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sonatina

American  
[son-uh-tee-nuh, saw-nah-tee-nah] / ˌsɒn əˈti nə, ˌsɔ nɑˈti nɑ /

noun

Music.
  • sonatinas,
    plural
  • sonatine
    plural
  1. a short or simplified sonata.


sonatina British  
/ ˌsɒnəˈtiːnə /

noun

  1. a short sonata

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of sonatina

1715–25; < Italian, diminutive of sonata


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

He wrote his first published work, a sonatina for piano, in 1943.

From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2017

At eight he was good enough to master a Clementi sonatina in one day.

From Time Magazine Archive

And I’m really bummed I didn’t get to play my sonatina.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper

My sonatina needs work, so I play it again and again, going over the tricky left hand fingering of that one tough passage a zillion times.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper

I do a few scales, some basic review pieces, then jump full force into my sonatina recital piece.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper

The second disc features earlier works of a very different aesthetic, including two neo-Classical sonatinas and a partita that evokes Shostakovich.

From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2014

I can tinkle away on the piano much better now already; not long ago I played a Haydn and a Mozart sonata and some sonatinas.

From Time Magazine Archive

Examples of rondos may be found in any volume of sonatas or sonatinas.

From Music Notation and Terminology by Karl Wilson Gehrkens

His pianoforte works include: Aquarellen, Opus 25; Variations and fugue, Opus 81; "Aus Meinem Tagebuch," Opus 82; Two sonatinas, Opus 89.

From Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers by Paul Rosenfeld

The second has the more merit, but both, like most sonatinas, are too trivial of psychology and too formal even to be recommended for children's exercises.

From Contemporary American Composers Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and Compositions by Rupert Hughes

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