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.
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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This A minor fugue presents a lean contrapuntal tension: entries answer one another with little ornament and the drive comes from clear imitation rather than lyrical display. You will face especially Polyphony for three voices or more (4.4/5), which requires keeping independent lines balanced between the hands — frequently allocating an upper line and a middle voice while preserving a distinct bass — and Harmonic analysis (4.4/5), which means anticipating modulations and cadences so transitional measures are voiced without obscuring individual parts. As a Baroque work, it belongs to Scarlatti's keyboard output where his command of fugal writing and counterpoint appears alongside his other keyboard pieces. I do not give a reference performance here because I do not have a reliably identifiable recording for this specific piece.