I'm playing the Scarlatti Sonata in D minor for my piano exam in about 5 weeks time (*panic*)
I still feel like I'm just note bashing (and not very well either!) and I don't really know how to interpret the piece. My teacher says it's supposed to be 'rustic' but it doesn't really sound like that to me, in fact it just sounds like a bunch of notes at the moment.
I'm off to try and find some more information on the internet, but if anyone's played/heard this piece I'd be really grateful for any suggestions or advice
thank you!
hoxie
xxx

What's the number of the piece? I've got a Scarlatti Sonatae book downstairs, I'll go and check it out.

i've just sat my grade 8, and if its the piece im thinking of.. try making your fingers active.. i have one of the best teachers in the country *which isn't saying much* but shes super good, from russia, one of the best so i hear...

she says that the scales going downwards... should sound like theyre done by one hand... and making your fingers active will make you sound like your active... this is KEY to this piece..

good luck!

Thankyou!
Not sure what number it is, I'll have to go and have a look!

EDIT: K.516 (I think...looked it up on the internet because I can't be bothered to go and find the music! sorry!)

Haven't got that one I'm afraid...Darn!

Crazy Cow, do you mean the one that swaps from D minor to major ? On the Grade 8 list, A8 ? If it's that one I can help you, but there seems to be some confusion as an earlier post I think was referring to the Scarlatti Sonata in D which is A3 and has loads of scales in it. Let me know !

I think it is on the grade 8, but not the one in the book (though it also has scalic passages in it so the advice was still useful!)
I'll have to find the syllabus later once I get back from my flute lesson!
Thank you for the help anyway, it sounds a bit better today (when I'd spent about an hour warming up beforehand...)
hoxie
xxx

Edit: Sorry, didn't read the original request properly.

No, it's in D minor... *puzzled*
I'll have to look later, I have to go out now!

Sorry, I misread your original post and thought you had said it was for a grade 5 exam. The current exam pieces have one in there too.

Easy to do, I didn't notice that before!
I think it's A8 on the Grade 8 syllabus, except they seem to have completely different numbering system...

A8? are u sure? ive just sat my grade 8.. and it was A3...

D major is A3 and Dminor is A8.

Are you there crazy cow ? is it A8 that you are bashing away at ? Confusing, eh, all these Scarlatties everwhere. Let me know.

There are two Scarlatti Sonatas in the current grade 8 list -

A3 in D major Kp 535, (in the exam book) and

A6 in D minor Kp 444, (L 420), (in a separate collection ).

Grade 8 book is in front of me - hope this helps a bit! Let's hope I haven't typo'd any of those numbers, just to add to the confusion ...

edit - there had to be one typo - that A6 should read A8

No it's got to be A8 I think - minor not major...hope that's of some help! sorry for all the confusion!!

yes sorry, it should have read A8 not A6 (A6 is Hindemith)

I played the Scarlatti in D minor (from the alternative pieces list) when I tried my grade 8 last summer. I must say, I rather enjoyed it and did'nt find it too hard.

You need a relaxed technique and a bounce at the wrist. If you listened to the AB's c.d that goes with it, it's really very fast. I did not play it quite as quickly because it would start to unravell at the end of the second page!(Also,block dynamics works for this piece.)

Good luck!

Hi
have you tried listening to the piano exams recording of the piece?
I am doing the Sonata in D (A3) lots of arpeggios and scales (D minor piece is in 6/8 i think and does not have the scale passages in it)

I have found the recordings invaluable they have given me fresh ideas as to interpretation. It is quite pricey though as it contains ALL the G8 pieces - alt list as well.

Hope this helps

I don't know why, but I always found Scarlatti musically very difficult to 'understand' in terms of timings and tonality, but I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it - I think personally the most important thing in Scarlatti (and incidentally other pieces of the Baroque era) is phrasing, holding down notes for the right time values and rests as well - Baroque pieces were obviously the time of the Harpsichord where pieces relied on technical difficulty as opposed to use of dynamics (but because you have a piano, you should vary dynamics) and so the most important thing is style of ornamentation and being technichally accurate, i.e. taking every phrasing, staccato, rest etc into consideration, and getting fingering right so it sounds fluent!

But yes, as other people say, listen to recordings of Scarlatti, as they may give you inspiration of more interesting ways of playing his pieces as opposed to just key bashing - incidentally, they are very different (in my personal opinion) to Bach pieces, and so try to find recordings of as many Scarlatti pieces as you can, just so you can get the gist of how he composes certain melodies, etc. and why they are meant to work!

~Wobby~

My old piano teacher used to say that Scarlatti was drunk most of the time and that accounted for all the weird bits in his music!

I really have to agree with your teacher there! Probably all washed up on fermented Italian Olive Oil...

~Wobby~

Thanks for all the advice! I can't really afford the CD right now as I'm trying to save for a flute headjoint and I don't have a job :s but I'm sure my teacher will have a copy that he'll let me listen to
It's getting there....slowly....
hoxie
xxx

Hi crazy cow, yes we are doing the same one. Speed should be about a dotted crotchet = 88. (and that's from an AB examiner). As one post says, a very relaxed wrist, lots of wrist rotation. Voicing is important so you need to decide where the tune is, and it swaps all the time. My main difficulty is speeding up, I am getting the wrist movement and the light bounce on the quavers but it really has a tendency to race away. Had to resort to playing to the metronome. Good luck with it.

I tend to make this piece sound manic (says my teacher!) I think its supposed to sound quite dreamy but I'm just guessing! Have you got a recording of it?

I'm doing the D major one

xx