November / Month of the Sonata – 21

Sonata, 1911 - Marcel Duchamp

    “Sonata“ (1911)  

 

          Marcel Duchamp

 

                   _______

 

 

as I was about to listen to Stravinsky’s

Sonata for Two Pianos, an intriguing,

I thought, combination, I came upon,

entirely inadvertently, his Concerto for

Two Pianos, which, to my confusion, 

was for only two pianos 

 

a concerto is a piece of music consisting,

indeed, of more than one movement, 

but with an accompanying orchestra,  

according to the definition, Stravinsky  

must’ve been playing with words, his 

Concerto for Two Pianos, however, 

suits my project, a month of, specifically, 

sonatas, irrespective of his erroneous

nomenclature

 

and it is entirely delightful, though

maybe in your face, listen

                   

this is where I might elaborate on the 

meaning of sonata, it is nothing more

than a piece of music consisting of

more than one segment, called

movements, anything can happen, 

much like in a novel, consisting of 

chapters, where anything also can 

happen

 

the term sonata is used for pieces of

music written for one or two instruments, 

for the one which can only play one note 

at a time, anything not a keyboard, 

requires harmonic accompaniment, it is 

a tradition, though not absolute

 

a piece of music written for three 

instruments consisting of more than 

one segment, movements, is called 

a trio, for four, a quartet, five, a 

quintet, and so forth, until one stops 

counting and we call it a symphony, 

a symphony is a sonata written for  

an indefinite number of instruments, 

which is to say an orchestra

 

a concerto is a symphony with a 

soloist, it’s named according to 

the soloist’s instrument 

 

but they’re all, essentially, sonatas

 

a piece of music consisting of more

than one segment of music, or 

movement, written for two instruments 

only, as far as I’m concerned, is called 

a sonata, so, to my mind, this Concerto

for Two Pianos should be called a

sonata 

 

but that’s just my opinion

 

what do you think

 

I think one should ever read the fine 

print, even with Stravinsky

 

enjoy

 

 

R ! chard