Many Hands, One Love

Piano

Four-Hand Piano Sonata – Medium Advanced / Advanced

Many Hands, One Love

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 1, “Joyfully”

by Juan G. García | Sample A

Category: Piano

Four-Hand Piano Sonata

Level: Medium Advanced / Advanced
Duration: 17:00

Copyright © 2022 Juan G. García

PDF – Movement 1 Sheet Music, Page 1

PDF – Movement 2 Sheet Music, Page 1

PDF – Movement 3 Sheet Music, Page 1

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While I found myself surprisingly at home around the beginning of spring of 2020, having been sent home from work on March 13th because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I realized I was going to have to keep myself busy or go insane being locked up at home for such an indefinite amount of time.

I decided to invest some of this newfound time learning some new classical guitar pieces that I had not yet checked off my “to learn” list and was very excited to do so. I was fully enjoying my accomplishments until I soon developed joint pain and a broken thumbnail and had to again unexpectedly change direction.

This is when I decided to instead turn my attention to music composition and compose something brand new while I healed and my thumbnail grew back. This change of focus of my time turned out to produce my first ever four-handed piano piece. Originally, I just planned on composing one new piece but, eventually, I continued on to complete what turned out to become and additional two movements. This full 3-movement 17”+ minute sonata was completed from approximately the beginning of June to the end of August of 2020.

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 1, “Joyfully”

by Juan G. García | Sample A

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 1, “Joyfully”

by Juan G. García | Sample B

Movement 1, “Joyfully”

My thinking here was that a teacher and student would be playing this piece together so, C Major was the logical key choice and I made the typical effort to keep the more ambitious parts on the top (Primo) teacher part throughout. Likewise, I thought that starting out with a canonic figure also made sense so that that the student could echo their teacher right from the very beginning. I soon began exploring other common areas of didactic study such as arpeggios, scales, etc.

This piece titled, “Joyfully,” moves at a brisk MM=120 in 4/4 time with performance duration: 4:30. This first movement is a combination of familiar music compositional constructs of historically significant styles from the Classical Music period and even ends with a big familiar Cadential Six-Four chord!

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 2, “Mysteriously Majestic”

by Juan G. García | Sample A

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 2, “Mysteriously Majestic”

by Juan G. García | Sample B

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Movement 2, “Mysteriously Majestic”

This movement is quite dark and in stark contrast to the first movement. I believe it can stand on it’s own as a completely separate music composition just as the first movement can since I had originally composed it not planning on any subsequent movements. I purposefully made this very pronounced departure from the first movement since I realized that there would inevitably be a 3rd movement, even though I had no idea what that might be just yet or how it was going to come about. In keeping with the traditional “Fast-Slow-Fast’ or “Major-Minor-Major” contrasts of many pieces, I wanted to create a very profound effect when finally arriving at the, as of yet not composed, 3rd and final movement.

This piece titled, “Mysteriously Majestic,” moves at a much slower tempo of MM=42 for the dotted quarter and is in 12/8 time with performance duration: 6:15. A very different piece of musical expression and arguably a mixture of some Impressionistic musical elements combined with Baroque counterpoint style. Structured mostly in a large-scale ABA form with some smaller Rondo sections in the first half prior to the B section but eventually ending just as it began with the return of the opening themes and somber mood.

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 3, “Vivace Con Brio”

by Juan G. García | Sample A

Many Hands, One Love - Mvmt 3, “Vivace Con Brio”

by Juan G. García | Sample B

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Movement 3, “Vivace Con Brio”

This final movement I believe successfully accomplished what I had imagined it would have to do. With its unrelenting energy bursting out right from the first measure’s exposition of the main first theme and maintained throughout the piece with running scales and counter lines, it evokes a very positive and uplifting quality. Although I returned to the original key signature of C Major from the first movement, it’s constant embracing and circling around a “G” tonal center implies a Mixolydian quality with the absence of the F# and doesn’t really finally resolve into C Major until the very final measures keeping that unresolved tension going strong throughout the entire piece.

This final movement titled,”Vivace Con Brio,” moves at a much faster tempo of quarter note at MM=132 and returns to the original 4/4 time signature with performance duration: 6:10.

The previous two movements are somewhat literally or otherwise recapitulated in this final movement in some form, although, mostly in very developed and varied forms combined with new themes. Definitely the most demanding of the three movements and rightfully so!