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38-512: The term sonatina , pl. sonatine , the diminutive form of sonata, is often used for a short or technically easy sonata. In the Baroque period , a sonata was for one or more instruments, almost always with continuo . After the Baroque period most works designated as sonatas specifically are performed by a solo instrument, most often a keyboard instrument, or by a solo instrument accompanied by

76-550: A minuet or scherzo , a slow theme-and-variations , or a rondo . Piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano . Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements , although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti , Liszt , Scriabin , Medtner , Berg ), others with two movements ( Haydn , Beethoven ), some contain five ( Brahms ' Third Piano Sonata , Czerny 's Piano Sonata No. 1, Godowsky 's Piano Sonata) or even more movements. The first movement

114-467: A central role today in music theory, and is an essential part of the theory of sonata structure as taught in most music schools. Sources Sonatina A sonatina (French: “sonatine”, German: “Sonatine") is a small sonata . As a musical term, sonatina has no single strict definition; it is rather a title applied by the composer to a piece that is in basic sonata form , but is shorter and lighter in character, or technically more elementary, than

152-507: A graceful and melodious little second movement included. The practice of the Classical period would become decisive for the sonata; the term moved from being one of many terms indicating genres or forms, to designating the fundamental form of organization for large-scale works. This evolution stretched over fifty years. The term came to apply both to the structure of individual movements (see Sonata form and History of sonata form ) and to

190-447: A keyboard instrument. Sonatas for a solo instrument other than keyboard have been composed, as have sonatas for other combinations of instruments. In the works of Arcangelo Corelli and his contemporaries, two broad classes of sonata were established, and were first described by Sébastien de Brossard in his Dictionaire de musique (third edition, Amsterdam, ca. 1710): the sonata da chiesa (that is, suitable for use in church), which

228-447: A large body of music that would over time increasingly be thought essential for any serious instrumentalist to master. In the early 19th century, the current usage of the term sonata was established, both as regards form per se , and in the sense that a fully elaborated sonata serves as a norm for concert music in general, which other forms are seen in relation to. From this point forward, the word sonata in music theory labels as much

266-491: A process known as interruption . As a practical matter, Schenker applied his ideas to the editing of the piano sonatas of Beethoven, using original manuscripts and his own theories to "correct" the available sources. The basic procedure was the use of tonal theory to infer meaning from available sources as part of the critical process, even to the extent of completing works left unfinished by their composers. While many of these changes were and are controversial, that procedure has

304-433: A slow introduction, a loosely fugued allegro , a cantabile slow movement, and a lively finale in some binary form suggesting affinity with the dance-tunes of the suite . This scheme, however, was not very clearly defined, until the works of Arcangelo Corelli when it became the essential sonata and persisted as a tradition of Italian violin music. The sonata da camera consisted almost entirely of idealized dance-tunes. On

342-500: A typical sonata. The term has been in use at least since the late baroque; there is a one-page, one-movement harpsichord piece by Handel called "Sonatina". It is most often applied to solo keyboard works, but a number of composers have written sonatinas for violin and piano (see list under violin sonata ), for example the Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano by Antonín Dvořák , and occasionally for other instruments, for example

380-486: Is evident in Scarlatti's sonatas. Other composers of Baroque keyboard sonatas (which were primarily written in two or three movements) include Marcello , Domenico Alberti , Giustini , Durante and Platti . J.S. Bach's popular Italian Concerto , despite the name, can also be considered a keyboard sonata. Although various composers in the 17th century had written keyboard pieces which they entitled "Sonata", it

418-446: Is generally composed in sonata form . In the Baroque era, the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) or sonata da camera (chamber sonata), both of which were sonatas for various instruments (usually one or more violins plus basso continuo ). The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composers . The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (of which there are over 500) were

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456-531: Is listed as "doubtful." Composers such as Boccherini would publish sonatas for piano and obbligato instrument with an optional third movement—–in Boccherini's case, 28 cello sonatas. But increasingly instrumental works were laid out in four, not three movements, a practice seen first in string quartets and symphonies , and reaching the sonata proper in the early sonatas of Beethoven . However, two- and three-movement sonatas continued to be written throughout

494-519: Is used inconsistently. The most common meaning is a short, easy sonata suitable for students, such as the piano sonatinas of Clementi . However, by no means are all sonatinas technically undemanding, for example the virtuoso sonatinas of Busoni and Alkan , and the Sonatine of Ravel , whose title reflects its neo-classical quality. On the other hand, some sonatas could equally have been called sonatinas: for example Beethoven 's Op. 49 , titled by

532-649: Is well known as "The Father of the Pianoforte". Clementi's Opus 2 was the first real piano sonata composed. The much younger Franz Schubert also wrote many. His later sonatas were inspired by the Classical forms of Haydn and Mozart and the expansion of the forms in Beethoven’s sonatas. The 32 sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven , including the well-known Pathétique Sonata , the Moonlight Sonata , and

570-555: The Appassionata Sonata are often considered the pinnacle of piano sonata composition. As the Romantic era progressed after Beethoven and Schubert, piano sonatas continued to be composed, but in lesser numbers as the form took on a somewhat academic tinge and competed with shorter genres more compatible with Romantic compositional style. Franz Liszt 's comprehensive "three-movements-in-one" Sonata in B minor draws on

608-563: The Clarinet Sonatina by Malcolm Arnold . The title "Sonatina" was used occasionally by J. S. Bach for short orchestral introductions to large vocal works, as in his cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit , BWV 106 , a practice with precedent in the work of the earlier German composer Nicolaus Bruhns . This is the only sense in which Bach used the term sonatina, although he composed many chamber and solo sonatas for various instruments. As with many musical terms, sonatina

646-523: The Classic Era (A History of the Sonata Idea) , begun in the 1950s and published in what has become the standard edition of all three volumes in 1972. Heinrich Schenker argued that there was an Urlinie or basic tonal melody, and a basic bass figuration. He held that when these two were present, there was basic structure, and that the sonata represented this basic structure in a whole work with

684-405: The Classical period: Beethoven's opus 102 pair has a two-movement C major sonata and a three-movement D major sonata. Nevertheless, works with fewer or more than four movements were increasingly felt to be exceptions; they were labelled as having movements "omitted," or as having "extra" movements. Thus, the four-movement layout was by this point standard for the string quartet, and overwhelmingly

722-450: The abstract musical form as particular works. Hence there are references to a symphony as a sonata for orchestra . This is referred to by William Newman as the sonata idea . Among works expressly labeled sonata for the piano, there are the three of Frédéric Chopin , those of Felix Mendelssohn , the three of Robert Schumann , Franz Liszt 's Sonata in B minor , and later the sonatas of Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff . In

760-469: The classical style and its norms of composition formed the basis for much of the music theory of the 19th and 20th centuries. As an overarching formal principle, sonata was accorded the same central status as Baroque fugue ; generations of composers, instrumentalists, and audiences were guided by this understanding of sonata as an enduring and dominant principle in Western music. The sonata idea begins before

798-479: The composer " Zwei Leichte Sonaten für das Pianoforte " ("Two Easy Sonatas for Piano") comprise only two short movements each, a sonata-allegro and a short rondo (No. 1) or minuet (No. 2), all well within the grasp of the intermediate student. However, other works titled "Sonatina", such as the Sonatinas in G and in F major , have been attributed to Beethoven. In general, a sonatina will have one or more of

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836-414: The early 19th century, the sonata form was defined, from a combination of previous practice and the works of important Classical composers, particularly Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, but composers such as Clementi also. It is during this period that the differences between the three- and the four-movement layouts became a subject of commentary, with emphasis on the concerto being laid out in three movements, and

874-423: The following characteristics: brevity; fewer movements than the four of the late classical sonata ; technical simplicity; a lighter, less serious character; and (in post-romantic music) a neo-classical style or a reference to earlier music. Muzio Clementi 's sonatinas op. 36 are very popular among students. The first (or only) movement is generally in an abbreviated sonata form , with little or no development of

912-409: The hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were, for the most part, unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime. The majority of these sonatas are in one-movement binary form , both sections being in the same tempo and utilizing the same thematic material. These sonatas are prized for both their technical difficulty and their musical and formal ingenuity. The influence of Spanish folk music

950-413: The layout of the movements in a multi-movement work. In the transition to the Classical period there were several names given to multimovement works, including divertimento , serenade , and partita , many of which are now regarded effectively as sonatas. The usage of sonata as the standard term for such works began somewhere in the 1770s. Haydn labels his first piano sonata as such in 1771, after which

988-596: The loss of the continuo . Crucial to most interpretations of the sonata form is the idea of a tonal center; and, as the Grove Concise Dictionary of Music puts it: "The main form of the group embodying the 'sonata principle', the most important principle of musical structure from the Classical period to the 20th century: that material first stated in a complementary key be restated in the home key".( The sonata idea has been thoroughly explored by William Newman in his monumental three-volume work Sonata in

1026-574: The most common for the symphony . The usual order of the four movements was: When movements appeared out of this order they would be described as "reversed", such as the scherzo coming before the slow movement in Beethoven's 9th Symphony. This usage would be noted by critics in the early 19th century, and it was codified into teaching soon thereafter. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Beethoven's output of sonatas: 32 piano sonatas, plus sonatas for cello and piano or violin and piano, forming

1064-718: The most common layout of movements was: However, two-movement layouts also occur, a practice Haydn uses as late as the 1790s. There was also in the early Classical period the possibility of using four movements, with a dance movement inserted before the slow movement, as in Haydn's Piano sonatas No. 6 and No. 8. Mozart 's sonatas were also primarily in three movements. Of the works that Haydn labelled piano sonata , divertimento , or partita in Hob XIV , seven are in two movements, thirty-five are in three, and three are in four; and there are several in three or four movements whose authenticity

1102-467: The name Essercizi per il gravicembalo (Exercises for the Harpsichord). Most of these pieces are in one binary-form movement only, with two parts that are in the same tempo and use the same thematic material, though occasionally there will be changes in tempo within the sections. They are frequently virtuosic, and use more distant harmonic transitions and modulations than were common for other works of

1140-465: The other hand, the features of sonata da chiesa and sonata da camera then tended to be freely intermixed. Although nearly half of Johann Sebastian Bach 's 1,100 surviving compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions are instrumental works, only about 4% are sonatas. The term sonata is also applied to the series of over 500 works for harpsichord solo, or sometimes for other keyboard instruments, by Domenico Scarlatti , originally published under

1178-404: The practice and meaning of sonata form, style, and structure has been the motivation for important theoretical works by Heinrich Schenker , Arnold Schoenberg , and Charles Rosen among others; and the pedagogy of music continued to rest on an understanding and application of the rules of sonata form as almost two centuries of development in practice and theory had codified it. The development of

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1216-470: The symphony in four. Ernest Newman wrote in the essay "Brahms and the Serpent": The role of the sonata as an extremely important form of extended musical argument would inspire composers such as Hindemith , Prokofiev , Shostakovich , Tailleferre , Ustvolskaya , and Williams to compose in sonata form, and works with traditional sonata structures continue to be composed and performed. Research into

1254-412: The term divertimento is used sparingly in his output. The term sonata was increasingly applied to either a work for keyboard alone (see piano sonata ), or for keyboard and one other instrument, often the violin or cello. It was less and less frequently applied to works with more than two instrumentalists; for example, piano trios were not often labelled sonata for piano, violin, and cello. Initially

1292-412: The term had taken on its present importance, along with the evolution of the Classical period's changing norms. The reasons for these changes, and how they relate to the evolving sense of a new formal order in music, is a matter to which research is devoted. Some common factors which were pointed to include: the shift of focus from vocal music to instrumental music; changes in performance practice, including

1330-468: The themes. For this reason, a sonatina is sometimes defined, especially in British usage, as a short piece in sonata form in which the development section is quite perfunctory or entirely absent: the exposition is followed immediately by a brief bridge passage to modulate back to the home key for the recapitulation . Subsequent movements (at most two) may be in any of the common forms, such as

1368-417: The time. They were admired for their great variety and invention. Both the solo and trio sonatas of Vivaldi show parallels with the concerti he was writing at the same time. He composed over 70 sonatas, the great majority of which are of the solo type; most of the rest are trio sonatas, and a very small number are of the multivoice type. The sonatas of Domenico Paradies are mild and elongated works with

1406-490: Was only in the classical era , when the piano displaced the earlier harpsichord and sonata form rose to prominence as a principle of musical composition, that the term "piano sonata" acquired a definite meaning and a characteristic form. All the well-known Classical era composers, especially Friedrich Kuhlau , Joseph Haydn , Muzio Clementi , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , and Ludwig van Beethoven , wrote many piano sonatas. Muzio Clementi wrote more than 110 piano sonatas. He

1444-460: Was the type "rightly known as Sonatas ", and the sonata da camera (proper for use at court), which consists of a prelude followed by a succession of dances, all in the same key. Although the four, five, or six movements of the sonata da chiesa are also most often in one key, one or two of the internal movements are sometimes in a contrasting tonality. The sonata da chiesa, generally for one or two violins and basso continuo , consisted normally of

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