Il secondo libro di toccate, canzone, versi d'hinni, Magnificat, gagliarde, correnti
Baroque Canzone Piano solo ~70 min
In brief

This music has a lively, contrapuntal bite where phrases answer each other with sudden articulations and rhythmic breaks that demand constant attention to the inner line. You will specifically face challenges with Ornements baroque (3.1/5) — you must execute trills, mordents and appoggiaturas with strict rhythmic placement using compact wrist and finger gestures to fit them into the tactus — and with Lecture clé de fa (3.1/5), since frequent bass lines require confident bass-clef reading, quick interval recognition and accurate left-hand placement. The piece belongs to the Baroque keyboard repertoire and is part of Frescobaldi’s output that contrasts free, improvisatory toccatas with more strictly polyphonic canzones, illustrating his blend of virtuosity and contrapuntal craft.

MusicCoach difficulty
63/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 51–75/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 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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Relative difficulty
56%
Among Girolamo Frescobaldi
73%
Era Baroque
50%
Genre
Estimated skills
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Theory
Harmonic analysis
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Tone
Touch control
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