sonata

[suh-nah-tuh]

noun Music.

a composition for one or two instruments, typically in three or four movements in contrasted forms and keys.

Origin of sonata

1685–95; < Italian < Latin sonāta, feminine of sonātus (past participle of sonāre to sound¹). See sonant, -ate¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sonata

Contemporary Examples of sonata

One 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
From 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
If the book were a piece of music, it would be a sonata of interlocking monologues.
How Hitch & Amis Discovered Evil In My House
Peter Foges
September 28, 2014
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
Stop puttering around, sit down at your desk, and write out the speech or practice the sonata 100 times.
Advice From the Oldest Americans
Casey Schwartz
October 29, 2011

Historical Examples of sonata

The sonata was finished, and then she sang—sang the "Angel's Serenade."
The Gentleman From Indiana
Booth Tarkington
To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness.
A Dish Of Orts
George MacDonald
I ventured to remark that Chopin had no special talent for the sonata form.
Melomaniacs
James Huneker
The sonata over, conversation was resumed with fresh vigour.
The Child of Pleasure
Gabriele D'Annunzio
This was the crowning glory of the eighteenth century—the sonata.
A Popular History of the Art of Music
W. S. B. Mathews

British Dictionary definitions for sonata

sonata

noun

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

Word Origin for sonata

C17: from Italian, from sonare to sound, from Latin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sonata

1690s, from Italian sonata "piece of instrumental music," literally "sounded" (i.e. "played on an instrument," as opposed to cantata "sung"), fem. past participle of sonare "to sound," from Latin sonare "to sound," from PIE *swene-, from root *swen- "to sound" (see sound (n.1)). Meaning narrowed by mid-18c. toward application to large-scale works in three or four movements.

sonata in Culture

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”).