Sinfonietta

I was listening to Brahms late one night and decided my next piece would be this Sinfonietta. Having recently completed several darker and more complex works inspired by Stravinsky and the poet Paul Celan, I wanted to write something lighter, more classical—more fun. That’s not to say I consider this piece lesser in any way; that an artwork not take, for instance, politics or genocide as its inspiration doesn’t somehow diminish it—art may find meaning in joy no less than in suffering.

Nestled within each movement of this Sinfonietta is found at least one reference to an easily identifiable Brahmsian opus. We open on a rich romantic sonata, sing a dark and tender lullaby, explore variations on a vaguely Haydn-esque original theme, and close with a vigorous “Hungarian” rondo-finale.