Keyboard Sonata in C major

Description

This sonata in C major is one of the more than 500 keyboard sonatas Scarlatti left behind. Most of his sonatas, written at the Spanish court, are single movements in binary form with each half repeated, and they are remarkably varied, as if each one tested a new possibility of the keyboard.

It is in C major and 12/8. It has a bright, open sound and lively figuration, and over a bouncing pulse of three eighth notes to the beat it conveys the forward drive characteristic of Baroque keyboard music. At about two minutes twenty seconds it has some 798 notes. Fast passages appear throughout, though the range stays fairly compact.

Rated intermediate, its range fits on a 61-key keyboard. The fast figures require accurate touch and a steady rhythmic sense, and an awareness of improvised ornament makes it livelier. Feeling the four broad beats of 12/8 matters; slow the playback to check the groups of three, loop the fast passages with A-B, and then bring the tempo back up for a steady result.

Selected sonatas from Scarlatti's output of 555, known for innovative keyboard technique and original musical ideas.