RobertCunninghamsMusic

I recently uploaded my May 31 recording of Brahms's Intermezzo in B-flat Minor, Op. 117, No. 2, to YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j179w9r8KRQ). The piece is in a small-scale sonata form. Within the exposition, Theme I is graceful, with constantly flowing thirty-second notes. Theme II is lyrical, with lush harmonies; it is in the relative major (D-flat major) and feels much more serene than Theme I. The two themes are contrasting in character - yet they are closely connected, especially in the first few phrases, in a way that may not be immediately obvious.

Examining the upper staff of Theme I, shown at the top of the diagram, we can see how Brahms delineates the most essential tones by means of two-note slurs. In the center of the diagram, I have shown how they form a melody of two-note phrases in a gentle dotted rhythm. In the upper staff at the bottom of the diagram, we can see how that melody is transformed into the rich, lyrical Theme II, which begins in the latter half of bar 22 (about 1:00 into the video). The dotted rhythms are replaced by equal sixteenth-note values, which at an Andante tempo give the new theme a more cantabile character. But the pitches across the first two measures of the second theme are the same, except transposed from B-flat minor into D-flat major. Even the slurs are preserved.

Looking next at the lower staff of Theme I, we can see how two-note figures in the left hand (which I have indicated with red brackets) appear in a kind of dialogue with the right-hand figures. They reappear in Theme II, again in a dialogue with the right hand - thus reinforcing the connection between the two themes.

Theme II can therefore be understood as deriving from Theme I by thematic transformation (or "melodic transformation"). Thematic transformation is a device that I have used regularly in my own compositions, and over the years I have written ten articles about it in a special section (see link below) of my blog. As I commented in one of those articles: "The human brain delights in recognizing the familiar in new guises. In music, motives and themes are constantly transformed into new guises by a variety of devices."

Thematic transformation is similar to what Arnold Schoenberg called "developing variation." Schoenberg described Brahms's use of the technique of developing variation in a famous 1933 article, titled "Brahms the Progressive."

MELODIC TRANSFORMATION: https://robertcunninghamsmusic.com/category/music-theory/melody/melodic-transformation/.

My Piano Sonata No. 2 is one of the most successful and imaginative of my large-scale compositions. I completed it in 1984, and then made a recording of the sonata, along with three of my shorter compositions, which was released to the public in cassette format the following year. The cassette included liner notes written by the late William R. Scarborough, and his comments on this sonata are quoted in my latest blog post.

The Story of Piano Sonata No. 2 In March 2022 I produced the first digital recording of my Piano Sonata No. 2, after which I uploaded to YouTube a video of that performance and a second video showing the score along with the audio. The sonata had been composed almost four decades earlier. It was completed in February 1984, after

I am delighted to announce that my May 31 recording of Johannes Brahms's Intermezzo in B-flat Minor, Op. 117, No. 2, is now on YouTube. This beautifully expressive piece is in a miniature sonata-allegro form, where the principal theme is gracefully flowing and the second theme is lushly lyrical. The development section, in the view of Brahms's biographer Walter Niemann, seems to depict a "man as he stands with the bleak, gusty autumn wind eddying round him." The close of the piece is intensely sorrowful, even funereal. For the best in Romantic piano music, please subscribe to my channel, RobertCunninghamsMusic!

Brahms, Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 2, performed by Robert Cunningham Johannes Brahms's Intermezzo in B-Flat Minor, Op. 117, No. 2, as re...

August's VIDEO OF THE MONTH is this video based on my performance of Domenico Scarlatti's lively Sonata in A Major (L. 345, K. 113) in a public recital in 1988. Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are representative of late Baroque style but also foreshadow the Classical period. I had first studied this one with the late Vincenzo Vitale during a a two-month stay in Italy in 1968 (see link to blog article below). The video provides some further details about the composer and his milieu.

On Scarlatti and Italy: https://robertcunninghamsmusic.com/on-scarlatti-and-italy/

Scarlatti, Sonata in A Major (L. 345, K. 113), performed by Robert Cunningham Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in A Major (L. 345, K. 113), as perform...

The soundtrack from my February 22 recording of the famous Melody in F, by the nineteenth-century Russian pianist-composer Anton Rubinstein, is now on my SoundCloud site ("lateromantic"), where you can listen to it or download it in a high-quality .wav format. I first fell in love with this piece as a child and resolved to learn it someday. Six and a half decades later, near the end of of last year, I began learning it in preparation for this recording. My interpretation of this marvelous work includes some extra embellishments from the Leopold Godowsky edition.

Anton Rubinstein, Melody in F Anton Rubinstein's Melody in F (Op. 3/1), with revisions by Leopold Godowsky. Recorded by Robert Cunningham on February 22, 2026. See also: Robert Cunningham's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.

The word "canon" comes from a Greek word meaning "rule." In music, canon is a contrapuntal technique in which a melody is imitated in a strict manner by one or more other voices. My most recent YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeKtnmmZJq4) shows my performance of Scriabin's Canon in D Minor. Alexander Scriabin's musical genius became evident very early, and he composed this remarkable (and musically beautiful) canon in 1883, when he was just 11.

Understandably for such a young composer, the score (shown in full here) is short and rather sketchy. The primary melody (dux) begins in the lower staff of the first bar, and it is imitated by the follower melody (comes) one bar later and one octave higher in the top of the upper staff. For those not familiar with the canon concept, I have added red arrows to the pic showing, measure by measure, how this imitation continues consistently from the beginning to the end of the piece. The right hand also provides some accompanimental eighth notes, which enrich the harmonies and also produce interesting 2-against-3 cross-rhythms with the triplets through much of the melody.

The editor notes: "This work...is printed without any correction or editing, retaining all the peculiarities of the composer's manuscript [my translation]." It includes no tempo markings, dynamics, pedaling, or expression indications. Even the time signature is absent, but the meter is doubtless intended to be 2/4. Obviously, the score leaves plenty of scope for individual interpretation. To me, this piece feels mournful, except for a few bars in the relative major (F major, at the top of the second page) that seem to depict ringing bells.

Parts of the left hand are left blank, with no rests or notes. There I have taken the liberty of holding some notes over to create a fuller sound. In particular, I hold the bass D3 at the end throughout the last two measures in order to conclude with the stability and peacefulness of root-position tonic harmony.

Performing Johannes Brahms's Intermezzo in B-flat Minor, Op. 117, No. 2, for the Phoenix Piano Club on the evening of Thursday, June 25. The venue that month was the Steinway Hall in Scottsdale, AZ, which includes a very nice recital hall in the back with a Steinway concert grand. This intermezzo is beautifully expressive and emotionally intense. I had just recorded it on May 31 (the video should go on YouTube on July 25), so the piece was very much under my fingers. But I felt some trepidation because it was the first time I had performed it for a live audience, and also the first time I had ever played it on a piano other than my own Bösendorfer. As I went on stage, an old joke was echoing through my mind: "Last night the Atlanta Symphony played Brahms. Brahms lost."

Nevertheless, as it turned out, the performance went quite well, and the audience was clearly delighted. :)

My March 31 recording of Alexander Scriabin's Canon in D Minor was recently uploaded to YouTube. This amazing little piece, written when the composer was probably 11, gives evidence of his precocious early genius. The canon is between the two hands, with the melody line in the left hand imitated one bar later and an octave higher in the right hand. The right hand also provides an accompaniment in eighth notes, creating frequent cross-rhythms against triplets in the melody. The manuscript includes no tempo markings, dynamics, or other expression markings - thereby leaving plenty of scope for individual interpretation. For more fine piano music, please subscribe to my channel, RobertCunninghamsMusic.

Scriabin, Canon in D Minor, performed by Robert Cunningham Alexander Scriabin, Canon in D Minor (WoO 1). Recorded by Robert C...

The soundtrack from my February 21 recording of the second movement from J. S. Bach's Italian Concerto is now on SoundCloud, where you can listen to it or download it in a high-quality .wav format. The Italian Concerto was originally written for a solo harpsichord and has been adopted into the pianist's standard repertoire. I first learned it in my early teenage years and returned to it periodically over the decades since. It has three movements, and over time my favorite has become this rhapsodic middle movement, which is marked Andante and has been described as the "jewel" of the work.

J. S. Bach, Andante from Italian Concerto The second movement, marked "Andante," from Johann Sebastian Bach's Italian Concerto. Recorded by Robert Cunningham on February 21, 2026. See also: Robert Cunningham's YouTube Channel: https://www.

July's VIDEO OF THE MONTH is my 2019 recording of my Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Major. My first piano sonata (1982) had followed a rather conventional format, with four movements. In my second piano sonata (1984), I had experimented with a format (similar to Liszt's B Minor Sonata) of a single large movement in sonata-allegro form. This Piano Sonata No. 3 (1987, revised 2016) combines the two ideas: It is designed to be played as a whole, with a sonata-allegro form and unified tonal structure that extends across its three movements. This composition is bold and Romantic and challenges the limits of the piano, often emulating the colors of a full orchestra.

Piano Sonata No. 3 by Robert Cunningham The revised 2016 version of Robert Cunningham's Piano Sonata No. 3 ...