Harp Music: Sonata in D major - John Parry. Moonlight Sonata. Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (animated score, 1st mvt.) piano solo. Sonata (Music) definition of Sonata (Music) in the Free Online Encyclopedia. Sonata(sənä`tə), in music, type of instrumental composition that arose in Italy in the 17th cent.
At first the term merely distinguished an instrumental piece from a piece with voice, which was called a cantata. Thus many early concertos, suites, and sets of variations were called sonatas. As the various instrumental forms acquired differentiated characteristics during the baroque period, the term began to identify two specific types: the sonata de chiesa, or church sonata, and the sonata da camera, or chamber sonata. Both were written most commonly for two melody instruments, usually violins or flutes, with a bass instrument and a keyboard instrument, both of which played the thorough bass (see figured bass figured bass, in music, a system of shorthand notation in which figures are written below the notes of the bass part to indicate the chords to be played.
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.