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]

\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}>>}
For the music education method, see Solfège.

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. 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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