JAVS Spring 2026

Composed seventeen years before her massive 1967 Sonata , Poem employs a notably more advanced harmonic and rhythmic language than the Sonata. While remaining within the boundaries of socialist realist aesthetics, it actively presses against them. In its concise sixty-two measures, the work guides both performers and listeners through a turbulent emotional trajectory that begins in hope and culminates in despair. The piano introduction opens with a highly chromatic half-diminished sonority reminiscent of César Franck’s 1886 Violin Sonata , before gradually situating itself within its historical and stylistic context and arriving at the principal theme in G minor

at m. 10 (see Figures 5a–b). The agitated character returns forcefully at m. 22, challenging the primacy of the main theme by reasserting the introductory material in an increasingly bitter and tempestuous guise, before yielding inevitably to the return of the principal subject at m. 47. The narrative trajectory of the music is readily perceptible, even as its interpretation remains open, requiring no external programmatic cues. In this way, Poem offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the emotional world of a composer whose personal history remains almost entirely inaccessible.

Figure 5a. Stepanova, Poem , mm.1-5, ‘half-diminished’ opening.

Figure 5b. Franck, Sonata for Violin and Piano, I, mm.1-5, opening.

other, its brevity, formal clarity, viola-friendly tonalities (notably G minor), and restrained technical demands make them well suited to cultivating precisely those skills. The following works were composed by musicians whose primary professional identity was pedagogical— pedagogues , in Soviet terminology—and therefore articulate a more explicit educational agenda.

Composers-Pedagogues As the preceding discussions of Stepanov, Stepanova, and their works suggest, positioning these viola works along a spectrum of artistic versus pedagogical intent resists definitive categorization. On one hand, the Poem demands refined control of sound, intonation, vibrato, and expressive nuance, qualities that might place them beyond the scope of intermediate instruction. On the

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