The sonata was composed between June and December 1932 during a trip to Europe as Barber was finishing his studies at the
Curtis Institute of Music. The score is dedicated to Barber's composition teacher,
Rosario Scalero, and was officially premiered on 5 March 1933 with the composer at the piano and his friend and colleague
Orlando Cole as cellist, at a concert of the
League of Composers in New York City. Together with the
Music for a Scene from Shelley, Op. 7, this sonata won both a Pulitzer travel stipend and the
Rome Prize of the
American Academy in Rome in 1937. ==Analysis==