When Ireland wrote his Cello Sonata, he had already had great success with his two violin sonatas and a piano sonata. This sonata would also prove to be a critical success for him. It had been three years since he finished the piano sonata, and he had written nothing else in the form before beginning the sonata for cello. It was completed in time for an early April premiere by Beatrice Harrison and would become the only piece he produced during the entire year. It provides both the cellist and pianist with challenges in technique and interpretation. The sonata begins with a movement marked Moderato e sostenuto, using two themes that contain motives that reappear throughout the sonata. The movement has a troubled character, although it ends in the major, and a sparer sound than his earlier works. Its brief citations of Ireland's songs perhaps give hints to the reason for the nature of the movement. It quotes a motif associated with passionate love used throughout the song cycle Marigold, and a passage from The Trellis, a song about secret love. The E flat major second movement, Poco largamente, has a more sentimental nature that moves without break into the final Con moto e marcato, a return to G minor and the wilder, more impassioned temperament. A few musicologists related the sonata to Ireland's other works associated with paganism and the rawness of nature, going so far as to name specific places in England as the inspiration. Regardless, there is no denying that the spirit of the sonata is a major element of its success.

© Patsy Morita, Rovi