 The work is dedicated to the composer's father, Alkan Morhange (who died eight years later, in 1855), and was published in 1847.The sequence of movements is unlike the typical classical piano sonata, in that they become progressively slower; after the lively "20 ans" (years), marked 'très vite' (very fast) and the complex "30 ans", subtitled "Quasi-Faust", and marked 'assez vite' (quite fast), "40 ans" is more sedate, marked 'lentement' (slowly), and "50 ans", dark and pessimistic in mood, is marked 'extrêmement lent' (extremely slow).The sonata opens with "20 ans", a quickly played piece based in D major but also with many passages in the relative minor key of B minor.