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 E minor sonata projects a taut rhythmic energy with clear contrasts between singing melody passages and sprightlier episodes, so clean articulation is needed to bring out those shifts. Technically you will face mainly Phrasing (2.5/5): you must shape melodic lines through controlled connection and subtle weight shifts rather than broad rubato, and Independence of the hands (2.5/5): the right hand often carries the tune while the left supplies contrapuntal accompaniment, requiring precise touch balance and separate hand gestures. The piece belongs to Kuhnau's body of keyboard sonatas and sits within the German pre‑/Baroque keyboard tradition, reflecting forms that lead toward later baroque writing. I do not give a reference performance here because I cannot confidently point to a single widely recognized recording of this particular sonata.