and a coda that makes reference to the opening subject of the first movement of the sonata, this last movement is a masterpiece of conser vation. The composer is able to encapsulate the drama and theater of Bach’s original into a tight, well-con tained space; in this specific example, that space is con fined to one page of printed music. The final move ment is thus a fitting tribute to the chaconne of the late Baroque—the form of which relies on a system, both harmonic and structural. There could not be a better template on which to superimpose these new and emerging systems of twentieth-century music. The Sonata for Viola, op. 92, no. 3 is a staunch and inspired example of an innovative approach to twelve tone composition, free atonal writing, and the recon ciliation of consonance and dissonance, reinvented and overlaid by the composer onto the historical nar rative of the sonata. The rhythmic inventiveness, har monic innovations, and idiosyncratic writing for the

Figure 7. First four measures of the trio section from the third movement of the Sonata for Viola.

Figure 8. The opening eight bars of Krenek’s chaconne for solo viola, movement four, shows his great admiration for J. S. Bach. Krenek’s ability to make something ancient sound new and fresh was one of his great gifts as a composer.

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