Solfeggietto

Solfeggietto (H 220, Wq. 117: 2) is a short solo keyboard piece in C minor composed in 1766 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.[1] According to Powers 2002, p. 232, the work is correctly called Solfeggio, although the Solfeggietto title is widely used today. Owens refers to the work as a toccata.[2]

For the music education method, see Solfège.

The work is unusual for a keyboard piece in that the main theme and some other passages are fully monophonic, i.e. only one note is played at a time. The piece is commonly assigned to piano students and appears in many anthologies; pedagogically it fosters the playing of an even sixteenth note rhythm by alternating hands.

This piece is easily Bach's best-known, to the point that Paul Corneilson's introduction to The Essential C.P.E. Bach is subtitled "Beyond the Solfeggio in C Minor".[3] Owens also describes it as C. P. E. Bach's most famous work.[2]

The work is often performed by left-hand alone.[4]

The Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin has arranged the piece with additional voices as Solfeggietto a cinque for player piano.[5]

Jazz pianist Bud Powell plays the Solfeggietto in full before improvising on it in "Bud on Bach."

Notes
  1. Negri 2004, p. 2.
  2. Owens 1995, p. 235.
  3. "Contents of The Essential C.P.E. Bach". Via archive.org.
  4. http://www.piano-lessons.net/news_item.php?id=59
  5. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Marc-André Hamelin - Solfeggietto a cinque for Player Piano. YouTube.

Sources
  • Negri, Paul (2004). Baroque Keyboard Masterpieces: 39 Works by Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Couperin and Others. Courier Dover Publications.
  • Owens, Thomas (1995). Bebop: The Music and Its Players. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Powers, Doris Bosworth (2002). Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: A Guide to Research. Psychology Press.
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