Dictionary of Music - Birding America

sonata 387players, the second player providing the pianoaccompaniment.The form just described, sometimes called theclassic sonata, developed gradually from the end ofthe baroque period (1750) through the classic period(1785–1820). Exactly how it evolved is not known.The use of three movements, fast-slow-fast, appearsto be derived from the Italian overture style ofAlessandro Scarlatti (see under OVERTURE), whichwas adopted by Bach for several of his concertigrossi and for six organ sonatas, as well as by hisson Karl Philipp Emanuel for his piano sonatas. Theinsertion of a minuet before the last movement originatedwith Stamitz of the Mannheim school andwas adopted by Haydn and Mozart in their quartetsand symphonies but not in their sonatas. The developmentof sonata form, used for the first (and sometimesalso the last) movement of the classic sonata,is even more difficult to trace. Haydn wrote mainlypiano sonatas (about sixty in all), although he producedsome sonatas for stringed instruments.Mozart and Beethoven are considered the greatestsonata composers of the classic period, and perhapsof all time. Mozart wrote more than forty violinsonatas and numerous piano sonatas, including anumber of duets (two players at one piano) as wellas some for two pianos. The sonatas of Haydn andMozart are usually in three movements. Beethoven,who generally used four movements but replaced theminuet with a scherzo (see SCHERZO, def. 1), wrotethirty-two piano sonatas, among them some of thefinest works ever written for the piano. A number ofthem bear names as well as opus numbers; the bestknown of these are the Pathétique Sonata (op. 13),Moonlight Sonata (op. 27, no. 2), Pastoral Sonata(op. 28), Waldstein Sonata (op. 53), AppassionataSonata (op. 57), Farewell Sonata (op. 81a), andHammerklavier Sonata (op. 106). His violin andcello sonatas (among the best known are theKreutzer Sonata, op. 47, and Spring Sonata, op. 24,both for violin) are also outstanding. Schubert wroteten or so piano sonatas, still using the classic formbut a more songlike style throughout. Mendelssohnwrote a Violin Sonata, two cello sonatas, and sixorgan sonatas, and César Franck wrote a particularlylovely Violin Sonata. Liszt and Chopin, the outstandingpiano composers of their day, devotedthemselves more to shorter forms, although each didwrite a few sonatas. Liszt in particular treated theform quite loosely; his Sonata in B minor (1854) hasonly a single movement, although it is as long as athree-or four-movement work and employs contrastsof tempo and style. Some of the late romantic composers,notably Brahms, returned to the classicsonata form; his sonatas, for violin, piano, or clarinet,are among the best written between 1850 and1900. Also notable from this period is GabrielFauré’s first Violin Sonata. The late nineteenth-centuryorgan composers (Reger, Widor) wrote sonatasfor organ, and the two leading impressionists,Debussy and Ravel, both wrote piano sonatas.Although the sonata was avoided for a time astoo traditional a form, it was revived by the twentieth-centuryneoclassicists (see NEOCLASSICISM).Chief among the composers of sonatas in the firsthalf of the century were Stravinsky, Prokofiev,Bartók, and Hindemith. Hindemith in particularrevived interest in sonatas for instruments other thanviolin, cello, or piano; in addition to these, and asonata for double bass, he wrote sonatas for flute,English horn, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet,and trombone. Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata in E-flat minor is frequently performed. Berg, Ives(Concord Sonata), Carter, Sessions, Boulez, andGórecki wrote piano sonatas in various modernidioms, ranging from atonal (Berg’s, though nominallyin B minor) to serial (Sessions). Ives alsowrote four violin sonatas, and there are cello sonatasby Shostakovitch, Fauré, Kodály, and Penderecki.2 From the Renaissance (1450–1600) on, a termloosely used to distinguish an instrumental piecefrom a vocal composition, the latter being calledcantata (from cantare, “to sing”). Until about 1600such sonatas were virtually identical with canzonas(see CANZONA, def. 4), and the only feature theyhad in common with the classic sonata was the useof contrasting sections.—solo sonata Early in the seventeenth century, aname used occasionally for a piece written for oneor more solo instruments accompanied by a bassocontinuo (see CONTINUO). The name is misleading,since these sonatas had two voice-parts, the top lineand the bass, and were usually performed by threeinstruments (the bass part was most often played by