Violin Sonata, II. (Andante)

Directions: Andante (at a walking pace)

The second movement of the violin sonata begins in G-flat major - the relative major to E-flat minor, which the other movements are (mostly) in. As a very traditional juxtaposition to the other far more melancholic movements, this movement determinedly resolves to G-flat major, and is far slower in pace, evoking the image of leisure and rest. Notably, this is one of only two tracks in the Paragraph album to be devoid of doom and gloom (the other being the Prelude), and where Sakuzyo explicitly makes use of staccato to create a lighthearted feeling. It does, however, conjure wistfulness through unexpected modulations to the minor key.

The most striking feature of this movement is the ever-present 3:2 polyrhythm, which not only acts as a rhythmic "glue" that preserves coherence, but also as a device to obscure the time signature and pulse - the answer to whether one should count in quasi-2/4, quasi-6/8, or quasi-3/4 depends on the section of music one intends to focus on.

Structure wise, this movement (counterintuitively) maintains the sonata-allegro format; the A and B themes are first laid out in the exposition, then the album leitmotif forms the backbone of the development section that follows. A short scherzo - again based on the album leitmotif - is inserted before the recapitulation, which has been lightly modified from the exposition to feature some more gestures in the minor, foreshadowing the third movement.