Talma Louise. Piano sonata, no. 1

New York: Carl Fischer, 1948. — 29 p.Louise Talma (1906–1996) composed in a distinctive, often neo-Classical style. She wrote many vocal pieces, including song cycles and the first American opera by a woman to be staged at a major European opera house. In all, Talma composed more than 40 significant works in her lifetime. She also became the first American to teach at the prestigious Fontainebleau School and was a faculty member at New York City's Hunter College for more than half a century.
"Talma's first sonata is a serious, large-scale work in three movements. It was composed during her first summer at the MacDowell Colony, and is dedicated to Mrs. Edward MacDowell. First performed by Talma herself at a League of Composers concert in 1945, it received the North American Prize in 1947 and was published by Carl Fischer in 1948. In the first movement, Largo-Allegro, a short declamatory introduction presents the notes C, F, D, and G both melodically and horizontally, establishing a tonal center on C, and leading to a driving Allegro in a rhythmic ostinato figuration. The second movement, Larghetto, recalls the C, F, D, G motive in a serene melody, with homogeneous polyphonic texture, and quartal and quintal harmonies. The Presto provides a dramatic closing, with its toccata-like rhythmic ostinato and changing meters."