This is my complete list of sonatas in chronological order.

"Jaktsonaten" (Hunting sonata) in G Major, for violin and piano (2016 revised 2021) in four movements.
1. Moderato - 2. Adagio - 3. Tempo di minuetto - 4. Allegro vivace

"In stile barocco" in D Major, for solo violin (2019) in three movements.
1. Allegro molto - 2. Sarabande - 3. Gigue

"I Jane Austens salong" (In Jane Austen's salon) in Eb Major, for piano (2020) in three movements.
1. Allegro scherzando - 2. Andante semplice - 3. Presto amabile

"Joie de vivre" in C Major, for piano (2020) in four movements.
1. Allegro molto - 2. Scherzo - 3. Andante semplice - 4. Allegro giocoso

"Amadeus" in D Major, for violin and piano (2021) in three movements.
1. Allegro giocoso - 2. Adagio poco doloroso - 3. Tempo di minuetto

Sonatas

These are my five piano sonatas.  

No. 1 "I Jane Austens salong" (In Jane Austen's salon) Op. 21 in Eb Major (2020) in three movements.
1. Allegro scherzando (Eb Major) - 2. Andante semplice (G Major)- 3. Presto amabile (Eb Major)

No. 2 "Joie de vivre" Op. 23 in C Major (2020) in four movements.
1. Allegro molto (C Major) - 2. Scherzo (A minor) - 3. Andante semplice (F Major) - 4. Allegro giocoso (C Major)

No. 3 "Hommage" Op. 29 No. 1 in D Major (2023) in two movements.
1. Allegro (D Major) - 2. Vivace (D Major)

No. 4 "Den lille prinsen" (The little prince) Op. 29 No. 2 in G Major (2024) in two movements.
1. Allegro vivace (G Major) - 2. Tempo di minuetto (G Major)

No. 5 "Sonata parodia" Op. 31 in D Major (2024) in four movements.
1. Allegro molto (D Major) - 2. Andante cantabile (F Major) - 3. Tempo di minuetto (Bb Major) - 4. Vivace (D Major)

Piano sonatas

This is a selection of my music for solo piano including my five sonatas, my prelude and fugue, my walzes, rondos, inventions, etudes, character pieces, and more. 
All tracks in this playlist are presented in midi except where noted.

Piano music by David Unger

These are my biggest works in multiple movements, such as my sonatas, my cantata and my string quartet. It also includes some of my song cycles (most notably my Op. 7 song cycle "I drömmarnas spår" is missing since there is no complete recording of it, as of yet). 

Works in multiple movements

This is a short Violin Sonata in the classical style, named Amadeus since the first movement is heavily influenced by the early Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
It consists of three movements:

1. Allegro giocoso (Sonata form) 
2. Adagio poco doloroso (ABA form) 
3. Tempo di minuetto (Minuet and Trio) 

The "Amadeus" sonata was composed almost by accident after a class in chamber music where I had to substitute for the pianist in Mozarts Eb Sonata Kv. 26.
As I came home after rehearsal I composed the first movement and the similarities with the Mozart are clearly heard in the beginning of the movement.
A couple of days later I composed a complementary Minuet and Trio and thought the work was finished.
A month later however I felt that the work needed a contrast so I decided to complete it by composing a short slow movement in the parallell minor (fun fact: this is actually the first time I have ever composed in the key of B minor) 
The movements are bound together by their opening motives which all have a similar figuration.

Sonata No. 2 "Amadeus" in D Major Op. 25, for violin and piano (complete)

This is my first prelude and fugue for piano. The prelude is a short fuguration prelude and the fugue is in strict counterpoint in three voices.

Prelude and fugue in d minor (complete) played by Stijn Claeys, for piano

This short sonata is paying hommage to Joseph Haydn, who's piano sonatas I studied while learning to compose in sonata form. The first movement is based on sketches from way back 2015, when I first tried my hand on composing my own sonatas. It was heavily revised in 2023, when I added it to a rondo composed in 2021 to complete a two movement sonata, that pays hommage to Haydn's short sonata in the same key (Hob. XVI:51), which in turn, although it has no dedicatee in the published editions, was sent to English composer Maria Hester Park as a thank you for some pieces sent to him by her in 1794. Hester Park's Sonata in C Major Op. 7 (from 1796) was, among others, one of the inspirations for my second piano sonata. So in a way this hommage is to the both of them.

The two movements are:
1. Allegro (Sonata-allegro form)
2. Vivace (Five part rondo form)

Piano Sonata No. 3 "Hommage" in D Major Op. 29 No. 1 (complete)

In the fall of 2024 I celebrate 20 years since I started studying composition.
As a way of marking that I decided to collect these movements, all modelled on other composer's works, into one coherent piano sonata.

The respective movements are all modelled on a separate composers work.

Mvt. 1 "Allegro molto" is modelled on a movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Mvt. 2 "Andante cantabile" is modelled on a movement by Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831)
Mvt. 3 "Tempo di minuetto" is based on a musical game by Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721-1783)
Mvt. 4 "Vivace" is modelled on a movement by Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)

The idea for composing movements based on other composer's work came from an excercise found in Carl Czerny's book The School of practical composition Op. 600 published in 1830 in which he too recomposes the same movement by Mozart I have used for the first movement.

Piano Sonata No. 5 "Sonata parodia" in D Major Op. 31 (complete)

My fourth sonata is very much related to the third in that it to a large degree is composed upon old sketches, that have been cleaned up and recomposed. 
The title "Den lille prinsen" means The little prince and that is because of the small format but at the same time somewhat regal, although innocent character of the movements, especially in the slow minuet that makes up the second movement.
This is also by far my easiest sonata to play.
The sonata consists of the following movements:

1. Allegro vivace
2. Tempo di minuetto

Piano Sonata No. 4 "The little prince" in G Major Op. 29 Nr. 2 (complete)

Song cycle composed in 2013 to texts by Hoffmann von Fallersleben. 

1. Frühlingsgruss
2. Schmetterling
3. Hinaus ins Freie!
4. Die Waise
5. Frühlings Ankunft

David Unger, baritone
Natalja Shakova, piano

Recorded live in Ceciliakapellet, Oskarshamns Folkhögskola October 1 2019.

The Frühlingslieder were written almost by accident while I was working on my op. 7 song cycle "I drömmarnas spår".
As I was searching for a way to tie that song cycle up I felt I needed a relief and started singing songs from Robert Schumann's Liederalbum fur die Jugend at the piano. All of these texts are also set to music in that very album. 
I found the rather small songs so delightful and fun to sing that I decided to write my own little collection in the same style.
Whether or not I managed? You tell me!
But after composing the first song of this cycle I finally found the inspiration to compose the fifth song of I drömmarnas spår as well, and so I ended up with two song cycles instead of one(!).

Fünf Frühlingslieder Op. 8, (live performance)

This is a Baroque style sonata for unaccompanied violin in three movements:

1. Allegro molto
2. Sarabande
3. Gigue

This is by far the smallest of my (to date) five sonatas and began with the second movement which was actually originally composed to complement the finale of my G Major sonata (before I had revised the movement to include it in that sonata instead) as a second movement, but I found them to be to different in style and the Sarabande lay unused for three years before I found an early effort to write an Etude for solo violin which I chose to heavily revise into what is now the opening Allegro first movement. The sonata was finally put together in October 2019 when I composed the Gigue finale. 

Sonata for solo violin "In stile barocco" in D Major Op. 19 (midi recording)

This is a short prelude and fugue written for a collegue at work, back in 2019 (this is the revised version from 2023).
The two movements are connected by the theme of the prelude which comes back as countersubject in the fugue. 

Since I work in educating church cantors I have long wanted to write an organ fugue.
But since I do not play the organ myself, it didn't come naturally, until I listened to Bach's prelude and fugue in D Major, and found that an organ fugue can actually be humourous as well as well constructed by all the rules that comes with the genre.
I hope that my piece conveys some of that sense of humour as well as being contrapuntally sound, albeit being a much smaller and, if I dare say so, less pretentious work.

Prelude and fugue in C Major Op. 20, for organ (midi recording)

This is a short piano sonata in the Classical style dedicated to my mother for her 70th birthday.
It consists of three movements in the following sequence

1. Allegro scherzando (Sonata-allegro form) 
2. Andante semplice (varied ABABA form) 
3. Presto amabile (Five part Rondo form)

The Jane Austen sonata began its life as a Lied ohne Worte (the second movement) inspired by music from the movies of Jane Austen's books, hence the title.
To this I added what was originally intended as an opening movement to a never completed violin sonata and thought that I'd call it a two movement sonatina.
But as my Mother's 70th birthday was coming up I thought that I'd give her a special gift and composed the Rondo finale based on three themes spelling out the musical cipher of her three names (Ingrid Eleonora Unger) and so the sonata was complete.
In fact the last revisions where made as late as the morning of her birthday! 

Piano Sonata No. 1 "In Jane Austen's salon" in Eb Major Op. 21 (complete)

This is my first complete sonata, originally composed as a three movement work (without the Adagio) in 2016 for students at the school where I work and dedicated to my late father. It was later revised with the addition of the slow movement in March 2021. It is in four movements:

1. Moderato (Sonata-allegro form)
2. Adagio "In memoriam" (Slow movement sonata form) 
3. Tempo di minuetto (Minuet and Trio) 
4. Allegro vivace "Hunt" (Sonata-allegro form)

The "Hunting sonata" (Jaktsonaten in its original Swedish title) began as a one movement work for unaccompanied viola called "Jakt" (Hunt or Chase in English) due to its never ending streak of sixteenth notes, and plans to make it into a larger work came only after a lecture in composition for which I prepared an example, which was to become the third movement. As I had already composed Jakt and didn't really know what to do with it I revised it and added the piano part of what was to become the fourth movement. 
Having composed two movements, of which one was originally called Hunt I thought I'd compose an opening movement as well. And when composing an opening movement  to complement a movement called Hunt it came natural that it should be based upon a hunting call.
Hence the original three movement sonata was complete.
But as it fell, at the time of putting the work together my father fell ill and was hospitalised. So I decided that I would finish it as a positive work to celebrate his homecoming. Unfortunately he passed away while in hospital and never came home and I stopped working on the piece in early 2017.
It was only on my late father's birthday in 2021 that I brought it up once again and composed the second movement, with it's own subtitle "In memoriam".
And so the four movement sonata was finally complete. 
A work that started almost by accident, but in time became my longest work to date.
I hope you enjoy it and that it sounds coherent, despite being composed in the way it was.

Sonata No. 1 "Hunting sonata" in G Major Op. 13, for violin and piano (midi recording))

This is my string quartet in d minor.
The name Ave Maria comes from a short quotation of my song Ave Maria in the middle of the second movement.
It consists of three movements:

1. Allegro poco drammatico
2. Allegretto - Andante - Allegretto
3. Allegro molto agitato - Tempo di marcia - Allegro molto agitato

The score has been published by Gusthold Music Publisher and can be found here:

www.gustholdmusic.com

The String quartet in d minor started as an example on the white board during a lecture on part writing for strings. The white board example can still be heard unchanged as the first eight bars of the second movement.
The eight bars then turned into a full movement as I was teaching contrasts and how to possibly build upon a first material.
To that movement I later added the first and third movements to create a complete work for the school's string quartet.
Since the students were all rather early in their development all parts are written completely in first position on all instruments.
In May 2020 the work was published by Gusthold Music Publisher in USA. 

String quartet No. 1 in d minor "Ave Maria" Op. 12 (complete)

This is the third of my Three Romantic Pieces, here played by pianist Edward Cohen who teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Three romantic pieces Op. 17 No. 3- Rondo Furioso (live performance)

The second of my Three Romantic Pieces is a Nocturne composed for my wife, who is a piano teacher, as a gift for our seventh Wedding anniversary.
The first section shares its form with John Fields famous Nocturne in Bb Major and the central section, the Wedding march, is influenced by Frederic Chopins g minor Nocturne from op. 37.
This recording is made by Anna Sutyagina of Moving Classics TV who featured me as Composer of the week on the channel in February 2020.

Three romantic pieces Op. 17 No. 2 - Nocturne "Wedding anniversary" (live performance)

This is my second piano sonata "Joie de vivre" in C Major.
It consists of four movements in the following sequence:

1. Allegro molto (Sonata-allegro form) 
2. Scherzo (Scherzo and Trio) 
3. Andante semplice (ABA form) 
4. Allegro giocoso (Seven part Rondo form)

This is my second "Grand Sonata", following my Violin sonata No. 1, including both a dance movement and a slow movement, in this case the second movement is a Scherzo.

The first movement starts with a scalar motif inspired by Maria Hester Park's C Major sonata op. 7, but whereas she uses the scalar figure to develop a very fluent lyrical theme in the style Mozart I am more influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn in the exposition, with its short contrasting phrases and sudden shifts in dynamics. The development following is however in pure Mozart in style starting in the tonic minor and moving through g minor and D Major before cadencing in A Major and then moving back through a dramatic passage over the circle of fifths. 

The second movement is an a minor Scherzo which owes its opening figure to the piano concerto of Robert Schumann, but what follows is a typically classical Scherzo, with a C Major Trio section with much reminicense of the style of Haydn's Minuets. 

The third movement, in F major, is written in a mostly two voice texture influenced by the figured bass style of the Baroque (some have told me they get a "feeling" if not a direct influence of Domenico Scarlatti). 

The last movement is in a Haydnesque contrapuntal style with formal influences from the seven part rondos of Sofia Dussek. Influences of Muzio Clementi are also strong in this movement which rounds off the sonata by stating its three themes in the same key order as the previous movements (A is in C Major as the first movement, B in A minor as the second and C in F major as the third movement was).

The work is dedicated to my wife Desiree with much love. 

Piano Sonata No. 2 "Joie de vivre" in C major Op. 23 (midi recording)

I am a music teacher at Oskarshams Folkhögskola, where I teach classical singing, composition, music theory and chamber music. 
I am also a singer with primarily art songs on my repertoire, a hobby composer and poet and a founding member of the Mönsterås Jazz and Chamber Music Society.
I studied composition at Ingesund College of Music and Baroque counterpoint at Uppsala University and mostly write vocal music for song and piano, and/or choir but eventually compose for other instruments and ensembles as well.
I have been called "a radiant talent in finding the essentials in different musical styles" (Arvika Nyheter, December 4, 2006) and regional news paper Barometern wrote that my music shows "good insight in choice of melody and harmonic part writing" (September 25, 2012).
My music has been performed in Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Sweden and USA.

Notable works are:

"Three nocturnal Songs Op. 11", song cycle of three songs for soprano and piano. Premiered by Cecilia Alrikson and Natalja Shakova in Oskarshamn, Sweden in 2018.

"Night songs Op. 6", song cycle of five songs for baritone and piano. Premiered by Anthony Schneider and Rosemary Barnes in Vienna, Austria in 2013.

"Ave Maria - String quartet in d minor Op. 12", string quartet in three movements. Published by Gusthold Music, USA in 2020.

"Av hjärtat, sjung! Op. 22", cantata in five movements for STB soloists, SATB and childrens choir, string quartet and piano. Comissioned for the opening concert of the four day festival "L'Esprit - upplev 1700-talet" (L'Esprit - Experience the 18th century) in 2020.

"Joie de vivre - Piano sonata No. 2" Op. 23, sonata in four movements for solo piano. Composed in 2020.

"Jaktsonaten - Violin sonata No. 1 Op. 13", sonata in four movements for violin and piano. Composed in 2016.
 
I have been published by:

Gusthold Music Publisher (www.gustholdmusic.com) 
- String quartet in D minor "Ave Maria Op. 12" (May 2020)

Flauto d'Amore Editions
(www.flautodamoreproject.com)
- Danza, for Flauto d'Amore or C-flute (June 2020)

Psalmportalen (www.psalmportalen.se)
- Three congregational hymns (Herre Gud, vi lovar dig, När det känns som att allt ljus försvinner and Ett litet barn, Marias son) (Summer 2017)

I hope you will find something here to listen to that you will enjoy!

Photography for my profile image: Anna Broette

Piano Sonata No. 1 "In Jane Austen's salon" in Eb Major Op. 21 (complete)

David Unger | Composer