Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria)
Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) · sheet music
- Key D minor
- Time 3/8
- Levels 10
- Passages 1
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Domenico Scarlatti, Italian baroque (1685–1757). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 10; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 10.
Your practice path
Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria).
- Hands together · bars 1–4 level 10
How to play Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria)
- Tempo:Aria means song, so choose a tempo where the little runs sound like sung phrases and not like finger exercises. If the quickest notes in the right hand blur, you are too fast.
- Right hand:Lift gently out of each small upward run and let it land softly on the note it leads to. The runs are lead-ins, not accents.
- Left hand:Keep the left hand light and a little detached, like a plucked string. It should support the song, never cover it.
- Hands together:Match the quick notes in the right hand to the left hand's steady pulse in three. Count the short beats aloud once until the two hands feel like one gesture.
- Rhythm:The fastest notes in the page's passage are thirty-second notes. Think of each beat as a small group and play them evenly, not as a sprint.
- Pedal:Use little or no pedal. The sonata was written for harpsichord, which has no sustain pedal, so clean fingers and short articulation carry the style.
- Dynamics:The harpsichord could not play louder or softer by touch, so shape phrases with timing and articulation first. A small, gentle change in volume on piano is fine if it stays subtle.
- Practice:Practice the ornaments by themselves, slowly, then play the phrase with just the plain notes before putting each ornament back in, one at a time.
Common mistakes
- Rushing the small upward runs so they sound hurried and uneven. Fix: Practice them at half speed with a metronome and make each note in the run equal in weight.
- Holding the pedal down to make the piece sound fuller. Fix: Play without pedal and let short, clear finger articulation provide the style.
- Turning the ornaments into heavy trills that disturb the song. Fix: Play the plain melody first and add each ornament as a light, quick decoration.
- Letting the left hand sit as loudly as the melody. Fix: Practice the left hand alone very softly, then add the right hand on top of that level.
Structure: binary (two repeated halves)
The sonata is a single short movement in two halves, each marked to be repeated. The first half states the songlike idea and closes in D minor; the second half, about twice as long, wanders through F major and other nearby keys before the opening turn returns and settles back in D minor.
- A · First half (D minor)
- The Aria idea, a quick upward turn followed by a falling line, is heard over plain chords in the left hand, with trills at the cadences. It stays in D minor and ends there.
- B · Second half
- The same little runs move through new keys, the left hand starts to walk in eighth notes, and more sharps and naturals appear. The opening turn comes back near the end and leads home to D minor.
About Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria)
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) wrote 555 keyboard sonatas, most of them for Maria Barbara, the Portuguese princess he served as music master in Portugal and then at the Spanish court. Each is a single movement, usually in two halves, and only a few were printed in his lifetime.
This one carries the word Aria in the score, which hints at a lyrical, songlike line rather than a showpiece. It is also one of the shortest of the 555, with a lilting swing created by small upward runs of three notes that begin many of the phrases.
Today the sonatas are catalogued by Ralph Kirkpatrick's K. numbers (1953) and by the older L. numbers from Alessandro Longo. The sonatas were written for harpsichord, but modern performers also play them on the piano.
- Scarlatti's sonatas are numbered in several overlapping systems, so this one is K. 32, L. 423 and P. 14 depending on whose list you consult.
- Ralph Kirkpatrick, the scholar behind the K. numbers, half-seriously suggested that Maria Barbara, Scarlatti's royal pupil, might have been the real author of the sonatas.
- Kirkpatrick concluded that many of the sonatas may date from late in Scarlatti's career, after 1735, so nobody knows exactly when this one was written.
- The Spanish court owned early fortepianos as well as harpsichords, so a piano is not as foreign to this music as it sounds.
Why the first passage is level 10
That passage is level 10 rather than 9 because it moves in 32nd notes, it runs fast figuration.
The passage on this page packs fast, ornamented notes and wide leaps between the hands into a few short beats, and it uses ledger lines. Read the plain melody and the leaps first, then add the quick notes.
Questions about Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria)
- How hard is Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria) to play?
- Its passages grade from level 10 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 10.
- Is there an easy part of Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria) for beginners?
- Its easiest passage is level 10, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-10 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 10 because it moves in 32nd notes and it runs fast figuration.
- What key and time signature is Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria) in?
- Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria) is in D minor, 1 flat. The engraving on this page is in 3/8 time.
- Who composed Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria)?
- Domenico Scarlatti, Italian baroque (1685–1757). Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) wrote 555 keyboard sonatas, most of them for Maria Barbara, the Portuguese princess he served as music master in Portugal and then at the Spanish court.
- Can I practice Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria) online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from Sonata in D Minor, K. 32 (Aria) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- What do K. 32, L. 423 and P. 14 mean?
- They are three catalogue numbers for the same sonata. K. numbers come from Ralph Kirkpatrick's 1953 list, L. numbers from Alessandro Longo's edition (1906), and P. numbers from Giorgio Pestelli's 1967 catalogue.
- Can you play Scarlatti's sonatas on piano?
- Yes. They were written for harpsichord, but the Spanish court also had early fortepianos, and modern performers play them on harpsichord, fortepiano and piano.
- How many keyboard sonatas did Scarlatti write?
- Scarlatti wrote 555 solo keyboard sonatas, most of them single movements in two repeated halves.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades one passage of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 10
- bars 1–4 both hands
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.