Solo Guitar - Level 5 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.985329
Composed by Jeremiah Lawson. Contemporary. Individual part. 21 pages. Jeremiah Lawson #6063881. Published by Jeremiah Lawson (A0.985329).
This guitar sonata is a four-movement work in open D tuning throughout. The performance time is between 17 to 18 minutes. I worked on this sonata from 2016 through 2019 as an homage to Blind Willie Johnson. The movements are as follows.
I. Andante (a fugue in triple counterpoint)
II. Scherzo
III. Largo trionfante (a ragtime sonata whose recapitulation leads seamlessly into)
IV. Variations on Restoration from William Walker's Southern Harmony
The work is written in cumulative setting after the model of Charles Ives but in a Haydnesque homage to not just Blind Willie Johnson but also with musical tributes to Stevie Wonder, Bach (the triple counterpoint), Louis Armstrong and Lil Harden. The fourth movement is a bravura set of variations on the shape note hymn Restoration that is the foundation of the entire sonata, using bottleneck technique throughout as an homage to Blind Willie Johnson.
Owing to the use of bottleneck technique and the open D tuning throughout this is a pretty tough sonata to play but it's fun to play and I've filmed myself playing through it to demonstrate its practicality in performance.
