Bliokh, Sonata No. 4 "Wako-shi"

Konstantin Bliokh, Sonata No. 4 "Wako-shi"

For solo guitar.

Sonata No. 4 was composed during 2012–2013 after I moved to Japan. My Japanese residence was located in a small town Wako-shi in the Greater Tokyo area. The name “Wako-shi” is written with three Chinese characters: “wa” (和) – “harmony”, “ko” (光) – “light”, and “shi” (市) – “town”. I immediately liked these meaningful characters and decided to use them in the title of a musical piece.
Apart from this, the music of the sonata does not have any specifically Japanese influences, it is rather Western in style. It has a peculiar refrain form though, where the first movement is split into a set of four short movements Ia–Id reflecting upon the same prevailing themes: the main theme (bars 1–9 of Ia), the second theme (bars 10–15 of Ia), and the third theme (bars 18–20 of Ia). The short movements Ia–Id alternate with independent movements II “Toccata”, III “Adagio”, and IV “Prelude”. One can notice that these movements are all based on some sort of repetitive toccata or ostinato patterns.
 In contrast to stable and self-sufficient characters of movements II–IV, the themes of the refrain movements Ia–Id are rather unstable and open. They tend to E major that seems to be unachievable in its perfect form: the notes d-sharp, f-double-sharp, and a-sharp are repeatedly heard instead of e, g-sharp, and h. Perhaps this reflects the unachievable “harmony of light”.
It is my pleasure to dedicate this sonata to the great guitarist and friend Iryna Polovynka who has wonderfully performed and recorded this music.
In 2021, I also made a piano version of Sonata No. 4 “Wako-shi”.

K. Bliokh 2021

• Product: PDF or Print on Demand
• Pages: 24
• Level: Advanced
• Order Number: BE-211208
  
• ISMN 979-0-706820-93-4
  

Listen to Iryna Plovynka playing Sonata No. 4 "Wako-shi":