Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata [With score]

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-Composer: Rebecca Clarke (27 August 1886 – 13 October 1979)
-Performers: Antoine Tamestit (viola), Ying-Chien Lin (piano)

00:00 – I. Impetuoso
07:20 – II. Vivace
11:09 – III. Adagio

Rebecca Clarke's Sonata for Viola and Piano is first known of in 1919, when the composer was 33 years old. Clarke had moved to the United States in 1916, after being disowned by her father. She had been supporting herself with some success as a soloist.
The first reference to the Viola Sonata was upon its submission to a composition competition sponsored by Clarke's neighbor, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Out of 72 entries, Clarke's Sonata tied for first with a piece by the Swiss composer, Ernest Bloch. In the end Bloch was declared the winner, despite all the judges favoring Clarke—it was decided that declaring Clarke the winner would smack of favoritism on Coolidge's part. It was also suspected by some that the name "Rebecca Clarke" was a pen-name of a male composer, as few imagined the possibility of a competent female writing such music. The piece had its première at the Berkshire Music Festival in 1919, and was well received. It, along with the Piano Trio of 1921 and the Rhapsody for cello and piano of 1923, represent the zenith of her compositional career, though afterwards Clarke wrote hardly any more music. The sonata was first published in 1921 by Chester Music.
Clarke gives us an incipit on the first page of the sonata, a quote from La Nuit de mai (1835) by the French poet Alfred de Musset:

Poète, prends ton luth; le vin de la jeunesse
Fermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.

Poet, take up your lute; the wine of youth
this night is fermenting in the veins of God.

The sonata is cast in three movements. The first movement, marked Impetuoso, begins with a vibrant fanfare from the viola, before moving on into a melodic and harmonic language reminiscent of Achille-Claude Debussy and Ralph Vaughan Williams, two important influences on Clarke's music. Her language is at times very chromatic and shows the invention of Debussy in the use of modes and the whole-tone scale. The second movement, marked Vivace, makes use of many interesting 'special effects' like harmonics and pizzicato. The final movement, Adagio, is both pensive and sensual in its language. However, Clarke works in a special surprise: a segue into a restatement of themes from the first movement. The sonata ends in a lush and brilliant pyrotechnical display, showing off the full range of the viola, as well as the piano (whose part is of equal difficulty.) Because of the many different obstacles the piece presents, as well as its highly idiomatic writing, it is becoming more and more a staple of the violist's repertoire.
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I just read that Rebecca Clarke's father chased her out of the house and disinherited her because she called him out for cheating multiple times on her mother. His loss, the world's gain. Go Becky!

baglmonstr
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Disowned by her father? Wasn't he proud of such a daughter? Unbelievable!

ΕΛΠΙΝΙΚΗΚΑΚΙΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ
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Of course I find this AFTER my recital...

What an absolutely gorgeous piece though, this is quickly becoming my favorite viola sonata!

Silviola
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I played piano part of this wonderful piece for the diploma of my gf, this February. It is one of the best chamber composition even written in the first half of 20th century!

massimiliano.seggio
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This is badass. Violas are frickin' awesome and violists are always such badasses.

maxt
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How is it that I've never heard of this composer? What an absolutely wonderful piece!!

billclarkcomposer
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I just finished reading Leah Broad's fabulous book "Quartet", which chronicles the lives of Dame Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen. I'm now on a mission to find more music by these women, but Clarke is my major priority: apparently her work got a lot more angular and modernist as she developed. If you're interested in her life and music, I thoroughly recommend "Quartet" - it's a great read, thoughtful, joyful, sobering and tragic by degrees. Thanks so much for posting this. Wonderful.

robkb
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Сонаты альтовые прекрасные есть и немало, но как поэтично и супер вдохновенно и раскованно играют солисты ! Меня все убеждает и радует в исполнении этого прекрасного альтиста! Браво! ❤

ЭммаКуприяненко
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Recently I was remembering when I was in grad school listening to Antoine play this piece at our weekly studio classes (and also his master's degree recital, IIRC). So I decided to work on it myself, having never actually worked on it before. After playing through it a couple of times on my own I decided to find a recording of it online and lo and behold, here's a recording of the very person who inspired me to revisit the piece! Thanks for posting this recording, it's such a kick-ass piece and Antoine is a kick-ass violist. I only hope I can learn to play it half as well as he does.

ewestner
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This sounds like a weird mix between Rach, Ravel, Debussy and modern film music and I love it

gottfriedwilhelmvonleibniz
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I just discovered Rebecca Clarke, whilst looking into the history of the viola. Thank you for sharing this lovely sonata of hers!

peaceharmony
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The genius of this sonata shows itself in the 3rd movement, it's second half constantly wavering between themes of the 3rd movement and the first theme heard in the sonata.

itamarbar
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What a beautiful piece of music for the viola ! I am so excited I found this as not much music was made for us.... quite difficult but the beauty is making me excited... I love the interpretation of this piece!

erriekawright
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Reminds me a bit of another brilliant female composer of a similar era, Rosy Wertheim. Both with some truly striking work. Thank you for sharing.

leestrand
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i found this when i finished listening to the shostakovich viola sonata and i fell in love with this piece! thank you!

pagorami
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I looked up "viola sonata" to see what there was. I like it. This piece is amazing.

Axolautism
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Beautiful piece!!very strong music ! Passionate ! Glad to get to know this composer! Thanks

marazulization
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Wow the rly good thing is that everyone in the comments has different favorite passages showing how good and colorful the entirety of the piece is

DanielR-MIDI
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The passage from 2:50 is what I live for.

delauge
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Impetuoso is now my favorite style marking

i_am_a_music_maker
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