Sonate C-Dur - Reiterlied

## Sonata in C major – *“Reiterlied, or Wohlauf Kameraden”*

This organ sonata takes as its foundation the well-known melody *“Reiterlied”* by **Christian Jacob Zahn**, to which **Friedrich Schiller** supplied the text. The tune is preserved and widely disseminated in the *Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch* – also known as the *Lahrer Kommersbuch* – the most influential and enduring German student songbook of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The *Kommersbuch* gathered together patriotic, convivial, and traditional songs, and in this context Zahn’s melody became firmly anchored in the cultural memory of German-speaking Europe.

My composition unfolds this song through four contrasting movements, each exploring a different perspective on the material:

1. **Song Movement** – The melody is presented in its original clarity, unadorned and direct. The organ timbre allows the folk-like simplicity and natural lyricism of the tune to shine forth.

2. **Three-part Variation** – The theme is treated contrapuntally, with voices interweaving in an intimate, almost chamber-musical manner. The familiar melody emerges in dialogue, transformed into a polyphonic texture.

3. **Avant-garde, Expressive Four-part Variation** – Here the folk material enters a modern sound world. Stark dissonances, expressive harmonies, and abrupt contrasts reshape the tune into something entirely unexpected. The listener is confronted with a heightened tension between tradition and modernity.

To be continued within the 1st comment ......