Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sonata having shorter movements and often less technically demanding than the typical sonata.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music, a short or simplified sonata.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) A short and simple sonata.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A musical composition resembling a sonata but shorter or simpler.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a short and simple sonata

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, diminutive of sonata, sonata; see sonata.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sonata +‎ -ina

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Examples

  • HG, that's the Clementi sonatina that's in John Thompson 3!

    Teaching Little Fingers to Play Roger Sutton 2008

  • In seventh grade, I got a perfect score at a piano competition playing a Clementi sonatina.

    Mary's So-Called Life proudmary04 2003

  • Yet when Boulez composed the sonatina, Stravinsky had apparently ceased his harmonic explorations, and

    Unreconstructed Modernist 1995

  • Boulez expanded the style of the flute sonatina in two visionary cantatas based on poetry by the great surrealist René

    Unreconstructed Modernist 1995

  • Hurling Stravinskian rhythms at Schoenbergian harmonies, the young Boulez smashed the musical atom, releasing in the sonatina an explosion of musical violence, nervousness, and instability.

    Unreconstructed Modernist 1995

  • A _sonatina_, as its name implies, is a little sonata.

    Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928

  • The piano sonatina of the Funeral March, although by no means as insignificant, is nevertheless uncharacteristic in the resemblances it bears the music of Ravel.

    Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers Paul Rosenfeld 1918

  • Mark Janas, began his piano studies at the age of three, composed a sonatina at 5, and by high school was conducting the

    BroadwayWorld.com Featured Content 2010

  • Also, I'd assume Cixous would defend the article in comment to my comment, but this is perhaps the feminine cadence of my sonatina of deconstruction.

    digg.com: Stories / Popular 2010

  • Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andate non troppo-Allegro moderato

    VeryCD - 电驴资源订阅 nash_exe 2008

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