Piano Forum

Okay, replace Bach inventions with Scarlatti sonatas. I just discovered how cool they sound! 

Scarlatti's sonatas are like a bottomless cookie jar of new discoveries that never disappoint, and are also perhaps the apex of late baroque keyboard sonatas.  Around 600 of them survive today, and historians believe that the vast majority of them were written in the last decade of his life. 

I think their appeal derives from a couple of things: the clear lines of melody demonstrated in most of them that forshadow the coming of the classical styles, yet still use the same chromatic devices great composers employed to great effect during the baroque, a most sublime and dynamic combination.  That, and their crisp Spanish influences add to thier uniqueness.

I always work on at least 3 different sonatas of his at any given time as most are very approachable to an early/intermediate keyboardist.  I probably wouldn't want to throw out Bach inventions, though, as they are still very useful in addressing specific technical issues of that style.  If fact, I lack being able to play Bach with ease and plan to begin studying the invetions to help with that deficiency.

Although there is plenty of Scarlatti to go around, if anyone's interested, similar keyboard composers of 18th Century Spanish era include Antonio Soler (usually more challenging than Scarlatti and personally not ready for), Manuel Blasco de Nebra (can't go wrong with a name like that!), and Carlos Seixas (Portuguese) to name a few.  There are many others not mentioned that demonstrate this unique style also deserve attention, but tend to be very hard to find and require hoops such as interlibrary loans (how I obtained the Blasco de Nebra) to find.

Regards