Sonata No. 8 in F minor, mvt. 2 - Depression

Andrew Hendrickson

This sonata was written in the wake of the COVID pandemic from 2021 to 2023. Its movements express my feelings about the madness of it all. Our world is unjust and only getting more terrifying with each passing year. May we find a way to overcome this cancerous capitalist oligarchy and build a new, better world that supports us instead of exploiting us.

I have been depressed with this world my entire life, and never before have I captured that emotion so well within music. This piece is in Eb minor and ends on a neapolitan Fb minor chord with the high C struck on top of it. Due to the stretching of piano overtones, with each octave having slightly more than a 2:1 frequency ratio, the high C resonates closer to an out of tune fifth than a minor sixth.