Emmanuel Maurice. Sonatine №5 pour piano /Alla Francese/

Paris: Henry Lemoine & C, 1927. — 15 p.The Fifth (op. 22) is also called ‘Alla Francese’, and differs from all her sisters as an authentic dance suite preceded by an overture. Ten years later, Emmanuel made a version of it for orchestra under the name Suite française (op. 26), replacing the ‘Pavane et Gaillarde’ by a divertimento for winds and solo violin. Returning to modes of European origin, the work is more overtly diatonic than the two preceding sonatinas, though this in no way prevents it from going even further in untrammelled dissonance, more than ever — with the help of the formal framework — in the lineage of the Burgundian Rameau. After the ‘Overture’ (Adagio – Allegro – Adagio), of finely-wrought concision, in Lydian B flat, comes a ‘Courante’ (in the Italian style (Allegretto) in G major (though it unexpectedly concludes in the dominant key), a solemn and expressive ‘Sarabande’ (Adagio), in D mode transposed to G, and a very short, mischievous ‘Gavotte’ (Allegro giocoso), its Lydian D peppered with all kinds of attractive bitonal dissonances. There follows a ‘Pavane et Gaillarde’, Solenne, in F sharp minor, then Più mosso, Scherzando, in F sharp mixolydian (i.e. with lowered seventh degree), the one being a rhythmic transformation of the other, as was common practice in the Renaissance, the original period for these dances. and the cycle ends with a dazzling ‘Gigue’ (Vivace), in 12/16 with swirling sextuplets, in a D major spiced with dissonance, a highly virtuoso number: this Sonatine does not therefore present a unity of tonic as do the others. It is dedicated to Robert Casadesus.Medium difficulty.