Sonata in C (Pastorale), Kp. 513

Scarlatti wrote 555 keyboard sonatas in his decades at the Spanish-Portuguese court, and the Pastorale, Kp. 513, is one of the most distinctive: a triple-time pastoral with a continuous oscillating left-hand pattern that imitates the zampogna (Italian bagpipes) and a serene, song-like right-hand line above. The piece is technically simpler than many late Scarlatti sonatas but musically demanding — the entire challenge is sustaining a long, still pastoral mood at a Grade 8 standard of voicing.

Technically the piece tests three things at concert standard. First, evenness in the continuous left-hand drone-and-oscillation pattern, which must stay rhythmically alive but quiet. Second, cantabile right-hand voicing across long melodic lines, with the small ornaments (tremblements, coulés) placed inside the beat. Third, sustaining the still pastoral mood for several minutes — the danger is that boredom enters the playing and the line goes flat.

Two pitfalls. First, students play the left-hand pattern as a metronomic accompaniment; it needs the small lift that a real bagpipe drone has. Second, the right-hand ornaments are hurried; place them inside the beat and let the harmonic resolution arrive on time.

Listening: PD harpsichord recordings of Scarlatti are widely available on Musopen and IMSLP audio. Scott Ross's complete Scarlatti is the canonical reference (in copyright); Wanda Landowska's selected recordings (now PD) calibrate the historical touch.