Viola sonata

The viola sonata is a sonata for viola, sometimes with other instruments, usually piano. The earliest viola sonatas are difficult to date for a number of reasons:
*in the Baroque era, there were many works written for the viola da gamba, including sonatas (the most famous being Johann Sebastian Bach's three, now most often played on the cello)
*in the Classical era and early Romantic, there were few works written with viola specifically in mind as solo instrument; it was more typical to publish a work or set, like George Onslow's opus 16 cello sonatas, or Johannes Brahms's opus 120 clarinet sonatas in the late 19th century, that specified the viola as an alternate.
**The Brahms may be the first repertory sonatas for the instrument, alternates with an independent life and a performance history.

Work list

*Malcolm Arnold
**Viola sonata op. 17 for viola and piano (1947)
*Marion Bauer
**Viola sonata op. 22 (1932)
*Arnold Bax
**Sonata for viola and piano in C minor (1922)
**Fantasy sonata for viola and harp (1927)
*Arthur Benjamin
**Sonata in E minor, 1942
*Lennox Berkeley
**Sonata in D minor, op. 22 (see [http://www.chesternovello.com/default.aspx?TabId=2432&State_2907=2&workId_2907=13453 Description from publisher] – written in 1946)
*Easley Blackwood Jr.
**Sonata no. 1 op. 1 (1953)
**Sonata no. 2 op. 43 (2001) ( [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Aug05/Blackwood_sonatas_90000081.htm] )
*Arthur Bliss
**Sonata for viola and piano (1933) ( [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Oct03/Bliss_piano_quartet.htm] )
*York Bowen
**Sonata no. 1 op. 18 in C minor (by 1911?)
**Sonata no. 2 op. 22 in F (1911) ( [http://www.sjbsoloviola.com/SJB%20SoloViola%20Rep.html] , [http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/strings88/Reviews.shtml] )
*Johannes Brahms
**Sonata in F minor
**Sonata in E-flat, alternate versions of the clarinet sonatas opp. 120 nos. 1 and 2, the first commonly played sonatas on the modern viola
*Arthur Butterworth
**sonata for viola and piano (1986, though sketched 1949)
*Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
**sonata for viola and harp (opus 144 — the cello and harp sonata is if not a later work, published later)
*Paul Chihara
**sonata for viola and piano (1996)
*Rebecca Clarke
**Sonata for viola and piano (1919)
*Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
**sonatas for viola and piano
*Felix Draeseke
**Sonata in C minor (1892)
**Sonata in F (1901–2) both originally for the viola alta
*Ross Lee Finney
**Sonata for viola and piano
*Robert Fuchs
**Sonata for viola and piano op. 86 in D minor
*Roberto Gerhard
**Sonata for viola and piano (1946) — later reworked as his cello sonata
*Mikhail Glinka
**Sonata for viola and piano in D minor (incomplete) (1835)
*Hilding Hallnäs
**Sonata for viola and piano op. 19 (1943) ( [http://hem.fyristorg.com/m.bengt.andersson/english.htm] )
*Hans Werner Henze
**Viola sonata (1979)
*Kurt Hessenberg
**Sonata for viola and piano op. 94
*Paul Hindemith
** four sonatas for solo viola
** three sonatas for viola and piano
*Vagn Holmboe
**Sonata for solo viola
*Arthur Honegger
**Viola sonata (1920)
*Alan Hovhaness
**Campuan Sonata for viola and piano (1982) ( [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/feb00/hovanessworks2.htm] )
*Bertold Hummel
**Sonatina No.1 op. 35b (1969) [http://www.bertoldhummel.de/english/commentaries/opus_35B.html]
**Sonatina No.2 op. 52b (1973) [http://www.bertoldhummel.de/english/commentaries/opus_52B.html]
*Johann Nepomuk Hummel
**Sonata in E-flat for viola and piano, op. 5 no. 3
*Miriam Hyde
**Sonata in B minor for viola and piano (1937)
*Gordon Jacob
**Sonata no. 1 (1949)
**Sonata no. 2 (1978)
*Paul Juon
**Sonata op. 15 in D (1901)
**Sonata op. 82 in F minor (version of clarinet sonata) (1923)
*Aram Khachaturian
**Sonata for viola solo
*Friedrich Kiel
**Sonata op. 67 in G minor
*Luigi von Kunits
**Sonata for viola and piano (1917)
*Ernst Krenek
**Sonata for viola solo
*Victor Legley
**Sonata for viola and piano op. 13 (1943) ( [http://www.cebedem.be/composers/legley_vic/en.html] )
*György Ligeti
**Sonata for Solo Viola
*Bohuslav Martinů
**at least one, perhaps two sonatas for viola and piano (the first written in 1955)
*Felix Mendelssohn
**Sonata for viola and piano in C minor (1824)
*Darius Milhaud
**two sonatas for viola and piano (opp. 240, 244 from 1941 and 1944)
*George Onslow
**three sonatas op. 16 (played on cello or viola)
*Max Reger
**three sonatas opp. 49 1 and 2 and op. 107 (alternates of clarinet sonatas in A-flat major, F-sharp minor (1900) and B-flat major, 1908-9)
*George Rochberg
**Sonata for viola and piano in F minor (1979)
*Alessandro Rolla
**sonatas for viola with continuo
*Nino Rota
**Viola sonata in C (1934-5, revised 1970)
*Anton Rubinstein
**Sonata for viola and piano op. 49 in F minor (1855)
*Philipp Scharwenka
**Sonata for viola and piano "Sonate fantasia" in G minor op. 106 (1899) ( [http://www.recordsinternational.com/RICatalogMar03.html] , [http://www.nyvs.org/events/past/200506season.html] )
*Franz Schubert
**Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, for arpeggione and piano (the "arpeggione" which no longer exists is nowadays replaced by the cello or the viola)
*Peter Sculthorpe
**Sonata for viola and percussion
*Dmitri Shostakovich
**Sonata for viola and piano op. 147 in C minor (1975)
*David Stanley Smith
**Viola sonata, opus 72 (1934) ( [http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/music/sth-s1d.htm] )
*Carl Stamitz
**A sonata originally for viola d'amore ( [http://www.violadamoresocietyofamerica.org/TheStamitzFamily.html] )
*Eduard Tubin
**Viola sonata (1965)
*Johann Baptist Vanhal
**Viola sonata in E-flat
**Four sonatas for viola and piano, opus 5 (in C major, D, F and C)
*Henri Vieuxtemps
**Sonata for viola and piano in B-flat (1863 or before)
*Mieczysław Weinberg
**Sonata for solo viola No. 1 opus 107 (1971)
**Sonata for solo viola No. 2 opus 123 (1978)
**Sonata for solo viola No. 3 opus 135 (1982)
**Sonata for solo viola No. 4 opus 136 (1983) ( [http://claudet.club.fr/Vainberg/Genres.html] )
*Richard Edward Wilson
**Sonata for viola and piano (1989)

See also

* Viola
* Viola concerto
* Bassoon sonata
* Cello sonata
* Clarinet sonata
* Flute sonata
* Piano sonata
* Violin sonata
* Violoncello sonata

External links

* [http://www.musicweb.uk.net/SandH/2001/Nov01/Arnold_at_80_2.htm Review of Concert with Arnold Viola Sonata]
* [http://www.draeseke.org/essays/viola_alta.htm The history of Draeseke's Viola Alta Sonatas]
* [http://www.classical.net/music/composer/works/mendelssohn/chamber.html A Mendelssohn Chamber Worklist with Dates]
* [http://www.schott-music.com/autoren/KomponistenAZ/show,3547.html Schott's page for Nino Rota]
* [http://presence.or.at/IVS/fr/VlaKlav.htm A Viola Sonata Repertoire Page]
* [http://www.du.edu/~mrobert1/Mackenzie/viola%20repertoire.htm And another repertoire page with dates]
* [http://cfac.byu.edu/pe/primerose.php Primrose Festival] (information with dates also)
* [http://www.ne.jp/asahi/rumi/viola/vfc/vfcenglish.html Viola fan club with list of recordings and works]