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Comments: Sonata for English Horn and Piano was commissioned in 2018 for Emily Brebach by the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival and Emory University.

I. Put some stank on it - A dirty little blues tune. Because the English Horn has sufffered for too long the epithet "plaintive" without the proper outlet for its inherent plaintivity. To punctuate the movement, the notes of the solo melody spell out Emily's name, but only if you read the music transposed to the key of F, as all English Horn players must.

II. Melancontrapunctocholy - A simple, sad song with a fugue in the middle. Well, not sad really, just a bit melancholy, but in a bored, anxious sort of way, eager to move on to something more enervating. Like a fugue, perhaps. Then it gets weary and goes back to sulk on the sofa. Then, in a final stroke of self-flagellation, the movement ends on a saccharinely deceptive cadence.

III. Her Favorite Kind of Grief - I emailed Emily a draft of this movement before assigning it a title, describing it as a song of "inconsolable grief," to which she responded, "That's my favorite kind." It's a dirge with a sort of barcarolle in the middle.

IV. Bump - Makes you want to move your hips. It's okay if you bump into someone while you do it. I bump into stuff all the time.

~Michael Kurth