English 'sonata' comes from the Italian past participle of 'sonare' (to sound), from Latin 'sonāre' — coined in late sixteenth-century Italy to mean simply 'a piece that is played on instruments' as opposed to 'cantata,' a piece that is sung.
A composition for one or two instruments, typically in three or four movements with contrasting tempos and characters.
From Italian 'sonata,' the feminine past participle of 'sonare' (to sound), from Latin 'sonāre' (to sound, to make a noise). The term originally meant simply 'a piece that is sounded' — i.e., played on instruments — as opposed to 'cantata' (a piece that is sung). This distinction emerged in the late sixteenth century when Italian composers began writing
The word 'sonata' was coined specifically to distinguish instrumental music from vocal music — its opposite is 'cantata' (from Latin 'cantāre,' to sing). The pair 'sonata/cantata' thus encodes one of the most fundamental divisions in Western music: that between instruments and voices. Curiously, English 'sound' itself derives from the same Latin 'sonus,' making