sonata

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to sonata: sonata form, Zaleplon

so·na·ta

(sə-nä′tə)

A composition for one or more solo instruments, one of which is usually a keyboard instrument, usually consisting of three or four independent movements varying in key, mood, and tempo.

[Italian, from feminine past participle of sonare, to sound, from Latin sonāre; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sonata

(səˈnɑːtə)

1. (Classical Music) 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, symphony¹, concerto¹

2. (Classical Music) a one-movement keyboard composition of the baroque period

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

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

so•na•ta

(səˈnɑ tə)

n., pl. -tas.

a musical composition for solo instrument or a small number of instruments typically in three or four movements in contrasting forms and keys.

[1685–95; < Italian, feminine past participle of sonare < Latin sonāre to sound¹; see -ate¹]

sonata

An instrumental work in three or four movements for soloist or with piano accompaniment.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

sonata - a musical composition of 3 or 4 movements of contrasting forms

classical, classical music, serious music - traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste

piano sonata - a sonata for piano

sonatina - a short and simple sonata

symphonic music, symphony - a long and complex sonata for symphony orchestra

movement - a major self-contained part of a symphony or sonata; "the second movement is slow and melodic"

Translations

Sonate

sonaatti

sonate

szonáta

sónata

sonata

sonată

sonata

[səˈnɑːtə] N → sonata f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sonata

[səˈnɑːtə] n → sonate f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sonata

n → Sonate f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sonata

[səˈnɑːtə] n → sonata

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

"The Sonata that His Highness plays so charmingly," said the Vice-Warden.

All this time the Sonata was pealing through the room.

View in context

From the far side of the house through the closed doors came the sound of difficult passages- twenty times repeated- of a sonata by Dussek.

They went up to the door of the sitting room from which came the sound of the oft-repeated passage of the sonata. Prince Andrew stopped and made a grimace, as if expecting something unpleasant.

View in context

"Why do you allow these two barbarous men to keep you here while the great Bootmann is playing the Nightmare Sonata in the next room?

View in context

Terrible as the 'Kreutzer Sonata' was, it had a moral effect dramatically which it lost altogether when the author descended to exegesis, and applied to marriage the lesson of one evil marriage.

View in context

As very soon she had played the only pieces of dance music she could remember, she went on to play an air from a sonata by Mozart.

View in context

But that some sonatas of Beethoven are written tragic no one can gainsay; yet they can triumph or despair as the player decides, and Lucy had decided that they should triumph.

View in context

What causes them to labour at pianoforte sonatas, and to learn four songs from a fashionable master at a guinea a lesson, and to play the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows, and to wear Lincoln Green toxophilite hats and feathers, but that they may bring down some "desirable" young man with those killing bows and arrows of theirs?

View in context

She trifled away half an hour at the piano; and played, in that time, selections from the Songs of Mendelssohn, the Mazurkas of Chopin, the Operas of Verdi, and the Sonatas of Mozart -- all of whom had combined together on this occasion and produced one immortal work, entitled "Frank." She closed the piano and went up to her room, to dream away the hours luxuriously in visions of her married future.

View in context

Nobody but an acrobat will voluntarily spend years at such a difficult mechanical puzzle as the keyboard, and so we have to take our impressions of Beethoven's sonatas from acrobats who vie with each other in the rapidity of their prestos, or the staying power of their left wrists.

View in context

It was only at moments like these--or when he and his wife were playing Sonatas in the modest little music-room at Swanhaven--that Lord Holchester's eldest son was really happy.