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Sonata in C, K. 545 - Piano Sheet Music (First Theme, Bars 1-12)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) 1788 C major 4/4 Intermediate 0:24 Both hands

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Mozart's Sonata in C, K. 545, is the sonata almost every piano student meets. This page gives you the whole first theme, bars 1 to 12, with both hands as printed in a Breitkopf & Härtel edition; only the trill in bar 4 is left out. It has three parts: a singing melody over the Alberti bass, the broken-chord pattern in the left hand; four bars of quick scales, each starting one step lower; and a short climb that lands in G major. Every note is a white key except a C sharp in bar 9 and an F sharp in bar 10. Press Listen once, then learn it in Practice mode: the left hand of bars 1-4 alone first, then the scales slowly, and raise the tempo step by step.

How to play it

How to play Sonata in C, K. 545 on the piano

Right hand

Bars 1-4: a broken C major chord, C (two beats), E and G, then B with a quick C-D and C; bar 3 jumps to A and G and a high C, and bar 4 comes down through G, F and a quick E-F to E. Bars 5-8 are sixteenth-note scales: bar 5 starts on the A below the treble staff's middle line, runs up to the A an octave higher and back down; bars 6, 7 and 8 do the same from G, F and E. Bar 9 climbs from D with a C sharp, bar 10 turns around the high C, bar 11 is eighth notes B G E C, D G E C, and bar 12 ends on a G major chord and a low G.

Left hand

Bars 1-4, the Alberti bass, eighth notes starting on middle C: lowest, highest, middle, highest - C G E G, D G F G, C A F A, B G D G, always back to C G E G in the second half of the bar. In bars 5-8 the left hand plays only on beats 1 and 4 while the right hand runs: F, then F-C; E-C twice; D-C, then D-B; C-C, then C-E. Bar 9 holds F-A, bar 10 walks F, G, A, F sharp, bar 11 is broken chords in sixteenths, G B D G and G C E G, and bar 12 is G, G, G.

Tricky passages

The scales in bars 5-8. They are sixteenth notes, four to a beat, and every bar starts with an eighth note followed by two sixteenths. Loop bar 5 at 50 % until the thumb passes under without a bump, then bars 6-8 follow with the same fingering. In bar 11 the left hand gets the sixteenths: keep them light so the right hand's eighth notes stay on top.

Fingering

Right hand: bar 1 C E G with 1-3-5; bar 2 B C D C with 1-2-3-2; bar 3 A G C with 4-3-5; bar 4 G F E F E with 3-2-1-2-1. Scales (bars 5-8): 1-2-3, thumb under on the fourth note, 1-2-3-4-5 to the top, then 4-3-2-1, cross 3 over the thumb and finish 3-2-1. Left hand in bars 1-4: C G E G with 5-1-3-1, D G F G with 4-1-2-1, C A F A with 5-1-2-1, B G D G with 5-1-3-1.

Notes

Sonata in C, K. 545 piano notes

The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.

Melody: C E G B C D C A G C G F E F E A B C D E F G A G …

BarNotesDo Ré Mi
1 C E G Do Mi Sol
2 B C D C Si Do Ré Do
3 A G C La Sol Do
4 G F E F E Sol Fa Mi Fa Mi
5 A B C D E F G A G F E D C B A La Si Do Ré Mi Fa Sol La Sol Fa Mi Ré Do Si La
6 G A B C D E F G F E D C B A G Sol La Si Do Ré Mi Fa Sol Fa Mi Ré Do Si La Sol
7 F G A B C D E F E D C B A G F Fa Sol La Si Do Ré Mi Fa Mi Ré Do Si La Sol Fa
8 E F G A B C D E D C B A G F E Mi Fa Sol La Si Do Ré Mi Ré Do Si La Sol Fa Mi
9 D E F G A B C# D A B C# D E F G Ré Mi Fa Sol La Si Do# Ré La Si Do# Ré Mi Fa Sol
10 A B C B A G F E F G A G F E D C La Si Do Si La Sol Fa Mi Fa Sol La Sol Fa Mi Ré Do
11 B G E C D G E C Si Sol Mi Do Ré Sol Mi Do
12 D G G Ré Sol Sol
About the piece

About Sonata in C, K. 545

Mozart entered this sonata in his own catalogue of works on 26 June 1788, describing it as a little keyboard sonata for beginners - 'für Anfänger'. That is why it is often called the Sonata facile, the easy sonata, although Mozart never used that name. It was published only after his death.

'Easy' is relative. The first movement is a complete sonata form in miniature: the theme on this page, a second theme in G major, a short development and a return. One detail surprised listeners of the time: when the theme comes back, it is in F major rather than C, and the music only finds its way home afterwards.

This transcription follows the Breitkopf & Härtel edition of Mozart's sonatas and fantasias edited by Ernst Rudorff, where the sonata is headed 'Componirt Juni 1788 in Wien'. In that edition the left hand of bars 1-4 is written in the treble clef; here it stays in the bass clef, at the same pitch, so you will see ledger lines above the staff.

This transcription: Mozart, Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545 (1788), first movement, bars 1-12, both hands as printed (trill in bar 4 left out): Sonaten und Phantasien für Clavier, vol. 2, ed. Ernst Rudorff (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, Urtext series, plate A.A. 11-21), Sonate Nr. 15, p. 66 - archive.org sonatenundphanta12moza, page n199. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.

A classical grand piano in a bright 18th-century music room by a window with sheer curtains and a flower vase
Sonata in C, K. 545, as imagined by GOONS Studio (AI illustration)
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Questions

Sonata in C, K. 545 on piano: frequently asked

What are the notes of Sonata in C, K. 545 on piano?

Right hand: C E G, B C D C, A G C, G F E F E - in Do Ré Mi, Do Mi Sol, Si Do Ré Do, La Sol Do, Sol Fa Mi Fa Mi. The left hand plays the Alberti bass, starting C G E G (Do Sol Mi Sol). Every bar is in the Notes section.

Why is it called the Sonata facile?

Mozart listed it in his catalogue in 1788 as a little sonata for beginners, and it later became known as the Sonata facile, the easy sonata. Mozart himself never used that title.

What is an Alberti bass?

A left-hand pattern that breaks a chord into the order lowest-highest-middle-highest, as in C G E G. It is named after the Italian composer Domenico Alberti, who used it constantly, and it is everywhere in Mozart and Haydn.

Is Mozart's K. 545 hard to play?

These twelve bars are level 3 of 5. Bars 1-4 are within reach of a beginner; the sixteenth-note scales of bars 5-8 are what take practice, because they have to be even at a lively tempo. The rest of the movement adds more scales and broken chords of the same kind.