Pedrini: Sonata IV en sol mineur* (cello) Le Baroque Nomade, Jean-Christophe Frisch. Buxtehude Sonata IV in B flat Major Op 1. Dieterich Buxtehude - Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 1, BuxWV 252 - A Celebration of Baroque Music. A little history of the Sonata. In origin, sonata referred to music that was 'sounded', not 'sung'. But in the eighteenth century it was applied to a particular form of composition that came to dominate almost all instrumental music.
Sonata form occupies a central place in the work of the classical composers from Haydn to Mahler. It is to be contrasted with the polyphonic style of the preceding era; and it embodied the conventions against which later 'modern' styles were to react. It has two aspects - the division of compositions into a formal sequence of movements and the elaboration of homophonic harmony. Sonata form had no single starting point. Sonata. Sonata (/səˈnɑːtə/; Italian: [soˈnaːta], pl. sonate; from Latin and Italian: sonare, "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian cantare, "to sing"), a piece sung. The term, being vague, evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance, and by the early 19th century came to represent a principle of composing large scale works.
It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas still maintain the same structure. Usage of sonata[edit] The term sonatina, literally "small sonata", is often used for a short or technically easy sonata. Instrumentation[edit] Brief history of the usage of sonata[edit] The Baroque sonata[edit]