English Language & Usage Asked on April 14, 2021
Richard Wagner, it is said, looked down on "sonata form" as being too constraining. Roughly speaking, he objected to the long music passages with unchanging rhythm, with repeating cadences, that could be called algebraic. Specifically, he claimed he was not at all interested in Beethoven’s pieces written in that style, such as the "Quartet in C Major", preferring those in which his predecessor deviated from it.
He referred to the portion of Beethoven’s legacy composed in that style as the "sonata-form Beethoven," or "sonata Beethoven," which sounds kind of awkward in English.
Is there an adjectival form of the word "sonata" that sounds more natural?
I think "sonatic" works best here, and will be easily deducible, especially in this context.
"Sonatine" is already in use for the plural of sonatina, 'a short sonata'. As "sonic" and "sonata" both stem from the Latin "sonare", that association seems suitable.
Once the results on Google Books are filtered using 'music' as an additional keyword, it seems the word has already been used for this specific purpose on several occasions, for instance in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 6, 1920:
"The Scherzo was treated by Chopin in a paradoxical way: from a part of a sonatic cycle, he raised it to complete independence."
Answered by Joachim on April 14, 2021
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