Op. 30 – Anniversary Sonata

1. With Restrained Energy (4:23)
2. Angel Music (6:07)
3. Pleasant Hill (7:29)

The Anniversary Sonata was composed for the 50th wedding anniversary of my parents, and first performed at this occasion. The sonata has an easy-going, congenial nature, much like my parents themselves. Like many of my compositions, the Anniversary Sonata grows out of various genres of popular music. One aspect which particularly interests me is the way rock music consistently places the downbeat accent on the and of four, anticipating the downbeat of the next measure by an eighth note. Using the meter of 7/8, the last movement, Pleasant Hill, mimics this tendency while retaining the placement of the downbeat at the beginning of the bar. The 3/2 meter of the second movement is similarly transformed here, leading to sections in 11/8 time.