Composed in 2008, James Domine's "Piano Sonata #4 in B minor" is a somewhat darker and more complex composition than its predecessors in the genre. The stormy temperament of the musical expression led to the subtitle "The Tempest," although any connection with Shakespeare’s play is purely coincidental. The video realization of the piece makes use of some dramatic elements such as a shipwreck at sea, a wintry journey through an unknown land and arrival in a castle of mysterious provenance. These are somewhat implied by the music but are in no way meant to imply an intended narrative underlying the sonata. The principal theme is a march-like Pesante with an upward motion that reaches its zenith in a chromatic passage that swells up from the depths, subsiding into the flowing tranquillo of the transitional episode. The gentle warmth of the subordinate theme grows into a romantic rhapsody that fades away like a dream. The first section of the development is a sequence built upon the Pesante theme that erupts into an arpeggiated fantasia using the tranquillo episodic motive. The recapitulation is reached after a frenzied cadenza, and the sonata concludes in a dramatic if tragic mode. This sonata in orchestral garb serves as the foundation for the first movement of Domine’s "Symphony #4" as well as the basis for the as yet unfinished "Piano Concerto #4."

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