Sonata | Definition, Components, History, Examples, & Facts

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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata">sonata</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/sonata">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref27495"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/sonata#ref27495">Components of the sonata</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref27497"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/sonata#ref27497">Early development in Italy</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref27498"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/sonata#ref27498">Early development outside Italy</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref27499"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/sonata#ref27499">The Baroque era</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref27500"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/sonata/The-Classical-era-and-later">The Classical era and later</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref27501"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/sonata/The-Classical-era-and-later#ref27501">New principles of musical form</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/sonata">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-student-links"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> For Students </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/sonata"> <img loading="lazy" 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Author of <i>The Music of Johannes Brahms </i>and others.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Bernard Jacobson</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-11T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 11, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven" topicid="58473">Ludwig van Beethoven</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart" topicid="395455">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach" topicid="47843">Johann Sebastian Bach</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Joseph-Haydn" topicid="257714">Joseph Haydn</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Franz-Schubert" topicid="528336">Franz Schubert</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/musical-form" topicid="213672">musical form</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/sonata-form" topicid="554253">sonata form</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/trio-sonata" topicid="605608">trio sonata</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/sonatina-music" topicid="554273">sonatina</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/sonata"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref394980"></span>sonata</strong>, type of <span id="ref394981"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">musical composition</a>, usually for a solo instrument or a small instrumental ensemble, that typically consists of two to four movements, or sections, each in a related <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">key</a> but with a unique <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">musical</a> character.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Deriving from the past participle of the Italian verb <em>sonare</em>, “to sound,” the term <em>sonata</em> originally denoted a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="composition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/composition" data-type="MW">composition</a> played on <span id="ref394983"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/instrumental-music" class="md-crosslink ">instruments</a>, as opposed to one that was <em>cantata</em>, or “sung,” by voices. Its first such use was in 1561, when it was applied to a <span id="ref394982"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/suite" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">suite</a> of dances for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/lute" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">lute</a>. The term has since acquired other meanings that can easily cause confusion. It can mean a composition in two or more movements, or separate sections, played by a small group of instruments, having no more than three independent parts. Most frequently it refers to such a piece for one or two instruments, such as Beethoven’s <span id="ref1305664"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moonlight-Sonata" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Moonlight Sonata</em></a> (1801) for piano. By extension, sonata can also refer to a composition for a larger instrumental group having more than two or three parts, such as a <span id="ref394984"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/string-quartet-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">string quartet</a> or an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/orchestra-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">orchestra</a>, provided that the composition is based on principles of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-form" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">musical form</a> that from the mid-18th century were used in sonatas for small instrumental groups. The term has been more loosely applied to 20th-century works, whether or not they rely on 18th-century principles.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Quite distinct from all of the preceding, however, is the use of the term in “sonata form.” This <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="denotes" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/denotes" data-type="EB">denotes</a> a particular form, or method of musical organization, typically used in one or more movements of multimovement instrumental works written since the beginning of the <span id="ref394986"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-Classical-period#ref15765" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Classical period</a> (the period of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mozart</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Haydn" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Haydn</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Beethoven</a>) in the mid-18th century. Such works include sonatas, string quartets and other <span id="ref394985"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chamber-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chamber music</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">symphonies</a>. (<em>See</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-form" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sonata form</a>.)</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref27495"> <h2 class="h1">Components of the sonata</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies multiple medialist slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100" data-type="audio"><div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex"><div class="rw-track d-flex align-items-center"><div class="position-relative rw-slide col-100 px-20 px-40 pt-40"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="86433" data-asm-type="audio"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media border-0" data-type="audio"><div class="position-absolute top-10 left-10 assembly-slide-tag rounded-lg">1 of 3</div><audio src="https://cdn.britannica.com/72/92572-005-358EF606/movement-allegro-Emil-Guilels-Molto-recording-Piano-1951.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" controls=""></audio></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/72/92572-005-358EF606/movement-allegro-Emil-Guilels-Molto-recording-Piano-1951.mp3" data-href="/media/1/554229/86433">Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: <em>Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor,</em> K 457</a><span>First movement, “Molto allegro,” of Mozart's <em>Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor</em>, K 457; from a 1951 recording by pianist Emil Guilels.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div><div class="position-relative rw-slide col-100 px-20 px-40 pt-40"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="86538" data-asm-type="audio"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media border-0" data-type="audio"><div class="position-absolute top-10 left-10 assembly-slide-tag rounded-lg">2 of 3</div><audio src="https://cdn.britannica.com/65/92365-005-11EF2AEA/Andantino-movement-Artur-Schnabel-recording-Franz-Schubert-1937.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" controls=""></audio></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/65/92365-005-11EF2AEA/Andantino-movement-Artur-Schnabel-recording-Franz-Schubert-1937.mp3" data-href="/media/1/554229/86538">Schubert, Franz: <em>Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major</em></a><span>Excerpt from the second movement, “Andantino,” of Franz Schubert's <em>Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major</em>; from a 1937 recording by pianist Artur Schnabel.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div><div class="position-relative rw-slide col-100 px-20 px-40 pt-40"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="86535" data-asm-type="audio"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media border-0" data-type="audio"><div class="position-absolute top-10 left-10 assembly-slide-tag rounded-lg">3 of 3</div><audio src="https://cdn.britannica.com/29/92329-005-432CE669/Excerpt-movement-Solomon-recording-Franz-Schubert-Allegro-1952.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" controls=""></audio></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/29/92329-005-432CE669/Excerpt-movement-Solomon-recording-Franz-Schubert-Allegro-1952.mp3" data-href="/media/1/554229/86535">Schubert, Franz: <em>Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor</em></a><span>Excerpt from the third movement, “Allegro vivace,” of Franz Schubert's <em>Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor</em>; from a 1952 recording by pianist Solomon (byname of Solomon Cutner).</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div></div><button disabled="true" class="prev-button js-prev-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-lg btn-blue-dark m-20"><span class="material-icons" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></span></button><button disabled="true" class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-lg btn-blue-dark m-20"><span class="material-icons" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span></button></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Typical sonatas consist of two, three, or four movements. Two-movement and, more specifically, three-movement schemes are most common in sonatas for one or two instruments. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Beethoven</a>, particularly in his earlier period, sometimes expanded the scheme to four movements. Most first movements of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-Classical-period#ref15765" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Classical</a> sonatas are in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-form" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sonata form</a>, and they are usually fast; the second movement commonly provides the contrast of a slower <span id="ref395002"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tempo-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tempo</a>; and the last movement in most cases is again fast. When there are four movements, a simpler, dance-style movement of the type also found in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/suite" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">suite</a> is included. This is usually placed between the slow second movement and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/finale" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">finale</a>; in some cases it stands second and the slow movement third.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The forms of the second, third, and fourth movements vary much more than that of the first, which in Classical examples is almost invariably the weightiest. Because their function is to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="complement" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/complement" data-type="EB">complement</a> the experience of the first movement through a new but related range of contrasts, the scope and manner of the later movements depend on the nature and the degree of prior development of the thematic material. Simple <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ternary-form" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ternary</a> (A B A) form and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-variation" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">variation</a> form (i.e., theme and <span id="ref395003"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">variations</a>) are among the most common patterns for the slow movement, but <span id="ref395004"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rondo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rondo</a> and sonata forms are also used. In rondo form a recurring theme is contrasted with a number of intervening themes, as A B A C A. When sonata form is used in slow tempos, the demands of overall proportion frequently cause the omission of the development section. Sonata form, rondo, and, less often, variation form are also used for the final movement. In final movements, also, the simple rondo pattern (A B A C A) is often expanded into A B A-development-B A, with B in the <span id="ref1180363"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dominant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">dominant</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">key</a> at its first appearance and in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tonic-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tonic</a> key at its second. The result is a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="hybrid" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/hybrid" data-type="EB">hybrid</a> form known as sonata-rondo.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/sound-check-musical-vocabulary-quiz" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/30/254330-131-1B200240/young-girl-playing-trumpet.jpg" alt="Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="86539" data-asm-type="audio"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media border-0" data-type="audio"><audio src="https://cdn.britannica.com/66/92366-005-7BD579DF/Excerpt-movement-Scherzo-Vladimir-Horowitz-recording-Franz-1953.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" controls=""></audio></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/66/92366-005-7BD579DF/Excerpt-movement-Scherzo-Vladimir-Horowitz-recording-Franz-1953.mp3" data-href="/media/1/554229/86539">Schubert, Franz: <em>Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major</em></a><span>Excerpt from the third movement, “Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza,” of Franz Schubert's <em>Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major</em>; from a 1953 recording by pianist Vladimir Horowitz.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">In the first part of the Classical period, the dance movement, when it appeared, usually consisted of a <span id="ref395005"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/minuet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">minuet</a> in fairly simple <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/binary-form" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">binary form</a> (the two-part form from which sonata form evolved). This was followed by a second minuet known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/trio-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">trio</a>, which tended in orchestral works to be more lightly scored. The first minuet was then repeated, normally without its own internal repeats. The minuet-trio-minuet structure forms an overall ternary pattern. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Haydn" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Haydn</a> frequently, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Beethoven</a> still more often, chose to speed up the traditional minuet so that it could no longer be considered a dance medium and became a <span id="ref395006"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/scherzo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">scherzo</a>, a quick, light movement usually related to the minuet in form. In some extreme cases, such as the ninth symphonies of both Beethoven and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franz-Schubert" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Schubert</a>, the binary structures of both scherzo and trio were expanded into small but complete sonata-form structures. In this way, as with the sonata-rondo, the principles of thematic development and key contrast spread during the Classical period as the sonata form began to influence other movements.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref27497"> <h2 class="h1">Early development in Italy</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The sonata in all its <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifestations" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifestations" data-type="MW">manifestations</a> has roots that go back long before the first uses of the actual name. Its ultimate sources are in the <span id="ref395007"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/choral-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">choral</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/polyphony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">polyphony</a> (music having several equal melodic lines, or voices) of the late <span id="ref395008"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/Ars-Nova#ref15694" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Renaissance</a>. This in turn drew at times on both liturgical and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="secular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/secular" data-type="MW">secular</a> sources—on the ancient system of tones or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mode-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">modes</a> of <span id="ref395009"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Gregorian-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Gregorian chant</a>, and on <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="medieval" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval" data-type="MW">medieval</a> European <span id="ref395010"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/folk-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">folk music</a>. These two lines were constantly interweaving. Popular tunes, for example, were used as the starting point for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mass-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">masses</a> and other religious <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="compositions" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compositions" data-type="MW">compositions</a> from the 15th to the early 17th centuries. Sacred and secular elements influenced the development of both the sonata and the partita (or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/suite" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">suite</a>) of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-tonal-era-and-after-1600-to-the-present#ref15754" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Baroque period</a>.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The specific musical procedures that were eventually to be characteristic of the sonata began to emerge clearly in works by the Venetian composers of the late 16th century, notably <span id="ref395011"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrea-Gabrieli" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Andrea Gabrieli</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Gabrieli" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Giovanni Gabrieli</a>. These composers built instrumental pieces in short sections of contrasted tempo, a scheme that represents in embryo the division into movements of the later sonata. This approach is found not only in works entitled “sonata,” such as Giovanni Gabrieli’s <em><span id="ref1305665"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sonata-pian-e-forte" class="md-crosslink ">Sonata pian’ e forte</a></em> (<em>Soft and Loud Sonata</em>) of 1597, which was one of the first works to specify <span id="ref395012"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/instrumentation-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">instrumentation</a> in detail; the instrumental <span id="ref395013"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fantasia-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">fantasia</a> and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/canzona" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">canzona</a>, an instrumental form <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="derived" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/derived" data-type="EB">derived</a> from the <span id="ref395014"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chanson" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chanson</a> or secular French part-song, display a similar sectional structure. Like early sonatas, they were often contrapuntal (built by <span id="ref395015"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/counterpoint-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">counterpoint</a>, the interweaving of melodic lines in the different voices, or parts). At this stage sonatas, fantasias, and canzonas were often indistinguishable from each other, and from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fugue" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">fuguelike</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ricercare" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ricercare</a>, though this form is generally more serious in character and more strictly contrapuntal in technique.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 17th century <span id="ref395016"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/stringed-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">stringed instruments</a> eclipsed the <span id="ref395017"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/wind-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">winds</a>, which had played at least an equally important role in the sonatas and canzonas composed by the Gabrielis for the spacious galleries of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Marco-Basilica" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">San Marco Basilica</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Venice" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Venice</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claudio-Monteverdi" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Claudio Monteverdi</a> devoted more of his energies to vocal than to instrumental <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">composition</a>. The development of instrumental writing—and of instrumental musical forms—was carried on more and more by <span id="ref395018"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/virtuoso" class="md-crosslink ">virtuoso</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/violin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">violinists</a>. One of these was <span id="ref395019"></span>Carlo Farina, who spent part of his life in the service of the court of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Dresden-Germany" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Dresden</a>, and there published a set of sonatas in 1626. But the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="crowning" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/crowning" data-type="EB">crowning</a> figure in this early school of violinist-composers was <span id="ref395020"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arcangelo-Corelli" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Arcangelo Corelli</a>, whose published sonatas, beginning in 1681, sum up Italian work in the field to this date.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Apart from their influence on the development of violin technique, reflected in the works of such later violinist-composers as Giuseppe Torelli, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Vivaldi" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Antonio Vivaldi</a>, Francesco Maria Veracini, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Tartini" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Giuseppe Tartini</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pietro-Locatelli" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pietro Locatelli</a>, Corelli’s sonatas are important for the way they clarify and help to define the two directions the sonata was to take. At this point the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-da-chiesa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>sonata da chiesa</em></a>, or church sonata, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-da-camera" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>sonata da camera</em></a>, or chamber sonata, emerged as complementary but distinct lines of development.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <em>sonata da chiesa</em> usually consists of four movements, in the order slow–fast–slow–fast. The first fast movement tends to be loosely fugal (using contrapuntal melodic imitation) in style, and thus reflects, most clearly of the four, the sonata’s roots in the fantasia and canzona. The last movement, by contrast, is simpler and lighter, often differing little from the dance style typical of the <em>sonata da camera</em>. The <em>sonata da camera</em> is altogether less serious and less contrapuntal than the <em>sonata da chiesa</em>, and it tends to consist of a larger number of shorter movements in dance style. If the <em>sonata da chiesa</em> was the source from which the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-Classical-period#ref15765" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Classical</a> sonata was to develop, its courtly cousin was the direct ancestor of the <span id="ref395021"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/suite" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">suite</a>, or partita, a succession of short dance pieces; and in the 18th century, the terms <em>suite</em> and <em>partita</em> were practically synonymous with <em>sonata da camera</em>. The two streams represented by church and chamber sonatas are the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifestation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifestation" data-type="MW">manifestation</a>, in early <span id="ref395022"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Baroque</a> terms, of the liturgical and secular sources found in Renaissance music. The Baroque style flourished in music from about 1600 to about 1750. Down to the middle of the 18th century the two influences maintained a high degree of independence; yet the injection of dance movements into the lighter examples of the <em>sonata da chiesa</em> and the penetration of counterpoint into the more serious suites and <em>sonate da camera</em> show that there was always some cross-fertilization.</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Another characteristic of the Baroque sonata that Corelli’s work helped to stabilize was its instrumentation. About 1600 the musical revolution that began in Italy had shifted emphasis from the <span id="ref395023"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/stile-moderno" class="md-crosslink ">equal-voiced</a> polyphony of the Renaissance and placed it instead on the concept of <span id="ref395024"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/monody" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">monody</a>, or solo lines with subordinate accompaniments. The comparatively static influence of the old <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/church-mode" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">church modes</a> was superseded by the more dramatic organizing principle of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/major-scale" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">major</a>–minor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">key</a> system with its use of contrast of keys. Although counterpoint continued to play a central role in musical structure for another hundred years and more, it became a counterpoint that took careful account of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implications" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implications" data-type="MW">implications</a> of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">harmony</a> and of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chord-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chords</a> within the framework of the major and minor keys.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In this <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/basso-continuo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">continuo</a>, or <span id="ref395025"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/basso-continuo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">thorough bass</a>, assumed primary importance. Composers who used a continuo part wrote out in full only the parts of the upper melody instruments. The <span id="ref395026"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/accompaniment-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">accompaniment</a>, which was the continuo part, was given in the form of a <span id="ref395027"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/bass-vocal-range" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">bass</a> line, sometimes supplemented with numbers, or figures, to indicate main details of harmony, whence the term <em>figured bass</em>. The continuo was “realized,” or given its performed form, by a low melody instrument (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/viola-musical-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">viol</a>, the deeper-pitched violone, or later <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/cello" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">cello</a> or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/bassoon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">bassoon</a>) in collaboration with an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/organ-musical-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">organ</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/harpsichord" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">harpsichord</a>, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/lute" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">lute</a>. The <span id="ref395030"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">collaborating</a> instrument <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="improvised" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/improvised" data-type="EB">improvised</a> the harmonies indicated by the figures or implied by the other parts and so filled the gap between the treble and bass lines.</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In Corelli’s work, “solo” sonatas, for one violin with continuo, are found alongside <span id="ref395028"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ensemble-music" class="md-crosslink ">others</a> for two violins and continuo described as sonatas <em>a tre</em> (“for three”). These sonatas <em>a tre</em> are early examples of the <span id="ref395029"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/trio-sonata" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">trio sonata</a> that was the principal <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chamber-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chamber-music</a> form until about 1750. Use of the term <em>trio</em> for sonatas played by four instruments is only superficially paradoxical: although trio sonatas were played by four instruments, they were considered to be in three parts—two violins and continuo. Moreover, specific instrumentation at this period was largely a matter of choice and circumstance. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/flute-musical-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Flutes</a> or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/oboe-musical-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">oboes</a> might play the violin parts, and if either harpsichord or cello or their substitutes were unavailable, the piece could be played with only one of them representing the continuo. But a complete continuo was preferred.</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Corelli’s importance is as much historical as musical. Perhaps because a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vigorous" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vigorous" data-type="EB">vigorous</a> line of Italian composers of violin music followed him, he is commonly accorded the main credit for late 17th-century developments in sonata style. But his undeniably vital contribution should not distract attention from equally important work that was done during the same time outside Italy.</p><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker h4"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref27498"> <h2 class="h1">Early development outside Italy</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In France <span id="ref395031"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Baptiste-Lully" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean-Baptiste Lully’s</a> lucrative monopoly of music at the royal court and the immense popularity of spectacular <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ballet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ballets</a> used as courtly entertainments naturally led, through <span id="ref395032"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Couperin-French-composer-1668-1733" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">François Couperin</a>, to a concentration on the smaller dance forms found in the ballet and courtly social dance. This concentration gave the French school its preeminence as producer and influencer of the 18th-century dance <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/suite" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">suite</a>. The French, thus occupied with dance music, had little effect on the growth of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-da-chiesa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>sonata da chiesa</em></a>. But in Germany, where in 1619 <span id="ref395033"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Praetorius" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Michael Praetorius</a> published some of the earliest sonatas, the sonata developed from an originally close relation to the suite into a more ambitious blend. As it evolved it <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="combined" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/combined" data-type="EB">combined</a> the suitelike multisectional structure of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-da-camera" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>sonata da camera</em></a> with the contrapuntal workmanship and emotional intensity of the Italian <em>sonata da chiesa</em> form.</p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD17 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">One of the first contributors to this development of the Italian influence was the Austrian composer <span id="ref395034"></span>Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Nurnberg" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nürnberg</a> in 1659 he published a set of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/trio-sonata" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">trio sonatas</a> for strings, following it in 1662 with a set for mixed <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/stringed-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">strings</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/wind-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">wind instruments</a>, and in 1664 with what may have been the first set of sonatas for unaccompanied <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/violin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">violin</a>. The German composer <span id="ref395035"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Rosenmuller" class="md-crosslink ">Johann Rosenmüller</a> spent several years in Italy; his <em><span id="ref395036"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sonate-concertate-in-stilo-moderno" class="md-crosslink ">Sonate da camera cioè sinfonie</a></em> (i.e., suites or symphonies), published in Venice in 1667, are essentially dance compositions. But 12 years later, in Nürnberg, he issued a set of sonatas in two, three, four, and five parts that vividly illustrate the German trend toward more abstract musical structure and expressive counterpoint. During this period even pieces with dance titles began to lose their danceable character and became compositions meant only for listening.</p><span class="marker MOD17 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD18 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Meanwhile, the greatest member of this school, <span id="ref395037"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Biber" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Heinrich Biber</a>, published several sets of sonatas—some for violin and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/basso-continuo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">continuo</a>, others in three, four, and five parts. In these, from 1676 onward, he took a penchant for expressiveness to extremes of sometimes bizarre but often gripping profundity that contrast sharply with the bland, polished style of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arcangelo-Corelli" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Corelli</a>. The titles of some of Biber’s sets of sonatas specifically indicate his aim of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="reconciling" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reconciling" data-type="MW">reconciling</a> church and chamber styles. The 1676 publication, for instance, is entitled <em>Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes</em> (<em>Sonatas for the Altar as Well as the Hall</em>). And being himself, like Corelli, a violinist of extraordinary powers, Biber made a valuable contribution to the development of instrumental technique in a set of sonatas for unaccompanied violin in which the practice of <em><span id="ref395038"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/scordatura" class="md-crosslink ">scordatura</a></em> (adjustment of tuning to secure special effects) is ingeniously exploited.</p><span class="marker MOD18 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD19 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <span id="ref395039"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">English</a> composers were achieving a comparable intensification of expression during the 17th century, though in their case the technical starting point was different. In accordance with the characteristic time-lag of the English in the adoption of new European musical methods, the English continued to work with <span id="ref395040"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/polyphony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">polyphony</a> in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/Ars-Nova#ref15694" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Renaissance</a> manner, while the Italians were perfecting <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/monody" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">monody</a> and the Germans fruitfully uniting monody with their own contrapuntal tradition. English polyphony in the 17th century attained a remarkable level of technical finish and emotional grandeur. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Tomkins" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Thomas Tomkins</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Orlando-Gibbons" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Orlando Gibbons</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Jenkins" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Jenkins</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Lawes" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Lawes</a> were the chief agents of this refining process. They and their predecessors, notably John Coperario, made a gradual transition from the string fantasia <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="bequeathed" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bequeathed" data-type="MW">bequeathed</a> by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Byrd" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Byrd</a> and other composers during the reign of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-I" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Elizabeth I</a> and approached the new kind of musical form associated with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-tonal-era-and-after-1600-to-the-present#ref15754" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Baroque</a> sonata; but they always stayed closer than their continental colleagues to the spirit of polyphony.</p><span class="marker MOD19 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD20 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">When <span id="ref395041"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Purcell" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Henry Purcell</a>, in his three-part and four-part sonatas, submitted this rich English tradition to the belated impact of French and Italian influence, he produced a fusion of styles that was the highest point of musical inspiration yet reached by the emergent sonata form.</p><span class="marker MOD20 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker h5"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref27499"> <h2 class="h1">The Baroque era</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD21 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The years from the end of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th represent a moment of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="equilibrium" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equilibrium" data-type="MW">equilibrium</a> in the interaction of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/counterpoint-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">counterpoint</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/monody" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">monody</a> that had created the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music/The-tonal-era-and-after-1600-to-the-present#ref15754" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Baroque</a> sonata. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/basso-continuo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">continuo</a> device, as long as it endured, was a sign that the balance still held—and it did endure as long as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/trio-sonata" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">trio sonata</a> kept its central position as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chamber-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chamber-music</a> medium. During the first half of the 18th century the later Italian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/violin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">violinists</a>, most notably <span id="ref395042"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Vivaldi" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vivaldi</a>, were <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prolific" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prolific" data-type="MW">prolific</a> creators of trio sonatas. Sometimes they leaned to a three-movement pattern (fast–slow–fast), influenced by the direction the Italian operatic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sinfonia-music" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">sinfonia</a>, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/overture-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">overture</a>, was taking. More often the old four-movement pattern was preserved. In this well-tested shape too, <span id="ref395043"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georg-Philipp-Telemann" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Georg Philipp Telemann</a> produced hundreds of examples that maintained a remarkably consistent standard of musical interest. <span id="ref395044"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Frideric-Handel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">George Frideric Handel</a>, working for most of his life in England, composed some trio sonatas, and also some valuable sonatas for solo instrument with continuo. In France, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Bodin-de-Boismortier" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Joseph Bodin de Boismortier</a> and the violinist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Marie-Leclair-the-Elder" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean-Marie Leclair, the Elder</a>, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultivated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultivated" data-type="MW">cultivated</a> both solo and trio <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="genres" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genres" data-type="MW">genres</a> with charm although with less profundity.</p><span class="marker MOD21 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD22 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Yet even while the sonata with continuo flourished, the forces of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tonality" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tonality</a>, or organization in terms of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">keys</a>, developed intensely toward a use of key contrast that would eventually drive the trio sonata from the scene. The continuo itself was being undermined by the growth of interest in instrumental colour, and the figured bass could not long survive the tendency toward scoring for specific instruments and exhaustively detailed <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-notation" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">music notation</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD22 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD23 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="86223" data-asm-type="audio"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media border-0" data-type="audio"><audio src="https://cdn.britannica.com/13/92213-005-B12B29C7/Allegro-assai-JS-Henryk-Szeryng-Bach-recording-1954.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" controls=""></audio></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/13/92213-005-B12B29C7/Allegro-assai-JS-Henryk-Szeryng-Bach-recording-1954.mp3" data-href="/media/1/554229/86223">Bach, Johann Sebastian: <em>Sonata No. 3 in C Major for Solo Violin</em>, BWV 1005</a><span>“Allegro assai” from Bach's <em>Sonata No. 3 in C Major for Solo Violin</em>, BWV 1005; from a 1954 recording by violinist Henryk Szeryng.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">By 1695 <span id="ref395045"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Kuhnau" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Johann Kuhnau</a> had begun to publish some of the first sonatas for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/keyboard-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">keyboard instrument</a> alone, a number of them <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/program-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">programmatic</a> pieces on biblical subjects. <span id="ref395046"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Johann Sebastian Bach</a>, the greatest composer of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="Baroque" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Baroque" data-type="EB">Baroque</a> sonatas, continued the move away from the treatment of the keyboard in the subordinate, “filling-in” capacity that was its role in the continuo. He wrote a small number of trio sonatas after the traditional scheme, and also a few violin and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/flute-musical-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">flute</a> sonatas with continuo; but at the same time he produced the first violin sonatas with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/obbligato" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">obbligato</a> <span id="ref395047"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/harpsichord" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">harpsichord</a> parts (that is, obligatory and fully written out, rather than improvised), others for flute or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/viol" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">viol</a> with obbligato harpsichord, and three sonatas (along with three partitas) for unaccompanied violin.</p><span class="marker MOD23 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD24 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In these works, as in some of Telemann’s later sonatas, the power of key or tonality to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="articulate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/articulate" data-type="MW">articulate</a> sections of musical structure, and its ability to provide a harmonically derived eventfulness—a sense of expectation succeeded by fulfillment—began to make itself felt. These powers of key are the seed from which the Classical <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata-form" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sonata form</a> originated. But at this point the dualism engendered by tonal and thematic contrast had not yet supplanted the more continuous, unitary processes at work in a composition based on counterpoint. Nor was the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="consciousness" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consciousness" data-type="MW">consciousness</a> of tonality any more advanced in the otherwise forward-looking work of <span id="ref395048"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Domenico-Scarlatti" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Domenico Scarlatti</a>. His harpsichord sonatas—555 movements survive, many designed to be played in pairs or in groups of three—are often original to the point of idiosyncrasy in expression. They introduced a valuable new flexibility in the treatment of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/binary-form" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">binary form</a>, and they had a powerful effect on the development of keyboard writing. But in formal terms they still belong in the old world of unity—even their strongest contrasts have an air of being suspended in time, quite unlike the far-ranging effects of conflict through time that are the basis of the Classical sonata.</p><span class="marker MOD24 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD25 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">A later generation of composers completed the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="transition" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/transition" data-type="EB">transition</a> from Baroque to Classical sonata. One of J.S. Bach’s sons, <span id="ref395049"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach</a>, plunged enthusiastically into the new resource of dramatic contrast. In some 70 harpsichord sonatas, and in other works for chamber ensembles and for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/orchestra-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">orchestra</a>, he placed a new stress on key contrast not only between but, more important, within movements. Correspondingly, he emphasized the art of transition.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD25 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD26 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the development of sonata form in <span id="ref395050"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/orchestra-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">orchestral</a> music, particular value attaches to the work of the Austrians <span id="ref395051"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthias-Georg-Monn" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Matthias Georg Monn</a> and <span id="ref395052"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georg-Christoph-Wagenseil" class="md-crosslink ">Georg Christoph Wagenseil</a> and of the Italian <span id="ref395053"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Battista-Sammartini" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Giovanni Battista Sammartini</a>. All three played vital roles in shaping the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">symphony</a>, which assumed an importance equal to that of the solo or small-ensemble sonata. Their symphonies further stressed the individual characterization of themes and, in particular, the use of the second subject to shape form. Another of Bach’s sons, <span id="ref1186323"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilhelm-Friedemann-Bach" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Wilhelm Friedemann Bach</a>, made <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="sporadic" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/sporadic" data-type="EB">sporadic</a> but interesting contributions to this development, and a third, <span id="ref1186324"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Christian-Bach" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Johann Christian Bach</a>, who settled in London, exploited a vein of melodic charm that influenced <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mozart</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD26 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":2,"pageId":554229,"pageLength":3349,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"C","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Sonata | Definition, Components, History, Examples, & Facts | Britannica