Serge Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)

Abstract The new and diverse styles of early to mid-twentieth century composition did not prevent some of the major composers of the era from continuing to write in “traditional” genres such as the sonata. Three twentieth-century sonatas for cello and piano, one each by Rachmaninoff, Barber, and Prokofiev, combine multi-movement sonata structures inherited from the great Romantic sonatas with more modern ways to use melody and harmony. These include heightened chromaticism, frequent dissonance, and octatonic language. Each of these sonatas also retains a sense of intense lyricism in the cello writing, an aspect that creates the impression of looking back to Romanticism.