Violin Sonata in D major, H.502, Wq.71
Classical Sonata Violin and Piano
In brief

This D major sonata has a lively, slightly restless character, alternating singing passages and clipped, articulated figures that require momentum and tonal clarity. You will face specific technical issues with Phrasing (3.6/5): you must shape lines through bow changes, internal dynamic shading and well-timed breaths so each phrase breathes; and with Vibrato (3.6/5): on sustained notes and appoggiaturas you need to control width and speed to color without weighing the line down. The piece belongs to the Classical period and reflects C. P. E. Bach's expressive stance between Baroque rhetoric and the more flexible forms of early classicism, commonly placed among his violin‑and‑keyboard sonatas in his catalogue.

Formation

Violin and piano · 2 performers

Required forces
Violin 1 performers
Piano 1 performers
Playable parts
Violin Piano
MusicCoach difficulty
61/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 53–68/100
Confidence : 42% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6 to 7

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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Difficulty sources
MusicCoach expertise
55
55/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
80%
Among Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
87%
Era Classical
48%
Genre
Estimated skills
Theory
Harmonic analysis
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Technique
Bow legato
1
Tone
Vibrato
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
2
Style
Classical style
2
Tone
Touch control
1
Technique
Legato
1
Ornaments
Romantic ornaments
1
Technique
Fast passages
1
Technique
General technique
2
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