Sonatine for piano in Modal Style Vol.II

This collection aims to be a valid alternative in modern / contemporary style to the sonatas by Clementi, Dussek, Kuhlau, etc., maintaining the same level of technical complexity and the same didactic utility in the development of the hand and musical sensitivity. These sonatas are pleasant to listen to and fun to study. 

The “Sonatine in modal style” are composed following the classic Sonata-Form and are inspired by the four elements. This inspiration allowed me to imagine a “depicting music”, a music that originated from images and that creates images as well.

Working with images doesn’t necessarily means writing movies soundtracks, I wanted to investigate them from another point of view.

Image is memory codification, our temper grows and forms itself starting from the images stored in ourselves even if we don’t see or even remember them and make us feel as we do.

Images are made up of vibrations and therefore of frequencies. Music is composed of frequencies, too, and it is the perfect art to work with them. The pieces I write want to be an attempt to search for images, colours, forms or other visual elements stored jealously in the inner part of each of us. They are different from mine, but authentic in the same way, and they touch the most secret part of us making us feel special and unique.

I used the modal style for composing these Sonatine, I feel this style suitable for me and I followed composing techniques typical of 20th century used by Stravinski, Prokofiev, Janácek, but modifying them according to my personal sensitivity. Those techniques are used gradually and mixed with a language caressing soundtrack sphere.

The Modal style has allowed a synthesis of languages, from the inventions of contemporary music, to modern music through film music. As Mattia Mei writes: “Carlo Corazza's music is placed somewhere between the deep classical background and soundtrack allusions”.

The first movement of the Sonatina of Water has the same formal structure as the Friulian Sonatina. The Sonatina of Fire instead has a different structure: the 2 themes, of 8 bars each, are proposed twice before giving rise to a development starting from bar 33.

In the second movement of the the Sonatina of the Fire, The Embers, there is the hymn of St. John, which is the liturgical hymn of Vespers of the solemnity of the nativity of St. John the Baptist which occurs on 24 June. Traditionally, on the evening of June 24, a ritual fire is lit that represents the purifying force, to recall the positive energy in every creature and destroy negativity.

The fame of this hymn, written by the historical monk and poet Paolo Diacono (Cividale del Friuli, 720 ca. - Montecassino 799), is due to Guido d'Arezzo (991 ca.-1033), who used the first verse to draw the names of the six notes of the hexachord. The names of the musical notes used in Italy still derive from this conventional criterion: Ut-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La. The name of the note Si occurred in the sixteenth century and are the Initials of Sancte Iohannes = SI.

In the third movement the main theme is the Friulian villotta Vinarastu San Martin. Often the feast of San Martino is linked to the first tapping of the new wine.