The Trilogy Sonata was given its world premier performance by the arranger, pianist Paul Barnes on April 19, 2001 in New York City. The Trilogy Sonata consists of three transcriptions from the trilogy of "portrait" operas of Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach (1976), Satyagraha (1981), and Akhnaten (1984). The first movement is Barnes ' revision of Glass's own piano transcription of the 'Knee-Play No.4" from Glass's landmark opera Einstein On the Beach. The four acts of the opera are musically joined by musical interludes entitled "Knee-Plays", a reference to the quasi-physiological function of the interludes as the connecting tissue of the opera. The transcription of the conclusion from Glass's second "portrait" opera, Satyagraha (1981) was initially arranged by Glass's musical director, Michael Riesman and subsequently revised and edited by Barnes during the summer of 2000. As Einstein represented the man of science, Glass chose Ghandi, the man of politics, as the subject of his second "portrait" opera, Satyagraha (1981). The sanskrit word refers to Ghandi's political philosophy of non-violent resistence. The final transcription in the Triology Sonata, Dance from Scene 3 Act II of Akhnaten (1984) was done by Barnes in 1999 and premiered separately in Minneapolis in March of 2000. The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhnaten lived from 1385 to 1357 BC and was responsible for unsuccessfully introducing monotheism, the worship of the Sun god Aten, to ancient Egypt. The Dance serves as the energetic celebratory ritual for the inauguration of Akhnaten's new city, Akhetaten (The Horizon of Aten). With Akhnaten, Glass's own "Ring cycle", the trilogy of portrait operas, is complete with an operatic exploration of science, politics, and finally religion.