Music by
DANIEL DORFF

PROGRAM NOTES & REVIEWS

Sonata (Three Lakes) for Flute and Piano


PROGRAM NOTES

SONATA (THREE LAKES) was commissioned by and dedicated to flutist Cindy Anne Broz who has become a champion of my flute music in recent years. The work is both a formal sonata, and also a programmatic suite depicting lakes that have special memories for me. 
I. LAKE WALLENPAUPACK is a dramatically beautiful oasis in the middle of the woods in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountain resort area. It looks like the glacial lakes of Maine even though it's actually manmade. This movement recalls a romantic getaway vacation on Wallenpaupack, and the music blends the free-floating flow of a gentle lake current with a lyrical love song, never quite leaving the feel of the hanging trees hiding the lake's mysteries.



II. KEZAR LAKE is in southwestern Maine; it hosts many summer cabins including a resort named Quisisana that hires young professional musicians to serve as the staff by day and entertainment at night. My parents vacationed there for over 20 years, and their ashes will live on together in Kezar for eternity. The movement is a memorial to my father who became part of Kezar Lake while the sonata was being composed.


III. SALMON LAKE is an exuberant scherzo following the moderate and gentle first two movements. Home to Whisperwood Lodge & Cabins in central Maine, my childhood summers included vacations there, and this movement is a recollection of my frisky 8-year-old self. Salmon Lake remains a mystical memory in a deep way, and a symbol of childhood playfulness.

UPDATES FOLLOWING THE FIRST PRINTING
FLUTE
Mvt 1, bar 22, enter mp rather than mf
Mvt 1, bar 111, slur the 4 16ths
Mvt 3, bars 41 & 96; slur the first two notes in these measures
Mvt 3, bar 131, add Poco piu mosso

PIANO
Mvt 2, bar 53; The downstem F Ab and Bb are loco, the upstem Eb and C are 8va
Mvt 3, bar 105; the LH beat 2 should be B rather than C.
Mvt 3, bar 131, add Poco piu mosso

REVIEWS
 "In this work for flute and piano, composer Daniel Dorff deftly captures the beauty of three American lakes that hold special memories for him. The work begins with an interweaving of long, vocally conceived melodies with both simple harmonic undercurrents and unexpected, adventurous turns in the harmonic context. There is both an elegant poignancy and likability on first listening that will surely lend this sonata to programs given for a variety of audience types. Sonata (Three Lakes) not only provides flutists an excellent forum within which to demonstrate their full range of color possibilities (including a hauntingly beautiful passage of harmonics) but also challenges the performers to maintain rhythmic accuracy and technical brilliance, especially in the third movement. A tour de force with a steady well of intensity, at approximately 20 minutes total performance length, the work is a true duo sonata, with musically satisfying passages of collaboration and exchange between the piano and flute."
            – The Flutist Quarterly (Danilo Mezzadri), Fall 2015

"This is a lovely work, and one of its chief assets is the piano writing which is sparse and really supports the flute line when the two instruments play together... This work should have a place in the standard repertoire."
            – Flute Talk magazine (Anne Reynolds), July 2014

"What a marvelous and and evocative piece of music you have written. The long lines and beautiful lyricism of the first movement with the contrasting rhythmic moments is so beautiful - I love the harmonies under the flute that give so many cues to the player for color and nuance. The second movement is heartbreakingly touching - I was very moved. It brought to mind similar memories of my family summers in a little cabin on Lake Superior. But even without your program notes, I would have had a very personal reaction to your music. You captured something that can't really be described. The innocent playfulness of the third movement is a perfect balance to movements one and two and sounds like a pleasure to play and to hear. ....what a gift to us all."
            – Jeanne Baxtresser, Principal Flute, New York Philharmonic

"Dorff admits that his unobtrusive neoclassical style in these works is influenced by French Conservatoire flute traditions. In both his "Three Lakes" Sonata for flute and piano and the shorter, older, "Sonatine de Giverny" for piccolo and piano, which closed the program, Dorff's music did not deign to wrestle with the ear, eschewing abject stridency even when offering up flourishes to flaunt the flutist's technical capacity."
            – Arts Atlanta (Mark Gresham), February 2014

 "[Amy] Porter and [Katie] Leung finished with Daniel Dorff's "Sonata (Three Lakes)" (2014). The three movements had long flowing arched melodies in sunny colors, a light and spare piano part, and rippling technical passages. The duo played with great energy and finesse and got a standing ovation."
            – Skidmore Daily Gazette (Geraldine Freedman), October 2014

 
 

last updated April 25, 2026
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