Keyboard Sonata in B Minor

We enter an unfamiliar world here in Scarlatti’s musical imagination. Almost none of his characteristic virtuosity is on show here; instead, he cultivates a calmer, more even style, where the ideas he presents are complementary rather than contrasted, and the emphasis seems to be on creating a mood rather than showing off. The mood is not just thoughtful and introverted. At first, it also seems to be deliberately backward in style—the harmony is rich (in four parts) and the way the melodic lines move in micro steps (chromaticism) sound serious—almost Bach-like (though Scarlatti didn’t know his music). The repeated bass notes at the end of the first and second halves—held and reiterated like an organ pedal note—add to the gravity. Even so, in 1916 the movement was arranged by Vincenzo Tommasini to accompany “Constanza’s dance” in his light-hearted ballet Les Femmes de bonne humeur (The Good Humored Ladies.