Sonata-fantasia, Op. 44
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1916
- Duration
- 13'
- Publisher
- Musica Brasilis (free edition from the manuscript at the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro; edited by Artur Huf; CC BY-SA; ISMN 979-0-69653-174-2). First edition: José Eduardo Martins, Editora Novas Metas, São Paulo, 1982.
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About this piece
Henrique Oswald wrote the Sonata-fantasia, his second cello sonata, in 1916. A report in Rio's Jornal do Commercio said he decided to write it after hearing Pablo Casals and first planned it as the opening movement of a longer sonata, though he later let it stand alone. Alfredo Gomes (cello) and Joaquim Antonio Barrozo Netto (piano) gave the premiere at the Salão do Jornal do Commercio in Rio de Janeiro on 13 August 1916, and the score stayed unpublished until José Eduardo Martins's 1982 edition. The single movement runs Andante, Allegro agitato, Andante: the cello enters with a broad tenor-clef melody, the agitated middle section drives through chromatic sixteenth notes, and the close fades to ppp on a low E-flat.
Technical overview
One movement of about 330 bars in E-flat major, mostly 3/4 with passages in 2/4, moving freely among bass, tenor and treble clefs. The Allegro agitato has long chromatic sixteenth-note passages with double sharps and fast shifts, and the outer Andantes need a sustained singing line high on the A string and a controlled ppp ending in the low register.