Zane Merritt - Sonata No. 3 for guitar in E Minor, Op. 42

This piece is the first consciously classicist sonata I wrote after my initial attempt (my Sonata No. 1 for Guitar is unfinished and likely abandoned...). Sonata No. 2, being referential to Bach and nomenclaturally hedged with its “Cosplay” parenthetical, is decidedly not the formal exercise that this piece is (nothing against No. 2, just a different kind of beast). I tried to highlight the strengths of the guitar in different ways from movement to movement: mixtures of open string arpeggio configurations and lyrical melodism for the first movement, the guitar’s entirely unique ability to be quiet and atmospheric in the second movement, and percussive vivaciousness for the last. For more information and for score purchases, visit