# Manuel Blasco de Nebra's Keyboard Sonatas



## classicalmusicfan (May 6, 2009)

*Manuel Blasco de Nebra
Complete Keyboard Sonatas*








Manuel Blasco de Nebra wrote some 170 works of which only 26 keyboard sonatas and six pastorellas are known today. This disc features his earliest known pieces, six sonatas from the Osuna Encarnación Monastery manuscript, with two from manuscripts preserved in the Santa Clara Convent and five from the Montserrat Abbey Archive, through which may be traced the development of the sonata from simple beginnings to more modern, fully-fledged forms.

Blasco de Nebra's keyboard sonatas can be divided into three periods, according to their degree of thematic and structural complexity. All sonatas include two main themes, and among them we find both the older kind of sonata form (Exposition-Recapitulation) and the more modern (Exposition-Development- Recapitulation). The minor-key sonatas are of particular interest, with their interplay between modality and tonality.

Check out the complimentary track from this album (good for seven days) - *Keyboard Sonata No. 109 in A minor*


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## Mr Dull (Mar 14, 2009)

I Found out about Blasco De Nebra a while ago from a CD called the Spanish Harpsichord.
There were two pieces sonatas 5 and 6 which I really liked. They are good lively music at times quite dance like. I then found a CD by Carole Cerasi which had three Pastorellas and six sonatas played on harpsichord or forte piano. Again several wonderful pieces. 
I was excited when I saw the Naxos CD as it is the start of a series of recordings of all of De Nebra's music. Unfortunately it is on piano (I prefer harpsichord) but even so the music shines through. The Sonata 107 on this CD is very interesting and enjoyable.
Blasco De Nebra should be much better known as his music is very lively and seems to me as if it has been influenced by dance music so it has a very distinctive sound. I look forward to hearing more of his music.
Note for those of you like me who were wondering what pastorella's are it is a piece of music in the style of music produced by shepherds usually in 6/8 time but it can also be in 3/8 or 12/8.


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