Violin Sonata, I. Allegro

Directions: Allegro (at a brisk pace)

Sakuzyo is best known in rhythm game circles as an electronic music artist, but he also has many examples of sensitive classical-adjacent music. This sonata movement is generally very conservative. Structure wise, it follows a variant of the sonata-allegro form (exposition-development-recapitulation-coda), though Sakuzyo takes liberties: the exposition themes do not follow a traditional progression, and the recapitulation is greatly truncated with a modified version of the second theme acting as a coda, which ends the piece suddenly but not abruptly. In contrast with the simplistic violin writing, the piano is unusual in that it often occupies the musical foreground in extended solo passages of great virtuosity, requiring awareness of delicately woven counterpoint.

Although Sakuzyo has adopted a Romantic language, the sonata remains measured and restrained in its temperament and usage of rubato. On a personal note, this is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time; Sakuzyo paradoxically achieves a sort of unity akin to that between two persons cooperating, despite the separation of the instruments at times.