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: I've been playing through K 461 in C and am struck by the start to the second half (m 55-94). It's a haunting minor-key section with no thematic connection to the rest of the sonata. : It's an aspect of the genius of Scarlatti that he was able to offer a complete contrast to the first half of the sonata, whose main feature is the tension created by the irregular phrases that subvert the fundamental 3/8 time, with a completely regular 3/8 section before concluding the sonata with all but the first 16 m of the opening half. And it all seems so absolutely right! : "Master of binary form" is a generic description of Scarlatti, but this piece is really an ABA form. Many others are also ABA--K 201 and K 262 come to mind. Anyway, this is really a performance question. I usually play the repetitions indicated in the score for sonatas like K 159, but I can't do so in K 461 and other ABA form sonatas--it just seems to obscure the structure of the piece too much. Does anyone else ever struggle with this question? --Arnold

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