A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner), two movements (Haydn), five (Brahms' Third Piano Sonata) or even more movements. The first movement is generally composed in sonata form.
In the Baroque era, the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) or sonata da camera (chamber sonata), both of which were sonatas for various instruments (usually one or more violins plus basso continuo). The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composers.
The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (of which there are over 500) were the hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were for the most part unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime. The majority of these sonatas are in one-movement binary form, both sections being in the same tempo and utilizing the same thematic material. These sonatas are prized for both their technical difficulty and their musical and formal ingenuity. The influence of Spanish folk music is evident in Scarlatti's sonatas.
Other composers of keyboard sonatas (which were primarily written in two or three movements) include Marcello, Giustini, Durante and Platti.
Although various composers in the 17th century had written keyboard pieces which they entitled "Sonata", it was only in the classical era, when the piano displaced the earlier harpsichord and sonata form rose to prominence as a principle of musical composition, that the term "piano sonata" acquired a definite meaning and a characteristic form.
All the well-known Classical era composers, especially Joseph Haydn, Muzio Clementi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, wrote many piano sonatas. Muzio Clementi wrote more than 110 piano sonatas. He is well known as "The Father of the Pianoforte". Clementi's Opus 2 was the first real piano sonata composed. The much younger Franz Schubert also wrote many.
The 32 sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven, including the well-known Pathétique Sonata and the Moonlight Sonata, are often considered the pinnacle of piano sonata composition.
As the Romantic era progressed after Beethoven and Schubert, piano sonatas continued to be composed, but in lesser numbers as the form took on a somewhat academic tinge and competed with shorter genres more compatible with Romantic compositional style. Franz Liszt's comprehensive "three-movements-in-one" Sonata in B minor draws on the concept of thematic transformation first introduced by Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasie of 1822. Piano sonatas have been written throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and up to the present day.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Württemberg Sonata No. 1 in A minor, H. 30, Wq. 49/1
'Prussian' Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Wq. 48/4
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1
Piano Sonata No.4 in E-flat Major, Op.7 "Grand Sonata"
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique"
Piano Sonata No.12 in A flat Major Op.26 "Funeral March"
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight"
Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 "Pastoral"
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 "Tempest"
Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3 "The Hunt"
Piano Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op.49 No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"
Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata"
Piano Sonata No.25 in G Major, Op.79 "Cuckoo"
Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"
Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101
Piano Sonata No. 29 in B Flat Major, Op.106 "Hammerklavier"
Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Haydn, Franz Joseph
Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI:52
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B-flat major (K. 281/189f)
Piano Sonata No.5 in G Major (K.283)
Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major (K. 330)
Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major (K. 331/300i)
Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-flat major (K. 333/315c)
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor (K. 457)
Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major (K. 545)
Piano Sonata No. 17 in B-flat major (K. 570)
Alkan, Charles-Valentin
Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges'
Brahms, Johannes
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
Chopin, Frédéric
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, "Funeral March"
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
Dukas, Paul
Piano Sonata in E flat minor
Grieg, Edvard
Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
Liszt, Franz
Sonata after a Reading of Dante (Fantasia Quasi Sonata)
Sonata in B minor
MacDowell, Edward
Sonata Tragica, Op. 45
Sonata Eroica, Op. 50
Third Sonata, Op. 57
Fourth Sonata, Op. 59
Mendelssohn, Felix
Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 6
Piano Sonata in G minor, Op. 105
Piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 106
Rachmaninoff, Sergei
Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 28
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36
Schubert, Franz, (See List of Schubert's works)
Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, D.664
Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor, D.784
Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major,"Fantaisie," D.894
Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor, D.958
Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D.959
Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major, D.960
Schumann, Robert
Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11 "Grosse Sonate"
Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14 "Concerto without Orchestra"
Sibelius, Jean
Piano Sonata in F major, Op. 12
Weber, Carl Maria von
Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 24 (J. 138)
Piano Sonata No. 2 in A flat major, Op. 39 (J. 199)
Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 49 (J. 206)
Piano Sonata No. 4 in E minor, Op. 70 (J. 287)
Barber, Samuel
Sonata for Piano, Op. 26
Barraqué, Jean
Piano Sonata (1950–52)
Bartók, Béla
Piano Sonata, Sz.80
Berg, Alban
Piano Sonata, Op. 1
Boulez, Pierre
Piano Sonata No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 3 (Unfinished: only two of the five movements have been published.)
Cochran, Julian
Piano Sonata No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 2
Copland, Aaron
Piano Sonata
Dutilleux, Henri
Piano Sonata, Op. 1
Fairouz, Mohammed
Piano Sonata No. 1 "Reflections on Exile"
Piano Sonata No. 2 "The Last Resistance"
Ginastera, Alberto
Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22
Gould, Glenn
Piano Sonata
Hindemith, Paul
Piano Sonata No. 1 in A Major "Der Main"
Piano Sonata No. 2 in G Major
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B flat Major
Ives, Charles
Piano Sonata No.2, Concord, Mass., 1840-60
Janáček, Leoš
Piano Sonata "1.X.1905"
Liebermann, Lowell
Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1
Piano Sonata No.2 ("Sonata Notturna") Op. 10 (1983)
Piano Sonata No.3 Op. 82 (2002)
Lilburn, Douglas
Piano Sonata No. 1 in C minor Op. 1 (1932)
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F# minor (1939)
Piano Sonata No. 4 in A minor (1939)
Piano Sonata No. 5 (1949)
Piano Sonata No. 6 (1956)
Medtner, Nikolai
Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor "Sonate-Elegie", Op. 11, No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 6 in C minor, "Sonata-Skazka," ("Fairy Tale Sonata"), Op. 25, No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 10 in A minor "Reminiscenza", Op. 38, No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 11 in C minor "Sonata Tragica", Op. 39, No. 5
Piano Sonata No. 12 in B-flat minor "Romantica", Op. 53, No. 1
Ornstein, Leo
Piano Sonata No. 4
Piano Sonata No. 8
Persichetti, Vincent
Sonata No. 12 (Mirror Sonata)
Prokofiev, Sergei
Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 ("From Old Notebooks")
Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82 ("War Sonata 1")
Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83 ("War Sonata 2/Stalingrad")
Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, Op. 84 ("War Sonata 3")
Rzewski, Frederic
Sonata for Solo Piano
Schnittke, Alfred
Piano Sonata No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 3
Scriabin, Alexander
Piano Sonata No. 2 "Sonata-Fantasy"
Piano Sonata No. 4
Piano Sonata No. 5
Piano Sonata No. 7 "White Mass"
Piano Sonata No. 9 "Black Mass"
Shostakovich, Dmitri
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61
Stravinsky, Igor
Sonata for Piano
Wuorinen, Charles
Piano Sonata (1969)
Second Piano Sonata (1976)
Third Piano Sonata (1986)
Fourth Piano Sonata (2007)
