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| | SONATA - LoveToKnow Article on SONATA |
 | | The sonata da chiesa, generally for one or more violins and bass, consisted normally of a slow introduction, a loosely fugued allegro, a cantabile slow movement and a lively finale in some such binary form (see SONATA FoRMs) as suggests affinity with the dance-tunes of the SUITE (qv.). |
 | | The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (q.v.) are a special type determined chiefly by those kinds of keyboard technique that are equally opposed, on the one hand, to contrapuntal style, and, on the other hand, to the supporting of melodies on a lifetess accompaniment. |
 | | Though, since the time of Bach (when trios were called sonatas), the term is not applied to works for more than two instruments, the full (and even the normal) characteristics of this most important of all instrumental art-forms are rarely revealed except in trios, quartets, andc., and symphonies. |
| www.1911encyclopedia.org /S/SO/SONATA.htm (452 words) |
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