Locatelli Minuet with Variations

The 21 Variations for fortepiano based on the theme of a Minuet by Pietro Antonio Locatelli were composed in Frankfurt by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in 1735. The Minuet in question first appeared as the third movement of the tenth Sonata of Op. 2, XII Sonate à Flauto Traversiere Solo è Basso, published in Amsterdam in 1732, at the composer’s expense. The original users of the Sonatas Op. 2 accorded the highest approval to the Minuet with Variations from Sonata No. 10. This dance was so favoured that it was even finely chiselled on a scagliola surface (later used as a coffee table) made for Prince Johann Friedrich von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt around the middle of the 18th century — these are the notes of the third Variation. And further confirmation of the notoriety achieved comes from the 21 Variations on the Minuet theme elaborated by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach only two years after the release of Op. 2 and the subject of the present edition.