The Development of the Modern Guitar Sonata

This article explores the directions of development of the guitar sonata after the year 1950. The development of any given form is a highly dynamic process with each period bringing a wide variety of, frequently contradictory, points of view. In this context, the author performed a formal analysis of four guitar sonatas representative of the period in question: Sonata in A major Op. 17 by F. Werthmüller, Sonata Op. 47 by A. Ginastera, The Blue Guitar by M. Tippett and Royal Winter Music by H.W. Henze. The criterion for selecting the works was to allow a thorough overview of the main trends and views on the sonata cycle form present in guitar music of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. During the research, an image of the sonata as a cycle emerged which presents the contemporary composers with tools that allow them to pur-sue their artistic vision while maintaining certain immutable features of the form in question. This article attempts to define this immutable identity of the sonata.