KRAKATOA SONATA
“ROCK SONATA No.6”

for Piano Duet 1980

David Hellewell

This work was the last of the piano “Rock Sonatas”. These are quite different from one another in form, content and expression: there is no formula. As suggested by the designation, these works (the first one was composed in 1973) combine, and draw on, the musical styles and idioms of both classical and popular music. Hellewell has been at sometime a jazz, rock, latin-american, classical and avant garde musician, and therefore felt free to draw on all these sources and experiences to create a new ‘multi-dimensional’ music, the Rock Sonatas being the forerunner of this.

The title “Krakatoa” refers to the powerful, volcanic nature of the sonata, although, like most of the composer’s larger works, a single designation is inadequate to describe the diversity within a given composition. The piece consists of many interconnected sections, lasting some 15 minutes in all.