Sonata for Piano (2013)
(4-Hands)

I. Solar

II. The Expanding Universe

III. Earthrise

This Sonata for Piano, 4 Hands presents three different solutions to the challenges of 16 fingers and 4 thumbs playing at the one keyboard. Running in parallel to this logistic puzzle is a contemplation of the Sun and Earth in the context of an expanding universe.

Life on Earth is supported by the unique nature of our Sun (a yellow dwarf) and our distance from it. Recent observations of climate change underline the tenuous nature of this existence. It is anticipated that our sun will become a red giant in another 5 billion years and Earth would either be swallowed by the sun, or its water boiled away along with the atmosphere.

The Expanding Universe is a theoretical premise connected to the cosmological model known as the Big Bang – a continuous expansion, cooling and thinning out of the matter that constitutes the universe.

Earthrise is the name given to a photograph of the Earth taken by astronaut William Anders in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission. It shows just over half of the Earth above the horizon of the moon – a reversal of what we would normally see of the Moon above our own horizon. This captivating image – described as the “most influential environmental photo ever taken” – evokes a sense of the beauty (but also fragility) of our home planet.

The Sonata was commissioned by, and written for Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg