Viola Sonata (Ligeti)

Sonata for Viola
by György Ligeti
The composer in 1984
Period	contemporary music
Form	sonata
Composed	1991 (1991)–94
Movements	six

György Ligeti composed his Viola Sonata between 1991 and 1994. It is a sonata for viola solo in six movements, and Ligeti composed it in various phases, parallel with his Violin Concerto, and his piano études. The composer was inspired to write a viola sonata after hearing Tabea Zimmermann playing on the radio, then began writing various movements. The second movement Loop, was premiered by Garth Knox (then violist of the Arditti Quartet), while Facsar was premiered in 1993 by Jürg Dahler. The two movements were conceived as part of a complete work and they became the second and third movements of Ligeti's Viola Sonata.^[1]

The sonata is a departure from Ligeti's Cello Sonata, composed 40 years earlier and represents an important turning point. In contrast with the earlier work, his Viola Sonata follows a pattern reminiscent of the Baroque sonata, with its many movements of contrasting tempi and rhythms. The fifth movement, a slow Lamento, comes between a prestissimo and the final vivace, chromatic chaconne. This perhaps harks back to Frescobaldi's sonatas where one can find a Toccata Cromatica as well as examples of the passacaglia and chaconne. The first and third movements are variations on an ostinato, and alternate between the moto perpetuo movements that are the second and the fourth. In the first, fourth and fifth movement, one finds elements of Eastern European traditional music, while the influence of free rhythms and jazz and Latin harmonies intervene more in the second, third and sixth movement. Other characteristic features are the harmonies in the first and fourth movements and the repeated chords in the second and sixth.^[2] Critic Blair Sanderson referred to the sonata as "one of the major viola works of the 20th century".^[3]