On today’s date in 1950, the Sonata for Cello and Piano by the American composer Elliot Carter had its premiere at New York’s Town Hall, as part of a recital by cellist Bernard Greenhouse and pianist Anthony Markas. According to the Times review, the Carter Sonata was (quote): “grave in character, almost unrelieved by any touch of lightness and gaiety. While it is neatly scored for cello and piano, it is NOT an easy work.”

The new Cello Sonata marked a shift in the 41-year old composer’s style away from the more populist mode of Aaron Copland and toward a more deliberate attempt to find his own unique voice as a composer.

Decades later, recalling this period in his life, Carter recalled: “About the time of the Second World War, I began to feel that the neo-classical or populist music that I was writing wasn't strong enough. It didn't express the feelings that I felt. We had all overwhelming feelings about the war and its result, and Hitler and all that, and this made me feel that I had to write something more serious and much more meaningful ̶—to me at least, if not to the audience. It was like a blind man trying to find things. It was a probing period. Gradually, I began to find out what it is that meant a lot to me, and I began to narrow my attention to the point where I really knew the kind of thing I wanted to write."