A new sonata for flute and piano

Composer and flutist Jonathan Slade writes about the influences on his new four-movement Sonata for Flute and Piano

Embracing Bach’s magic in a new composition

I’m very lucky to spend a good amount of my professional life playing the music of Bach. Maybe it’s the richness and complexity of his writing, but somehow I never tire of it. Even during the sixth St. John Passion of the season, I still feel the awe I sensed when hearing it for the first time: the effortless interplay of melodic lines, the immense unfolding drama he weaves into the fabric of his music, all in service of a deeply held faith.

Some of the most striking moments in his choral music are those in which he interpolates, often surprisingly, a chorale or chant melody as a central voice or cantus firmus, a device which carries great religious symbolism and emotional power. I’ve linked a couple of my favourite examples: the haunting solo trumpet line here in ‘Suscepit Israel’ from the Magnificat and the gentle chorale in ‘Mein Teurer Heiland’ from the St. John Passion that seems to act as a healing balm as we process Jesus’ death.

With this extraordinary music circulating in my head so often during different times of the year, it’s perhaps unsurprising that my own should be influenced by it. I’ve always enjoyed reusing and adapting themes in my compositions, but I particularly wanted to see if I could use a central chorale as a means not only of connecting different movements, but also serving as some kind of narrative arc that leads the listener from the anxiety and drama in the first movement to the redemption in the last.

A small problem, though: I am not Bach.

My one advantage was not being bound by the same harmonic conventions, meaning I could think a little outside the box. I started by writing the chorale itself, which appears in its original form in the first movement, a hushed solo flute dancing almost menacingly underneath. It reappears, rhythmically slightly altered, at the very start of the slow movement, this time acting as an accompaniment for a new, rather lonely flute melody.

With each movement, I used the chorale as the starting point to try and achieve the best result musically and dramatically. The listener has to wait for its reappearance in the third movement: after several interrupted attempts it returns towards the end, transformed and distorted into a kind of demonic dance in the piano. Similarly, it is at the very conclusion of the final movement that the chorale emerges for the final time, intended as a blazing hymn of hope as the demons are finally put to rest. 

Sonata for Flute and Piano by Jonathan Slade is published by Aurea Capra Editions, available from the website here and from music retailers worldwide.