Piano Sonata No. 3 (Chávez)

[4] The sonata is in four movements: Angular melodies, a percussive approach to the instrument, employment of stark and concise one- or two-measure units, abrupt changes of register, rhythmic irregularity, and a harmonic profile that blends frequent vertical seconds, sevenths, and ninths with sudden, stark octaves are the leading features of the sonata.

Chávez deliberately avoids overtly expressive elements, but uses a fundamentally diatonic polyphony which does not prevent him from achieving the harshest sonorities.

[1][5] The sonata adheres to a neoclassical aesthetic, linked to notions of simplicity, balance, and purity, though not resembling very closely the European (Stravinskian) model of neoclassicism.

[10] The writing reflects the composer's preference at this point in time for pure, absolute music, free of any suggestions of philosophical, literary, or plastic imperatives.

In its intricate, jazz-like syncopated rhythms and abundance of large melodic leaps it is close in character to two piano pieces Chávez wrote in the same year: Blues and Fox.