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]

\relative c'{\new PianoStaff <<\new Staff{\key c \minor \hideNotes r4 \unHideNotes c16 ees d c b \hideNotes r8. \unHideNotes g'16 f ees d ees\noBeam c ees g c ees d c d c b a g f ees d} \new Staff{\key c \minor \clef "bass" ees,16\noBeam c ees g \hideNotes r4 r16 \unHideNotes g b d \hideNotes r4 r1}>>}

Qualities

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]

Performances

The piece appears in Breaking Bad, in the third episode of the fifth season, played by Skinny Pete (Charles Baker)[5]

The Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin has arranged the piece with additional voices as Solfeggietto a cinque for player piano.[6]

Jazz pianist Bud Powell plays the Solfeggietto in full before improvising on it in "Bud on Bach."[7]

Peter Tork plays it on an electric piano in "33&1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee", a television special, starring the Monkees, which aired on NBC on April 14, 1969.

Notes

  1. ↑ Negri 2004, p. 2.
  2. 1 2 Owens 1995, p. 235.
  3. ↑ "Contents of The Essential C.P.E. Bach". Via archive.org.
  4. ↑ "Piano lessons: Left Behind: Putting Your Left to Rights". Archived from the original on 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  5. ↑ "Breaking Bad - Reazioni collaterali S5:E3 - StreamingCommunity". streamingcommunity.blog. Retrieved 2022-09-08.
  6. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Marc-André Hamelin - Solfeggietto a cinque for Player Piano. YouTube.
  7. ↑ Ramsey, Guthrie P. (2013). The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop (1 ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24391-0. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt2jcc05.

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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