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The short answer
Keyboard Sonata in B minor, K. 87 is a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti from the Baroque era. PlayPiano puts it at Level 6, an estimate.
- sonata
- Baroque
- gentle
- melancholic
- voicing
Also known as L.33.
History
Scarlatti's B-minor keyboard sonata appears under three catalogue numbers: K. 87, L. 33 and P. 43. Those numbers identify one work, not three different sonatas. A historical Parma manuscript copy is catalogued around 1752, but that is a copy date, not proof of when Scarlatti composed it.
Sources
What to listen for
Hear the moving line through held sounds
In the opening five bars, moving notes sound alongside longer held and tied notes. Listen for a continuous line within the overlapping texture.
How to practise it
Keep held notes sounding while other notes move
- Distinguish the held notes from moving notes
- Carry a held foundation through changing notes
How hard is it
The inspected opening encodes four voices, and later native measures alternate held lines, moving inner notes and independent rests. Maintaining that independence makes this a sound-control target beyond straightforward two-layer playing.
About this piece
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Source
- imslp.org
- Credit
- Keyboard Sonata in B minor, K. 87 (L. 33, P. 43) by Domenico Scarlatti. MIDI by Pierre Gouin, Les Éditions Outremontaises (2013), via IMSLP #281987: https://imslp.org/wiki/Keyboard_Sonata_in_B_minor,_K.87_(Scarlatti,_Domenico). Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Original MIDI supplied unchanged.
More by Domenico Scarlatti
- Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K. 32 / L. 423 (Aria)Level 3, estimatedWith Maestro
- Sonata in B minor, K. 27Level 7, estimatedWith Maestro
