Sefauchi's Farewell in D minor, Z.656
Baroque Piano solo ~5 min
In brief

The piece has a restrained, mournful character, with falling lines and measured pauses that convey a quiet farewell rather than overt theatrics. You will be particularly challenged by Ornements baroque (3.1/5) — executing mordents and short trills cleanly requires precise fingering and subtle wrist pressure so the ornaments blend without weighing the line — and by Lecture clé de fa (3.1/5), which calls for confident reading of the low register and swift left‑hand shifts into less familiar positions. From the Baroque period, this piece belongs to Purcell's body of short expressive airs and instrumental pieces that favour concise melodic-bass interplay. I do not give a specific reference recording here out of caution.

MusicCoach difficulty
35/100
Elementary
Likely range : 23–47/100
Confidence : 38% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 3 to 4

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Relative difficulty
59%
Among Henry Purcell
10%
Era Baroque
Genre
Estimated skills
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression