Scarlatti admirer Sacheverell Sitwell arranged Scarlatti's sonatas in groups according to style and mood. Thus, there are categories, for example, such as military sonatas, tarantellas, and non-Spanish dances. He classed this D major effort as one of the so-called Neapolitan sonatas. Naples, of course, was the birthplace of Scarlatti, but its music had a recognizable sound, often a songful character, too, and distinctive stylistic features such as the shifting of thirds from major to minor. These and other typical Neapolitan elements often appear in certain of his keyboard sonatas. This D major effort is marked Aria and offers a somber, slow theme that evolves from barren sonorities to a larger sound as chords fatten and textures thicken. Still, the thematic character of the work is rather lean overall. Scarlatti develops his material near the midpoint and in the latter half turns it a bit darker, even mysterious, and more complex in its thematic workings. In the end, this sonata must be assessed as one of the composer's more subtle early efforts. It typically has a duration of five minutes.

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