One aspect of music which I enjoy is the thrill of discovering a truly great piece of music that exceeds the expectations of what I thought my enjoyment of that music would be. Sometimes I just stumble upon such music out of happenstance, other times I may be exposed to it by someone else, and other times I may buy a CD for a couple of songs then find that other songs on the CD are actually better than the ones that originally motivated me to buy the CD. It is the equivalent of mining for silver and discovering gold.

Music written before the year 1750 is filled with these types of “gems” (the term I refer to them as). Through the course of listening to the music of the Baroque, Renaissance, and Middle Ages, I have discovered a number of truly special works of music that are not usually considered among the great works of all time (or even their own time) and you generally won’t find them on any “best of” lists and probably not on any consensus “what to listen to” lists of music from these periods. But each really stands out in my mind as music I am thrilled to have discovered.

Sometimes it is difficult to separate the performance from the composition as to what makes these works special, and in some cases I know a specific performance is what separates the music as standing out because I may have heard other performances and was not as impressed. Others works stand out no matter who performs them.

I plan on presenting over the course of several blog posts my list of, and thoughts about, works that I consider to be Baroque and Early Music gems. I don’t intend to present a detailed analysis of any of the works mentioned, but rather just a brief overview of my thoughts about the work. To start off, here is one of my favorite works for any keyboard instrument:

Sonata in D major K 491 by Domenico Scarlatti

This sonata is the piece of music that sparked my love of the harpsichord. The plucked strings of the instrument play the melody beautifully and the contrast of the outburst of some rather harsh chords make for a truly special piece of music. I’ve heard this sonata played on the piano and it’s brilliance still shines through, but the strength of the piece is in showcasing the beauty of the harpsichord. Trevor Pinnock performs my favorite version of this sonata.