sonata
a composition for one or two instruments, typically in three or four movements in contrasted forms and keys.
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Origin of sonata
1Words Nearby sonata
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use sonata in a sentence
In the video recordings, the rats’ head bobbing was more pronounced when the sonata played at its usual tempo, around 132 beats per minute.
We would need to push the boundaries of what creative AI could do by teaching the machine Beethoven’s creative process—how he would take a few bars of music and painstakingly develop them into stirring symphonies, quartets, and sonatas.
An AI finished Beethoven’s final symphony. But is it good? | Ahmed Elgammal/The Conversation | September 26, 2021 | Popular-ScienceOne afternoon we were watching Ingmar Bergman's Autumn sonata.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFrom the first shots of Autumn sonata it's clear that this is going to be slow going.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIf the book were a piece of music, it would be a sonata of interlocking monologues.
With the dialogue all in Japanese, this feline plays a Tokyo sonata of its own.
Catdance Film Festival: The 7 Most Hilarious Shorts (VIDEO) | Jean Trinh | January 23, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTStop puttering around, sit down at your desk, and write out the speech or practice the sonata 100 times.
When he plays a sonata it is as if the composition rose from the dead and stood transfigured before you.
Music-Study in Germany | Amy FayIt was one day when a student from the Stuttgardt conservatory attempted to play the sonata Appassionata.
Music-Study in Germany | Amy FayHe took me to the house of a musical friend of his who was to lend me his grand piano, and there we tried our sonata.
Music-Study in Germany | Amy FayAt all events, he seemed entirely satisfied, and said, "We could have played that sonata without rehearsing it."
Music-Study in Germany | Amy FayThe Waltz without opus number and the sonata, Op. 4, are likewise posthumous publications.
Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician | Frederick Niecks
British Dictionary definitions for sonata
/ (səˈnɑːtə) /
an instrumental composition, usually in three or more movements, for piano alone (piano sonata) or for any other instrument with or without piano accompaniment (violin sonata, cello sonata, etc): See also sonata form, symphony (def. 1), concerto (def. 1)
a one-movement keyboard composition of the baroque period
Origin of sonata
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for sonata
[ (suh-nah-tuh) ]
A musical composition for one or two instruments, usually in three or four movements. The sonata of the classic era in music had a definite arrangement for its movements: the first and fourth had a fast tempo, the second had a slow tempo, and the third was in either playful style (a “scherzo”) or in dance form (a “minuet”).
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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