The Violin Sonata in B minor, P 110, is a

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

for violin and piano by Italian composer

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions r ...

, completed in 1917. It is one of Respighi's major large-scale chamber works.

Background

Respighi's Violin Sonata was composed in 1917 and is contemporary with one of his major works, ''

Fontane di Roma This is a list of the notable fountains in Rome, Italy. Rome has fifty monumental fountains and hundreds of smaller fountains, over 2000 fountains in all, more than any other city in the world. History For more than two thousand years foun ...

''. It was premiered in Naples on January 20, 1918, by the violinist Arrigo Serato and the pianist

Alessandro Longo Alessandro Longo (31 December 1864 – 3 November 1945) was an Italian composer and musicologist. Early life Longo was born in Amantea. After studying at the Naples Conservatory under Beniamino Cesi (and composition under Paolo Serrao), he b ...

. In the same year on March 3, the piece was performed again with Respighi's old teacher Federico Sarti with the violin and Respighi himself at the piano. The sonata was dedicated to and and was published by Casa Ricordi in Milan in 1919 and again in 1947, though not without difficulty, as publishers doubted the "performability" of the piece. After its initial publication, the sonata gained international notoriety.

Structure

The sonata is divided into three movements and has a duration of around 25 minutes. The movements are untitled, except for the third movement, which is a set of 20 variations on an ostinato-like accompaniment. The movement list is as follows: The sonata is known for its demanding violin and piano parts and its complex tonal system. Rhythm patterns are also very complex, as time signatures do not always match. For example, the melody in the second movement is first played by the piano in , whereas the accompaniment has a time signature of .

Background

Structure

References

Further reading