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 (Heyman 1992, 110–11, 114). Together with the Music for a Scene from Shelley, Op. 7, this sonata won both a Pulitzer travel stipend and the Prix de Rome of the American Academy in Rome in 1935 (Friedewald 1957, 166; Pleasants 1935).

Date of composition 1932 (Between June and December 1932)
Premiered 1933, March 5th in New York, NY, United States by Samuel Barber
Type Sonata
Tonality C Minor
Catalogue Op. 6
Instruments Cello
Piano
Autotranslations beta Samuel Barber: Sonate pour violoncelle en do mineur, Op. 6
Samuel Barber: Sonata per violoncello in do minore, Op. 6
Samuel Barber: Sonate für Violoncello c-moll, Op. 6