In three movements, this "Sonata" for Flute and Piano is a great recital for a Flute player in college.
The sonata finally had its premiere early in 1995, 24 years after it was originally written. Music theorists may enjoy the formal problems set up in the first movement which are not fully resolved until the third (if then!). The rest of us can simply enjoy what is one of the composer’s most unabashedly tuneful works.
This piece was written for Dr. Catherine (Kate) Bergman from Emporia State University KS. The biggest problem I had in writing this piece was that Kate is so NICE that there seemed to be almost nothing to write about! So I decided to write a piece about being “nice” and what it is like to be really “nice”, especially for a flute player, the flute being such a “nice” instrument in the first place.
The first two movements, “A Cheerful Heart” and “Kindness” are, I think, fairly obvious, but I decided to do something different in the third movement and allow Kate (and our player) to have a little temper tantrum and lose her prevalent composure. In the third movement we hear the teacher instructing patiently and persistently yet growing, over time, increasingly impatient and frustrated. By the end she has lost much of her “niceness” and stamping her foot and has a minor fit of temper, still a large step for someone who started out where she did at the beginning of the piece.
I always enjoy, even in my most serious or traditional music, having a little sense of humor lest we all take ourselves too seriously.