Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges'

Grande sonate: 'Les quatre âges' (French for "Grand sonata: The Four Ages") is a four movement sonata for piano by Charles-Valentin Alkan. The sonata's title refers to the subtitles given to each movement, portraying a man at the ages of 20, 30, 40, and 50. The work is dedicated to the composer's father, Alkan Morhange (who died eight years later, in 1855), and was published in 1847.

The sequence of movements is unlike the typical classical piano sonata, in that they become progressively slower; after the lively "20 ans" (years), marked 'très vite' (very fast) and the complex "30 ans", subtitled "Quasi-Faust", and marked 'assez vite' (quite fast), "40 ans" is more sedate, marked 'lentement' (slowly), and "50 ans", dark and pessimistic in mood, is marked 'extrêmement lent' (extremely slow). [Alkan, 2002]

tructure

20 ans

The sonata opens with "20 ans", a quickly played piece based in D major but also with many passages in the relative minor key of B minor. The young man's 'climsiness' is marked for example by sudden 'wrong chords' - one in B flat major is marked 'ridente' (Italian:laughing). The tempo and ternary form of this movement are similar to Frédéric Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 (Op. 20). The sonata thus marks itself from the start as different from any previous sonatas, by beginning effectively with a scherzo. [Smith (2000), 67]

30 ans: Quasi-Faust

The second movement, in d sharp minor (i.e. a key a semitone above the first movement)"30 ans", subtitled "Quasi-Faust", is the most substantial piece in the sonata, in a very extended sonata form. Ronald Smith comments on the first subject of this movement:

The duality of this subject, like the dual nature of man, anticipates by six years a similar duality in the Liszt Sonata in which threatening repeated notes are also a feature of the answering phrase. [Smith (2000), 72]

However, Smith also points out that whilst Liszt treats his material rhapsodically, Alkan keeps to the classical form, if not proportions.

40 ans: Un heureux ménage

"40 ans", titled "Un heureux ménage" (A Happy Household), illustrates family life for the aging man, with sections that represent "the children" and "a prayer". The movement is in the 'simple' key of G major.

50 ans: Prométhée enchaîné

The sonata ends with "50 ans", called "Prométhée enchaîné" (Prometheus Bound), which gravely depicts the man looking toward death. This movement , in G sharp minor, has the same tonal relationship to the third movement and the second has to the first. Contrary to classical traditions, however, the key in which the sonata ends is very distant from that in which it begins.

Relationship to the Liszt Sonata

The originality of this work, together with some structural similarities such as those referred to above, have led writers such as Smith and Kenneth Hamilton to surmise that Liszt may have known this work before writing his own Sonata. However there is no evidence that Liszt (or Alkan himself, for that matter) ever played the 'Grande sonate'. [Smith believes he himself gave the first complete public performance, at York University in August 1973. Smith (2000),67.] in public or private, although the two pianists certainly knew each other in Paris and were aware of each others' work. However, the publication of the 'Grande sonate' was unfortunate in its timing; in early 1848 the revolution emptied the capital of musical life, and Alkan's failure to obtain a professorship at the Paris Conservatoire later in the year led to his withdrawal from the concert scene. Liszt also left Paris for Weimar. For these reasons, consideration of Alkan's influence on Liszt's Sonata must remain speculative.

References

*cite book |last=Alkan |first=Charles-Valentin |title=Grande Sonate for solo piano |year=2002 |publisher=Masters Music Publications |location=Boca Raton, Florida
*Smith, Ronald, "Alkan:The Music", London, 2000.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqDwfGwJabsA performance of the first movement by Francesco Libetta] .
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hLPIplGgdU&mode=related&search= The first movement performed by Marc-André Hamelin] , along with some background information about the piece and his opinion on Alkan's music.