Sonate und Sonatina für Violoncello und Klavier von Kodály im gattungsgeschichtlichen Zusammenhang

The history of the genre of the sonata written for violoncello and pianoforte begins in 1796 with the five sonatas by Beethoven opp. 5, 69 and 102. The sonata op. 69 is a model for its special role until the 20th century: the lyrical character of the opening theme with a fantasy-like closing solo-cadenza and a fermata. Since the 1st Sonata of Brahms (1865), it was mostly young composers like Strauss (op. 6), Pfitzner (op. 1), Reger (op. 5) and Dohnányi (op. 8) who followed this tradition. As also the Sonata op. 4 by the young composer Kodály (1909) whose opening Adagio as “Fantasia” has the same conceptions: rhapsodic melody with closing cadenza and a fermata. The final return of the Adagio establishes a cyclic unity. The first performance of the sonata in 1910 with string quartets by Kodály and Bartók founded the beginning of modern music in Hungary. Also the Sonatina, originally the 3rd part of Sonata, published in 1922, has a Lento-introduction with rhapsodic-like parts wich begins a process-like evolution of composition. A relationship with the special features of the Sonata for Cello and Piano in the history of the genre includes also works by Debussy (1915) and Hindemith (1919)