After years of teaching Beethoven's sonata form movements in college, I decided to write a couple of carillon sonatas that take inspiration from his approach to writing sonatas. Thus the form largely follows Beethoven's forms, and the melodic and harmonic writing are mostly at home in a nineteenth-century idiom. Two aspects of Beethoven's writing that strike me as a listener are the ways in which he dramatically suspends time at unexpected moments, and the general ferocity of much of his music. The first movement of this piece has two passages that break through the pulse-driven time world in ferocious manner and that also yank the piece into a more modern, daring harmonic and melodic language. The second movement, meanwhile, is a peaceful meditation. The subtitle Timpanogos refers to the majestic mountain of that name that overlooks Utah Valley, where I live. The mountain is an imposing presence, in part because of its size, in part because the shape and smooth lines of the mountain make it stand in contrast to the giant lumps of rough rock surrounding it for miles around.

—Neil Thornock