Chamber Sonata

One solo instrument with a keyboard, a sonata argued between two players

Related

BaroqueSonataCelloPiano

In the Baroque a chamber sonata was a dance-based sonata played in a hall; after the eighteenth century the term covers a sonata for one solo instrument and keyboard.

Origins and era

Seventeenth-century Italy sorted sonatas by occasion, church sonatas for worship and chamber sonatas for courts and houses, with movements named after dances. Corelli and Vivaldi fixed the pair of concepts. Around the middle of the eighteenth century figured bass receded and the keyboard part was written out in full, so Bach's sonatas for flute and harpsichord already give the right hand an independent melodic line. In the nineteenth century, as pianos grew louder, Beethoven and Brahms wrote cello and violin sonatas as a dialogue shared between two players.

What you hear

There are only two instruments, one sustaining the line and one covering both harmony and melody. In Baroque works, ask whether the bass is still filled by continuo and whether the right hand has become a real line. After 1800, ask whether the piano carries themes rather than accompanying figures. The texture is thin enough that any player stopping is audible, and phrases often trade motifs. Three or four movements, a first movement in sonata form, a singing slow movement and a rondo or variations to close. Baroque sets still include dances, while after 1800 the dance shrinks into a scherzo and moves to second or third place.

Key figures

Corelli and Vivaldi set the Baroque model, Bach's sonatas for violin and flute with obbligato harpsichord made the keyboard an equal second voice, Beethoven's ten violin sonatas and his cello sonatas widened range and volume, and Brahms gave both players structural work.

Lineage

It grows out of the trio sonata by folding two treble lines into one soloist plus keyboard, and leads to twentieth-century sonatas and to chamber works built on sonata form.

Common misunderstandings

A chamber sonata is not a scaled-down sonata, since in the Baroque it stood beside the church sonata and differed by occasion and movement types. Nor is it a solo with accompaniment, because from Beethoven onward the piano is often an equal partner.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Sonata, 用于核对巴洛克两类奏鸣曲的划分
• Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms, 用于核对十八世纪以后键盘声部地位的变化

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.