导言：在音乐文库中，奏鸣曲这一体裁的作品占据了十分重要的位置，从十八世纪古典主义时期到19世纪浪漫主义时期，一系列大师级的人物留下了诸多重量级的作品，我们在有幸欣赏或演奏这些作品的同时，不妨关注一些与这种音乐体裁相关的英语语言表达形式，来丰富我们对音乐的感悟，表达我们的思想。那么，下面截选的部分信息可能会有所帮助。

Sonata is a musical form for one or more instruments, usually consisting ofthree or four movements.The name, Italian for "sounded (on an instrument)," originally simply indicated non-vocal music, and was used for a confusingvariety of genres into the late 17th cent. In the 1650s two types of ensemble sonatas began to be codified, the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) and sonata da camera (chamber sonata). The former, intended for church performance, was generally in four movements, two of them slow; the latter was usually a suite of dances. The so-called solo sonata (for soloist--usually violin--and continuo) and the trio sonata (for two soloists and continuo) became standard. In the 1740s solo keyboard sonatas began to be written. C. P. E. Bach established the three-movement keyboard sonata as the norm, a status it would retain through the Classical era. Duo sonatas in the same form, usually for violin and keyboard, simultaneously became highly popular. Keyboard and duo sonatas have remained the standard types to the present day. From Bach's time onward, the first movement was generally in allegro tempo and in sonata form. The second movement was usually slow. The last movement was generally a minuet, rondo, or theme and variations. In a four-movement sonata, the third was usually a minuet or scherzo. In these respects the sonata paralleled such genres as the symphony and the string quartet.

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.

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编稿：戴远君

更多相关信息也可参阅：

1.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonata

2.      http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/554229/sonata