Sonata Hymnica No. 3

Sonata Hymnica No. 3 is part of the Sonata Hymnica Series of composer-pianist James Siddons. 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 in the Sonata Hymnica Series may be thought of as the Prayer Sonata, the second as the Travel Sonata, as in a spiritual journey, and the third sonata, based on two African American spirituals, is about our greatest fear, that of being alone and without God. The two spirituals heard in Sonata Hymnica No. 3 are "Were You There?" and "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." 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.