Solfeggietto

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

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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". Owens also describes it as C. P. E. Bach's most famous work.

The work is often performed by left-hand alone.

Performances

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

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

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

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

Sources

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External links

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* , Phillip Sear

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category:compositions by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
category:compositions in C minor
category:compositions for solo piano