Piano Sonata: Hope is a single-movement work consisting of three interconnected sections, woven together with fragments of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. I envision the form of Piano Sonata as a broken vessel - a metaphor for hope in our distraught times, damaged and in need of repair. Each section of the piece responds to a different poem. The first is inspired by Emily Dickinson's “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” followed by Ha Jin’s “A Center,” and concluding with Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” To meld the sections into a single form, I wove fragments of Beethoven's Ode to Joy through the entire piece, using the Ode in much the same way molten gold is used in Kintsugi pottery to mend shattered pieces together into a beautiful new object.

--Libby Larsen, 2024