Sonata (music)

Sonata (From Latin and Italian sonare, 'to sound'), in music, literally means a piece "played" as opposed to cantata (Latin cantare, to sing), a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era. The term would take on increasing importance in the classical period, and by the early 19th century the word came to be used for a principle of composing large scale works, and be applied to most instrumental genres, regarded alongside the fugue as the fundamental method of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. In the 20th century the term continued to be applied to instrumental works, but the formal principles enunciated and taught through the 19th century were weakened or loosened.

Usage of "sonata"

The baroque applied the term sonata to a variety of works, including works for solo keyboard, and for groups of instruments. In the transition from the Baroque to the Classical periods, the sonata undergoes a change in usage, from being a term for applied to many different kinds of small instrumental work, to being more specifically applied to chamber music genres with either a solo instrument, or a solo instrument with the piano. Increasingly after 1800, the term applies to a form of large scale musical argument, and in this sense is the general meaning in musicology and works on musical analysis. Generally if some more specific usage is meant, then the particular body of work will be noted, for example the "sonatas of Beethoven", will mean the works specifically labelled sonata, whereas "Beethoven and sonata form" will apply to all of his large scale instrumental works, whether concert or chamber. In the 20th century, sonatas in this sense would continue to be composed by influential and famous composers, but many works which do not meet the strict criterion would also be created and performed.

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