Sonata super "Hoson Zes..."

The Sonata super "Hoson zes..." is one of Jan Novak's works written during the last phase of his life, which he spent in Ulm after emigration. The typical characteristics of the composer's musical language can be well documented here - the clear formal composition, regularly divided structures, a very inventive motivic work, charming melodies and an unusual harmonic feeling, which is based in particular on modality and bitonality.

The "ideological background" present in various metamorphoses in each of his works is also visible here - his inclination towards ancient culture (in the instrumental pieces, the composer constantly used the metrics of Latin texts as an essential element of the composition and gave his works almost without exception Latin titles; he regarded Latin as a living language with perspectives). The theme here is the melody of the Seikilos song, one of the oldest musical monuments of ancient culture, in which the text and the notes are simultaneously codified in writing.

Novák originally wrote the sonata for violin and piano in 1981 and dedicated it to his emigrant friend, the violinist Jirí Trnka, for whom he also wrote other violin pieces. Already in the course of the composition he thought of an adaptation for flute.