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, and many of these, like those of the Stamitz family, may have been written for the viola d'amore, like most of their viola works - though it is now customary to play them on the viola; 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. Two early exceptions were the viola sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn (1824, posthumously published around 1981) and the opus 1 sonata of the composer Karl Ernst Naumann (1832-1910), published in 1854.

Work list

• Malcolm Arnold
  • Sonata Op. 17, for viola and piano (1947)
• Granville Bantock
  • Sonata for viola and piano in F "Colleen" (1919)
• Jan Zdeněk Bartoš
  • Sonatina for viola and piano, Op. 46
• Marion Bauer
  • Viola Sonata op. 22 (1932)
• Arnold Bax
  • Sonata for viola and piano in G (1922)
  • Fantasy sonata for viola and harp (1927)
• Jack Beeson
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano (1953)
• Arthur Benjamin
  • Sonata in E minor, 1942
• Lennox Berkeley
  • Sonata in D minor, Op. 22 (see Description from publisher – written in 1946)
• Valentin Bibik
  • Sonata for solo viola No.1, op.31 (1977)
  • Sonata for solo viola No.2, op.136 (1999)
  • Sonata vor viola and piano No.1, op.72 (1988)
  • Sonata vor viola and piano No.2, op.137 (2000)
• Easley Blackwood Jr.
  • Sonata no. 1 Op. 1 (1953)
  • Sonata no. 2 Op. 43 (2001) ([1])
• Arthur Bliss
  • Sonata for viola and piano (1933) ([2])
• York Bowen
  • Sonata no. 1 Op. 18 in C minor (by 1911?)
  • Sonata no. 2 Op. 22 in F (1911) ([3], [4])
• Johannes Brahms
  • Sonata in F minor
  • Sonata in E-flat, alternate versions of the clarinet sonatas Op. 120 nos. 1 and 2
• Arthur Butterworth
  • Sonata for viola and piano (1986, though sketched 1949)
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
  • Sonata for viola and harp (Op. 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
• Jacobo Ficher
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 80 (1953)
• Ross Lee Finney
  • Sonata for viola and piano
• Lillian Fuchs
  • Sonata pastorale, for solo viola
• Robert Fuchs
  • Sonata for viola and piano in D minor, Op. 86
• Harald Genzmer
  • Sonata for Viola solo (1957)
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano
  • Sonatine for Viola and Piano
• 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) ([5])
• Hans Werner Henze
  • Viola sonata (1979)
• Kurt Hessenberg
  • Sonata for viola and piano Op. 94
• Jennifer Higdon
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano (1990)
• Paul Hindemith
  • Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 11 No. 5 (1919)
  • Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 25 No. 1 (1922)
  • Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 31 No. 4 (1923)
  • Sonata for Solo Viola (1937)
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 11 No. 4 (1919)
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 25 No. 4 (1922)
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano (1939)
• Vagn Holmboe
  • Sonata for solo viola
• Arthur Honegger
  • Viola sonata (1920)
• Alan Hovhaness
  • Campuan Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 371 (1982) ([6])
  • Sonata for Solo Viola, Op. 423
• Bertold Hummel
  • Sonatina No.1 Op. 35b (1969) [7]
  • Sonatina No.2 Op. 52b (1973) [8]
• 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)
• David Johnstone
  • Sonatango, Sonata with tango influences for viola solo publ. 2007
• 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
• Libby Larsen
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano (2001)
• Victor Legley
  • Sonata for viola and piano Op. 13 (1943) ([9])
• Lowell Liebermann
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano Op.13 (1984)
• György Ligeti
  • Sonata for Solo Viola (1991-1994)
• Bohuslav Martinů
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano (1955)
• Felix Mendelssohn
  • Sonata for viola and piano in C minor (1824)
• Darius Milhaud
  • Sonata No. 1 for Viola and Piano, Op. 240 (1941)
  • Sonata No. 2 for Viola and Piano, Op. 244 (1944)
• Paul Müller-Zürich
  • Sonata for Viola Solo (1979)
• Jacques Murgier
  • Sonata for Viola Solo
• Ludvig Norman
  • Sonata in G Minor for Viola and Piano, Op. 32 (1869)
• George Onslow
  • three sonatas op. 16 (played on cello or viola)
• George Perle
  • Sonata for Viola Solo, Op. 12
• 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 (1979)
• Alessandro Rolla
  • sonatas for viola with continuo
• Johannes Röntgen
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano
• Nino Rota
  • Viola Sonata in G (1934-5, revised 1970)
  • Viola Sonata in C major (1945)
• Anton Rubinstein
  • Sonata for viola and piano Op. 49 in F minor (1855)
• José Serebrier
  • Sonata for Viola Solo (1955)
• Philipp Scharwenka
  • Sonata for viola and piano "Sonate fantasia" in G minor Op. 106 (1899) ([10], [11])
• Franz Schubert
  • Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, for arpeggione and piano, D. 821
• Peter Sculthorpe
  • Sonata for viola and percussion
• Alexander Shchetynsky
  • Sonata for solo viola (1987)
• Vissarion Shebalin
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano
• Dmitri Shostakovich
  • Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 147 (1975)
• David Stanley Smith
  • Viola sonata, Op. 72 (1934) (David Stanley Smith Papers at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University)
• Carl Stamitz
  • A sonata originally for viola d'amore ([12])
• Eduard Tubin
  • Viola sonata (1965)
• Johann Baptist Vanhal
  • Viola sonata in E-flat
  • Four sonatas for viola and piano, Op. 5 (in C major, D, F and C)
• Henri Vieuxtemps
  • Sonata (Unfinished) for Viola and Piano, Op. post.
  • Sonata for viola and piano in Bb, Op. 36 (1863 or before)
• Mieczysław Weinberg
  • Sonata for solo viola No. 1 Op. 107 (1971)
  • Sonata for solo viola No. 2 Op. 123 (1978)
  • Sonata for solo viola No. 3 Op. 135 (1982)
  • Sonata for solo viola No. 4 Op. 136 (1983) ([13])
• George Wilson
  • Sonata for Viola and Piano (1952)
• 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

• Review of Concert with Arnold Viola Sonata
• The history of Draeseke's Viola Alta Sonatas
• A Mendelssohn Chamber Worklist with Dates
• Schott's page for Nino Rota
• A Viola Sonata Repertoire Page
• And another repertoire page with dates
• Primrose Festival (information with dates also)
• Viola fan club with list of recordings and works