Scarlatti and His Contributions

Domenico Scarlatti: His Unique Contribution to Keyboard Literature
Author(s): Kathleen Dale

Source: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 74th Sess. (1947 - 1948), pp. 33-44
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association
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16 MARCH, I948.
FRANK HOWES, Esq., M.A.,

PRESIDENT,
IN THE CHAIR.
DOMENICO SCARLATTI: HIS UNIQUE

CONTRIBUTION TO KEYBOARD LITERATURE.
BY KATHLEEN DALE.
WHEN I chose the title of this paper, not without difficulty,

some months ago, I had in mind only the unique nature of
Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard compositions themselves, for
my approach to this composer had always been musical
rather than bibliographical or historical. I am, indeed, no
bibliographer or historian, but merely a practical musician
whose only qualification to speak on Scarlatti's works is that
of having long known them fairly intimately with my fingers.
I have played each one of the 550 Scarlatti pieces I possess
several times, and a great many of them countless times,
though never upon the type of instrument for which they
were designed. To my infinite regret I am not a harp-
sichordist, but in playing my Scarlatti illustrations on the
piano I am fortified by a remark made by our President at
the first meeting of the Session, to the effect that in per-
forming early music upon modern instruments, musicians
were interpreting it as a living art.
In attempting to view my subject from a musicological
standpoint I discovered, to my increasing surprise and
pleasure, that it is not only the whole collection of Scarlatti's
keyboard works which is itself unique in scope and character,
but that almost every circumstance connected with its com-
position and transmission is unique in some essential par-
ticular. The composer himself is unique in several respects.
Firstly, in that he is commonly thought of as a superb
performer upon, and teacher of, the harpsichord, who
composed nothing but a multitude of pieces of one type for
his own instrument; whereas, in point of fact, his musical
activities up to the age of thirty-six also included those of a
choirmaster and an opera-composer, in which capacities he
wrote a host of works for the church and the theatre which
are now known only to the musical historian. Secondly, he
is probably the only composer of real significance who can
34 Domenico Scarlatti
claim a musical status of equal historical imp

that of his own father, though in an entirely d
of composition; and the two Scarlattis ar
among illustrious fathers and sons in being
world at large by only a fraction of their im
tion. Thirdly, Domenico is alone in having
most important part of his work during volu
a country upon whose music the influence
land was already so strong that it is difficult
indigenous from the foreign elements in hi
Fourthly, he is, I believe, the only well-kno
whose place of death was not definitely esta
recently, after having for long been wro
Fifthly, he is unique among prolific compos
published only one set of pieces during his l
this without any indication as to the place
publication, or the chronology of the individ
in an edition of princely splendour such a
mystery of its origin. Last, and most unique
circumstance that he left not one single aut
vast collection of keyboard works, and th
majority of them have become known onl
manuscript copies which were made by hi
admirers during and after his lifetime, and w
widely dispersed, though safely preserved in
of several European cities.
In searching for all the available literature u
so that I might avoid duplicating anything al
I encountered yet another aspect of Scarlatti
Although a fair number of his compositions hav
and appreciated without intermission in this
his own day when few of his pieces were
to-day when almost the entire corpus of his k
has become available in Longo's monumental
is only one book about him in the English la
altogether unique in character in that it is
distinguished author who is not a musicolo
trained musician; that it is designedly as f
speculative as it is historically informative,
joy to the Scarlatti enthusiast despite its com
enlightenment upon the subject of the manu
less to say, the book in question is Mr. Sache
A Background for Domenico Scarlatti.
But while there is no full-length critical
composer in English, as there are in both Italia
there are a number of shorter studies by
Domenico Scarlatti 35
musicologists scattered throughout the pages
musical journals. These studies jointly comp
known biographical details of Scarlatti's career ;
amount of valuable analysis of his style and a su
of his position in musical history, as well as some
information on the editions of his works. If th
gathered together into one volume they would
English student of Scarlatti with nearly all the
could wish for, and they would be easily acce
is, they must be sought individually and with d
sistence. None is mentioned in the Supplenienta
of the current edition of Grove's Dictionary
Professor Dent's comprehensive review of
Edition in 90o6, nor his shorter but highly co
centenary article on the composer in 1935, b
Monthly Musical Record. Neither is there any r
Mr. Philip Radcliffe's long critical essay, inclu
Heritage of Music in 1934, nor to Mr. Eric Bl
inating review, in Music and Letters, of the mo
the Italian musicologist, Dr. Cesare Valabreg
Such is the unco-ordinated state of Scarlattian studies in
English that I learned of the existence of Professor Dent's
review of Longo's Edition, printed forty-two years ago,
and his centenary article only by seeing them referred to in
foreign publications. In addition to these general studies
there are two on special aspects: one published in The
Listener last year by Mr. Lionel Salter on Scarlatti's so-
called Violin Sonatas, a subject to which I shall refer later ;
and the other, published in Music and Letters in 1939,
entitled " The English Cult of Domenico Scarlatti," by
Mr. Richard Newton, himself the editor of four Scarlatti
harpsichord sonatas which had never been published in any
country until he issued them in i940.
The last-named article includes a survey of the English
editions of Scarlatti between 1739 and S8oo, and of the few
manuscript copies of the sonatas in London and Cambridge,
but except in one or two instances, it does not give the
Longo numbering of the sonatas mentioned therein. It
therefore exercises a stimulating function in enticing the
musician to investigate these fascinating early editions and
manuscripts for himself, and so to identify the sonatas,
over a hundred in number, by which the composer gradually
built up his reputation in this country.
In examining the most important Scarlatti manuscript at
the British Museum, a volume of Spanish origin containing
forty-four sonatas, the pianist will note with pleasure the
copyist's practice of marking the cross-h

spicuously in red ink so that he has timely
perilous leaps. In comparing early and
may observe sundry discrepancies in t
For instance, a certain sonata in D minor
Allegro in Scarlatti's own original edition
Presto in an eighteenth-century French e
slowed down to Allegretto in Tausig's
cription universally known as Pastorale in
Among the Cambridge Scarlatti manuscr
Fitzwilliam collected in Spain and bequeath
now bearing his name, are two sonatas wh
in any other collection of Scarlatti manu
occupy this unique position, and as they
a style which, though unmistakably S
especially typical of Domenico at his best
perhaps you may like to hear them. By a c
the first has a somewhat English flavour,
passages which resemble the chiming o
recall pieces by Giles Farnaby.
Examples: Sonatas No. 369 and No. 34
The various writings I have already enum

with the few others mentioned by Mr. Sitwell, are my
despair, for they almost completely exhaust the subject of
Scarlatti's keyboard music, its origins, style, infiltration by
Spanish elements and its influence upon later composers.
They leave me little fresh to say. All I can hope to do is
to fill in one or two gaps in the available native literature,
first by drawing upon foreign sources for a few unfamiliar
facts, and then by adding some observations made from
my own study of Scarlatti's works as music for playing.
Upon the extent and the location of the main body of
the manuscripts, British musicologists have maintained an
almost unbroken silence, but a German monograph supplies
the most explicit details. Walter Gerstenberg's Die Klavier
Kompositionen Domenico Scarlattis, a critical study pub-
lished in 1933 but now, alas, completely unobtainable, is
mentioned by title in the Supplementary volume of Grove,
but I have nowhere seen it named or its contents referred
to by writers in this country. Here, at last, one may learn
the history and the hiding-places of these ultimate sources
of the 545 sonatas now safely bestowed in Longo's Edition,
and of a few others not included therein. These precious
documents, the great majority of which exist in either
duplicate, triplicate or quadruplicate in fo

tions, are domiciled respectively in St. M
Venice; the Palatine Library at Parma; th
Library at Muinster, and the Library of the
der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Dr. Gersten
complete list of all the I6I6 manuscripts, show
relationship of the individual collections, and
corresponding numbering of both the Longo
Editions. Longo prints the 545 sonatas w
indifference to any known chronological ord
omits the dates of the manuscript sources, G
catalogue is a unique record of the princ
evidence relating to the order in which th
composed. Nevertheless, the order cannot
established, for there are discrepancies in da
the various manuscripts, copies of the same
times appearing in volumes bearing differen
one type of external evidence seems to be tole
the compass of the instrument for which th
composed. Professor Dent has pointed out th
of composition of a sonata can sometimes be
the modification of the second-subject by
compass. Some of the sonatas go right up
treble although the normal compass exten
and it is thought that movements of this ki
been intended for performance on the harp
especially for Domenico's patroness, the Q
and that they belong to his later period. T
possible methods of dating the sonatas on int
but these I have neither time nor ability to
The Gerstenberg catalogue incidentally clea
of some interest to the general musical histo
as the list of manuscripts preserved in Vie
a complete schedule of the 308 sonatas w
collected throughout his life and beque
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde at his death.
of Scarlatti's style upon that of Brahms has
by most of the former's critics, but any dire
them as to exactly which of the sonatas Brah
which of their particular attributes might h
his style, has not come to my knowledge. I
reference to the subject in the correspon
Brahms and Clara Schumann. Brahms wro
he enjoyed playing some, but not all Scarlatt
that he had just acquired a good volume
reflected on the great difference between th
old possession " as he termed it, and the

of his own day. Brahms was only twenty-th
so he must have begun his collection whe
young enough to assimilate features of S
Among the many Scarlatti sonatas which
tinctly Brahmsian tinge and of which Br
the manuscripts, I have chosen one to play
tion of several stylistic features which he la
in his own compositions-not impossibly
having studied the manuscripts in question
include the characteristic interval of a rising
in the melodic line, which is itseif sinuous in the true
Brahmsian manner; quiet phrases in octave unison, dis-
placed accentuation, low, repeated bass-notes, and passages
in thirds and sixths.
Example: Sonata No. 438 [Longo].
Another point of minor historical interest mentioned by

Gerstenberg concerns the Clementi Edition of twelve
sonatas published in London and entitled Scarlatti's Chef
d'Oeuvres. Clementi had previously published this collec-
tion in Paris in 1791, passing it off as his own Opus 27
under the title of Twelve Sonatas composed in the style of the
celebrated Scarlatti. Surely, a unique interpretation of the
word " style " !
Clementi subsequently admitted his defalcation, but even
so, his edition is of little value, for two of the sonatas are
transposed from their original keys ; another is by Antonio
Soler, and yet another is composed in a style which precludes
its having been written by Scarlatti at all. Unfortunately,
Czerny perpetuated these editorial inaccuracies in the
edition of 200 Scarlatti sonatas which he published in
Vienna in monthly parts in 1839. He made matters slightly
worse by additions, subtractions, and alterations to several
other sonatas, and by inadvertently including three pieces
by Alessandro Scarlatti. This now antiquated edition does,
however, include a fugue of Domenico's which Longo
omits, although it is authenticated by two manuscripts.
Like Clementi, Czerny tried his hand, more effectively, at
writing " in the style of D. Scarlatti," the result being an
Etude which he printed, with due acknowledgment, in his
own Nouveau Gradus ad Parnassum, opus 822. The piece
is a brilliant counterfeit of a typical Scarlatti sonata, and is
of interest in showing how curiously inappropriate Scarlatti's
individual type of musical structure can sound when imitated
exactly by a much later composer. On the ot

harpsichord sonatas by Domenico's Spanish c
and disciple, Antonio Soler, resemble his ow
in spirit, and in their exploitation of many o
keyboard devices Domenico used with such t
Nevertheless, Soler's sonatas, twenty-seven o
published in London in about 1794, seem t
he had a heavier hand on the harpsichord
sense of modulation was considerably les
Domenico's.
We are accustomed to thinking of Domenico as the
morning-star of keyboard virtuosity, and to regarding the
corruscating brilliance of his style as unique of its period.
But keyboard virtuosity was in the air, so to speak, before
he was born, and it was already flourishing during his
impressionable years. It was cultivated in his own home,
where his father, Alessandro, composed long and elaborate
toccatas and sets of variations for the harpsichord, and was
sufficiently interested in performing-technique to devise a
new system of fingering for his pupils. Alessandro's much
older contemporary and acquaintance, Bernardo Pasquini,
who according to Valabrega, was the first of the Italians to
write distinctively for the harpsichord as opposed to the
organ, had composed his highly virtuosic piece, Toccata con lo
Scherzo del Cuccd when Domenico was a boy of thirteen.
From this composer, Domenico may have derived his
practice of beginning pieces with a single-line passage first
in one hand and then in the other. Here is the opening of
a Toccata by Pasquini.
Example
and here is the same idea transfigured by Scarlatti in a

sonata from his Original Edition.
Example: Opening bars from Sonata No. 461 [Longo].
Another of Domenico's predecessors, Alessandro Poglietti,

had published in the 1670's two long sets of variations
which reveal a highly developed and vivid keyboard style,
and Bernardino della Ciaja's Six Sonatas, which were printed
in 1727 before Domenico had issued his own volume of
sonatas, contain exacting passages in sixths and octaves in
contrary motion, as well as the kind of wide leaps usually
associated with our composer. An example of the last-
named device occurs in della Ciaja's Second Sonata.
Example.
Domenico's contemporary, Benedetto Marcello wrote

sonatas and toccatas which abound in elaborate keyboard
figuration, but they do not, as whole pieces, move with
the consummate ease and grace of Scarlatti's. Indeed, the
keyboard works of the composers just named have survived
chiefly on account of their historical interest. The Scarlatti
sonatas, however, flourish by reason of their intrinsically
delightful musical qualities. Who would give a thought
to " historical interest " when confronted with the following
example of Domenico's quicksilvery style ?
Example: Sonata No. 314 [Longo].
That sonata is perhaps an extreme example of Scarlatti's

capacity for demonstrating the more volatile characteristics
of the keyboard. The very antithesis of this type is
exemplified by the not inconsiderable number of sonatas
he wrote in polyphonic style. In his choral works, Scarlatti
revealed himself as a strict contrapuntist of no mean order.
His Stabat Mater for ten voices and organ, which was
revived and performed at Sienna in 1940, elicited at the
time from Alfredo Casella the opinion that in contrapuntal
skill Domenico yielded nothing to J. S. Bach. In the
sonatas, however, he subordinated considerations of pure
part-writing to those of effective keyboard texture, with
what delightful results may be noted in the following
sonata :
Example : Sonata No. 382 [Longo].
Scarlatti's music is unique in the problem it presents

performer and listener alike. The sonatas are, in the m
so brief and so exquisitely precise and concentrated that
hear a long succession of them would be like sitting do
to a banquet consisting exclusively of hors d'oeuvres. Exc
when planning the kind of programme occasionally nee
for musico-historical purposes, recitalists are incline
choose the more animated sonatas, which can be played
breakneck speed, and which are as electrifying to
listener as they are intoxicating to the performer. Thu
Scarlatti is known chiefly by the scintillance and preci
of his passage-writing, while a minimum of attentio
drawn to the great variety in formal structure and sty
which distinguishes his production. Yet it should be poss
to build a programme of moderate length wh
exhibit his diversity without producing an
monotony.
Among the many different types of piece he
some bear distinctive generic titles such as Aria
Tocc:ita and Pastorale. Of the hundreds know
criminately as Sonatas, a few display the attribut
some are single movements in the old dance-for
others are miniature suites comprising several s
ments, either detached or continuous. The suites
the eight sonatas with figured bass, from the ear
of the Venetian Codex, which experts consider we
for violin and harpsichord. They have been p
such, and in this guise they sound incompar
effective and convincing than they do as harpsi
Yet Gerstenberg did not accept this interpretatio
out that six sonatas of the same kind appe
eighteenth-century Paris edition of Scarlatti
designated specifically for the harpsichord. G
reprinted them as a supplement to his monograp
are no longer accessible to the musician in this c
In addition to the so-called " Cat's Fugue" whose
legendary title was first accorded the sanction of print in
Clementi's Practical Harmony, Domenico wrote four fugues,
one of which (L. 462) is unique in being extended to twice
its length by a single florid variation. Taking into con-
sideration Scarlatti's inexhaustible fertility in inventing
keyboard devices, it is remarkable that he should have
shown so little interest in the composition of variations.
Possibly the static character of variation-form did not appeal
to his mercurial temperament. He wrote only one self-
contained set (L. 136), comprising thirteen variations
which in point of style are hardly distinguishable from those
of Handel or Rameau. Moreover, he seldom introduced
more than a faint trace of variation-technique into any of
his pieces, but was content with literal repeats of whole
sections. Indeed, repetition is an essential ingredient in the
Scarlatti sonata. Figures and phrases may occur in
unexpected keys or places, but they seldom undergo any
organic development.
It is a curious fact that Scarlatti's compositions in the
several categories just enumerated do not represent him at
his most distinctive. They might be the work of almost
any early eighteenth-century composer, as may be observed,
for instance, in the following matter-of-fact little ritornello-
rondo, with its conventional sequences and stereotyped
figures: one of his very few single movemen

partite form. It is difficult to recognise it
Example : No. i66 [Longo].
The typical Scarlatti sonata, such as the qui

major I played earlier, is a thing apart. Su
characteristics, Tovey writes: " It consists of
binary form; a perfunctory opening, a crow
ideas in a complementary key, and after
reproducing these ideas as soon as possible
The accuracy of this statement cannot be dis
applies to only a portion of Scarlatti's produ
subjected his own distinctive variety of bi
infinite modifications. It is a genus, with sp
species so numerous as to preclude the pos
describing or illustrating more than an infini
proportion of them. Of the five sonatas the
for me to play, some are chosen to exemp
structural interest, and others, facets of Do
board style.
The first example owes its unusual length and structural
rarity, firstly, to the insertion of a counter-statement, in the
key of the supertonic, of the whole of the principal subject,
though the two statements are separated from each other
by an episode of seventeen bars; and secondly, to the
rearrangement of the thematic units in different order
after the double-bar-the latter a method of procedure
which anticipates one of Mozart's. The progress of this
sonata is chequered by recurrent dramatic pauses; a
feature of Scarlatti's style which may be an outcome of his
experience as a composer of music for the theatre.
Example: No. 324 [Longo].
In contrast to this longish piece, with its comparatively

large number of thematic ideas, its successor is very short
and is almost monothematic. Every one of its few phrases
opens with the same dotted figure, but though each phrase
continues differently either melodically or harmonically,
the style remains homogeneous. The piece is deeply
expressive, despite its sparse texture, and seems to pre-
figure the contemplative slow-movements of some of
Haydn's sonatas, especially that of the C minor, from which
I will quote one phrase before playing the Scarlatti.
The next example is one of the very few sona
has a self-contained introduction. In this in
introduction is unique in being divided into
sections alternatively in triple and common
first and second sections merely simulate the im
of a guitar-player a he tunes his instrument
however, turns out to be part of the second-su
sonata in advance, and the fourth announces the dotted
figure which is to become a characteristic feature of the
tiny development-section. Strangely enough, the sonata
was printed in both Czerny's and Pauer's Editions without
this intriguing prelude.
The sonata which now follows displays a less familiar
aspect of Scarlatti's art. In the Parma manuscript, this
guileless little two-part invention is marked for performance
on a chamber organ with two keyboards, and the move-
ment itself shows few traces of the composer's typical
harpsichord style. The exceptionally simple thematic
substance is presented in unwontedly ingenuous fashion
in an unbroken series of echoing phrases alternating between
high and low pitch. Seldom does Scarlatti appear so utterly
unsophisticated.
Example: Supplement, No. 27 [Longo].
Scarlatti was famous for his prowess in extemporising
upon the harpsichord. There are passages in many of his
sonatas, generally during the middle sections, which convey
the impression that the composer was transported by the
sheer beauty of the sounds he could conjure up from his
instrument. In the following sonata, these improvisatory
passages are not confined to the central episode : each section
of the piece is extended by a passage of undulating quavers
hovering ecstatically above a shifting foundation of entrancing
harmonies. The visionary quality of these interpolations
is emphasised by the prosaic character of the surrounding
paragraphs of scales and arpeggios. For me, this is
Scarlatti's most unique sonata, and I have therefore chosen
it as my final illustration, and as the coda to this paper.
Example : No. 124 [Longo].

All the illustrations were played by the Lecturer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Blom, E., Review of " I1 Clavicembalista Domenico

and Letters, Vol. XVIII, No. 4. October, 1937.
Dent, E. J., "A New Edition of Domenico Scarlatti "
Edition), Monthly Musical Record. September a
" Domenico Scarlatti," Monthly Musical Record
" New Light on the Scarlatti Family," Musical T
1926.
Gerstenberg, W., Die Klavierkompositionen Domenico Scarlattis.
Ratisbon, 1933.
Newton, R., "The English Cult of Domenico Scarlatti," Music and
Letters, Vol. XX, No. 2. April, 1939.
Radcliffe, P., " The Scarlattis ": essays on Alessandro and Domenico
in The
Salter, L., Heritage
"Scarlatti'sofViolin
Music, Vol. II.Listener.
Sonatas," 1934. July 17th, 1947.
" Gli Scarlatti : Note e documenti sulla vita e sulle opere," Accademia
Musicale Chigiana. Sienna, 1940.
Sitwell, S., A Background for Domenico Scarlatti. London, 1935.
Valabrega, C., II1 Clavicembalista Domenico Scarlatti : i sua secolo, la
sua opera. Modena, 1937.

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Domenico Scarlatti: His Unique Contribution to Keyboard Literature

Author(s): Kathleen Dale

FRANK HOWES, Esq., M.A.,

DOMENICO SCARLATTI: HIS UNIQUE

WHEN I chose the title of this paper, not without difficulty,

claim a musical status of equal historical imp

copyist's practice of marking the cross-h

Examples: Sonatas No. 369 and No. 34

The various writings I have already enum

duplicate, triplicate or quadruplicate in fo

old possession " as he termed it, and the

Example: Sonata No. 438 [Longo].

Another point of minor historical interest mentioned by

exactly by a much later composer. On the ot

and here is the same idea transfigured by Scarlatti in a

Example: Opening bars from Sonata No. 461 [Longo].

Another of Domenico's predecessors, Alessandro Poglietti,

Domenico's contemporary, Benedetto Marcello wrote

Example: Sonata No. 314 [Longo].

That sonata is perhaps an extreme example of Scarlatti's

Example : Sonata No. 382 [Longo].

Scarlatti's music is unique in the problem it presents

figures: one of his very few single movemen

Example : No. i66 [Longo].

The typical Scarlatti sonata, such as the qui

Example: No. 324 [Longo].

In contrast to this longish piece, with its comparatively

Example : No. 124 [Longo].

Blom, E., Review of " I1 Clavicembalista Domenico

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