(visit http://www.carlschimmel.com to purchase score and parts)
Fourth Sonata was written for cellist Robert Burkhart and his piano trio, for first performance in New York City, September 2001. As the title indicates, the entire work is roughly in sonata form – the opening of the second movement corresponds to what would be, in a sonata movement, the “recapitulation” (return of the opening material). The result is that both movements begin in the same way, but because there is an extended coda at the end of the work the two movements go in different directions. This coda quotes fairly directly from a song that Robert and I both admired, “Fourth of July,” by the grunge band Soundgarden. The quoted material forms the basis for many of the motives in the piece. The titles of the movements refer indirectly to aspects of the Fourth of July (the first to the flag and to fireworks, the second to the Crab Nebula, which was first seen on Earth on that date).
