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Sonata in E Major, K. 531

Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) · sheet music

  • Time 6/8
  • Levels 7–10
  • Passages 23

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Domenico Scarlatti, Italian baroque (1685–1757). The reading release has 23 passages from this piece at levels 7–10; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 9–12 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 57–64 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 E Major, K. 531.

  1. Hands together · bars 9–12 level 7
  2. The hardest bars · bars 57–64 level 10

How to play Sonata in E Major, K. 531

  1. Tempo:Allegro here means light and quick, not heavy. Choose a tempo where the six eighth notes of each bar still feel like two lilting beats.
  2. Right hand:The right hand plays fast broken figures and leaps. Use a relaxed hand and let the fingers do the work with little arm motion.
  3. Left hand:The left hand provides a bass line and chords. Keep it crisp and short, because heavy chords will slow the right hand.
  4. Hands together:Practice both hands together at half speed, a short phrase at a time. Use a metronome and speed up only when you can play the phrase three times cleanly.
  5. Pedal:Use little or no pedal. Scarlatti wrote for the harpsichord, which has no sustain pedal, and clean articulation sounds closer to the original.
  6. Reading:Four sharps govern most of the piece, and the E minor stretch switches to one sharp before the four sharps return, with extra accidentals in between. Name the key signature before each passage.
  7. Practice:Isolate the quickest figure and loop it at a slow tempo, then place it back in context. Playing it staccato first also builds clarity.

Common mistakes

  • Rushing the fast figures so they sound smeared. Fix: Practice with a metronome at about half speed and raise it two clicks at a time.
  • Playing the six-eight as six equal beats. Fix: Feel two big beats per bar, with groups of three notes each.
  • Using too much pedal and blurring the harmonies. Fix: Practice with no pedal until the articulation is clean.
  • Missing sharps in the key signature. Fix: Name the four sharps aloud before playing, and mark the key-signature change in pencil.

Structure: binary (two-part sonata form)

Like nearly all Scarlatti sonatas, this one has two repeated halves. The first moves from E major toward a related key and closes with a clear cadence. The second half travels further, including a long passage in E minor written with a one-sharp key signature, and then returns to E major for its close.

Part 1 · Home key to dominant (E major)
Bright E major material in a dancing 6/8 with quick broken figures, closing on a firm cadence away from home. Reading highlight: four sharps in the key signature.
Part 2 · Departure and return
The music sets off again with chromatic turns and quick changes of direction, so expect many accidentals.
Close · E minor stretch and return (E minor, then E major)
The key signature changes to one sharp for a stretch in E minor, then the four sharps return for a short final passage in E major.

About Sonata in E Major, K. 531

Domenico Scarlatti left 555 keyboard sonatas, each a single movement, mostly in two parts. Most were composed for Maria Barbara, whom he taught at the Portuguese court in Lisbon; after her marriage to the Spanish crown prince he followed her to Seville in 1729 and to Madrid in 1733, and she later became queen of Spain. He died in Madrid in 1757.

The sonatas are now numbered by Ralph Kirkpatrick's catalogue of 1953, which gives the K. number, with Alessandro Longo's older numbers shown as L. This one is K. 531, also L. 430, marked Allegro and in E major. IMSLP traces its first printing to 1804, in a volume of the Oeuvres de Clementi.

Scarlatti's writing often hints at the Spanish guitar, for example in rapidly repeated notes and pungent figurations. Playing these sonatas well means making many short phrases sound spontaneous, and on a modern piano the usual challenge is keeping the lines light and dancing without heavy pedal.

  • Scarlatti's best-known printed collection, the Essercizi of 1738, held only 30 of his sonatas and was dedicated to King John V of Portugal.
  • Kirkpatrick's numbering follows the likely order of composition, while Longo had grouped the sonatas into suites of his own devising.
  • In the original the long E minor stretch near the end is written with its own one-sharp key signature before the music returns to E major for the final cadences.

Why the first passage is level 7

That passage is level 7 rather than 6 because its key signature has 4 sharps or flats.

The engraving is in 6/8. It begins with four sharps (E major) and later passages drop to one sharp for an E minor stretch, so check the signature at each passage.

Questions about Sonata in E Major, K. 531

How hard is Sonata in E Major, K. 531 to play?
Its passages grade from level 7 to 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 57–64 at level 10.
Is there an easy part of Sonata in E Major, K. 531 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 7, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 9–12 for both hands together, the level-7 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 7 because its key signature has 4 sharps or flats.
What key and time signature is Sonata in E Major, K. 531 in?
The engraving on this page is in 6/8 time.
Who composed Sonata in E Major, K. 531?
Domenico Scarlatti, Italian baroque (1685–1757). Domenico Scarlatti left 555 keyboard sonatas, each a single movement, mostly in two parts.
Can I practice Sonata in E Major, K. 531 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 23 graded passages from Sonata in E Major, K. 531 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What do K. and L. mean in Scarlatti's sonata numbers?
K. stands for Ralph Kirkpatrick, whose 1953 catalogue is now the standard. L. stands for Alessandro Longo, whose earlier catalogue is still shown on many editions.
Did Scarlatti write for harpsichord or piano?
Mostly the harpsichord, though Scarlatti's sonatas were also written with the earliest pianos in mind. Modern pianists play them on piano with a light touch and little pedal.
Is Scarlatti's K. 531 in the public domain?
Scarlatti died in 1757, so the music is in the public domain. IMSLP lists the sonata with scans of Longo's edition and a free modern typeset edition.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 23 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 7
bars 9–12 both hands · bars 77–80 both hands · bars 105–108 both hands
Level 8
bars 21–24 both hands
Level 9
bars 17–20 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 37–40 both hands · bars 41–48 both hands · bars 41–44 both hands · bars 45–48 both hands · bars 49–52 both hands · bars 85–88 both hands · bars 89–96 both hands · bars 89–92 both hands · bars 93–96 both hands · bars 97–100 both hands · bars 97–104 both hands · bars 105–112 both hands · bars 109–112 both hands
Level 10
bars 57–64 both hands · bars 57–60 both hands · bars 61–64 both hands · bars 65–68 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.

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