Preview: Sweet Betsy Sonatina
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SKU: A0.933610
Composed by Thomas Coker. 20th Century,Instructional,Standards. Score. 9 pages. Thomas Rembert Coker Jr #3503503. Published by Thomas Rembert Coker Jr (A0.933610).To quote Wikipedia: "Sweet Betsy from Pike is an American ballad about the trials of a pioneer named Betsy and her lover Ike who migrate from Pike County (Missouri?) to California."
The cover art here is drawn by artist, Kaytha Coker Potts, whose image captures the imagined Betsy and Ike as they cross rivers, plains, and mountains on the way to California. The music for the various movements of Sweet Betsy, similarly, can be seen as musical pictures of this harrowing yet thrilling trip. Movement I pictures a joyful determination to make the trip, accompanied by energy enough to make the early struggles endurable. Movement II pictures rest and reflection. The evening comes when one thinks through the events of the day with peace and anticipation of continuing the journey tomorrow. Movement III paints the joy of the journey with the end in sight. High energy and much joy is found here.
This sonatina was inspired by – and in many ways patterned after – Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Sonatina Op. 13, No. 1.
The first movement, Allegretto, imitates Kabalevsky’s use of the arch phrase in which two bars are mirrored by the following two bars. As the movement progresses, the tempo adjusts to meet continuing challenges – all filled with energy.
In the second movement, Introspection Andante, one takes the time to rest and reflect and, in so doing, to find the mental and musical balance needed on a journey as well as in music.
Movement III, the sonatina’s name sake, is in rondo form and rollicks along in b minor and 6/8 meter. The tune, Sweet Betsy, always in mind yet unstated, finally erupts three times in the center section, first in the left hand (in B Major), then a second time (in F Major) before appearing in the right hand (in C# Major) while accompanied (in B Major) in the left hand. The resulting conflicting tonalities are followed by a transitional sixteenth note run leading back to the first theme in b minor as the rondo plays out.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.
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