Sonatina in C: Rondo (Op. 20 No. 1, 3rd movement)

Background

A rondo is built around a refrain. The main tune comes round again and again, and between its appearances come contrasting sections called episodes, so the plan can be written as letters: A B A C A, often with a short ending. The name comes from the French rondeau, an old poem and song form with a recurring refrain. In the Classical period the rondo was the favourite way to end a sonata or sonatina, because a catchy tune that keeps coming back sends listeners away cheerful.

This Rondo is the finale of Friedrich Kuhlau's Sonatina in C major, Op. 20 No. 1, which follows the Allegro and the Andante. Kuhlau, a German-born composer who made his career in Copenhagen, wrote many sonatinas, and with those of Muzio Clementi they became staples of piano teaching.

Kuhlau was admired in his own day too. In 1825, on a visit to Vienna, he spent a merry day with Beethoven, who afterwards wrote him a short canon on the words "Kühl, nicht lau" ("cool, not lukewarm"), a pun on Kuhlau's name. It is a small reminder that these teaching pieces came from a respected professional composer.

How to practise it

This arrangement is in C major and 2/4 time, 158 bars long and quick. The refrain is sixteen bars long and appears four times, so learn it first and best. It begins with a two-sixteenth upbeat:

Both bars have the same shape: a dotted note repeated, then a turn that dips a half step below, rises a step above and comes back. Keep the dotted rhythm sharp and the turns even. The fingering under bar 1 (4, 3, then 2-3-4-3) fits bar 2 as well, starting on E.

In the first eight bars the left hand plays short, light chords. When the refrain repeats, it switches to a broken-chord pattern:

Practise this pattern alone until it is quiet and completely even; it should rustle along beneath the tune.

The episodes contain the movement's quickest passages: long chains of sixteenth notes, mostly scale fragments that turn back on themselves, and the closing bars race up two octaves to a high C. Practise them in groups of four with a pause on each first note, then in groups of eight, and only then in full. Keep the fingers close to the keys; small movements are quick movements.

A plan:

1. The refrain, both versions of the left hand.
2. Each episode separately, slowly.
3. Join each episode to the refrain that follows it, practising the changeovers.

Tempo ladder: 60, 76, 92, then the full 108. The character is playful and bright, so keep the touch light, let the refrain sound exactly the same each time it returns, and give the episodes their own colour.