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Free sheet music · Noctave edition

Sonatina Op. 36 No. 1 · III. Vivace

Muzio Clementi 1752–1832

Intermediate · 6/101797C major58 sSonatinas
Portrait of Muzio Clementi, in moonlight

Listen

The first 20 seconds, played by the piano of Noctave (the app's SoundFont).

The piece

The sonatina's finale is a Vivace in 3/8 that is felt as one beat per bar. Its theme, two sixteenths dropping onto two repeated eighth-note Cs and then a leap up to a high G, sticks after one hearing and keeps coming back. Clementi gives the left hand the job of engine: broken chords in eighth notes in the first part, repeated intervals later on.

The right hand averages about five notes per second, climbing to six and a half in the sixteenth-note scales that tumble down more than an octave. Pick one fixed fingering for those scales and keep it every time so it becomes automatic. The left hand plays C-E-G in steady eighths: keep them lighter than the tune, without leaning on each eighth, so the bar breathes in one. The trap of a fast 3/8 is rushing the ends of phrases; the staccato eighth followed by rests must fill its whole bar before the theme sets off again. Count "one" per bar, not "one-two-three".

What makes it hard

Speed
5.3 notes a second in the right hand, kept up over at least a quarter of the piece.
Left hand
The left hand plays 44% of the notes, up to 3.5 a second.

Measured on the score, repeats included, at the written tempo.

Play it in Noctave

The score, free. The version that falls in light, in Noctave: the notes come down to your keyboard at your tempo, then fade to leave you the score. Noctave is coming soon to Android: leave your address to hear when it is out.

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