The Sonata Since Beethoven, (A history of the sonata idea) [Paperback]

William S. Newman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 858 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 2 edition (February 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393006247
• ISBN-13: 978-0393006247
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,309,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The 3rd and final volume in this series devoted to muscial works called sonatas, December 8, 2005

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sonata Since Beethoven (Hardcover)

In the original plan for Newman's monumental testament to the instrumental forms called sonatas, the material in this third and final volume was supposed to be two separate volumes. I am glad there is only one big book covering this material. The more concision the better, I say.

Beethoven was such a monumental force in music (he has lost some luster in recent decades, but I believe he will get his momentum back) that all composers after him had to reckon with what he had accomplished in music. It is fitting that his name is in the title.

As you read this book you will read about sonatas that are actually modeled on the forms Beethoven and his near contemporaries used, forms that are actually rejections or transformations of the Classic sonata (and sonata-form), and pieces that seem to be completely new and foreign to anything like the Classic sonata except that they are instrumental works (and not always that). So, basically you get everything including the kitchen sink.

Again, I view this work and its siblings as reference books. They are valuable for looking up composers, works, and periods because Newman puts EVERYTHING in here. Well, not everything. To give you an idea of the strange balance sometimes exhibited, Edward MacDowell's four sonatas (does anyone play them anymore?) get several pages while the much more important Stravinsky is mentioned only in passing. The index for Stravinsky is also wrong and has him mentioned on a page that doesn't mention him. I found him in a parenthesis on page 719, but could find nothing on his piano sonata.

Anyway, it is a useful reference for looking up details that most others have long since forgotten and it can send you to other places to find more material.