Piano sonata - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...

, Scriabin), two movements (Beethoven, Haydn), five (Brahms' Third Piano Sonata

Piano Sonata No. 3 (Brahms)

The Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 of Johannes Brahms was written in 1853 and published the following year. The sonata is unusually large, consisting of five movements, as opposed to the traditional four. When he wrote this piano sonata, the genre was seen by many to be past its heyday....

) or even more movements. The first movement is generally composed in sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

The Baroque keyboard sonata

In the Baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

era, the use of the term "sonata" generally referred to either the sonata da chiesa

Sonata da chiesa

Sonata da chiesa is an instrumental composition dating from the Baroque period, generally consisting of four movements. More than one melody was often used, and the movements were ordered slow–fast–slow–fast with respect to tempo...

(church sonata) or sonata da camera

Sonata da camera

Sonata da camera is literally translated to mean 'chamber sonata' and is used to describe a group of instrumental pieces set into three or four different movements, beginning with a prelude, or small sonata, acting as an introduction for the following movements.The term sonata da camera originated...

(chamber sonata), both of which were sonatas for various instruments (usually one or more violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

s plus basso continuo). The keyboard sonata was relatively neglected by most composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s.

The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti

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

Binary form

Binary form is a musical form in two related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance....

, both sections being in the same tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring 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

Benedetto Marcello

Benedetto Marcello was a Venetian composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher.-Life:...

, Giustini

Lodovico Giustini

Lodovico Giustini was an Italian composer and keyboard player of the late Baroque and early Classical eras. He was the first known composer ever to write music for the piano.-Life:...

, Durante

Francesco Durante

Francesco Durante was an Italian composer.He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, and at an early age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo, in Naples, where he received lessons from Gaetano Greco. Later he became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti at the...

and Platti

Giovanni Benedetto Platti

Giovanni Benedetto Platti was an Italian composer.-Life:...

Piano sonatas in the Classical era

Although various composers in the 17th century had written keyboard

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

pieces which they entitled "Sonata", it was only in the classical era, when the piano displaced the earlier harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

and sonata form rose to prominence as a principle of music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

al composition, that the term "piano sonata" acquired a definite meaning and a characteristic form.

All the well-known Classical era composers, especially Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

, Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...

, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, and Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

, wrote many piano sonatas. Muzio Clementi

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

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

also wrote many.

The 32 sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven, including the well-known Pathétique Sonata and the Moonlight Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata , was completed in 1801...

, are often considered the pinnacle

Pinnacle

A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...

of piano sonata composition.

Piano sonatas in the Romantic era

As the Romantic

Romantic music

Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....

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

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

's comprehensive "three-movements-in-one" Sonata in B minor

Piano Sonata (Liszt)

The Piano Sonata in B minor , S.178, is a musical composition for solo piano by Franz Liszt, published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann. It is often considered Liszt's greatest composition for solo piano. The piece has been often analyzed, particularly regarding issues of form.-...

draws on the concept of thematic transformation first introduced by Schubert

Franz Schubert

in his Wanderer Fantasie of 1822 and Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 (Hammerklavier)

Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 is a piano sonata widely considered to be one of the most important works of the composer's third period and among one of the great piano sonatas...

. Piano sonatas have been written throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and up to the present day.

Classical

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
right|250pxCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara 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
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
- Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1
  Piano Sonata No. 1 (Beethoven)
  Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1, was written in 1795 and dedicated to Joseph Haydn. It is the first piano sonata written by Beethoven...
- Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique"
  Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)
  Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old, and was published in 1799. Beethoven dedicated the work to his friend Prince Karl von Lichnowsky...
- Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight"
  Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)
  The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata , was completed in 1801...
- Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 "Pastoral"
  Piano Sonata No. 15 (Beethoven)
  Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was named Pastoral or Pastorale by Beethoven's publisher at the time, A. Cranz. While nowhere near as widely recognised as its predecessor, the Piano Sonata No. 14, known often as the Moonlight Sonata, it is...
- Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 "Tempest"
  Piano Sonata No. 17 (Beethoven)
  The Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was composed in 1801/02 by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is usually referred to as "The Tempest" , but this title was not given by him, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime; instead, it comes from a claim by his associate Anton Schindler...

Haydn, Franz Joseph
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
- Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI:52
  Piano Sonata No. 52 in E-flat major (Haydn)
  The Piano Sonata No. 52 in E flat major, Hob. XVI/52, L. 62, was written in 1794 by Joseph Haydn. This is the last of Haydn's piano sonatas, and is widely considered his greatest...

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

- Piano Sonata in B-flat major
  Piano Sonata No. 3 (Mozart)
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 3 in B flat major, K 281 is a sonata in three movements:#Allegro#Andante amoroso#Rondo A typical performance takes about 14 minutes....
  
  (K
  Köchel-Verzeichnis
  The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
  
  . 281/189f)
- Piano Sonata in C major
  Piano Sonata No. 10 (Mozart)
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, K 330 is among one of the three works in the cycle of piano sonatas K.330-332. The sonata was composed in 1783, when Mozart was twenty-seven years old...
  
  (K. 330)
- Piano Sonata in A major
  Piano Sonata No. 11 (Mozart)
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331 is a sonata in three movements:#Andante grazioso — a theme with six variations#Menuetto — a minuet and trio#Alla Turca: Allegretto in A minor and major....
  
  (K. 331/300i)
- Piano Sonata in B-flat major
  Piano Sonata No. 13 (Mozart)
  The Piano Sonata in B-flat major, K. 333 , was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Linz at the end of 1783.-Dating:There is no doubt that this sonata was first published on April 21, 1784 in Vienna by Christoph Torricella . The actual date of composition, however, has proved more difficult to...
  
  (K. 333/315c)
- Piano Sonata in C minor
  Piano Sonata No. 14 (Mozart)
  The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed and completed in 1784, with the official date of completion recorded as October 14, 1784 in Mozart’s private catalogue of works. It was published in December of 1785 together with the Fantasy in C minor, K...
  
  (K. 457)
- Piano Sonata in C major
  Piano Sonata No. 16 (Mozart)
  The Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as "for beginners," and it is sometimes known by the nickname Sonata facile or Sonata semplice....
  
  (K. 545)
- Piano Sonata in B-flat major
  Piano Sonata No. 17 (Mozart)
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 17 in B flat major, K 570 is a sonata in three movements:#Allegro#Adagio#AllegrettoA typical performance takes about 18 minutes....
  
  (K. 570)

Romantic

Alkan, Charles-Valentin
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
- Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges'
  Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges'
  Grande sonate: 'Les quatre âges is a four movement sonata for piano by Charles-Valentin Alkan. The sonata's title refers to the subtitles given to each movement, portraying a man at the ages of 20, 30, 40, and 50...

Beethoven, Ludwig Van
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
- Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op.53 "Waldstein"
  Piano Sonata No. 21 (Beethoven)
  The Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, also known as the Waldstein, is considered to be one of Beethoven's greatest piano sonatas, as well as one of the three particularly notable sonatas of his middle period . The sonata was completed in the summer of 1804...
- Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op.57 "Appassionata"
  Piano Sonata No. 23 (Beethoven)
  Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...
- Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"
  Piano Sonata No. 26 (Beethoven)
  Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a, known as the Les Adieux sonata, was written during the years 1809 and 1810.The title Les Adieux implies a programmatic nature...
- Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101
  Piano Sonata No. 28 (Beethoven)
  Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, was written in 1816 and was dedicated to the pianist Baroness Dorothea Ertmann. This piano sonata runs for about 20 minutes and consists of four movements:...
- Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op.106 "Hammerklavier"
  Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)
  Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 is a piano sonata widely considered to be one of the most important works of the composer's third period and among one of the great piano sonatas...
- Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op.111
  Piano Sonata No. 32 (Beethoven)
  The Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, is the last of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas. Along with Beethoven's 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, op. 120 and his two collections of bagatelles—Opus 119 and Opus 126 —this was one of Beethoven's last compositions for piano. The...

Chopin, Frédéric
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
- Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, "Funeral March"
  Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat Minor (Chopin)
  Frédéric Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 was written mainly in 1839 at Nohant, near Châteauroux in France, though the third movement, the funeral march, had been composed as early as 1837.-Movements:The sonata comprises four movements:...
- Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op.58
  Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor (Chopin)
  Frédéric Chopin composed his Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58, in 1844 and dedicated it to Countess Emilie de Perthuis. As his last sonata for solo piano, it has been suggested that this was his attempt to address the criticisms of his earlier sonata Op...

Dukas, Paul
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...
- Piano Sonata in E flat minor

Grieg, Edvard
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
- Piano Sonata in E minor, Op.7
  Piano Sonata (Grieg)
  Edvard Grieg's Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7 was written in 1865 when Grieg was only 22 years old. The sonata was published a year later and revised in 1887. The work was Grieg's only piano sonata and was dedicated to Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade. A 1903 recording exists of Grieg performing...

Liszt, Franz
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
- Sonata after a Reading of Dante
  Dante Sonata
  Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata is a piano sonata in one movement, completed by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of Années de Pèlerinage...
  
  (Fantasia Quasi Sonata)
- Sonata in B minor
  Piano Sonata (Liszt)
  The Piano Sonata in B minor , S.178, is a musical composition for solo piano by Franz Liszt, published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann. It is often considered Liszt's greatest composition for solo piano. The piece has been often analyzed, particularly regarding issues of form.-...

MacDowell, Edward
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces", and "New England Idylls". "Woodland Sketches" includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose"...
- Sonata Tragica, Op.45
- Sonata Eroica, Op.50
- Third Sonata, Op.57
- Fourth Sonata, Op.59

Mendelssohn, Felix
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
- Piano Sonata in E major, Op.6
- Piano Sonata in G minor, Op.105
- Piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op.106

Rachmaninoff, Sergei
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
- Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op.28
  Piano Sonata No. 1 (Rachmaninoff)
  Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 28, is a piano sonata in D minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, completed in 1908. It is the first of three "Dresden pieces", along with Symphony No. 2 and part of an opera, which were composed in the quiet city of Dresden, Germany...
- Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op.36
  Piano Sonata No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
  Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36, is a piano sonata in B-flat minor composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1913. Rachmaninoff revised it in 1931, with the note, "The new version, revised and reduced by author." It has three movements:#Allegro agitato#Non allegro...

Schubert, Franz
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

, (See List of Schubert's works)
- Piano Sonata No. 19 in C Minor, D
  Otto Erich Deutsch
  Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...
  
  .958
- Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, D
  Otto Erich Deutsch
  Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...
  
  .959
- Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major, D
  Otto Erich Deutsch
  Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...
  
  .960

Schumann, Robert
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
- 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"

Weber, Carl Maria von
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
- 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)

20th century (including modern)

Barber, Samuel
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
- Sonata for Piano, Op.26

Barraqué, Jean
Jean Barraqué
Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output of highly complex but passionate works.-Life:...
- Piano Sonata (1950–52)
  Piano Sonata (Barraqué)
  The Piano Sonata by Jean Barraqué is a significant serial composition from the period of avant-garde composition in France shortly after World War II....

Bartók, Béla
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
- Piano Sonata
  Piano Sonata (Bartók)
  The Piano Sonata BB 88 of Béla Bartók was composed in 1926. It is tonal, but is highly dissonant. It uses the piano in a percussive fashion.The work is in three movements, with the following tempo indications:*Allegro moderato...
  
  , Sz.80

Berg, Alban
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
- Piano Sonata
  Piano sonata (Berg)
  Alban Berg's Piano sonata , Op. 1, was published in 1910, but the exact date of composition is unknown; sources suggest that it was written in 1909. The Sonata is Berg's only piano work to which he gave an opus number.-History:...
  
  , Op.1

Boulez, Pierre
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
- Piano Sonata No. 1
  Piano sonatas (Boulez)
  Pierre Boulez has composed three piano sonatas. The First Piano Sonata in 1946, a Second Piano Sonata in 1948, and a Third Piano Sonata was composed in 1955–57 with further elaborations up to at least 1963, though only two of its movements have been published.-First Piano Sonata:Boulez's First...
- Piano Sonata No. 2
  Piano sonatas (Boulez)
  Pierre Boulez has composed three piano sonatas. The First Piano Sonata in 1946, a Second Piano Sonata in 1948, and a Third Piano Sonata was composed in 1955–57 with further elaborations up to at least 1963, though only two of its movements have been published.-First Piano Sonata:Boulez's First...
- Piano Sonata No. 3
  Piano sonatas (Boulez)
  Pierre Boulez has composed three piano sonatas. The First Piano Sonata in 1946, a Second Piano Sonata in 1948, and a Third Piano Sonata was composed in 1955–57 with further elaborations up to at least 1963, though only two of its movements have been published.-First Piano Sonata:Boulez's First...
  
  (Unfinished: only two of the five movements have been published.)

Copland, Aaron
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
- Piano Sonata

Dutilleux, Henri
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...
- Sonata for Piano, Op.1

Fairouz, Mohammed
Mohammed Fairouz
Mohammed Fairouz is an Arab American composer.Having fulfilling many commissions and created a substantial body of frequently performed works, he is considered one of the most sought after composers of the young generation. Fairouz began composing at an early age and studied at the New England...
- Piano Sonata No. 1 "Reflections on Exile"
- Piano Sonata No. 2 "The Last Resistance"

Ginastera, Alberto
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...
- Piano Sonata No. 1, Op.22

Gould, Glenn
Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
- Piano Sonata

Hindemith, Paul
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
- 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
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
- Piano Sonata No.2, Concord, Mass., 1840-60
  Piano Sonata No. 2 (Ives)
  The Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840–60 by Charles Ives, commonly known as the Concord Sonata, is one of the composer's best-known and most highly regarded pieces....

Janáček, Leoš
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
- Piano Sonata "1.X.1905"
  1. X. 1905
  1. X. 1905, also known as Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, is a two-movement piano composition which Leoš Janáček composed in 1905...

Liebermann, Lowell
Lowell Liebermann
Lowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1...
- Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1
- Piano Sonata No.2 ("Sonata Notturna") Op.10 (1983)
- Piano Sonata No.3 Op.82 (2002)

Medtner, Nikolai
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist.A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano...
- 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
Leo Ornstein
Leo Ornstein was a leading American experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century...
- Piano Sonata No. 4
- Piano Sonata No. 8

Prokofiev, Sergei
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
- Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op.28 ("From Old Notebooks")
- Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major
  Piano Sonata No. 6 (Prokofiev)
  Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82, by Sergei Prokofiev, is the first of his three War Sonatas. It was composed between 1939–1940 and premiered April 8, 1940 in Moscow.-Movements:The sonata consists of four movements:#Allegro moderato...
  
  , Op. 82 ("War Sonata 1")
- Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major
  Piano Sonata No. 7 (Prokofiev)
  Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83 , the second of his three so-called War Sonatas, was composed between 1939-1942 and premiered January 18, 1943 in Moscow by Sviatoslav Richter....
  
  , Op. 83 ("War Sonata 2/Stalingrad")
- Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major
  Piano Sonata No. 8 (Prokofiev)
  Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, Op. 84, the third of his three War Sonatas, was composed between 1939-1944 and premiered 30 December 1944 in Moscow by Emil Gilels....
  
  , Op. 84 ("War Sonata 3")

Rzewski, Frederic
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
- Sonata for Solo Piano

Scriabin, Alexander
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
- Piano Sonata No. 5
  Sonata No. 5 (Scriabin)
  The fifth piano sonata, Op. 53, is a one movement sonata written by Alexander Scriabin in 1907. It is his first sonata to be written in one movement, but from this point forward he retained this format. It marks the end of his Romantic period and the beginning of his transition to an atonal style...
- Piano Sonata No. 7 "White Mass"
  Sonata No. 7 (Scriabin)
  The Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64, subtitled White Mass, was written by Alexander Scriabin in 1911. As one of the late piano sonatas of Scriabin's career, the music is highly chromatic and almost atonal.-Background:...
- Piano Sonata No. 9 "Black Mass"
  Sonata No. 9 (Scriabin)
  The Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68, commonly known as the Black Mass Sonata, is one of the late piano sonatas composed by Alexander Scriabin. The work was written around 1912–1913...

Shostakovich, Dmitri
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
- Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor
  Piano Sonata No. 2 (Shostakovich)
  Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 was composed in 1943 in Samara, where he had been evacuated due to the Siege of Leningrad, and was premiered by Shostakovich himself on June 6, soon after moving to Moscow...
  
  , Op. 61

Stravinsky, Igor
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
- Sonata for Piano