Lesson 53: A Complete Short Baroque Sonata

Take a complete three- or four-movement Baroque sonata from first read to a single end-to-end performance.
Plan practice across movements, not within them — pace the work over a fortnight, not a single sitting.
Memorise the opening of each movement so the transitions between movements feel intentional, not improvised.

Lesson 51 — complete single Baroque dance movement.
Lesson 48 — Baroque ornamentation practice.
Reliable G major and D minor reading.

Multi-movement architecture.
Affect contrast across movements.
Multi-week practice planning.

A sonata is not three or four pieces. It is one piece that happens to pause for breath.

Lesson 51 took you through a single dance movement; Lesson 52 took a theme and two variations. This lesson is the first that asks you to learn a complete multi-movement work — a short Baroque sonata, three or four movements, played end-to-end. The repertoire model is Jean-Baptiste Loeillet of Ghent's Op. 1 No. 1 in D minor: Largo – Allegro – Adagio – Giga, the slow-fast-slow-fast pattern that became the standard for the sonata da chiesa. The Pepusch sonatas listed below follow the same plan.

The new skill is not technical — you already have the notes. The new skill is architectural: keeping four contrasting movements in your head as a single arc, with each movement's character set against the others. The Largo is grave; the Allegro that follows must sound like a release; the second Adagio is heavier than the first; the Giga is the lightest thing in the piece. Those relationships exist between movements, and they collapse the moment you treat each movement as its own project.

Movement architecture — the four affects

Each movement of the Loeillet has a defined character. Read all four short opening motives in sequence, without playing them, and listen for the contrasts before you go back and work on any single one.

The opening — a French-style noble descent.

The opening figuration — running eighths and a sequential rise.

The second slow movement — longer notes, richer suspensions than the first.

The closing dance — the lightest gesture in the whole sonata.

The four affects together are the sonata. If you can sing through this sequence of opening motives, in order, before you sit down with the instrument, the architecture is in your head and the rest is execution.

Practice plan — two weeks, twelve sessions

A complete sonata is more than a single session of work. The plan below assumes about thirty minutes of practice on most days; adapt the days to your own schedule, but keep the proportions.

Days 1–2 — map every movement: Play each movement once at half tempo. Do not stop to fix anything. Mark the hardest two bars in each movement. You should end the second day with a list of eight hardest bars across the whole sonata.
Days 3–6 — hardest-bar work: Apply the Lesson 51 chunked procedure to each of those eight bars, in any order. One bar per session is enough. Stop when each marked bar plays the same way three times in a row at tempo.
Days 7–9 — one movement per day: End-to-end runs of each movement at performance tempo, one per day. Two movements on the last day if you feel strong. No skipping.
Days 10–11 — movements in pairs: Play I→II as a single unit, with the rest between movements you would take in performance (eight beats; long enough to set the new affect, short enough not to break the arc). Then III→IV.
Day 12 — the whole sonata, once: Record the run. Listen back without the score. Mark anything that surprised you; that is the practice list for the following week.

Memorise the openings

You do not need to memorise the whole sonata. You do need to memorise the first two bars of each movement, so the entry into the next movement is not a scramble for the page. Use the four exercise snippets above; each is short enough to commit to memory in a single sitting.

Now play these

Loeillet of Ghent: Sonata in D minor, Op. 1 No. 1: The model. Four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast. The score is in the library; the practice plan above is calibrated to its length.
Pepusch: Sonata in F major, Op. 1 No. 1: A second short sonata in the same plan. Apply the same twelve-session schedule; the second run is always faster than the first.
Loeillet of Ghent: Sonata in C major, Op. 3 No. 1: A brighter, looser-jointed companion piece. Use it to test whether the practice procedure transfers when the affects flip from minor to major.

When you can play one of the sonatas above end-to-end, in a single sitting, with intentional rests between movements and an unbroken sense of pulse across the whole arc, move on to Lesson 54.

For more on planning long-form practice, see the reference.