Charles Griffes's Piano Sonata as Emblematic of Mature Style

Abstract

Composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes has had many labels placed upon him as an early figure of 20th century music in America, most of which place much weight on his American nationality within the context of musical trends outside of the continent. Recognized most prominently for his impressionistic piano compositions, Charles Griffes had multiple periods of stylistic influence that are less-often discussed. His later works are experimental and modernist in nature, and as lesser-known works from a lesser-covered composer it is uncommon for scholars to cover them. The music of Griffes has much importance to both the history of American art music and the emergence of modernism in Europe and America. In Griffes’s music specifically, there is room for deeper analyses to show how his music is constructed and operates. In this paper, I examine the form and salient features of his piano Sonata (1918) to provide deeper analysis of this work as well as to show this piece as the beginning of a new “mature style.” Using Edward Said’s book One Late Style as a basis, I argue that Griffes’s final works (1917-20) in general represent his maturity as a composer who had fully gestated previous influences into a personal style. These elements of analysis and style show something of Griffes beyond a short label of “American Impressionist.” They present, rather, a composer who reached compositional maturity combined with a personally unique style which placed him among the composers of note in the first half of the twentieth-century.