Lesson 58: Major Work Study, Part 2 — The Slow Movement

• Keep the third movement’s held notes connected.
• Shape its final cadence with a controlled release.

A held note still has somewhere to go.

A suspension is a held note that creates tension before settling; count three half-note beats per bar and keep tied notes connected.

The complete sonata is transposed down a perfect fourth to E minor.

Your alto staff keeps the original A minor and pitches.

Published: Jean Baptiste Loeillet of Ghent, Op. 1 No. 1; Hans-Thomas Müller-Schmidt (2018), CC BY-SA 4.0. Solo line down P4; native alto restores A minor. Continuo and phrase slurs omitted; beaming normalised.

Play: Loeillet, Op.1 No.1 — third Adagio

Tap the half-note beat, sing the phrase, then play without retonguing ties.

Cadence — source bars 40–42

The dotted-half D-sharp resolves to E; sustain the final dotted whole E evenly.

The dotted-half G-sharp resolves to A; sustain the final dotted whole A evenly.

Breath planning

Keep the tie from bar 40 into 41 connected; find a breath before the tied phrase.

Practice plan

First

Play the opening and cadence with an even half-note pulse.

Next

Connect the intervening phrases in the complete movement.

Then

Record the complete Adagio and listen for clear resolutions.

Now play these

Loeillet of Ghent: Sonata in A minor, Op.1 No.1 — complete solo part

Use the complete third Adagio.

Handel: HWV362 — complete Larghetto and Adagio

Compare their suspended lines.

When the complete Adagio keeps its pulse through every suspension and cadence, move on to Lesson 59.