The word “sonata” (from the Italian sonare, suonare, “to sound,” “to make sound,” “to play an instrument”) literally means “acoustic piece” and first occurs in Italian literature of the second half of the 14th century. Still used here as an unspecific general term for the acoustic phenomenon of music, by the 16th century the word had come to refer to short, generally instrumental pieces. Even before 1500, it was used particularly in connection with wind fanfares, and ultimatel…