JAVS Spring 2026

The second rapid movement, Horrifying Story , is marked vivace and set in C-sharp minor. Both viola and piano parts are demanding, and the most apparent musical feature is a toccata-like texture saturated with chromatic motion, primarily centered around the tonic, creating a sense of pursuit or chase (see Figure 3). Another prominent rhythmic figure—two sixteenth notes followed by an eighth—suggests the sound of a snare drum or

gunfire, later reversing its order to resemble a gallop. Despite its brevity (forty-two measures), the movement is densely packed with dramatic intensity, raising questions about the nature of the childhood experience it portrays and whether it remains within conventional expectations of children’s repertoire (such as the famously dark “Hunted Forest” scene from Disney’s Snow White , 1937).

Figure 3. Stepanov, Three Miniatures , II (Horrifying Story), mm. 1-4, toccata like, highly chromatic opening.

A similar question on the childhood nature of the piece emerges in the third movement, Waltz , set in the even more melancholic and ‘mature’ key of B minor (see Figure 4). The overall texture is intimate, with the viola carrying the melody, frequently doubled in thirds by the piano’s right hand or reinforced through viola double stops. While the opening harmonies are relatively simple, the middle section introduces greater chromatic complexity, intensified harmonic rhythm, and an expanded registral range in both instruments. As the movement draws to a close, the music returns to the subdued melancholy

of the opening, concluding the eight-minute suite in a sorrowful tone, noticeably lacking the optimism associated with socialist realist paradigms. At the same time, the suite clearly fulfills several other socialist realist criteria, including a high degree of accessibility (through tonality, clear narrative, and technically demanding yet idiomatic writing), the use of Russian and Eastern folkloric elements, and reliance on established structural and programmatic models.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2026