sonatina ‘die and let die’ for reiner

This assertive two-page solo piano work was written for Reddy’s great friend Reiner Wierschchanowski. It must be one of the shortest sonatinas in the repertoire but at only 26 bars long, it nevertheless sounds absolutely complete. Driven by an ostinato bass, it covers almost the whole range of the piano keyboard in a few second and ends with a chord played by both arms. The James Bond title ‘live and let die’ provides a darkly humorous alternative title. It’s mad! which must be why Reddy put the name ‘looney’ at the top of the score, rather than his own. It took him an hour to write sonatina ‘die’ and let die’ for reiner, in the early hours of 26 August 2007. There are only two Sibelius files and the second one is the basis of the present publication. The front page of the score is shown on the right.

It was first performed live by Michael Blake in a concert in the STIAS Auditorium, Stellenbosch on 7 March 2018. Blake edited the score sightly, inserting a repeat from the end of bar 22 back to bar 3 and on to the end, to help make more of a point in such a short work, and adding or moving some time signatures to make reading the score easier. All this was done with the permission of the copyright owner, Heike Asmuss. The first audio file below is extracted from the Sibelius file. The second is the live recording, with the permission of Michael Blake.