Uploaded December 2016 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
I will try to add some original commentary for my videos. Not a professional but I'll hopefully be able to provide some insight.
Out of Scarlatti's hundreds of keyboard sonatas, this is one of the most well known ones. Sometimes heard as a concert encore, it's one of the few Scarlatti pieces I've personally studied.
At the beginning of the piece, we can hear a bright E major melody first in the right hand, and next in the left. Following a scalar bridge (0:17), the melody is heard once again, this time with a chordal accompaniment in the bass (0:23). It seems like there are some disagreements between editions of the right hand half note in measure 15. The edition shown in the video uses a B, but sometimes a C# is seen.
Moving on, one of the main themes is introduced in F# major (0:39). A rhythmic dancelike theme, it undergoes many modulations along the piece. As in the beginning, it is played in both the right and left hand. We then have a 16th note passage, building tension with a diminished 7th resolving to B Major (0:45). The themes are repeated, but after the second time we move onto another rhythmic theme in B (1:11). After a 16th note passage with a bass melody, the first part of the sonata comes to an end on the V chord.
The second part (2:52) starts with the chord the first one ended on, slowly modulating to E Major's relative minor. The C# minor section (3:02) is brief, and is followed by some tricky fingerwork in the right hand (3:14). As the minor section comes to an end, we find the themes from the first part, this time in a different key (3:26). With some convincing octaves and 16ths, the piece comes to an end on E major.
Performance by Vadim Chaimovich.
Sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Keyboard_Sonata_in_E_major,_K.380_(Scarlatti,_Domenico)
I will try to add some original commentary for my videos. Not a professional but I'll hopefully be able to provide some insight.
Out of Scarlatti's hundreds of keyboard sonatas, this is one of the most well known ones. Sometimes heard as a concert encore, it's one of the few Scarlatti pieces I've personally studied.
At the beginning of the piece, we can hear a bright E major melody first in the right hand, and next in the left. Following a scalar bridge (0:17), the melody is heard once again, this time with a chordal accompaniment in the bass (0:23). It seems like there are some disagreements between editions of the right hand half note in measure 15. The edition shown in the video uses a B, but sometimes a C# is seen.
Moving on, one of the main themes is introduced in F# major (0:39). A rhythmic dancelike theme, it undergoes many modulations along the piece. As in the beginning, it is played in both the right and left hand. We then have a 16th note passage, building tension with a diminished 7th resolving to B Major (0:45). The themes are repeated, but after the second time we move onto another rhythmic theme in B (1:11). After a 16th note passage with a bass melody, the first part of the sonata comes to an end on the V chord.
The second part (2:52) starts with the chord the first one ended on, slowly modulating to E Major's relative minor. The C# minor section (3:02) is brief, and is followed by some tricky fingerwork in the right hand (3:14). As the minor section comes to an end, we find the themes from the first part, this time in a different key (3:26). With some convincing octaves and 16ths, the piece comes to an end on E major.
Performance by Vadim Chaimovich.
Sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Keyboard_Sonata_in_E_major,_K.380_(Scarlatti,_Domenico)
