But the biggest revolution was the break-up of tonality (the close relationship of a piece of music to a tonal center or "home key"). Through their strong use of chromatism, Richard Strauss and Max Reger had already moved away from the tonal system. It was Arnold Schoenberg who in 1908 took the decisive step towards atonal music, and in the early 1920s he evolved a system to organize this type of music, the so-called twelve-tone row.
But this was only one of many paths music took in the twentieth century. We have not only free tonality, atonality, and the twelve-tone serial technique, but also the "preservation" of tonality through bitonality, or the composer's own tonality concept, or the Neoclassical recourse to traditional forms of design. Other composers, as Shostakovitch and Prokofiev, developed a sort of "extended" use of tonality. But this had of course an effect on the sonata form, and by the 1930s, sonata form had become merely a rhetorical term for "any movement that stated themes, took them apart, and put them back together again." However, many composers (even of atonal music) continued to use outlines that clearly pointed back to the practice of Beethoven and Haydn, even if method and style were different.
1. Leos Janacek, Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 "From the Street" (1905)
The sonata's unusual title refers to the death of a Czech worker during a demonstration demanding a Czech-language university in Brno (what is now the Czech republic was then still part of the Habsburg Empire) in October 1905. Janacek gives a heartfelt response to this tragedy. Although the sonata was performed in 1906 by Ludmila Tučková, Janacek was insecure about its quality (it was an exceptional, direct political statement) - he had already destroyed the third movement, a funeral march, before the first performance, and afterward, he threw the whole score into the River Vltava. Happily, the pianist kept a copy of the score, and this was finally performed again - with the composer's sanction - and published in 1924, at the occasion of Janacek's 70th birthday. So the sonata as it now stands is in two movements, the first called "Presentiment," full of unease and turmoil (not so strange, considering the subject), and the second "Death," evoking a funeral procession and mounting anger. It is an atmospheric sonata in Janacek's typical style, where simple material is developed improvisationally.
[Recording listened to: Rudolf Firkusny on DG; Soyeon Kate Lee on Youtube]
2. Alban Berg, Piano Sonata Op. 1 (1907)
Berg's opus 1 is both tied to tradition and looking to the future. Just a few years before composing this work, Berg had met Schoenberg, who would become his mentor in a period coinciding with Schoenberg's own transition from tonality to atonality. The piano sonata is in one, short movement. The harmonies are still late Romantic, but melody and rhythm anticipate Berg's later works. The sonata's form and motivic structure were inspired by Schoenberg's revolutionary First Chamber Symphony, but the 22-year-old Berg already proves himself to be an independent master.
[Recording listened to: Jorgen Larsen on Victoria; Seong-Jin Cho on Youtube]
Leopold Godowsky (1870 - 1938) was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, and teacher. As a composer, Godowsky is best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. But he was also a composer in his own right as the present sonata proves. It is a huge (even "mammoth") work in five movements, taking more than 45 minutes to play, powerfully dramatic and like most music by Godowsky, very contrapuntal. The first movement is in sonata-form and contains six themes and side themes. The beautiful slow movement is in the style of Macdowell. This is followed by a light and dainty scherzo. The fourth movement is a waltz - Godowsky had also been making transcriptions of Strauss waltzes - and the monumental 20-minute finale includes a fugue on the name B-A-C-H. The fugue dissolves into a funeral march and that again turns into the Dies Irae. Certainly a work that deserves to be played more often.
[Recording listened to: Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion; Mov. II & IV by Muza Rubackyte on Youtube]
4. Karol Szymanowski, Piano Sonata No 2 Op. 21 (1911)
This sonata (one of three) was completed at the same time as the Second Symphony. It is still in Szymanowski's late Romantic style, as opposed to the Impressionistic style he would develop later. It has been called "diabolically difficult." The work is in two movements. The first part is an Allegro assai in sonata-form, with a dramatic content built up through strongly contrasting themes. The first theme is almost atonal and very violent, the second one more lyrical. The second part is an Allegretto tranquillo which is in fact a theme with eight variations, ending in a four-part fugue to crown the whole sonata. The variations are full of original ideas. The first performance of the sonata was given in 1911 in Warsaw by Arthur Rubinstein.
[Recording listened to: Martin Roscoe on Naxos; Oskar Jezior on Youtube (1/3; 2/3; 3/3]
5. Alexander Scriabin, Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68, "Black Mass Sonata" (1913)
Scriabin's extensive output for the piano is dominated by his ten sonatas, which cover his whole career from 1892 to 1913. In these sonatas one can very well observe the transition from late-Romanticism to atonality and the accompanying resolution of the sonata form. From the fifth sonata on, the works become increasingly complicated and fiendish in their technical difficulty. Scriabin's chromatism borders on atonality in these sonatas. That is especially true for the present sonata, No. 9, which received the nickname "Black Mass" (not by Scriabin, but he seems to have had no objection). Countless themes have been concentrated into the span of a single, multilayered movement, lasting less than 10 minutes. The sonata is particularly dissonant because many of its themes are based around an interval of a minor ninth, one of the most unstable sounds. It evokes a sort of distant mysterious wailing which grows in force and menace. The opening theme is constantly transformed, and even becomes a grotesque march. The piece ends with the original theme reinstated.
[Recording listened to: Vladimir Ashkenazy on Decca; Yevgeny Sudbin on Youtube]
In contrast to the piano concertos of this popular composer, neither of Rachmaninoff's two piano sonatas is part of the standard repertoire, something undoubtedly attributable to their extreme technical demands. Especially in the case of the Second Sonata that is to be regretted. Rachmaninoff started working on the sonata in Rome and finished it at his Ivanovka country estate. It was first performed in St. Petersburg in December 1913. There are three movements, Allegro agitato, Non allegro and Allegro molto. The first movement is declamatory and rugged. The slow second movement recalls Scriabin qua harmonics. The third movement is stunning: as the Rough Guide to Classical Music puts it, "a polyphonic Romantic drama of immense grandeur and virtuosity." The final section is almost crazed with energy. But Rachmaninoff felt he had overdone it, and in 1931 he revised the sonata, reducing the opulence and in general cutting it down. As a result, from around 25 minutes, playing time was reduced to 19 minutes. But strangely enough, the work was not improved and today most performers put some or all of the original material back (everyone in his own way, so there are in fact many versions of this sonata!).
[Recording listened to: Steven Osborne on Hyperion; Tiffany Poon on Youtube]
7. Charles Ives, Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840–60 (1919 rev. 1947)
Ives wrote the Concord Sonata, one of his longest and deepest compositions, as an attempt to present his impression of the literature, philosophy, and the men of Concord, Massachusetts, of over a half-century before. Concord was the site of the battle that began the American revolution, and later home to some of the most original thinkers and writers of the American literary renaissance: thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and novelists Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott. Ives hailed from neighboring Connecticut and shared Emerson's transcendentalist philosophy. The movements of the sonata are respectively dedicated to Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts and Thoreau. Ives' masterpiece, and a key work in 20th century piano literature.
[Recording listened to: Herbert Henck on Wergo; Stephen Drury, piano & Jessi Rosinski, flute on Youtube; read Essays Before a Sonata by Charles Ives]
9. Nikolaï Medtner, Sonata Reminiscenza in A minor op 38 No 1 (1920)
Today this is the most frequently performed piano sonata among the fourteen Medtner wrote. Medtner was several years younger than Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, two composers by whom he was overshadowed for years. His music was finally brought to the public's attention by Emil Gilels and Svetlanov (as a pianist). Medtner was a professor at the Moscow conservatory, but in 1920 he decided to leave the Soviet Union, living in the United Sates and Paris before in 1936 settling down in London. Most of Medtner's works (fourteen sonatas, three concertos, chamber works, a variety of melodies) were written for the piano, or include a piano. The present sonata is in one movement and has been called one of Medtner's most poetic creations; as the title indicates, its character is nostalgic. It opens with a tender atmosphere, which gradually leads to a more agitated episode, before returning to the mode of the opening.
[Recording listened to: Nicolai Demidenko on Hyperion; Boris Berezovsky on Youtube]
9. Stravinsky, Piano Sonata (1924)
Written in 1924, during Stravinsky's Neo-Classical period, after the composer finished his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments. There are three movements. The central Adagietto, with its flowing melodic line, has some Romantic qualities; it reflects Stravinsky's study of the early Beethoven sonatas. The first and last movement are faster and share the same tempo - these movements can be said to caricature the perpetual motion of Baroque piano music. The lively final movement features a two-part invention. A strong composition, compact and concise, which deserves to be heard more often.
[Recording listened to: Nikolai Petrov on Prga (Chamber Music by Stravinsky); Einav Yarden on Youtube]
10. Bela Bartok, Sonata (1926)
Bartok's oeuvre for the piano contains a surprisingly large number of small pieces as well as pieces with a pedagogical intent, but there is one true piano sonata as well. It is tonal but highly dissonant (and has no key signature), using the piano in a percussive fashion with erratic time signatures. Underneath clusters of repeated notes, the melody is folk-like. Each movement has a classical structure overall, in character with Bartók's frequent use of classical forms as vehicles for his most advanced thinking.
[Recording listened to: Gyorgy Sandor on Sony Classical; Stanislav Khristenko on Youtube]
11. Arnold Bax, Piano Sonata No 3 (1926)
Bax was unusual among British composers in composing a substantial oeuvre for solo piano. Bax published four piano sonatas (1910–32), which are as central to the composer's piano music as the symphonies are to the orchestral output. The first two sonatas are each in a single movement, of about twenty minutes; the third and fourth are in conventional three-movement form. The First Symphony was originally planned as a large-scale piano sonata (1921) as well. The first movement resembles an improvisation, and an overflow of powerful feelings. The second movement is a dream poem in Celtic vein. The general character of the sonata is one of turbulence, like being cast adrift on a choppy sea.
[Recording listened to: Eric Parkin on Chandos; Christopher Guild on Youtube]
12. Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Piano Sonata No. 3 in C, Op. 25 (1931)
The opening movement is characterized by a martial theme and an improvisatory style. The Andante religioso is highly introverted and simple, while the Intermezzo is a stylish lyric. The Rondo provides a bustling, cheerful finale sparked with humor. The sonata was first performed by Paul Weingarten in Vienna on March 3, 1932. Korngold's extraordinary keyboard style is evident in every bar of this interesting sonata.
[Recording listened to: Geoffrey Tozer on Chandos; Sunmi Han on Youtube]
Bloch's most substantial work for solo piano. The work is in dissonant and hard-edged style. The first movement, Maestoso ed energico, is very angry music throughout, characterized by fragments of ascending and descending arpeggios, ending in harshly accented notes. The Pastorale, marked Andante, ushers in a different world, ful of serenity, and with a Jewish touch to the melody. In contrast, the third movement, Moderato alla marcia, explodes into a brutal march.
[Recording listened to: Margaret Fingerhut on Chandos; Ryan Chow on Youtube]
14. Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83 (1942)
When leaving out juvenalia and unfinished works, Prokofiev wrote nine piano sonatas. The best are his three "war sonatas," Nos 6, 7 and 8 (written during the war, but more about the terror of Stalin than Hitler). Here we look at the Seventh Sonata. The first movement, with the designation "inquieto," is steeped in an atmosphere of anxiety and fear, as if the "nocturnal knock at the door" is expected any moment. Aggression is the dominant feature of this music. The lyricism of the second movement, seeping with sentimental emotion, may be associated with Prokofiev's own Romeo and Juliet. This movement is called "caloroso," which means "warm." The third movement is named "precipitato," and indeed bursts out in violence and anger.
[Recording listened to: Andrei Gavrilov on DG; Gridory Solokov on Youtube]
Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) belonged, with Hans Krasa and Erwin Schullhof to a generation of composers that was annihilated by the Nazis and it is only in recent years that their music has been rediscovered. Ullmann studied in Vienna and Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Berg were his friends. But although his music was highly chromatic, Ullmann never gave up tonality. Ullmann was caught in the Nazi trap in 1942 in Prague, and he was sent to the Jewish ghetto in Terezin. Even there, he continued composing: 3 piano sonatas, a beautiful third string quartet and his satirical opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. In October 1944, he was murdered in Auschwitz. Ullmann wrote seven piano sonatas, which show him as a distinctive voice in the central European musical tradition. The seventh and last sonata was written only a month before his death. As Jeanne Golon explains in the sleeve notes, it follows a symmetrical five-movement plan with the melody of the third movement a musical palindrome, at the heart of the sonata. The second movement is an Alla marcia and the fourth a scherzo. The last movement is a theme and variations on a Yiddish folk-tune. The movement culminates in a fugue.
[Recording listened to: Jeanne Golon on Steinway & Sons (complete sonatas); Julian Trevelyan on Youtube]
16. Henri Dutilleux, Piano Sonata (1947)
Dutilleux constantly pursued new paths in search for musical forms and expression. The piano Sonata, composed in 1947, consists of three movements: Allegro con moto, Lied, and Choral et variations. An important characteristic of Dutilleux' music is the use of the metamorphosis technique, whereby musical ideas change gradually and grow into new themes as the music develops. Its themes are ambiguous, never completely modal nor tonal. Dutilleux viewed his piano sonata as his Opus 1, the first work that he considered up to his mature standards.
The opening Allegro con moto is bi-thematic in structure, the second theme derives from the ample first one. The Lied, sparse and pensive, is the shortest movement. The last movement starts with an imposing Choral that is and carillon-like sonorities. This is followed by four variations and the movement concludes with a varied recapitulation of the Choral.
[Recording listened to: Jorgen Larsen on Victoria; Cathy Krier on Youtube]
17. Galina Ustvolskaya, Piano Sonata No 5 (1986)
A pupil
of Shostakovitch, who later very much went her own way, writing utterly
authentic and individualistic music. The piano occupies an important
position in Ustvolskaya's work and she wrote six solo sonatas, between
1947 and 1988. Her music is uncompromising, hyper-intense and
hyper-compressed, with sharp dynamic contrasts
and monumental cluster chords. It is also very spiritual music, a sort
of passionate protest against the human condition in general. The first
two
sonatas were written while still studying with Shostakovitch, the last two are
among the most shocking and violent works Ustvolskaya ever wrote. With
its fistfuls fffff tone-clusters, the fifth sonata is sometimes an
assault on the senses. She was not for nothing called "the lady with the hammer." But her dissonant extremities are always set against a magical simplicity of texture and rhythm.
[Recording listened to: Reinbert de Leeuw on Hat ART; see also Reinbert de Leeuw on Youtube (playing this difficult music by heart; Reinbert de Leeuw was a major promoter of Ustvolskaya's music)]
With some exceptions, these difficult 20th c. sonatas are not very popular with famous performers, who prefer to hammer out another Beethoven sonata with their eyes closed. Kudos to the often young performers on my Youtube links who challenge these sonatas!See also: The Piano Sonata (1) - 18th - 19th c.