Sonata III in E Major for Violin and Piano

The form of the first movement of Sonata III in E Major, Allegretto, is sonata-allegro form. The exposition has three thematic areas with the violin and keyboard part alternating melodic materials. The third theme is in the submediant, C-sharp Minor. The development tantalizingly begins in C Major, followed by sequences. The end of the development and beginning of the recapitulation are skillfully blended.

The second movement, Andante quasi Allegretto, in A Minor, is a loose ABA form with a virtuosic B section featuring thirty-second notes for keyboard alone. The return of the A section is in the parallel major of A Major, instead of the expected A Minor. The harmonic and melodic outline are basically the same as the first A, but with an Alberti bass accompaniment in the keyboard.

The third movement, Allegretto, returns to E Major and has a complex rondo form, ABACADA. The C section is in the parallel minor, E Minor, and the D section has an internal form of aba. The A sections are all the same.

The sonatas are a fascinating and intriguing addition in the study of women composers of the eighteenth century such as Elizabeth Turner, Elizabeth Hardin, Jane Freer, Elizabeth Weichsell Billington, Cecilia Barthélemon, Maria Hester Park, Marianne Martinez, Anna Bon, and Elisabetta de Gambarini. (All available from HMP.) Unfortunately, these women were forgotten and overlooked by music historians in the succeeding years. Every woman composer that is recovered and every new edition that is published provides another link in the history of eighteenth-century women composers.