Timid Nightingale | Sonata #2 for guitar by Frank A. Wallace

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Timid Nightingale
Sonata #2 for guitar by Frank A. Wallace
four movements for solo guitar inspired by La dousa votz by troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn
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I. The sweet voice sings
II. If I forget to love
III. Garden and grove
IV. A joy that rises

“Wow! This sonata incorporates all that I dislike and distrust about contemporary music – and you make it work beautifully! I love the final result…I find it very “guitar friendly” and accessible.” – anonymous

Preview: sample pages of Timid Nightingale – Sonata #2

Duration: 17 minutes; 11 pages;

Difficulty level: professional concert work

Written: February-August, 2017

Commissioned by: Joseph Mayes, in memory of his father, cellist Samuel Mayes

World premiere:  November 30, 2017 at Arizona State University by Frank Wallace

Recording: A Distant Wind CD by Frank Wallace on Gyre,, 2019

All Gyre compositions are ASCAP
Copyright ©2017 Frank A. Wallace
Cover photography and design by Nancy Knowles
All rights reserved.

Timid Nightingale, Sonata #2 for classical guitar solo, first and second movements

Timid Nightingale, my second sonata for classical guitar solo, was commissioned by Joseph Mayes in memory of his father, cellist Samuel Mayes. 
Cellist for both the Philadelphia and Boston orchestras, Samuel Mayes

The four movements were inspired by La dousa votz, a troubadour song by Bernart de Ventadorn that is special to the memory of Joseph and his father. Joe is a longtime colleague and friend of mine and was Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Guitar Society for many years. After my concert there in November of 2016, he asked me to write this piece.

“I have heard the sweet voice sing
of the timid nightingale,
it’s impressed upon my heart
so that all the care and pain
and mistreatment love can give
he has sweetened and made mild,
so to heal my pain
I need joy that rises from outside.”

trans. James H. Donalson (from Provençal)

While the song makes fleeting appearances in the first movement, a tiny sub theme involving the notes F, E and D# (derived from Samuel’s name) took over my creative thought. Those notes drove the creation of the next three movements and are played with over and over again through many moods and textures.