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(of which there are over 500) were the hallmark of the Baroque keyboard sonata, though they were for the most part unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime.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 BachWürttemberg Sonata No. 1 in A minor, H. 30, Wq. 49/1'Prussian' Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Wq. 48/4Ludwig van BeethovenPiano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1Piano 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. 2Piano 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. 101Piano Sonata No. 29 in B Flat Major, Op.106 "Hammerklavier"Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111Haydn, Franz JosephPiano Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI:52Mozart, Wolfgang AmadeusPiano 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-ValentinGrande sonate 'Les quatre âges'Brahms, JohannesPiano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5Chopin, FrédéricPiano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, "Funeral March"Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58Dukas, PaulPiano Sonata in E flat minorGrieg, EdvardPiano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7Liszt, FranzSonata after a Reading of Dante (Fantasia Quasi Sonata)Sonata in B minorMacDowell, EdwardSonata Tragica, Op. 45Sonata Eroica, Op. 50Third Sonata, Op. 57Fourth Sonata, Op. 59Mendelssohn, FelixPiano Sonata in E major, Op. 6Piano Sonata in G minor, Op. 105Piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 106Rachmaninoff, SergeiPiano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 28Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36Schubert, Franz, (See List of Schubert's works)Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, D.664Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor, D.784Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major,"Fantaisie," D.894Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor, D.958Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D.959Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major, D.960Schumann, RobertPiano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11 "Grosse Sonate"Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14 "Concerto without Orchestra"Sibelius, JeanPiano Sonata in F major, Op. 12Weber, Carl Maria vonPiano 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, SamuelSonata for Piano, Op. 26Barraqué, JeanPiano Sonata (1950–52)Bartók, BélaPiano Sonata, Sz.80Berg, AlbanPiano Sonata, Op. 1Boulez, PierrePiano Sonata No. 1Piano Sonata No. 2Piano Sonata No. 3 (Unfinished: only two of the five movements have been published.)Cochran, JulianPiano Sonata No. 1Piano Sonata No. 2Copland, AaronPiano SonataDutilleux, HenriPiano Sonata, Op. 1Fairouz, MohammedPiano Sonata No. 1 "Reflections on Exile"Piano Sonata No. 2 "The Last Resistance"Ginastera, AlbertoPiano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22Gould, GlennPiano SonataHindemith, PaulPiano Sonata No. 1 in A Major "Der Main"Piano Sonata No. 2 in G MajorPiano Sonata No. 3 in B flat MajorIves, CharlesPiano Sonata No.2, Concord, Mass., 1840-60Janáček, LeošPiano Sonata "1.X.1905"Liebermann, LowellPiano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1Piano Sonata No.2 ("Sonata Notturna") Op. 10 (1983)Piano Sonata No.3 Op. 82 (2002)Lilburn, DouglasPiano 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, NikolaiPiano Sonata No. 3 in D minor "Sonate-Elegie", Op. 11, No. 2Piano Sonata No. 6 in C minor, "Sonata-Skazka," ("Fairy Tale Sonata"), Op. 25, No. 1Piano Sonata No. 10 in A minor "Reminiscenza", Op. 38, No. 1Piano Sonata No. 11 in C minor "Sonata Tragica", Op. 39, No. 5Piano Sonata No. 12 in B-flat minor "Romantica", Op. 53, No. 1Ornstein, LeoPiano Sonata No. 4Piano Sonata No. 8Persichetti, VincentSonata No. 12 (Mirror Sonata)Prokofiev, SergeiPiano 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, FredericSonata for Solo PianoSchnittke, AlfredPiano Sonata No. 1Piano Sonata No. 2Piano Sonata No. 3Scriabin, AlexanderPiano Sonata No. 2 "Sonata-Fantasy"Piano Sonata No. 4Piano Sonata No. 5Piano Sonata No. 7 "White Mass"Piano Sonata No. 9 "Black Mass"Shostakovich, DmitriPiano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61Stravinsky, IgorSonata for PianoWuorinen, CharlesPiano Sonata (1969)Second Piano Sonata (1976)Third Piano Sonata (1986)Fourth Piano Sonata (2007)