Jeffrey Jospeh: Sonatina for double bass and piano

Sonatina for Double Bass and Piano Jeffrey Joseph (b.1952)

1} Allegro

2} Adagio non troppo

3) Jewish Wedding Dance (Allegro molto e furioso, quasi presto)

In 2014 I composed a Quartet for Basses ("An Old Man's Crotchets”)which found favor with Stephen Street and his colleagues in the Bass Department at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Stephen duly asked me to compose for him a solo work and the present Sonatina, written in Montgomery Powys in the Spring of 2015, is the result of this request. It is a small-scale piece and does not warrant any analysis. Suffice it to say that the first movement is in a sort of abbreviated sonata form. This is followed by a passacaglia which leads directly into a short rondo in the course of which I tap mildly into my ethnic roots, not for the first time in recent years.

Jeffrey Joseph - Biography

Jeffrey Joseph was born in London and was educated at York University, at University College Cardiff, and at The Open University. He has lectured at Trinity Laban Conservatoire as well as at Rose Bruford College, Tisch School (New York), Morley College, Dartington Summer School, and for The Workers' Education Association. He was for many years a music journalist and is a heavily-published poet.

His music has been performed at many venues across the UK (including Westminster Abbey, Hereford Cathedral, and St John's Smith Square) as well as across Europe - notably in the Madeleine in Paris. It has also been heard in Africa and in the USA. He has composed hundreds of songs (with keyboard, ensemble, and orchestral accompaniment) as well as an oboe concerto, a Lambeth Overture, an orchestral Adagio and Caprice, three pieces for string orchestra, and a good deal of chamber music, including "Tirade with Interlude: In Memoriam Georg Solti"' for viola quartet which has found much favor in Budapest as well as In London. He has recently completed a viola concerto for the celebrated Israeli soloist Rivka Golani and will shortly be embarking on a talk about Gentile interpretations of Jewish music and some settings of Hardy for tenor.