Violin Sonata No.3 (1944)

Always eager to get on with the next work, Martinu took rather longer over his Third Violin Sonata than he intended – all of eight weeks, it seems. It was originally to have had only three movements, all of which, if the second and third were to be in proportion with the first, would have been modest in length. What must have happened is that, assuming it was written first, the Poco allegro turned out to be so dynamic that it needed time and space to settle the issues it raises. As the composer said, “an organism requires certain things, to which, it seems, we must submit.”

The tone of the first movement is set by the turbulent opening bars on piano which, although the immediate response of the violin is more lyrical, dominates all but the quieter middle section, finally involving the violin in the turmoil. There is little turmoil in the Adagio, which is mainly poetic in expression and spontaneous in construction, following no ready-made formal pattern. After a subdued opening, the salient events    are passages of broad melody towering on either side of an episode of impressionistic mystery and, making a late first appearance, a gently scored chorale which is sustained to the end of the movement.

According to the original concept of the work there was to have been no scherzo. As Martinu said, however, “I could not find anything for the last movement until I had written the Scherzo.”    This third movement is an exhilarating celebration of syncopated Czech dance rhythms – an idiom which, although he hadn’t lived in his native country for more than 20 years by now, he was not inclined to forget. Perhaps he needed to establish that exuberant contrast with the Adagio before he could write the last movement the “organism” demanded, one that begins with a Lento featuring an expressive violin melody and gathers its momentum by way of a short Moderato. Certainly, the main Allegro section balances the first movement in vigour if not in variety: it is built largely out of a lively theme in dotted rhythm, the impetus of which drives the violin into a climactic passage of double stops and an emphatically conclusive coda.