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Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 5–9
  • Passages 15

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Georg Philipp Telemann, German baroque (1681–1767). The reading release has 15 passages from this piece at levels 5–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 33–40 at level 9.

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 Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20.

  1. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 5
  2. The hardest bars · bars 33–40 level 9

How to play Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20

  1. Tempo:Vite asks for a quick tempo, but the texture is mostly quarter and eighth notes, so pick a pulse at which the eighth-note pairs stay crisp and the half-note cadences still have time to land.
  2. Right hand:The right hand keeps returning to a falling figure of two eighths and a quarter; play the eighths lightly and let the quarter be the goal of each little group.
  3. Left hand:The left hand alternates between echoing the right hand's figure and jumping between low and high notes of a chord; practice the octave and tenth leaps alone until your hand finds them without looking.
  4. Hands together:In the opening phrase both hands move in the same rhythm a tenth apart, so lock them together first; elsewhere one hand holds long notes while the other moves, which is where the two voices need to stay independent.
  5. Reading:Watch for the accidentals that mark each key change: D-sharp for E major, E-sharp for F-sharp minor, and G-natural when the music turns toward D major.
  6. Fingering:In the passage of steady eighth notes that circle around a few neighboring pitches, keep the hand in one position and avoid shifting on every beat.
  7. Practice:Learn the four-bar refrain first, since it recurs several times; then practice each excursion to a new key as its own short unit before linking them.

Common mistakes

  • Holding every quarter note full length so the quick tempo sounds heavy. Fix: Detach the quarter notes slightly, harpsichord style, and keep the eighth-note pairs smooth.
  • Missing the E-sharp in the F-sharp minor passage and playing a plain E. Fix: Circle or name the E-sharp before playing, and remember it sounds the same key as F-natural.
  • Letting the refrain's final half note get clipped before the rest. Fix: Count the full value of the cadence note so each phrase ends cleanly before the next one starts.

Structure: three-part (slow-fast-slow, with da capo)

The full fantasia is built as a graceful triple-time opening, a brisk common-time middle, and a return to the opening. The Vite heard on this page is itself built around a short four-bar refrain in A major that comes back between excursions to nearby keys.

A · Gratieusement (A major)
The opening section in triple time, elegant and unhurried. It is not among the passages on this page.
B · Vite (A major)
The quick common-time section read here: falling three-note figures in both hands, a cadential refrain, and short trips to E major, F-sharp minor and D major that bring new accidentals.
A · Gratieusement (da capo)
The print directs the player back to the opening, so the fantasia ends as it began.

About Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20

Telemann issued his 36 keyboard fantasias in Hamburg in 1732 and 1733 as three dozens. In the original print this piece is headed as Fantaisie No. 8 of the second dozen, which is why it carries the catalogue number TWV 33:20 rather than TWV 33:8, the G minor fantasia of the first dozen.

The fantasia is in A major. It opens with a section marked Gratieusement in triple time, moves into a faster section in common time marked Vite, and then sends the player back to the beginning. The passages on this page come from the Vite.

Telemann settled in Hamburg in 1721 and was among the most productive composers of his time, credited with more than 3,000 works, about half of them now lost.

  • In the first print this fantasia's tempo words are French, Gratieusement and Vite, rather than the Italian Allegro or Presto used in the first dozen.
  • At the end of the Vite the print simply tells the player to go back to the beginning, so the graceful opening section is heard twice.
  • Telemann pressed for exclusive publishing rights to his own music, an early step toward treating music as a composer's property.

Why the first passage is level 5

That passage is level 5 rather than 4 because its key signature has 3 sharps or flats, a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a octave.

The passages here carry a three-sharp key signature and begin with both hands moving together in the same rhythm. Read the hands as two separate lines before combining them, and scan ahead for the sharps and naturals that signal each change of key.

Questions about Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20

How hard is Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20 to play?
Its passages grade from level 5 to level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 33–40 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 5, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-5 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 5 because its key signature has 3 sharps or flats and a hand covers more than one position.
What key and time signature is Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20?
Georg Philipp Telemann, German baroque (1681–1767). Telemann issued his 36 keyboard fantasias in Hamburg in 1732 and 1733 as three dozens.
Can I practice Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 15 graded passages from Fantasia in A Major, TWV 33:20 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
Why is this fantasia sometimes called No. 8 and sometimes TWV 33:20?
Telemann numbered each dozen from 1 to 12, so this is No. 8 of the second dozen; the TWV catalogue counts all 36 in one series, which makes it TWV 33:20.
Is Telemann's keyboard music in the public domain?
Yes. Telemann died in 1767, and scans of the 1732-33 print of the fantasias are freely available on IMSLP.
Can Telemann's fantasias be played on piano?
They were printed for harpsichord, but the light two-voice writing transfers well to the piano, and modern editions present them for piano.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 15 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 5
bars 1–4 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 10–13 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands · bars 33–36 both hands · bars 41–44 both hands · bars 41–48 both hands · bars 45–48 both hands · bars 57–60 both hands
Level 9
bars 33–40 both hands · bars 37–40 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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