A Sonata is an instrumental piece of music which originated in the Baroque Music Period and continued to develop through the Classical and Romantic eras. Originally it was a short instrumental piece only, but in the 18th century it became an entire musical form which came to be applied to any combination of instruments.
The sonata developed into quite an elaborate piece of music comprised of four movements:
- Allegro, a lively opening movement played at a quick tempo
- The second movement which was at a slower tempo, and which developed out of the Baroque aria da capo
- Minuet and Trio, the third movement, based on the dance suite
- Finale, fast and intense, which would often return a theme from the opening Allegro