Lesson 59: Major Work Study, Part 3 — The Fast Movements

Learn movements II (Allegro) and IV (Giga) of Loeillet's D minor sonata.
Choose an articulation pattern for each movement — what is tongued, what is slurred — and apply it consistently.
Identify two or three places in each movement where an alternate fingering or a careful breath plan saves the line at tempo.

Lessons 57–58 — the Largo and Adagio of the same sonata.
Lesson 41 — double tonguing.
Lesson 36 — advanced articulation techniques.

Articulation pattern selection.
Compound-meter dance pulse.
Tempo discipline across paired fast movements.

Fast Baroque is light. If it is heavy, it is too fast.

The two fast movements of Loeillet's D minor sonata sit on opposite sides of the Adagio: the Allegro answers the Largo with Italian energy, the Giga closes the sonata with dance. Both rely on the same skills — clean sixteenth-note articulation, even finger motion, careful breath planning — and both reward the same procedure. This lesson takes them in pair.

Movement II — Allegro

Italian-style running figuration. The opening is a chordal arpeggio in eighth notes, followed by a rising sixteenth-note sequence. The first task is to keep the eighths and the sixteenths in the same pulse — the sixteenths must not rush.

Articulation choice for the Allegro

In Baroque style, the basic articulation for running eighths is alternating — tongue every note, but with two different tonguing syllables (du-gu, or the older tu-ru). For the sixteenths, alternate tonguing or use the double-tonguing built in Lesson 41. Pick one pattern across the whole movement and stick to it.

Hardest bar — the sixteenth sequence

Bar 2 of the Allegro is the trouble spot. The rising sequence covers an eleventh in two beats; the fingering is dense. Practise it slow, with the metronome on the sixteenth.

Movement IV — Giga

Compound meter, dance character. The Giga is the lightest movement — the fingers articulate, the breath supports, the air feels less than the volume of the Allegro. If the Giga sounds heavy, the tempo is too slow or the breath pressure too high.

Articulation choice for the Giga

The dance is in groups of three eighths. Slur the first two of each group, tongue the third — the standard Baroque gigue articulation. This makes the rhythm dance instead of plod. Mark the slurs in your score the first time through; do not improvise them.

Practice plan — ten days, both movements

Days 1–2 — map each fast movement: Read each at half tempo, mark the hardest two bars. By day 2 you should have four marked bars total.
Days 3–5 — hardest-bar drill: One marked bar per session, slow tempo with the metronome on the smallest subdivision, until each plays the same way three times in a row.
Days 6–7 — chunks, each movement: Allegro as one chunk, Giga as one chunk, separate sessions. Practice tempo, not target tempo.
Days 8–9 — each movement at target tempo: One run-through per day per movement. Quarter = 110 for the Allegro; dotted quarter = 65 for the Giga.
Day 10 — both, with a rest between: Play Allegro, rest one minute, play Giga. The minute is the silence that the Adagio will fill in performance; learn to sit through it.

Now play these

Loeillet: Sonata in D minor — Movements II and IV: The pieces of this lesson.
Telemann: Sonata in C minor, TWV 41:C2 — Allegro movements: Telemann's fast movements use the same articulation patterns. Transfer the procedure.

When both fast movements play end-to-end at their target tempi with a consistent articulation pattern and the marked-up hardest bars hold up at speed, move on to Lesson 60.