Sonata, Opus, 22
Judith Cody
About this work:
Program notes:
“When I was a small child, my grandfather who was born in Ukraine, would play his violin just for me in one of my most important memories of music. On some, too few I think now, occasions my mother would take me and my little sister to the Ukranian Center outdoor garden where we would eat the old country treats and watch local people sing and dance the classic dances and songs.
A distant cousin (as I was told) was proudly heralded as a “ world prize winning kasatzka dancer.” One bright twilight as the ancient tunes swirled through the scalding summer air, he leaped an astonishing height to the top of a fence. Then in one raging bound he managed to almost fly to the top of the first floor of the center.There he danced the great dance of the mountains to the most ancient music one could ever recall, and with the open mouthed astonishment of all who watched during that long ago summer twilight.
And it is this: fragments of those anonymous Ukranian primal songs and parts of the spontaneous dance that drift and intertwine like nostalgic memories within the Sonata that are held together with the threads of neoromanticism on the fabric of a contemporary idiom. Guitar and flute lines state an intense dialogue. Both instruments are treated as equal partners and each is provided with idiomatic material of its own. Each instrument performs an increasingly “ad lib” solo passage and afterwards becomes more involved with the other. The Sonata, Opus 22 is dedicated to the memory of Kasha, my mother.” -Cody-
Copyright 2003, Judith Cody, all rights reserved
publisher: Kikimora
Version: flute and guitar
Year composed: 1978
Duration: 00:04:30
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Guitar (Classical/Acoustic)