0825646299454 Scarlatti: Complete Keyboard Sonatas
Contents · Sommaire
The Times obituary of Scott Ross
“Vivi felice”
Introduction to the sonatas
Notes on the sonatas
Glossary
Essential reading
Credits and acknowledgements
Hommage à Scott Ross
“Vivi felice”
Introduction aux sonates
Notes sur les sonates
Repères
Bibliographie de base
Générique
Scott Ross died on 13 June 1989, less than two years after these recordings
were first issued. The following obituary appeared in The Times on 17
June 1989.
1
1
Scott Ross: Master interpreter of the
3 harpsichord repertoire
4
Scott Ross, the American-born harpsichordist and, more rarely,
20 organist and pianist, died on 13 June of an Aids-related condition at
24 his home in Assas, Montpellier, France. He was thirty-eight.
24
Born in Pittsburgh, he came to live in France at the age of fourteen,
25 studied at the Conservatoires of Nice and Paris, and first rose to
25 prominence when he won the coveted Bruges International
Competition in 1971, setting such a standard in the opinion of the
26 judges that it was deemed impossible to make an equivalent
27 award until 1986. This success, coupled with the rising tide of
enthusiasm for Baroque music generally in the seventies, enabled
44 Ross to create for himself a career commensurate with his
47 considerable interpretative and technical gifts, though it was mainly
47 confined to France.
His image at that time, with his long unkempt mop of hair, his hippy
clothing and his small round spectacles, was more akin to that of
John Lennon than that of sober-suited harpsichordists of the Gustav
Leonhardt variety.
Many might have suspected Ross’s integrity on seeing him thus
attired, but in fact his playing was always marked by scholarship
(evinced also in the editions he made with Kenneth Gilbert of
Scarlatti and D’Anglebert), fastidiousness, elegance and, vitally for an
instrument still widely derided, an impression of rich sonorities.
Ross’s repertoire was vast and fortunately he has left us a significant
legacy on record. His recordings of the harpsichord music of
Rameau and François Couperin won a Grand Prix du Disque, and
in 1985, already aware of his medical condition, he embarked upon
what will surely forever stand as a landmark in the history of
recorded music, an account for the Erato label, in co-operation with
Radio France, of all 555 of Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas.
The desire to see the project through obviously had a beneficial
effect on his health, and he was extremely happy with the success it
achieved. Largely on account of that success, in 1988 he was named
Musical Personality of the Year by the Syndicat des Critiques
Français, but even then he refused to rest on his laurels.
Outside the realm of performance, Ross enjoyed teaching, which he
did both at Quebec University (from 1973 until 1985) and at his
regular summer academies in Venice. He also cultivated a
knowledge of instrument making techniques that extended far
beyond those applicable to the keyboard family. He had an outgoing
but unaffected personality and many, many devoted friends. He
loved especially his collection of orchids at his retreat in Assas. It was
only natural that he should have wanted to die among them.
“Vivi felice”
“Vivi felice.” Live happily. These are the final words of the preface
to the only collection of Scarlatti’s pieces for keyboard instrument
published during his lifetime.
The words express a warm and generous wish. They are more than
the mere encouragement of a master to a pupil; they are those of a
friend. The dedication comes as a surprise compared with others of
the epoch when the high and mighty were addressed by their
“humble and obedient servants” or when Johann Sebastian Bach
quite deliberately dedicated his work to the glory of God by means
of the three letters S.D.G. alongside his signature. Scarlatti’s
1
injunction has a ring to it which is as modern as the music to which
it serves as preface: simplicity and straightforwardness are the very
essence of his personality.
Scarlatti’s music is something of a tonic. It is free from complicated
overtones and theoretical dogma. It is designed to be played for
pleasure. Although it calls for a sound technique, it is always limpid.
Both the construction and the writing are bright and clear and there
is an abundance of rhythmic and thematic ideas. Above all, there is
charm and mastery displayed in the way the harmonies are developed.
Scarlatti’s corpus of keyboard works is also one of the most
voluminous and impressive in the history of music. To perform it in
toto takes no less than thirty-four hours. This is three times as long
as it would take to perform Couperin’s or Schumann’s music for
keyboard and twice as long as one would need for Beethoven. Only
Bach can equal it in scale — and even then it is necessary to include
what he wrote for organ as well as for other keyboard instruments.
The enormous edifice of Scarlatti’s keyboard music is made up
entirely of short pieces of only a few minutes’ length (the longest
lasts for only seven minutes and the shortest for two). There is
relatively little development of themes in Scarlatti’s writing, which
is made up essentially of the juxtaposition of swarms of melodic and
rhythmic ideas.
There is another curious feature to his work: virtually all the pieces
are written in the simplest of all possible forms, binary form. The
sonatas are made up of two roughly equal parts, each one intended
to be repeated. The first part ends in the dominant in most cases, the
second invariably ends in the tonic and the sequences leading to the
endings are comparable. Exceptions to this framework are rare.
Scarlatti, who poured out musical ideas in abundance, appears to
have had little interest in bringing new developments into the
musical forms of his time.
On the other hand, when it comes to rhythms and modulations, his
imagination is extraordinary. Not only did he adopt with excellent
effect features which were already in common use, but he brought
a breath of fresh air into contemporary musical practice by using
popular rhythms, remote keys and contrasts of tone colour and by
transforming the harpsichord into a sort of orchestra in itself. Almost
as though he was simply playing around and enjoying himself,
Scarlatti discovered modulations which were to be re-adopted only
much later. By means of acciaccaturas, he introduced notes which
were foreign to traditional harmony, creating some extraordinary
effects in the process. Finally, he was a master at surprising the
listener by totally unprepared modulations.
It is difficult to understand why the public should have had to wait
more than two hundred years to hear in its entirety this towering
achievement in the history of keyboard music. This is unfortunately
the fate shared by the bulk of the Baroque repertoire, which was
ill-served in the nineteenth century and more often than not is little
appreciated even today.
Thirty of Scarlatti’s sonatas were published in London during the
composer’s lifetime, but there was virtually no other
eighteenth-century edition of his music by French, English or Italian
publishers. There were a few anthologies and, here and there, some
transcriptions, but composers such as Thomas Roseingrave and
Charles Avison, although with the best intentions, saw fit to
complement the few sonatas with their own works, which did
nothing to further the cause of Scarlatti’s masterpieces.
There was to be little change in the nineteenth century. True, a
larger number of sonatas did get published, but the pianists who, one
way or another, were responsible for these editions — Czerny in
1839 or, later, Hans von Bülow, Busoni and Tausig — had no
scruples about bringing them “up-to-date”, adding expression marks
and even notes which in most cases changed the entire character of
the works they had set out to make known.
The first complete — or very nearly complete — edition dates from
1906. It was published by Ricordi in an edition prepared by the
2
Italian composer Alessandro Longo. This was the first time that
Scarlatti’s output could be seen in its true perspective and the edition
became the standard work of reference for fifty years. But even this
edition was not free from traces of somewhat off-hand treatment.
Longo, for instance, completely upset the order of the sonatas to be
found in the manuscripts by grouping them into suites, thereby
obliterating not only the feeling engendered by the different stages
of composition but also the pairing of the sonatas, an essential
element whose existence was to be brought to light once again by
Ralph Kirkpatrick’s research fifty years later. Longo, moreover,
following in the faulty footsteps of his forerunners, overloaded his
edition with arbitrary phrase marks and dynamics and the changes he
made, particularly in the harmonies, did little, in most cases, save
impoverish what Scarlatti had composed.
As might be expected, performances of the sonatas were on a par
with Longo’s edition. For years, with the notable exception of a few
brilliant interpretations headed by the recordings made by Wanda
Landowska and Vladimir Horowitz, Scarlatti’s sonatas were given a
poor airing. More often than not they served as appetisers at concerts
enabling late-comers to find their seats and allowing the performer
to warm up and to test audience reaction. The sonatas were also use
as studies. Marcel Proust mentions them in the following terms in
The Cities of the Plain: “… those confounded pieces which have so
often kept you awake when they have been played over and over
again by a merciless student on an adjacent floor”.
Scarlatti’s work, then, appeared in poor editions and it was generally
given poor performances. There are, however, other aspects of his
life and work which even today raise problems. For example, there
is not a single manuscript sonata extant in the composer’s own hand.
There are plenty of manuscript versions, of course, but these are
invariably the work of copyists. There are several roughly
comparable manuscripts, each bound in volumes bearing the arms of
the Spanish royal household. They are now in libraries in Venice
and Parma. But the autograph texts have yet to be discovered — if,
indeed, they ever existed. The authenticity, but above all, the
chronology of the sonatas must still remain open to argument.
There is another mystery, and it is to do with the circumstances in
which the sonatas were composed. It is generally thought that most
of them were written in Portugal and in Spain. Scarlatti was music
master to Princess Maria Barbara of Braganza, daughter of the King
of Portugal and later to become the Queen of Spain. But Scarlatti
could just as well have brought with him compositions written
during his brilliant career in Italy before he became an expatriate.
And then, what lay behind this apparently self-imposed exile? What
was the force which drove Scarlatti to leave his native country for
good at the age of fifty? For it meant abandoning his relations,
abandoning Italy, which was bursting with new musical ideas, and
abandoning a brilliant career as a composer of operas and as an
interpreter. We really do not know enough about him to be able to
answer these questions, but it would seem that the reasons for his
departure were psychological rather than financial. It seems certain
that his masterpieces, the sonatas, began to appear after his departure
from Italy. There is every reason to suppose that his “exile” was
enjoyable. His relationship with Maria Barbara was a model of
steadfastness and fidelity and he enjoyed the esteem of those around
him. He was given a knighthood and he raised a family. In spite of
all this, his life is almost completely undocumented. One of his
friends, the Italian singer Farinelli, was just about the only person to
provide contemporary evidence about him, and it was in any case
thanks to Farinelli that the bound copies of the sonatas finally found
their way to Italy after the queen’s death.
In the face of such enigmas there is one solution to which I am
attracted. Farinelli hinted that Scarlatti was an inveterate gambler.
Gambling means gambling debts. It is not too far-fetched to suppose
that the queen should demand that some of the superb
improvisations with which the composer delighted the court should
be set down in black and white in return for her paying off the debts
he had incurred in gambling. It was true, he was a genius. But that
did not prevent him from being idle and he might well have agreed
to such a deal only on condition that he should be allowed to dictate
his improvisations to the skilful copyists of the royal library. One can
go even further and see in this an explanation for the brevity of his
compositions: he was out to keep things as short as possible. Such an
explanation is no better or worse than any other, but it really does
seem, particularly in the case of the later sonatas, that they came in
bursts and that they were quite simply written down under
dictation. All this can only increase the admiration one feels for
Scarlatti, whose brilliance as a performer was matched by his
consummate skill as an improviser. It should not be forgotten that
while he was still in Italy, he had come out on top in a friendly
improvisation contest with Handel.
Introduction to the sonatas
This recording keeps to the precise order in the catalogue drawn up
by Ralph Kirkpatrick at the beginning of the 1950s. The edition
used for the recording was the eleven-volume collection of the 555
sonatas published between 1971 and 1984 in the series Le Pupitre by
Heugel under the editorship of Kenneth Gilbert.
CDs 1 to 33 contain the sonatas from Kk 1 to Kk 555. The three
organ sonatas (Kk 287, Kk 288 and Kk 328) and the five suites with
figured basses (Kk 81, Kk 88, Kk 89, Kk 90 and Kk 91) appear on
CD 34.
Pairing
The idea that many of the sonatas had originally been arranged
pairwise was put forward by Gerstenberg in 1935. Ralph Kirkpatrick
revived the idea in the course of his own research.
The arbitrary layout of early editions of the sonatas ignored the fact
that in the Venice and Parma manuscripts about two-thirds of the
sonatas appear to form pairs or even, in some cases, sets of three.
Scarlatti himself did not state specifically that the sonatas were
intended to be paired, even though the practice was frequent
amongst contemporary Spanish composers. Some of the pairings
might well appear open to doubt. In other cases, however, there is
irrefutable proof that pairing was intended. For example, the
copyists of the Venice and Parma manuscripts wrote that there
should be a swift follow-on between what are now known in
Kirkpatrick’s catalogue as Kk 347 and Kk 348. They also wrote that
the sonatas Kk 516 and Kk 517 had been “copied in the opposite
order to that intended by the composer”.
There are other more refined proofs on the pairwise arrangement.
Take, for example, the change of key signature in Kk 527. The
copyists wrote out a key signature with three naturals. There can be
only one explanation for such a key signature, which would be
pointless unless it served to draw the attention of the player to a
change of tonality. In this pair of sonatas, the first is in C minor (three
flats) and the second is in C major. The placing of naturals on the
stave of the second sonata was quite deliberate. (On the other hand,
what is the explanation in the case of Kk 230 and Kk 231? The
pairing is of a similar type but the alteration of the key signature is
not brought to the performer’s attention.)
The pairing of the sonatas is primarily a question of tonality, as in
the relationship between the various movements of suites
throughout musical literature. Those of Scarlatti’s sonatas which,
from the manuscript sources, appear to have been designed pairwise
(examples occur from Kk 150 onwards, right up to the final ones)
are in the same key. There are about a hundred pairs; only some ten
of them are in different modes (major/minor or vice versa). In all
other cases, a contrast is achieved by means of differing tempi or
differing time-signatures. On the other hand, where sonatas are
paired, there is scarcely ever any similarity of thematic material.
Form
The architecture of Scarlatti’s sonatas is simple. Such, at least, is the
impression one gets from looking at them or listening to them. This,
too, is the reputation which they share with most
eighteenth-century harpsichord compositions.
3
Closer examination reveals that things are rather more complicated
than the authors of modem treatises on musical composition would
have us believe. Most of these writers are inclined to find only what
they are looking for: proofs that the sonatas were more or less clumsy
forerunners of the Classical sonata, and opportunities to underline the
superiority of the great form which was to leave its mark on
nineteenth-century music. In reality, the two forms — the Scarlatti
sonata and the so-called Classical sonata — are quite distinct in the
same way as the opera seria is distinct from a Verdi opera and a
motet from a cantata. There is no reason to say that one is better than
the other.
A piece of music can be said to be in Classical sonata form when its
main theme is repeated in the same key in the restatement. This was
the structure adopted by C.P.E. Bach and his followers. It led on to
the form which is now so familiar to us.
Scarlatti’s concept of the sonata is something entirely different, and
any misunderstanding springs from the use of the word itself. One
should bear in mind, however, that Scarlatti and his contemporaries
adopted it long before Beethoven did. The main difference lies in
the general framework. Scarlatti’s sonatas are in binary form, the
pieces being divided into two distinct halves. The two halves are
comparable and complementary, but they are sufficiently contrasted
for the differences between them to allow more detailed analysis.
Scarlatti’s sonatas abound in all the traditional devices of musical
expression. They are also full of vitality and, inevitably, the
simplification inherent in any analysis is inclined to obscure the
wealth of the musical content.
Musical language
The style, writing and individual language of Scarlatti’s sonatas
combine to form a captivating world. The rhythmic and melodic
invention, the almost diabolical skill displayed in the use of the
instrument and the mastery of keyboard technique keep the listener
constantly enthralled. Comment, while not entirely superfluous, is
fraught with difficulty.
Rhythm
Scarlatti’s sonatas, particularly in the interpretation by Scott Ross,
appear to be driven along by an inner pulse. Occasionally, this is
reinforced by rhythmic ostinato passages identical with those to be
heard even today in Spanish songs and in flamenco. It could well be,
moreover, that these popular rhythms made a strong impression on
Scarlatti when he arrived in Andalusia (saetas, seguidillas, bulerías,
rhythmic roulades).
Accents
Scarlatti was a complete master of the art of providing accents for his
music. By introducing a note which was foreign to the general line
of a theme, or by inserting an unusual note into a chord, he
reinforced his melodies or their accompaniment. The sudden
explosion of a chord, a fast scale or a tight cluster of notes act as
interjections which highlight the text.
Instrumental styles
Scarlatti was a successful composer of operatic and orchestral music.
In spite of this, he devoted the last thirty years of his life entirely to
the harpsichord. We do not really know why this should have been
so, and the absence of letters or contemporary accounts of the
musician’s life is particularly frustrating here. More than any other
composer of his day, however, Scarlatti resorted to orchestral devices
in his sonatas and to references to other instruments. We can often
hear the guitar in his music, the mandolin with its repeated notes,
percussion instruments or fanfares of trumpets.
Modulations
One of the most remarkable sides to Scarlatti’s genius was his ability
to go through the keys in a variety of modulations, either gradually,
the accidentals being introduced one by one, or suddenly by an
abrupt shift to an unrelated key a whole tone or even a third away.
Virtuosity
Scarlatti’s limpid musical writing can at first glance lead one to the
conclusion that his works are easy to perform. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Clarity of writing has nothing to do with ease
of execution. Scarlatti, who was the most accomplished virtuoso
amongst contemporary harpsichord players, did not have to worry
about finding somebody to perform his music. In any case, his pupil,
Queen Maria Barbara of Braganza, for whom these pieces were
written, must herself have been a very skilled performer. Some of
the sonatas demand a high level of technique in the playing of scales
and arpeggios and passages in thirds and sixths and octaves.
Archaic styles
A few sonatas contain several distinct musical lines from beginning
to end as though they were designed for performance by an
instrumental trio or quartet. Others incorporate a number of typical
polyphonic features. Finally, there are a few sonatas which contain a
single upper voice and an accompanying bass line (figured or
unfigured) somewhat reminiscent of accompanied songs.
Notes on the sonatas
CDs 1 and 2
Kk 1–Kk 30 These sonatas, known under the title Essercizi per
gravicembalo, were the only pieces whose publication was supervised
by Scarlatti himself. The composer made his intentions clear in a
preface which includes a dedication to his future masters in Spain.
Was it he who chose the engraver? Did he himself correct the
proofs? It must be said that the engraver’s fame was greater than the
care he took over his work: the frontispiece shows a harpsichord the
wrong way round! And there is doubt as to how far the proofs of
the first edition conform with the original manuscripts. We have no
means of checking. Nevertheless, it was Scarlatti who chose the
pieces and no doubt he reworked them before sending them to his
English publisher.
These thirty sonatas should not, however, be considered as the
composer’s first works. True, Kirkpatrick put them at the beginning
of his catalogue, which was based on the chronological sequence of
the sources, and Fortier’s edition was the first tangible evidence of
Scarlatti’s compositions for the keyboard. Nevertheless, there can be
little doubt that Scarlatti made a selection of the thirty pieces
amongst many other compositions whose existence was to be
revealed only at a later date amongst various manuscript copies.
These thirty sonatas are one of the jewels of Scarlatti’s œuvre. For a
long time they were the most easily accessible; they appeared in
many editions and they were certainly the most played. Even today
they are the ones which have been most recorded. They are, in fact,
an anthology of Scarlatti’s compositions, bearing the stamp of the
composer in full possession of his art. Most of the characteristic
features of his writing throughout the 555 sonatas catalogued by
Kirkpatrick appear in these pieces. Scarlatti goes through the whole
gamut of keyboard technique and exploits to the full startling effects
such as handcrossing, jumps of two octaves or more, repeated notes
and virtuosic scale and arpeggio passages.
From many points of view, these sonatas mark a transition in
Scarlatti’s life. From now on, Spain was to be the home of this
Italian composer. Operas were to be abandoned in favour of works
for the keyboard. There is a successful blend of classical tradition and
Spanish folk song and dance in the collection. Alongside toccatas
(Kk 1, 4 and 12) and concertante or polyphonic pieces, there are
others, such as Kk 2, 5, 17 and 24, which contain undeniable traces
of the influence of Spanish songs and dances.
All thirty pieces go along at a brisk pace, and this no doubt accounts
for Scarlatti’s reputed lack of interest in slow tempi. Fifteen are
marked Presto and fourteen Allegro. Only the very last piece,
nicknamed at a much later date the “Cat’s Fugue” (cf. Glossary
Gatto), is marked Moderato. It is only later that Scarlatti’s lyrical side
becomes evident, when strongly contrasted Allegro and Andante
4
sonatas are paired together.
The later sonatas are more varied in form but the first traces of what
lends them such opulence are to be found here. There is, for
example, the free form which first appears in Kk 19, and the
principle of the development of the second half of the sonata is to
be seen in Kk 9, albeit to a limited degree.
Four-fifths of the sonatas are “closed” but Scarlatti enriched the
form by various devices such as permutations of the sequences of the
two halves of the sonata to make it asymmetrical (right from
Kk 1 as against Kk 2, but also in Kk 4, 12, 21 and 24) and the
dropping of the traditional practice of landing up in the dominant at
the double bar separating the two halves of the sonata: half of the
sonatas in a minor tonality reach this point in the relative major (Kk
3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 15, 19 and 27). Similar examples are to be found in
the works of contemporary composers, but to a lesser degree. Later
on, Scarlatti exploited the surprise effect created by a sudden
modulation in the opening bars of the second half of a sonata.
In these sonatas, there are few modulations, apart from shifts from
major to minor (or the opposite). The majority of the Essercizi are
in the minor, only thirteen out of the thirty being in the major.
There is a preference for the use of flats — only eleven sonatas have
a key signature in sharps. The key signatures in this first edition are
written in the old shortened form: G minor has a single flat,
C minor has only two, etc. The same applies to the major keys: A
major is written with two sharps, E major with three. There are
never more than three accidentals in the key signature. It was only
later that Scarlatti exploited the possibilities provided by the
introduction of equal temperament.
As the Essercizi are by way of being an anthology, there can be no
question of seeking any special relationship between the different
pieces such as J.S. Bach intended in the thirty Inventions and, with
even greater reason, in the thirty Goldberg Variations (it might be
mentioned in passing that the latter, published for the first time in
1742, are virtually contemporaneous with the Essercizi). Scarlatti was
after something entirely different and he made his intentions clear in
his preface:
Reader,
Whether you be Dilettante or Professor, in these Compositions
do not expect any profound Learning, but rather an ingenious
jesting with Art, to accommodate you to the Mastery of the
Harpsichord. Neither Considerations of Interest, nor Visions of
Ambition, but only Obedience moved me to publish them.
Perhaps they will be agreeable to you; then all the more gladly
will I obey other Commands to please you in an easier and more
varied Style. Show yourself then more human than critical, and
thereby increase your own Delight. To designate to you the
Position of the Hands, be advised that by D is indicated the
Right, and by M the Left. Live happily.
It was William Smith who discovered the first (?) sales advertisement
for the Essercizi. It is dated February 1739. According to Kirkpatrick,
it was in April 1738 that Scarlatti was awarded the Portuguese title
of Knight of the Order of Santiago, which is the title which features
on the first page of the edition. There is, therefore, every reason to
suppose that the first edition of the Essercizi dates from the end of
1738 or early in 1739.
CD 3
Kk 31–Kk 42 These twelve sonatas were first published in England
in a sort of pirate edition put together by Thomas Roseingrave (cf.
Glossary) shortly after the first publication of the Essercizi.
Roseingrave included the first thirty sonatas, but changed the title of
the collection. He also changed the order and introduced pieces that
he had no doubt brought back from Italy twenty years earlier. He
opened the collection with one of his own compositions —
publishing morals were rather different then from what they
are now!
The edition was never revised by Scarlatti. Evidence for this is
provided by Kk 33, which acquired its final form only three years
later by the addition of a majestic opening passage seventeen
bars long.
The Scarlatti pieces added by Roseingrave to the Essercizi are quite
plainly early works, as are many of those in the hundred numbers
which follow in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue. There is often the imprint
of the Italian school. Kk 35, for example, is a toccata, and Kk 41 is
a four-part fugue. Both these pieces could quite well have been
written by Handel. There are traces of concertante style: Kk 37 and
Kk 40, for example, bring Vivaldi to mind. There are also dance
movements typical of those to be found in keyboard suites at that
epoch (cf. Kk 40 and Kk 42).
Some of the tempo markings in these pieces are not to be found
elsewhere: Kk 32 is marked Aria and Kk 34 Larghetto. Two-thirds
of these sonatas are in the minor.
Kk 40 and Kk 42 are delightful minuets in pure Classical style (by
his use of notes inégales, Scott Ross takes us into the world of
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons). There is nothing Spanish about these pieces.
On the other hand, they bear features which were to persist
throughout Scarlatti’s keyboard compositions: a liking for hand
crossings (Kk 36 and Kk 44) and for swift movements right up and
down the whole width of the keyboard (Kk 31, 33 and 38), and
everywhere a complete disregard for technical difficulties.
Kk 41 is a fugue; it is the first of the eleven pieces in Kirkpatrick’s
catalogue not to appear in Alessandro Longo’s (cf. Glossary) edition.
Kk 43 to Kk 48 are taken from the Venice manuscript dated 1742.
They belong to the “early manner”, but display the flamboyant
character which Kirkpatrick associates with many of the first two
hundred sonatas. The style is livelier and the themes are more clearly
contrasted than in the previous pieces. Moreover, the rhythms
breathe an entirely different world, almost certainly the one that
Spain revealed to Scarlatti (cf. Kk 45).
The fullness of the sound is striking. Some of the melodic patterns
and the accompanying figures are doubled in octaves (the cadences
in both halves of Kk 44, the stressed weak beats in Kk 45 and the
bass in Kk 46), scales fizz like rockets (Kk 43 and Kk 47) and in Kk
48, Scarlatti resorts to a rapidly executed Alberti bass. These sonatas
also reveal Scarlatti’s mastery of the art of writing for the
harpsichord. Kk 44 and Kk 46 in particular show how skilfully he
manages to amplify and diminish the sound of an instrument
generally reckoned to be somewhat lacking in dynamic range.
In contrast with the pieces in Roseingrave’s collection, all these
sonatas have rapid tempi and only two of the six are in the minor.
CD 4
Kk 49 Here, the continuity of the music is interrupted several times
by fermatas between which there are cadenza-like figurations
oscillating between major and minor. The device is rhetorical in
style and it turns up again only in much later sonatas. Scarlatti’s
search for dramatic expression is also evident after the development
of the second half, which culminates in a lightning scale over very
nearly four octaves.
Kk 50 A fine example of total use of the keyboard by means of hand
crossings, scales and arpeggios. The instrument’s four-octave range is
constantly exploited.
Kk 51 is somewhat akin to an Italian toccata, and the sheer delight
of playing the instrument is conveyed through an uninterrupted
succession of semiquavers occasionally highlighted by means of
chromatic figuration.
Kk 52 is a sumptuous work written in several voices and the
harmonic progressions it contains must certainly have interested
Brahms when he owned the collection which is now housed in
Vienna (cf. Kk 219 — Kk 222).
5
Apart from the two short dances, Kk 32 and Kk 34, and the fugue
movements, this is the first sonata for which Scarlatti does not
provide a rapid tempo marking.
Kk 53 The Parma manuscript stipulates that this sonata should be
preceded by the one now known as Kk 258. Kirkpatrick, however,
was unable to fall in with this injunction since he had opted for the
order in the Venice manuscript. It is nevertheless one of the first
signs that some of the sonatas were intended to be paired (cf.
Glossary).
Kk 54 and Kk 56 have something of the flamboyant style
mentioned by Kirkpatrick. The music is based on a succession of
quavers and, like so many pieces in 3/8, 6/8 or 12/8, it is
reminiscent of a jota or an Italian tarantella.
Kk 55 This is marked Allegro in the Venice manuscript and Presto
in Parma. It is interesting to compare the closing bars of each of the
two halves of this sonata with the corresponding passages in Kk 7
since here we have one of the rare occasions on which Scarlatti
repeats himself.
Kk 57 is a short sonata, yet it contains no fewer than ten themes.
The fertility of Scarlatti’s imagination here is matched only by his
idleness in exploiting his ideas.
Kk 58 is a four-part fugue and it is constructed just as loosely as Kk
30 and Kk 41. On the other hand, the atmosphere is austere and
there is a fine contrast between a descending chromatic subject and
a rising diatonic countersubject.
Kk 59 This is an early work, as are, in all likelihood, the remainder
of the pieces until Kk 64. Its style stamps it clearly as having been
written long before the Essercizi. Like Kk 63 and Kk 64, Kk 59 is
comparable with the dance movements which in Scarlatti’s day
formed the main part of harpsichord suites. Kk 60 is likewise based
on a simple construction.
Kk 61 This is the only example of a series of variations in the entire
corpus of sonatas catalogued by Kirkpatrick The theme is a short
one: six bars followed by thirteen variations of increasing
complexity, as was customary at the time. All the repeats are written
out since most differ slightly from the first statement.
Kk 62 is asymmetrical, but this springs less from the central
organization of the two halves of the sonata than from the openings
and especially the closings of each one of them. The quaver post-crux
(cf. Glossary Crux) in the first half differs unusually from that in the
second, where it appears in semiquavers. Only the final closings,
which are startling in the violence of semiquavers spread over three
octaves, are identical in the two halves apart from a few notes in the
accompaniment.
Kk 63 is marked Capriccio and Kk 64 Gavotte (cf. supra Kk 59).
Kirkpatrick points out the similarity between Kk 63 and a piece by
Adolfo Hasse published in London in 1740 (Op.2, Sonata No.4, 3rd
movement).
CD 5
Kk 67 The Classical, almost archaic, style of this sonata lies in the use
of imitation writing. There is not a single bar which does not
relentlessly repeat the four notes of the broken chord heard at the
outset.
Kk 68 is also constructed from one end to the other on a single
rhythmic motif:
This sonata falls within the range of dance pieces to be found
amongst the “early manner” compositions. None of the manuscript
sources gives a tempo marking.
Kk 69 Although this is a polyphonic and almost orchestral sonata, it
too is driven along by a single rhythmic motif:
The writing, however, is more sophisticated. For example, there is
a shift of a whole beat the first three times the rhythm appears in
the bass.
Kk 70–Kk 72 These three sonatas are quite clearly related to one
another. The use of imitation writing and the way the in which the
pieces move along in a predictable fashion show that they are in the
mould of the classical toccata. According to Giorgio Pestelli, these
are early works dating back either to when Scarlatti was in Venice
(1705–1709) or to when he was in Rome (1709–1719). Pestelli
suggests that Kk 72 is the very first piece written for the harpsichord
by Scarlatti, but there is no reliable evidence either to support or to
refute the idea.
Kk 73 is a suite of three pieces, the last two of which are marked
Minuetto. The thematic material in each one of them is given a
powerful accent on the strong beat of each bar:
The three ascending motifs appear in each piece in figurations of
increasing complexity. The last minuet has a figured bass, which
suggests that the whole group could be played by a small ensemble
of instrumental soloists with continuo.
Kk 74, like Kk 63, is a capriccio and the relationship between the
two is obvious. It is nonetheless interesting to note their differences
of dynamic treatment. The heavily-laden chords of Kk 63 and its
cadences contrast sharply with the fluidity of Kk 74.
Kk 75 is a minuet which one can quite well imagine being played
by a chamber ensemble. In both halves, there are quite clearly soli
and tutti passages.
Kk 76 The polyphony here is a shade convoluted, and as though to
escape from this, Scarlatti concludes each of the two halves with a
dazzling passage spread over the whole keyboard. (cf. Kk 62, the
only similar example.)
Kk 77 Here we have a charming accompanied melody leading to a
minuet, and the writing clearly suggests performance by a chamber
ensemble of soloists and continuo. Later, it will be seen that almost
systematically, the sonatas tend quite naturally to go in pairs. The
twinning here of two contrasting pieces is the first example of what
Scarlatti was to make a general practice.
Kk 78 is also made up of two linked pieces. They are taken from
the Coimbra manuscript (cf. Glossary) where they appear under the
title Toccata X together with Kk 85, Kk 82 and Kk 94.
Kk 79 is a very beautiful toccata treated in imitation. The closings
are full of rhythmic brilliance.
Kk 80 This is an entrancing minuet with a figured bass. It is the
second piece in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue not to appear in Longo’s
edition — all the more surprising since Kk 79 and Kk 80 appear
together as number XLV in the Venice manuscript, the source used
both by Longo and Kirkpatrick.
Kk 81 See CD 34.
Kk 82 This piece, like Kk 85, is not in binary form, making it a rare
exception in Scarlatti’s output. However, not too much should be
read into this since the two pieces form part of a suite in the
Coimbra manuscript (cf. Glossary) under the title Toccata X. The
rest of the suite consists of sonatas Kk 82, Kk 85, Kk 78 (gigue and
minuet), and Kk 94 (minuet). Had Kirkpatrick followed strict logic,
he would have put the suite at the beginning of his catalogue; this,
however, would have deprived him of the chance of giving pride of
place to the Essercizi.
Kk 83 Here, as in Kk 77, we have an example of two
complementary pieces. There is a strict, two-voiced prelude, note
against note (a third notes reinforces the harmony at each closing)
followed by a minuet whose two sections are unusually symmetrical.
6
Kk 84 This is an odd piece of work. There is a systematic use of
parallel thirds and sixths alternating with a quaver reply pattern
between the two hands. Probably experimental.
Kk 85 This toccata shows every sign of being an early work. Like
Kk 82 it consists of a single section, but on this occasion there is a
repeat sign at the end.
Kk 86 and Kk 87 These are more carefully worked-out pieces. The
polyphonic writing — in three parts in Kk 86 and in four parts in
Kk 87 — and the interesting rhythmic patterns have led to their
being used for many transcriptions. They illustrate Scarlatti’s
polyphonic compositional technique of making each voice move
forward in single alternate steps. Many of the later sonatas feature
these short disjointed progressions.
Kk 88–Kk 91 See CD 34.
Kk 92 The polyphonic writing of this sonata is notable for the
systematic repetition of the pattern:
Sonatas Kk 8 and Kk 238 are treated in the same manner.
Kk 93 Here we have the last but one of the five fugues in
Kirkpatrick’s catalogue. The theme is rather academic and the four
voices move along most of the time in parallel.
This is the last piece in the Venice manuscript dated 1742. (There
is, in fact, yet another piece, but it is simply a repetition of Kk 52,
with a few minor variants.)
CD 6
Kk 94 is a short minuet with a form unusual for Scarlatti. The
opening theme reappears without alteration a few bars before the
end. The piece does not feature in Longo’s edition, the only source
being the last movement of Toccata X (cf. Kk 82).
Faithful to the chronology of his sources, Kirkpatrick puts the
following three sonatas together as a result of their appearing
together in a French edition by Veuve Boivin. Kk 95 and Kk 96
appear in later sources. Kk 97 on the other hand appears nowhere
else, not even in Longo’s edition.
Kk 95 This sonata is by way of being a study for right-hand crossing
over a non-stop triplet figuration played by the left hand. Scarlatti
could well have switched hands for each repeat.
Kk 96 This splendid piece of work deserves its fame both for the
variety of its themes and for the orchestral nature of the writing. It
opens with the brass and the subsequent figures have a mandolin
accompaniment. Each half has a polyphonic passage leading to a
grand tutti closing.
Kk 97 This is an entirely different kettle of fish. I should be happy
to wager that the piece is not by Scarlatti. It does not appear in the
main sources and the compass is wider than in any of the sonatas
which Scarlatti wrote around this time. Above all, it is full of clumsy
writing not to be found anywhere else in his compositions (the
modulations in bar 15, the repetitions in bar 40, the octaves in bars
60 to 68 and the banal, resonant cadences).
Now follow the pieces which feature in the Venice collection dated
1749. They do not, however, necessarily date from this epoch.
Kk 99 and Kk 100 These two pieces are combined to form a single
sonata in the Venice manuscript dated 1749. They are even joined
together by the instruction volti subito at the end of Kk 99. There can
therefore be no doubt about the pairing, even if one of the pieces is
in the minor and the other in the major.
Kk 101–Kk 103 provide us with some of the rare examples of slurs
in the manuscript sources. All apply to arpeggios or rapidly-executed
scales, but it is difficult to rely on them for drawing any general
conclusions as to the manner of articulating Scarlatti’s compositions.
Kk 101 and Kk 103 both have highly spirited motifs. The unison
motif which appears in Kk 101 reappears in Kk 102 and this sonata,
in its turn, takes the inspiration for its closing from sequences already
used in Kk 7 and Kk 55.
Kk 104 is called a toccata in the Münster and the Vienna
manuscripts. The piece is full of contrasts, such as alternating notes,
ostinato chords supporting melodic commentaries, and hand
crossing motifs which create the illusion of the music being played
by three hands.
Kk 105 It is tempting to pair this sonata with the preceding one
because of its tonality. But the time signatures are the same — 3/8
— and Scarlatti carefully avoided such repetitions in his pairing.
Note the appearance of the rhythmic pattern:
This is a sort of fingerprint to be found in a great many sonatas.
Kk 106 and Kk 107 In the Parma manuscript, Kk 106 is marked,
not Allegro, but Andante, which seems better suited to this generally
peaceful sonata and justifies its pairing with Kk 107. Note the odd
ending in the minor in Kk 107.
Kk 108 is incredibly powerful. The harpsichord turns into an
orchestra complete with timpani.
Kk 109 and Kk 110 The only Adagio in the whole œuvre (even
then, the marking in the Parma manuscript is Andante — Adagio).
It is followed by a piece which quivers with syncopated rhythms
trills, repeated notes and notes alternated between the two hands.
Kk 111 The bulk of this curious piece consists of a motif of two
off-the-beat chords for the right hand. The figure appears twenty-six
times, so with the repeats, one actually hears it fifty-two times!
Kk 112 This monothematic sonata hinges around the rhythms
constantly taken up by the left hand.
The liberty acquired by Scarlatti in gradually breaking out of
the straitjacket of closed binary form is clearly marked in the
following pair of sonatas with the appearance of both free and
developed forms.
CD 7
Kk 113–Kk 114 After a powerfully stated opening, Kk 113
continues with a long chain of quavers through major and minor
keys close to the tonic. Kk 114 provides a contrast by means of
varied rhythms. Everything is reminiscent of traditional Spanish
music. The opening is in the nature of a country festival and there
follows, in the second half, a descending seven-note throaty
Flamenco chant decorated with trills, rhythmic figurations and
rocketing scales.
Kk 115–Kk 116 Several of the sequences in these two sonatas come
to an end with long scale passages or sustained pauses. The music
becomes dramatic, being reinforced with acciaccaturas and
surprising modulations.
Kk 117 This is an isolated sonata written throughout for two voices
in alternate quavers for right and left hand.
Kk 118–Kk 119 The steady Non presto Kk 118 serves as a prelude
to the almost incredible outbursts of Kk 119 where Scarlatti achieves
a crescendo by increasing the weight of the obsessively-repeated
chords. The first chords consist of three notes, and these are
gradually increased until they reach as many as eleven.
7
Kk 120 This is where Scarlatti pushes his hand crossings to their
limits. The sonata is exceptionally difficult when played up to
tempo, i.e. Allegrissimo.
Kk 121 This sonata, which is just as flamboyant as the one which
precedes it, obliges the performer to make rapid leaps — up to two
octaves. Note the whole-tone modulation at the beginning of the
second half.
Kk 122 The rhythmic pattern here is one that has often appeared
already:
It appears throughout the sonata. The opening contains a dominant
cadence reminiscent of Kk 33.
Kk 123 Were it not for the unusual tonal layout, this sonata would
seem almost archaic, with its three-part note-against-note writing,
embellishments and imitative passages.
Kk 124–Kk 125 A sumptuous pair of flamboyant sonatas. In Kk
124, a torrent of arpeggios provides a framework for a Spanish
theme accompanied by ostinato chords. Kk 125 is just as powerful
in its expression. It is written throughout for two voices. It owes its
asymmetry to differences in the post-crux in each half, even though
the rhythmical idea is the same.
CD 8
Kk 126 The melodic sequences, separated from one another by
arpeggios and chromatic figurations over ostinato chords, differ
according to whether they fall on the beat or off the beat. And here
we have two of Scarlatti’s most familiar fingerprints.
Kk 127 The systematic division of this sonata into groups of four
bars and the conventional harmonic progressions mean that it has
much of the character of a dance.
Kk 128 This sonata has much in common with the preceding one
through the innocent charm of its thematic material and the style of
its harmonic progressions and rhythmic patterns.
Kk 129 The division of each half of this sonata around the fulcrum
(called the Crux by Kirkpatrick, cf. Glossary) is underlined here by
two pauses which punctuate the somewhat repetitive musical
discourse.
Kk 130 Most of the material here consists of parallel thirds and sixths
and octaves, and in the main the piece stays in the relative minor of
the opening tonality.
Kk 131 The tonality is unusual, and the sonata is based essentially
on moving thirds. Kk 23 and Kk 136 provide similar examples.
Kk 132–Kk 133 Charm and vivacity are the contrasting features
of this pair of fresh and luminous sonatas. Kirkpatrick saw in them
the climate of Aranjuez. Scarlatti’s increasing use of the free form
means that many new themes are introduced into the second half
of Kk 132.
Kk 134–Kk 136 These three sonatas appear in exactly the same
order both in the Parma and Venice manuscripts. They are the first
triptych in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue, all the more justifiably on
account of the contrasting time-signatures: 2/4, 6/8 and 3/8.
Kk 137–Kk 138 The regular quaver movement in Kk 137 is
triggered off by a syncopated theme which reappears at the
beginning of the second half after each post-crux. There are few
sonatas of such perfect symmetry as Kk 138, which contains three
almost identical sequences repeated in the same order:
A,B,C/A’,B’,C’.
These are the last pieces in the Venice manuscript dated 1749. Only
two out of the next nine sonatas appear in the Parma manuscript. Six
of the others are taken from English manuscripts (Worgan and
Fitzwilliam) and the last one, Kk 147, is taken from copies made by
Abbé Santini and now housed in Münster (id.). The three sonatas
Kk 142, Kk 143 and Kk 144 do not appear in the Longo edition.
Kk 139 (CD 8) – Kk 140 (CD 9) Two highly virtuosic sonatas. The
second, in particular, is one of the most difficult in the whole of
Scarlatti’s works.
CD 9
Kk 141 This is one of Scarlatti’s best-known pieces. The series of
repeated notes over an accompaniment which is heavily laden with
acciaccaturas provides a contrast with the generous flow of the
concluding passages of the two halves.
Kk 142 Many of Scarlatti’s moto perpetuo pieces in quavers are much
akin to Italian tarantellas. This one stands out from the rest on
account of its use of acciaccaturas and syncopations and through the
interjections which lead up to each post-crux.
Kk 143 This is a difficult piece with chains of fast parallel thirds,
sixths and octaves. In addition, there are some awkward contrariwise
leaps, not used by Scarlatti subsequently.
Kk 144 and Kk 146 The sources used by Kirkpatrick as the basis
for his numbering system provide no evidence that these two sonatas
should be associated with each other. Nevertheless, from the purely
musical point of view, they meet the usual criteria for pairing.
Kk 147 Doubts may be cast on the authenticity of this sonata on
account of the opening and the demi-semiquaver passages in the
post-crux. Joël Shevaloff and Gerstenberg reject all the pieces from
Kk 142 to Kk 147 (these do not appear in the main sources) as being
foreign to Scarlatti both in form and harmony.
With Kk 148, we begin a new series of sonatas which differ radically
from the preceding ones. They are shorter and less complicated and
appear to meet the promise made by Scarlatti in his preface to the
Essercizi to provide easier and more varied pieces for his admirers.
The twenty-nine pieces in this series form a group in the first
volume of both the Parma and the Venice manuscripts (the latter is
dated 1752). All bear the title Toccata in the Parma manuscript.
They are not strictly speaking pedagogical pieces, but there is no
denying that they gradually increase in difficulty whereas many of
the ones before demand a high degree of skill. Gradually, we come
back to the level of difficulty to which Scarlatti has accustomed us.
A number of the pieces require a more extended keyboard than
usual (Kk 148–Kk 153) because of the mordants. This fact,
combined with the even more important question of the style of the
sonatas, has led experts to wonder about the instrument on which
the pieces were intended to be played. There were some fortepianos
at the court of Spain, and Kirkpatrick suggests that the first eight
sonatas (Kk 148 to Kk 155) were written for these instruments.
Shevaloff takes this idea even further and goes right up to Kk 265!
As research stands at the present time, all this cannot be more than
mere conjecture.
The pairing of sonatas becomes very nearly the general rule in this
series. Twenty of the first twenty-one sonatas are paired and the last
(Kk 176) forms a sort of pair in itself.
The accompaniments in these pieces are simplified, the chords rarely
have more than two notes in them, and in Kk 149 and Kk 154 they
are often reduced to groups of three quavers or crotchets.
A Scarlatti fingerprint is nevertheless apparent in many sequences
such as:
CD 10
With Kk 156, the undertaking to keep the music fairly easy seems
to have fallen by the wayside, even though the pedagogical element
8
has not disappeared entirely. The first eight sonatas are virtually in
two-part writing, but very quickly Scarlatti introduces items
requiring greater keyboard mastery, as for instance the
heavily-charged passages in Kk 156 and Kk 158, and the wide jumps
in Kk 157.
Kk 159 is a wonderful little sonata. The opening sounds like a
fanfare of hunting horns. The general form of the piece is Classical in
that the main theme reappears in the tonic at the end of the second
half.
Kk 160–Kk 161 With all due deference to supporters of the
fortepiano, I feel that it should be suggested that the writing of Kk
161 demands a two-manual harpsichord in order to make it possible
to play the same notes written for the two hands and to bring out
the alternating motifs. The discourse of these two sonatas is
punctuated by several fermatas.
From time to time, Scarlatti resorts to unusual binary forms. Some,
like Kk 162, which it is interesting to compare with Kk 176, have
a structural base of contrasting tempi. Both these pieces contain
series of slow and fast sequences, while remaining within the
tradition of binary form. Note that after the double bar, it is the fast
sequence which resumes in Kk 162 and the slow sequence in Kk
176 (cf. also Kk 170).
Kk 164 From one end to the other, this sonata repeats, either with
or without acciaccaturas, the same figure made up of two crotchets
and a triplet. Scott Ross succeeds in breaking the monotony by the
occasional use of the lute stop.
This triplet figure again appears in Kk 165 alongside a minim or two
crotchets. The linear character of sonatas Kk 164 to Kk 170
strengthens the case for their having been designed for amateurs who
would be put off by the sometimes considerable difficulties of pieces
from the flamboyant period.
Kk 166 The above-mentioned linear character is particularly
evident here in the simplified accompaniments, which are limited to
a single note or a two-note chord on each beat.
Kk 167–Kk 168 The background picture is much the same here as
in Kk 164, but the elaborate triplets are supplemented by trills and
mordants and the tempo is faster. This sonata is paired with
Kk 168, which appears to be a study for the stressing of weak beats.
Kk 169 This sonata is based on the rhythm of a Spanish tango.
It could well be paired with Kk 171 on account of its style
and contrast. The two pieces, however, appear separately in the
various sources.
Kk 170 This sonata complements the ideas put forward on the
previous page about Kk 162 and Kk 176 with regard to the different
varieties of binary form. Here, the layout is simpler, the slow and the
quick sequences being separated from each other at the double bar.
Kk 171 Yet another example of a pedagogical sonata. The repetition
here occurs on the following rhythmic motif:
Kk 172 The rhythm here is that of a tarantella, and Scarlatti goes
through the whole range of the modulations in his repertoire:
modal: after the crux in each half, the sequences modulate from
major to minor and vice versa;
harmonic: the harmonies progress through part of the cycle of
fifths before the first crux, creating an atmosphere worthy of
Beethoven;
in whole-tone steps: these appear in each half, rising in the first
(from B flat to C) and in the second, first rising then descending
(from G to A, then from D to C).
CD 11
Kk 174 A hand crossing study. The right hand then the left hand
keep on traversing the non-stop quaver pattern in the middle of the
keyboard. The fine amplification of the syncopated pattern in the
final cadence is worth noting.
Kk 175 A study in the playing of acciaccaturas, particularly
developed in the openings and the central parts of each half. Many
of the chords contain up to ten notes, including some outside
accepted harmony, and they create a telling, almost frightening
effect.
Kk 176 This sonata, whose structure has been compared with that
of Kk 162, is the last piece in Volume 1 of both the Venice and the
Parma manuscripts. Kirkpatrick’s catalogue continues with the
sonatas which appear in the second Venice volume (Kk 177 to
Kk 201).
All these pieces were composed before 1752. Most of them are in
pairs, and the earlier ones — in particular the sonatas in 3/8 — in
addition to containing the usual Scarlatti rhythmical figures,
summon up images of flamenco song through the introduction of
tense and ornate melodies which hover above as ostinato bass. One
of Scarlatti’s fingerprints,
is heard both in Kk 178 and Kk 179. The development in Kk 180
displays an extraordinary extension of this Spanish style of singing.
The tense vocal line is here accompanied by chords which are made
progressively richer and create a genuine crescendo effect. Note also
the opening in Kk 177 and the sequences which conjure up a fanfare
of trumpets.
Kk 177 is the first in a new series of sonatas, and up to Kk 201 they
appear in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue in the order in which they are to
be found in the second Venice volume.
Kk 177–Kk 180 form two pairs in which the metres are inversed:
C–3/8, 3/8–C, proof that the progression of movements is less
important than contrast of metre in the system of pairing.
Kk 181 A single theme runs right through this sonata,
characterised by the following rhythm:
The intervals in the rising scale lend it an oriental character.
Kk 182 The sequences in this sonata are linked by a short figure in
which two notes run from octave to octave. On this occasion,
Scarlatti takes his music into the realm of the theatre. The tense
vocal-chant style appears in the second half of the sonata and is
maintained until the end. The concluding passages of the two halves
are different.
Kk 183 Were it not for the trills and the syncopated passages which
underline the gap between Scarlatti and his European
contemporaries, the opening of this sonata and the imitation passages
could well have made it an allemande from a typical harpsichord
suite of the time.
Kk 184 This sonata opens conventionally enough, but very soon we
are led into a typical Spanish dance atmosphere, full of
hand-clapping, heel-stamping and the rattle of castanets.
Kk 185 One of the rare cases in which the main theme is announced
in the bass. Although it has the style and the carriage of a chaconne,
this sonata is developed with Scarlatti’s own brand of magic.
Kk 186–Kk 187 These two sonatas are related to one another by
similarities in the various rhythmic patterns they contain, and it is
tempting to extend the relationship to include all the pieces from
Kk 183 onwards as forming a suite in F minor. Five pieces appear at
this point in the Venice manuscript, but on various grounds they
have already been incorporated in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue.
9
Kk 188 There is a series of semiquaver triplets in this sonata which
are identical with those in Beethoven’s second trio. Although it is of
course a pure coincidence, one cannot help noticing the fact when
playing them.
CD 12
Kk 189 Many of the Scarlatti’s fingerings have more to do with
showmanship than with musical performance. For example, the
player is required to perform the post-crux of this sonata with one
hand only. Most composers provide fingerings designed to help
performers actually to be able to play their works, but on this
occasion, Scarlatti imposes a difficulty in order to create a stage effect.
Kk 190–Kk 193 The Venice manuscript, and in consequence
Kirkpatrick’s catalogue which is based on it, provides no tempo
markings for these sonatas. We have therefore used the Parma
manuscript as a guide to the tempi for the present recording — an
illustration of the usefulness of comparing sources even if, in the case
of the pairing of sonatas, not all doubts can be cleared up.
From Kk 189 to Kk 198, for example, the Venice manuscript
suggests only three pairs, leaving four of the pieces isolated — and
these are nevertheless associated in the Parma manuscript:
In the Parma manuscript, Kk 190 forms a triptych in B flat major
with Kk 189 and Kk 202;
Kk 191 likewise forms a triptych in D major with Kk 213 and Kk
214;
Kk 196 makes a pair in G with Kk 210;
Kk 198 makes a pair in B minor with Kk 203.
Kk 190 It was Kirkpatrick who drew attention to Scarlatti’s habit of
dividing each half of his sonatas into two distinct zones, and the
division here is unusually clear. The two zones are separated by a
fermata which is itself announced by a descending arpeggio. Note
how after the fermata, the tonal schema hovers between major and
minor in a manner frequently adopted by Scarlatti.
Kk 197 Here we have yet another example of the usefulness of
comparing sources. There is a very slight difference between the
Parma and the Venice manuscripts on the transition from the first
half of this sonata to the second. The Venice manuscript carries
straight on whereas the two halves are separated in the Parma
manuscript. In his critical edition, Kenneth Gilbert leaves the choice
to the interpreter. Scott Ross opts for the second solution.
Kk 198 A singleton toccata in two-part writing (there is a pedal
point in the development and there are chords in the closing
cadences). The severe style of this piece puts it alongside sonatas Kk
70, 71 and 72. The tonal layout is straightforward, but the cadences
are rich in sound.
Kk 199–Kk 200 These two sonatas illustrate how Scarlatti manages
to free himself from the bonds of traditional binary form. Both are
open. Kk 199 is concentrated: the second half includes only two of
the three sequences heard in the first half. Kk 200 is free: the
beginning of each half is different, but the atmosphere is the same.
The free form occurs again in Kk 201.
Kk 202 Here, Scarlatti offers yet another original form created out
of three different sequences: A 3/8 — B 6/8 — C 3/8. The outside
sections (A and C are clearly related and they serve as a frame for B,
which is a lengthy and constantly modulating sequence on the
rhythm of a sicilienne. The final layout, resulting from the interplay
of the repeats, is: A/A/B/C/B/C.
CD 13
The sonatas numbered from 202 to 205 in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue
do not appear in any of the manuscripts in the Venice collection.
The source is therefore the Parma manuscript, where they are to be
found in the fourth volume dated 1752. Kk 203 forms a pair with
Kk 198 — they follow one another in the Parma manuscript under
the numbers 20 and 21. The next two sonatas, 22 and 23, also form
a pair, but curiously enough, on this occasion Kirkpatrick stresses
their association by giving them the numbers 204a and 204b in his
catalogue. The first is complex in form: the metres vary
(C 3/8, 6/8) and the tonality shifts constantly between major and
minor. The second, on the other hand, is a sort of elaborate minuet
constructed over a single rhythmic pattern.
Alessandro Longo’s edition (Ricordi) includes neither Kk 204a nor
Kk 204b.
Kk 205 This is a singleton, but it has features in common with Kk
211 (repeated notes) and Kk 214 (syncopations). The free form
contains a blend of fragments in duple time (C) and triple time
(12/8).
Kk 206 There can be no doubt that this piece marked a turning
point in Scarlatti’s life as a composer. In the preceding sonatas, there
are clear indications that he was seeking new types of formal
structure. From now on, he kept strictly to the forms he had finally
arrived at, sometimes striving for greater simplicity, even if it meant
giving more attention to the development in the second halves of
the sonatas and to their tonal structure. The first experiments in the
pairing of sonatas have already been noted. From now on, not only
was the pairing to become systematic but a clear pattern appears.
There are many more slow movements and these serve as preludes
to the quicker movements by which they are invariably followed.
People usually think of Scarlatti as the composer of virtuosic music
and his pieces in slow tempi are not well known. From now on, we
begin to see the composer harnessing his prodigious performing
skills to the expression of pure lyricism.
Kk 206–Kk 207 These sonatas provide an illustration for the above
remarks. They are full of surprises and are sharply contrasted. On the
one hand there is a generous and flowing melodic line and on the
other a stream of dazzling virtuosity.
Kk 208–Kk 209 Yet another marvel! If I had to choose one sonata,
it would be Kk 208. All the more so since the piece with which it
is paired, a joyous and lilting jota, is a perfect antidote to the
melancholy of its mate.
Kk 210 This little monothematic sonata should no doubt be paired
with Kk 196; the two pieces appear consecutively in the Parma
manuscript.
Kk 211–Kk 212 The contrast here is remarkable. After Kk 211,
which meanders gently along and contains spicy overtones of the
mandolin, there comes the heroic power of Kk 212, particularly
evident in the development. The surprise effect produced by the
enchainments of the development is enhanced by the abrupt key
change at the double bar.
Kk 213–Kk 214 Another beautifully-balanced and contrasted pair.
Kk 213 was used as the signature tune for the year-long broadcast of
the complete Scarlatti recording on French radio.
Kk 215–Kk 216 The development sections in the second halves of
both these sonatas are exceptionally beautiful. In Kk 215, a series of
punctuations, laden with acciaccaturas (carefully omitted by Longo)
and repeated three times (C–E–F) provide a good illustration of the
sudden modulations that Antonio Soler speaks about in his Llave de
la modulación. The opposite applies in the case of Kk 216. The
harmony is made to evolve in a hardly perceptible fashion, rather in
the manner of Schubert in some of his sonatas. On this occasion, the
tense vocal improvisation is turned into a melody.
CD 14
Kk 217–Kk 218 Whilst it is true that most of the openings of the
sonatas are treated in imitation, there are few that are as ornate as
Kk 217. The post-crux on the other hand is powerful and orchestral
in atmosphere. Moreover, the whole of the keyboard is traversed
with hand crossing passages. There is contrast, too: Kk 218 brings
this pair to a close with a particularly spirited moto perpetuo.
10
Kk 219–Kk 222 Once again, in these two pairs of sonatas, we have
the same systematic contrast between the orchestral style of the first
piece and the voluble outpourings of the second. The handling of
the tonalities in these four sonatas is exceptionally fertile. The keys
constantly hover between major and minor and there are numerous
series of sudden modulations a whole tone upwards. There are
frequent changes of key signature, as many as five in the case
of Kk 220.
Nobody listening to these recordings should be in the slightest doubt
that the music is rich, generous and invigorating. But is it really
something that was rediscovered only in the twentieth century? The
Vienna Library, for example, possesses a collection of manuscript
copies of pieces by Scarlatti. These copies were the work of Abbé
Santini and at one time the collection was owned by Johannes
Brahms, who made careful notes on each volume, comparing the
sonatas with those which were published at the time by Czerny. He
even went so far as to make a detailed index. Even though the two
composers were worlds apart, one must nevertheless suppose that
Brahms subjected the sonatas to the closest scrutiny. One wonders if
his reason for using the opening of Kk 223 as the theme for one of
his most popular lieder (op.72 no.5, 1876) might not have been a
wish to underline his interest in Scarlatti.
In the two pairs formed by Kk 223–Kk 226, polyphonic sequences
(those in Kk 224 are to be found also in Kk 150) and rhythmic
sequences containing syncopations and accented weak beats appear
side by side. Such variety and freedom of compositional style
produce a dazzling effect. Note the closings in Kk 226, which differ
somewhat unusually from each other, the whole sonata being
brought to an end by a taut stretto.
Kk 227 As is the case with Kk 170, this sonata’s unusual character
springs from the differences in time signature in the two halves, the
first being in 2/4 and the second in 3/8. Note the particularly
virtuosic conclusion in F sharp minor to the first half. Just as later
composers were to do — Chopin and Liszt, for example — Scarlatti
often exploited the remote keys for their ease of performance.
CD 15
The evolution of Scarlatti’s compositional style can be seen if a
comparison is made between identical passages in the earlier and the
later sonatas in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue. Take, for example, the way
left and right hand scale passages are linked in Kk 229 (CD 14) and
Kk 43, or the interplay of alternate notes in Kk 230 and Kk 29.
These details are introduced into sonatas which are certainly more
balanced and have a greater degree of finish even though they may
not be any richer in style.
In itself, the treatment of alternate notes reveals differences. Those
in Kk 39 and Kk 104 demand the use of two manuals. This does not
apply in the case of Kk 418 or Kk 468. On the other hand, the
writing suggests that the notes should be given greater resonance
than in Kk 230.
Kk 231 contains a rhythmic pattern which is obstinately repeated
sixty times:
Kk 232–Kk 233 Note the similarity between the rhythmic motifs in
the post-crux of these two sonatas.
Kk 234 The whole of this sonata is based on short sequences which
reply to each other in imitation. In each post-crux, however, a theme
on unaccented beats makes an appearance.
Kk 235 This sonata is in a highly individual form: there is a
sicilienne in place of the development. As in Kk 202, the 6/8
sequences modulate a long way from the opening key, but the outer
sections do not have the same symmetry as in Kk 202 (only the
post-crux from the first section of the sonata appears after the 6/8 to
bring the piece to a close). This strengthens the concept of
development whereas Kk 202 is closer in spirit to sonatas containing
several alternating tempi.
Kk 238 The rhythms in this sonata recall pieces in the French style.
Yet, according to Kirkpatrick, these very rhythms are based on a
folk-song from Estremadura. It should be noted that, following the
custom of the time, the proper value of rests and upbeats is not
shown in the score. The notation of Kk 92 in a similar context is
more accurate.
Kk 239 There is an insistent repetition (78 times!) of the same
rhythmic motif
easily recognisable as being that of a Spanish traditional dance, the
Seville seguidilla.
Kk 240–Kk 241 The first is one of Scarlatti’s longest sonatas. The
Spanish theme at the heart of this piece is carefully heralded by a
series of short sequences which appear with perfect symmetry in the
two halves. The sequences are successively in imitation style, either
driven along by firm rhythmic motifs or yet again enlivened by
harmonic progressions moving stepwise in whole tones. This sonata
forms a pair with Kk 241, a gigue with a long chain of quavers.
Kk 242–Kk 243 The absence of a first beat in the accompanying
figures of Kk 242 is one of Scarlatti’s fingerprints. In Kk 243, it is
the very insistence of the rhythmic patterns and the variety of the
melodic figures to which they give rise which reveal the identity of
the composer.
CD 16
Kk 244–Kk 245 A pair in the unusual tonality of B major — there
are only five sonatas with five sharps in the key signature. The
composer here roams through all the keys at his disposal, particularly
in Kk 244, which incidentally contains the fingerprint
Kk 245 is a gigue.
Kk 246–Kk 247 This pair of sonatas is marked by the intricacy of
the writing. Kk 246 is rich in modulations, particularly enharmonic
modulations, and in Kk 247, Scarlatti overlays the basic rhythmic
motif
with secondary motifs such as
Kk 248 It would be pleasant to hear the development of this piece
played by a guitar accompanied by other instruments in order to
bring out the contrast between its perpetually modulating motif and
repeated notes over an almost identical bass.
Kk 249 This piece is typified by the introduction of a number of
Spanish rhythms including that of the oytabado (cf. Kk 255) and by
Scarlatti’s use of modulating bridge passages which are virtually
tutti passages.
Kk 250 Somewhat unusually, the sources indicate a number of slurs,
which inevitably leads one to the conclusion that the sonata was
intended for a single-manual instrument.
Kk 251 This piece takes on the strangely modern atmosphere of a
popular waltz as a result of a slight change in the now familiar motif
Kk 252 The opening is fairly conventional, but the fandango-like
rhythm in the post-crux, in which the motif
is repeated 32 times, comes as something of a surprise.
11
Kk 253 The beginning of the second half of this sonata, where there
are gentle modulations around three repeated quavers, is one of its
most noteworthy features.
Kk 254 This uncomplicated little sonata appears to be an
experiment in the staggering of imitation voices. There are four
sequences in canon at the octave, and a large number of tiny
off-the-beat accents which lend it a slightly chaotic charm.
Kk 255 In the excellent preface to his edition of Scarlatti’s sonatas,
Kenneth Gilbert tells the delightful story of the oytabado and tortorilla
markings which appear above some of the sequences in this sonata.
For a long time, these were supposed to be the names of stops on
the Portuguese organ. In reality, as L.F. Tagliavini has shown, they
simply refer to a folk dance and to the cooing of a turtle-dove.
Kk 256–Kk 257 Scarlatti embroiders a large number of imitations
of the initial motif of the first of these sonatas to make a highly lyrical
composition which serves as a graceful prelude to Kk 257,
a two-part toccata. Note the different endings to the two halves of
Kk 256; likewise, those in Kk 254.
CD 17
Kk 258 This sonata and Kk 53 form one of the rare pairs in the
Parma manuscript. Is it a scribe’s mistake? Was it a consequence of
the difficulty of making a collection of Scarlatti’s works which could
well have been scattered? It is hard to say.
Kk 259 is an example of the so-called concentrated form. The
opening, treated in imitation, does not appear in the second half, but
there is the same disposition of four sequences in the two halves.
Kk 260 There are a few unusual features in this long symmetrical
sonata. The closings are different, which is rare, and the key
signature is altered eight times, which is unique. The tonal picture
in both sections of the sonata is complex, and the modulating
passages could be described as developments in three sequences.
Kk 261–Kk 262 Both these sonatas are in the unusual key of
B major. In the first, this tonality is soon abandoned in favour of
A minor and there follows a gripping development in the second
half where powerful chords punctuate a feverish repetition of the
same note (eighty times). The A minor sequence reappears in
identical form in B minor and C sharp minor. Kk 262 is a sort of
tarantella streaked through with lightning scales.
Kk 263–Kk 264 The first sonata, a toccata in the minor, closes with
one of the heavily-laden cadences to be found in the earlier pieces
in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue. Nevertheless, the freedom with which
Scarlatti handles the imitation entries in this sonata and the
interrupted rhythmic passages in the opening mean that it is out of
the question to ascribe the piece to the composer’s early period. The
second sonata, which is in the major, provides several instances
of Scarlatti’s mastery in controlling the dynamics of the harpsichord.
In the final part of the extension, he gradually swells out the chords
to bring them up to seven notes, thereby creating an unusual
crescendo effect.
Kk 265 is a rondo. A short principal subject is followed by three
couplets in 6/8. There is a coda in which the principal subject is
developed.
Kk 266–Kk 267 These are written respectively for two voices and
for three voices. From the first crux onwards, right up to the end, the
following rhythmic motif appears in every bar:
CD 18
Sonata Kk 268 marks the beginning of a new series of takes in Scott
Ross’s recording, the instrument used being one by William Dowd.
Kk 268, Kk 269 In Kk 268, Scarlatti seems to be trying out the
various directions in which a modulation can be taken. Several
times, having set off in a given tonality, which he establishes by
means of the motif:
he leads the musical discourse to a tonality a third away, a fourth or
even a fifth, only to come back to the point of departure. Kk 269 is
another of the many tarantellas which feature as the second partner
in a pair. This one modulates rather more than usual.
Kk 270 None of the sources provides a tempo for this sonata, which
seems to be a sketch experimenting time and time again with the
opening motif
By using a lute stop, Scott Ross adds a degree of character to the
piece and emphasises the wide leaps carried out by the left hand.
Kk 271 A two-part toccata.
Kk 272 There are hardly any bars where the rhythmic motif
does not provide the impetus throughout this slightly monotonous
sonata. Its partner, Kk 273, provides a complete contrast. The form
is quite unusual. The second half opens with a 6/8 pastorale, which
breaks away from the 3/8 metre of the rest of the sonata. The
dance-like atmosphere is enhanced by the fact that the piece is
divided up into five eight-bar sections. The closing stages of each
half are full of splendid virtuosic sequences.
Kk 274–Kk 276 According to Kirkpatrick, this is the first of the
triptychs. In all, he allows only four, which means that the way he
interprets his own definition for this type of group is highly
restrictive. By following exactly the same principles — tonal unity,
variety of time signature and proximity in the sources — as many
as twelve triptychs can quite easily be located. The Parma manuscript
proposes even six further ones. Note the systematic use of the motif
announced in the first bar of Kk 274, the frequent interruptions
in the rhythmic figuration of Kk 273 where quavers, triplets,
semiquavers and accented weak beats come in quick succession.
Note also the exclusive use of the minor in Kk 276 and the way
in which a short thirteen-bar coda leads back to the original key of
F major.
Kk 277–Kk 278 In lyrical pieces such as the first of this pair, one
cannot but admire the charm and the economy of Scarlatti’s writing.
Kk 278, too, is an uncomplicated little piece in the shape of a
tarantella with a well-defined crux which is underlined by a fermata
led into by means of a descending arpeggio.
Kk 279 This piece is a sort of harmonic maze in which Scarlatti
seems to enjoy himself simply by wandering through every possible
key: A/a/C/G/A/B/b/G sharp–A flat/B flat/e flat/d flat–
c sharp/F sharp/b/e/D/G/A, and, of course, going through
enharmonic changes in the process.
Kk 280 A fine example of the concentrated form pushed to its
limits. Nothing which appears up to the first crux in this sonata
features in the second half. The development, however, retrieves
some of the material of the post-crux (had new material been used,
the sonata would have been in free form).
Kk 281–Kk 282 There is a surprising feature in the construction of
Kk 282. The two halves of the sonata are made up of three separate
segments: a,b,c//d,e,f. Segments a and d, and above all c and f,
resemble each other closely though the closings and the
transpositions differ slightly. The central segments, b and e, on the
other hand, although bearing some resemblance to each other
through their melodic lines in the minor, are strongly contrasted in
tempo (b: Allegro, c: Andante), in metre (b: duple, c: triple 3/4) in
tonality and style of accompaniment (ostinato in b, polyphonic in c).
Kk 283–Kk 284 The rhythmic motifs on which Kk 283 is based
reappear in Kk 270. The present “prelude”, however, shows greater
12
variety through the triplets which appear in the closings and in the
modulations in the second half. Kk 284 is a sprightly rondo whose
theme appears alternately in the major and the minor over a G in the
bass. An octave G pedal point repeated on the first beat of every bar
creates an effect something like the drone of a hurdy-gurdy, all of
which contributes to giving this superb piece the atmosphere of a
country dance.
Kk 285–Kk 286 Marked Allegro in the Venice manuscript, Kk 285
appears as Andante — Allegro in the Parma manuscript. The theme
is, in essence, the motif heard in the first bar, and it is repeated
throughout the sonata. The accompaniment is straightforward.
Kk 286 is a gigue, accented with syncopations and acciaccaturas.
The stream of quavers is frequently accented by lower semitone
appoggiaturas. Several of the sequences are repeated note for note,
making it possible to create an echo effect on two keyboards.
Kk 287 & Kk 288 See CD 34.
CD 19
Kk 289–Kk 292 These four sonatas constitute either a short suite or,
just as easily, a couple of pairs. Each one of the pieces is set in
movement by a rhythmic motif which is maintained throughout.
The motif appears in the opening (in the case of Kk 290, it is not
heard in the first few bars). Nobody could deny the elegance of
these pieces, whose simple charm is matched by the mastery of
the writing.
Kk 293 is a toccata. The motifs are for the most part treated in
imitation. The result is a piece of three-part polyphony, just a shade
laboured, which frequently moves along in a series of harmonic shifts.
Kk 294–Kk 295 In Kk 294, scale patterns of a rather repetitive
nature alternate with short polyphonic sequences, and the tonality
oscillates between major and minor. The piece feels somewhat
improvised. Kk 295 picks up the motifs of Kk 284. The main theme
over a drone bass is used to bring the piece to an end and the
couplets are placed at the beginning of each half. Modulating
sequences placed between fermatas lend this short piece an
increasingly declamatory character.
We have now arrived at the end of Volume V, which comes to a
close with Kk 295. The beginning of Volume VI contains some
splendid surprises.
Kk 296–Kk 299 These two pairs placed at the head of the last of the
three Venice volumes dated 1753 are real masterpieces. They have
all the thematic wealth, the full sound and the rhythmic and
harmonic contrasts of the flamboyant period with, in addition, the
lyricism of the slower movements (Kk 296, 298).
The repeated notes in Kk 298 sing out in the manner of a mandolin,
no doubt more of a Neapolitan instrument than a Spanish one.
Virtuosity is forced to its extreme limits in Kk 299, which is
certainly one of the most taxing technically of all Scarlatti’s works.
The extract quoted below demonstrates its kinship with the studies
of Chopin or of Liszt.
Kk 300–Kk 301 Here we have two sonatas imbued with charm and
simplicity. They appear at the end of the Parma manuscript, likewise
dated 1753. The fact, however, that the Venice and the Parma
manuscripts carry the same date does not necessarily have any
bearing on the actual dates of composition.
CD 20
Kk 302 This is one of the few Andante ternary form pieces in
Kirkpatrick’s catalogue. It is centred around a continuous stream of
triplets and the resulting fluidity is suddenly interrupted at the end
of each half by a cascade of arpeggios and a torrent of scales.
Many of Scarlatti’s sonatas are written around a tiny motif which is
taken up again and again. In most cases, the figure is a rhythmic one.
Sometimes the motif is a melodic arabesque and by means of
repetitions, modulations and even complete transformations, it
becomes the driving force of the whole piece.
Kk 303 The whole impetus of this piece is provided by the
following motif:
Kk 304–Kk 305 The final rhythmic motif contained in Kk 305 is
worth noting:
Scarlatti uses this rhythm again in Kk 311 in conjunction with
descending arpeggios. Both sonatas feature stressed pedal points.
Kk 306–Kk 307 Here we have repetitions, almost ad infinitum, of
the simplest musical material: eight notes starting in the second bar
of Kk 306 and six notes for the right hand at the beginning of
Kk 307. Yet another example of the drive supplied by a short
motif. One could almost speak of “action music”, rather as one
speaks of “action painting”. This same principle is to be found at
work in many of the 6/8 pieces.
Kk 306 is the first sonata in the seventh volume of the collection
edited by Kenneth Gilbert for the series Le Pupitre published by
Heugel. For the most part, these pieces are not particularly difficult
to play. They are perhaps a little lacking in inspiration. Nevertheless
they are often of great clarity and are always admirably constructed
around relatively simple rhythms and harmonies. There are no
hand-crossing passages; nor are there any of the leaps which make
some of the pieces rather difficult to perform.
Kk 308–Kk 311 Here we have two pairs of sonatas written
throughout for two voices. They are full of charm and simplicity.
More often than not, the bass is made up of crotchets or minims.
Kk 312–Kk 313 There is a preponderance of work for the left hand
in this pair. Patterns like
in Kk 312 or
in Kk 313 are divided between the two hands and performance is
rendered all the more difficult by the fact that the last note in each
group is at some distance from the others.
Kk 314–Kk 315 Kk 314 provides yet another example of the fluid
developments which Scarlatti mastered so well. The writing is in
three parts and the harmonies seem to feel their way carefully,
creating an atmosphere of suspense. In Kk 315, there is a series of
six-note motifs whose imitation sequences come to an end with a
3/4 hemiola at the end of each half.
Kk 316–Kk 317 By varying the weight of the chords and the
melodic lines in these pieces, Scarlatti manages to extend the
dynamic range of the harpsichord.
CD 21
What temperament was used by Scarlatti in 1750? Were the
instruments at the court of Spain tuned “unequally” so that the
thirds could be really in tune? Were the remote keys, laden with
sharps and flats, put at a disadvantage? Keys like F sharp, B and
D flat, which are so convenient for virtuoso playing, are rarely
tried out. There are three pairs of sonatas in these keys and a few
isolated pieces which modulate into these reputedly difficult
tonalities only to escape from them rapidly by slipping from the
major into the minor.
Kk 318–Kk 319 These are the only sonatas written in F sharp
major. In order to establish the setting for what was a most unusual
key for the time, Scarlatti opens each piece with a scale passage over
the whole extent of the keyboard, from top to bottom in Kk 318
13
and vice versa in Kk 319. He appears to be less interested in the
digital facilities offered by the tonality than in the modulations made
available to him: from F sharp to C, the remotest key (C minor in
Kk 318, C major in Kk 319). The key signatures are altered and
there are a large number of enharmonic changes.
Kk 320–Kk 321 A pair of Allegros which exercise the player’s skill
in playing sixths (Kk 320) and arpeggios (Kk 321). The second of
the sonatas contains one of the typical rhythmical patterns of which
Scarlatti was so fond:
Kk 322–Kk 323 Another pair in fast tempi. The writing is
nevertheless limpid and the sonatas are relatively easy to perform.
Kk 324–Kk 325 This pair, on the other hand, is more difficult on
account of complicated passages for the left hand, the runs in sixths
and thirds which crop up all over in Kk 324 and the stretches which
appear systematically in Kk 325 (post-crux and development).
The seventh volume of the Venice manuscript begins with Kk 326;
it contains the pieces to be found in volumes 8 and 9 of the Parma
manuscript. The latter are dated 1753 and 1754. So far as we
know, Parma is earlier than Venice, which, incidentally, bears the
date 1754.
Kk 326–Kk 327 In this pair, Kk 326 has the feel of a toccata and Kk
327 is reminiscent of an early dance. The modulations in Kk 326
frequently move through the cycle of fifths and are closer to the
German school than to Scarlatti’s usual style. The regular
subdivisions of Kk 327 and the five-quaver motif, repeated more
than a hundred times in various guises
turn the piece very nearly into an item of choreography.
Kk 328 See CD 34.
Kk 329–Kk 330 The thematic material of Kk 329 consists of a short
four-bar ritornello. It appears first in the major then, later in the first
half, in the minor. It gradually undergoes several transformations and
is repeated in a number of different tonalities. Kk 330, which is a
gigue subdivided somewhat unsystematically, is nevertheless written
in a straightforward style. There is a good deal of interplay between
repeated quavers and semiquaver scales and arpeggios.
Kk 331–Kk 332 Scarlatti springs a few of his special surprises
on us in these sonatas. In the first piece there is a constantly-repeated
three-note figure which, either in the left hand or the right
hand, emphasises the first beat of nearly every bar rather in the
manner of percussion or pizzicato. In the second, the cadences,
unisons, modulations and arpeggios create an entirely individual
orchestral effect.
Kk 333 The two halves of this sonata are entirely different in tempo,
metre and character. It is rather as though Scarlatti put half of one
sonata with half of another to make a sort of contracted pair.
Kk 334 Another singleton amongst a series of pairs. This piece is a
sort of bulería in which the regular pattern of quavers is occasionally
spurred on by syncopations. After the opening, the bass line, which
could well have been figured, moves along on each beat of the bar.
The seven pairs which follow are all in quick tempi.
Kk 335–Kk 336 By resorting to the use of the lute stop in the
recording of this sonata, Scott Ross emphasises the genial character
of the opening ritornello. In Kk 336 note the role played by the
rhythmic motif:
which on several occasions gives body to this sonata.
Kk 337–Kk 338 These are two far more opulent sonatas. Kk 337 is
a true concertante piece, with contrasting tutti and soli passages.
There are repeated full chords, polyphonic interludes accompanied
by a developed bass line, scales in parallel, arpeggios etc. In the case
of Kk 338, the almost constant use of the eight-note motif:
and the regular subdivision of the piece into four-bar segments lends
the piece the character of a dance.
CD 22
Scarlatti strews his compositions with idiosyncratic rhythmical
figures. They often fall on the weak beats and compensation for the
absence of the initial strong beat is provided either in the
accompaniment or in the melodic motif. From time to time he
seems to take enjoyment in slipping a small unexpected sound into
closing passages.
Take, for example, Kk 340, in which the five bass notes
occur eight times rather with the sound of a percussion instrument.
In Kk 261, there is a rather comical-sounding motif
high up on the keyboard this time but also repeated eight times,
which rings out like a bugle call.
Kk 341–Kk 344 Four sonatas in the key of A, only the first of which
is in the minor. Do they fall into pairs? Or are they a triptych with
an isolated sonata? I am in favour of the first suggestion, not only
because we are amongst a large number of pairs which come one
after the other with increasing regularity, but also because the two
sonatas Kk 343 and Kk 344 provide marvellous contrasts in writing
and movement, the very essence of the pair notion.
Kk 345–Kk 346 These two pieces, which are paired in all the
manuscript sources, have hidden links. Both are based on repeated
rhythmic figures
and each figure is introduced by a somewhat similar series of notes:
four quavers, constantly repeated, provide the impetus for the
sequences connected with them.
Kk 347–Kk 348 In volume VII of the Venice manuscript, the last
bar of the 22nd sonata (Kk 347) carries a drawing of a hand with the
forefinger pointing authoritatively to the beginning of the next
sonata, accompanied by the injunction attacca subito. This is both
proof that it was intended that the sonatas should be paired and a
clue as to how it should be done. Note, in addition, the dramatic
effect produced by the pauses followed by chromatic scales and the
reappearance of handcrossings, placed however in such a way as to
reduce their difficulty. Hand crossings, absent from Kk 218 onwards,
make a timid reappearance here. They occur with greater frequency
in the final sonatas in the catalogue. (Kk 528–Kk 529 and Kk 554).
Kk 349–Kk 350 In addition to the usual contrasts of metre and
tempo, this pair offers variety of style. Kk 349 moves along in a series
of closely-knit figures, but in the left hand, the bass notes are
separated from the figuration. Kk 350, on the other hand, contains
wide-ranging arpeggios which spread out the music and stretch the
performer’s fingers.
Kk 351 is a rondo. The main subject is a binary Andante and in the
coda which rounds off the piece it is given ample treatment in the
quick tempo of the two couplets.
Kk 352–Kk 353 These two sonatas are remarkable for their purity
of form and for the straightforward incisiveness of their musical
material. Note the fingerprint:
Kk 354–Kk 355 These two sonatas are remarkably pure in style.
The first, more Spanish in character, with its unusual subdivisions
14
(5, 7, 13 bars) and the variety of its rhythms, provides a contrast with
the second, which is more akin to a toccata, characterised as it is by
regular four-bar sequences and by a bass line which moves along on
each beat.
This pair of sonatas marks the end of the seventh volume of the
Venice manuscript, the first of the three volumes bearing the date
1754. The two sonatas which follow appear only in the Parma
manuscript (Volume IX, also dated 1754).
CD 23
Kk 356–Kk 357 These are interesting pieces on several counts.
Firstly, from the technical point of view, they are the first to exploit
the highest notes on the keyboard (cf. Introduction to the sonatas).
Both of them require the use of a high G, and subsequent sonatas
frequently go beyond the D which is the top note on most
harpsichords. The instrument for which Scarlatti wrote them was in
all probability the Spanish harpsichord, but we have only
descriptions to go on. A few spinets also have such a compass. From
the stylistic point of view, we can see the characteristics of what
Kirkpatrick describes as the “late manner”. A new world begins
here, an even more dazzling one. There is all the opulence which
we associate with Scarlatti’s flamboyant period combined in masterly
fashion with the variety of form and clarity of writing of the middle
period. Nevertheless, the progression from one style to the next is
hardly perceptible.
The text of Kk 356 bears the somewhat perplexing marking per
cembalo expresso (cf. Glossary Cembalo expresso).
Sonata Kk 358 is the first piece in the eighth volume of the Venice
manuscript dated 1754. Scarlatti was sixty-nine years old and he was
to die three years later. The question is, do the pieces we find here
actually date from this period? In the absence of an autograph
manuscript, it will probably never be possible to answer this
question.
These pieces contain all that remarkable drive which is to be found
throughout Scarlatti’s works, enriched more than ever by his
generous imagination and coloured by an abundance of themes,
rhythms and modulations.
The drive is always provided by the motifs and rhythmic figures
which can enliven whole sonatas. Take, for example, the repeated
notes in Kk 358 (these already featured in Kk 306) and the doubled
quavers in the bass of Kk 358 (cf. Kk 272, 274 or 322), or yet again
the weak-beat motifs in Kk 363 which are taken straight from
Spanish dances.
There are always virtuoso passages, like the fast scales which disturb
the tranquil sway of Kk 361, or the scales and arpeggios in contrary
movement to be found in Kk 364 and Kk 367. In these works,
Scarlatti is more of a composer than a mere player of the
harpsichord. Elsewhere, he sometimes went so far as to make
performance of his music well-nigh impossible by overloading it
with technical difficulties. These pieces have a fullness of sound
which is all the more striking on account of the economy of the
means employed (cf. Kk 368).
Scarlatti is capable of recreating the sound of sections of an
orchestra with just a few notes: the brass (cf. Kk 358), the percussion
(cf. Kk 369), the strings (cf. Kk 368) or even an entire orchestra with
the help of an Alberti bass, treated nevertheless melodically
(cf. Kk 363).
Kk 370–Kk 371 Although Kk 370 has an orchestral atmosphere
about it, behind the tutti one can make out the repeated notes of a
mandolin. As for Kk 371, although it contains no systematic
modulations, it plays around amongst enharmonic changes (B flat
and F sharp major). Note also the two divisions of the 3/8 metre.
CD 24
The last 183 sonatas on this recording were played on a harpsichord
constructed by Anthony Sidey.
Kk 372–Kk 373 Kk 372 is just as orchestral in style, with its forte
seven-note chords. There are contrasts in register all through sonata
Kk 373, which is marked Presto e fugato. Apart, however, from the
whole-tone harmonic progressions in the two modulation zones, all
the motifs reappear, treated in imitation at the octave.
Kk 374 It is interesting to put Kk 279 and Kk 285 alongside Kk 374.
The three sonatas all contain the same rhythmic motif:
each time expressed with greater lightness and freedom.
The spare, almost severe style of many of the sonatas in the final part
of Kirkpatrick’s catalogue is frequently characterised by two-part
writing (from time to time, a third note is added to reinforce the
harmony). This is particularly true of sonatas Kk 374 to 379, three
pairs in fast tempo. The delicacy of these pieces, together with the
imagination they display, makes it impossible for me to associate
them, as G. Pestelli does, with the works written thirty years earlier
in Rome. Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that they do not go
beyond the top D of the harpsichord. Moreover, they have
something of the atmosphere of the dances which appear in the
earliest suites.
Kk 378–Kk 379 The whole of Kk 378 is founded on the three-note
rhythmic motif which opens the piece. Placed on each side of the
crux, these quavers play a symmetrical role:
Kk 379 is marked Minuet, but the layout of the sequences is far
removed from the traditional subdivisions of four bars. Note the fast
scales marked con dedo solo (“with only one finger”). Here, Scarlatti
invented the glissando, which was to reappear only in the nineteenth
century.
Kk 380–Kk 381 The first of this pair of sonatas is one of the most
famous and most frequently played of all Scarlatti’s works, but its
partner, in spite of its liveliness and beauty, is rarely placed alongside
it. All the sources, however, agree about the relationship, save, of
course, the Longo edition, which ignores it, influencing in the
process, it must be said, several generations of musicians.
Kk 382–Kk 383 Most of the writing in these spirited sonatas is in
two parts, but both contain short polyphonic three-part passages
whose general progress constantly disconcerts the listener by the
overlay of varied rhythmic patterns. The intricacy of the rhythms is
such that a quite remarkable swirling sensation is created.
Kk 384–Kk 385 Once again, there appears in this pair of sonatas
that now familiar Scarlatti fingerprint where the first beat of each bar
in the accompaniment (opening of Kk 384) or the first beats in the
melodic sequences (development of Kk 384 and Kk 385 all the way
through) are elided.
Kk 386–Kk 387 The first of this pair, written throughout for two
voices, is in the style of a toccata. The tonal zones are lit up by
chromatic scales and by rhythmic and broken arpeggios. The initial
motif is stretched over the whole keyboard and the closing passages
are punctuated by parallel octaves.
Here we come to the last of the volumes dated 1754 in the
collection of Venice manuscripts.
Each of the first three pairs of sonatas consists of a full-sounding and
relatively polyphonic piece in fast duple metre followed by another
fast piece in triple metre which one might call a two-part minuet.
15
Kk 389, Kk 391, Kk 393 (CD 25) These three pieces have in
common their general feeling and dance-like character. The title of
Minuet, however, is applied only to Kk 393 in the two main sources
The Parma manuscript gives the title only to Kk 391.
The tailoring of these minuets, however, is irregular, as is shown by
the way in which the strains are phased:
Kk 389 A (5/5) B (4/4) C (9/8/4) // A’ (4/4) B’ (3/4) C’ (9/8/4)
Kk 391 A (4/4) B (4/4) C (6/4/6) // B’(4/4) A’ (4) C’ (6/4/6)
Kk 393 A (4/4/4) B (8/6) C (4/4) // A’ (4,4,6) B’ (8/6) C’ (4/4)
Only the second piece is asymmetrical in form. Note Scott Ross’s
use of the lute stop in Kk 389.
CD 25
Kk 394–Kk 395 Kk 389 opens in an austere style and then explodes
into a cascade of arpeggios worthy of the great classical concertos.
All this leads into a sequence in which the taut line of a flamenco
chant is sustained by an accompaniment of parallel fifths. Kk 395,
too, has an exceptionally intense development in which a
syncopated melodic line is sustained by ostinato chords which
gradually slide down to the lower end of the keyboard. This is one
of the rare sonatas in which modulations occur in the post-crux.
Kk 396–Kk 397 There is a short three-bar Andante opening in
quadruple time to Kk 396, a sonata which then takes on the air of a
gigue. Kk 397 is called a minuet, but like similar pieces (Kk 389,
391, 393) it is tailored in a far from traditional fashion:
A (6/6) B (7) A’ (6/6) B (7) // A (6/6) B (7)
Kk 398–Kk 399 The Andante of Kk 398 is full of resonant sound
effects. All the Cs over four octaves are used, as are all the Gs after
the double bar. The bass is set in movement once again by the
rhythm of a canari dance. In Kk 399, there appear a number of
contrasts in the divisions of the 3/8 metre.
Kk 400–Kk 401 The pulse for Kk 400 is provided by a seven-note
motif which is announced in the opening bar. Little by little it is
reinforced, concentrated and finally pulled completely to pieces.
Yet it never loses its function of providing the driving force to the
piece. Kk 401 nods in the direction of a “moto perpetuo”, and
its long succession of quavers modulates through a series of
remote tonalities.
Kk 402 The eminently symmetrical form of this piece is remarkable
for its simplicity. Each sequence, twenty bars in length, is separated
by a pause from the one which follows it. The opening is treated in
imitation, the transition contains virtuoso features, the pre-crux is
more orchestral in style and the post-crux, which is lyrical, leads into
the closing, which ends in unison.
Kk 403–Kk 404 The structure of these two pieces is straightforward
and symmetrical, somewhat on the lines of Kk 402.
Kk 405 This is one of the many 6/8 dance movements to be found
scattered throughout Scarlatti’s compositions. It is difficult to say
whether it owes more to the gigue or the tarantella, or if, on the
other hand, it was not the Spanish bulería which was the main
source of its inspiration. It is written in several voices and
modulates constantly.
One’s imagination is constantly stimulated by the sound effects
created in these sonatas. For example, surely it is great peals of bells
that are to be heard in the closing passages of Kk 403? Do not the
contrasting soli and tutti passages in Kk 402 imply the presence of an
orchestra? And, in the cases of Kk 406 and Kk 407, one cannot but
think that there is a village band at work, complete with trumpets
and drums.
Kk 408–Kk 409 The Andante which forms the prelude to this pair
contains a string of duple and triple metre sequences in quavers, and
the short development is lent tension by means of the contrary
motion of these motifs. There is a long development at the
beginning of the second half of Kk 409, and the colour is changed
every four bars by slight chromatic shifts.
CD 26
Kk 410–Kk 411 The way in which the various registers of the
harpsichord are exploited — the same motif is repeated on different
octaves — makes Kk 410, as well as many other of the sonatas from
this period of Scarlatti’s life, particularly interesting for their variety
of colour and provides a possible explanation for the marking per
cembalo expresso in Kk 356. The regular subdivisions of Kk 411 into
four-bar sequences and its single theme (arpeggios in contrary
motion) give the piece something of the atmosphere of a minuet.
Kk 412–Kk 413 The first of this pair of sonatas has a single theme
and the piece is propelled throughout by the rhythmic sequence
announced in the opening bars. Note the whole-bar rests around the
crux and the dramatic effect they create. Kk 413 is a devil-may-care
tarantella — or even perhaps devilish on account of the wide leaps
which have to be executed by the left hand.
Kk 414–Kk 415 The first part of Kk 414 is in the somewhat archaic
style of a toccata, providing no clue about what is to follow: a quite
remarkable development, full of saeta rhythms punctuated by
harmonies which are heavily laden with acciaccaturas. The surprise
is rendered all the greater by the change of tonality at the double bar.
Kk 415 is entitled Pastorale. There is nothing in the writing or the
form which makes it remotely like anything by Scarlatti, save
perhaps one or two pieces intended as studies (Kk 95, 100).
Kk 416 This is a splendid, brilliant and highly developed toccata. It
can serve perfectly well as a prelude to Kk 417, which is a long
fugue, the last of such pieces to be found in Scarlatti’s works. The
main subject is slow and austere.
Here we begin the series of sonatas which was copied out in Volume
X of the Venice manuscript dated 1755.
Kk 418–Kk 419 A continuous stream of quavers, rather in the
manner of a toccata, gives way in Kk 418 to a series of alternate
notes. The tempo marking at the beginning of Kk 419 is very
precise: Più tosto presto che allegro. The rhythms of the piece are
frequently disjointed.
Kk 420–Kk 421 These two sonatas are in the simplest of all possible
forms: A B /A’ B’. In each one of them, A and B, which are of
roughly similar length, are separated by a fermata. The whole
atmosphere of Kk 421 is dominated by a semiquaver moto perpetuo.
In the case of Kk 420, the two sequences are strongly contrasted: on
the one hand, the rhythm of a saeta, announced in the very opening
bar, and on the other, the saeta’s melodic incantation.
Kk 422–Kk 423 There is a long-drawn-out opening to the first of
these pieces. It is followed by an unaccompanied passage treated in
imitation, leading to another passage containing a single line of
flamenco-like chant. The post-crux goes through all the registers of
the harpsichord, octave by octave. Kk 423 is set in motion by
semiquaver triplets from the very first bar (id. Kk 397).
Kk 424 uses a rhythmic pulse already heard a great number of times,
whereby the impetus of the sonata is constantly stimulated by
quavers introduced in the opening bar.
Kk 425 is constructed around two equally characteristic rhythmic
patterns in contrary motion.
Kk 426–Kk 427 The partners in this pair of sonatas differ from each
other both in tempo and character. Kk 426 is a gentle piece made
up of separate sequences which vary in register and tone. It is
followed by the impetuous Presto quanto sia possibile of Kk 427 in
which railroads of semiquavers are from time to time whipped along
by four powerful chords on the rhythmic pattern:
16
CD 27
Kk 428, Kk 429 are also contrasting pieces. Kk 428, driven along
by a motif which is announced at the end of the opening, is an
austere work with a pedal bass and ostinato repetitions. Kk 429, on
the on the other hand, has all the charm of a barcarolle, with
arabesques in the bass and a sinuous oscillating melodic line. The
result is one of those remarkable lyrical pieces of which Scartatti held
the secret.
Kk 430 is a tiny singleton marked Non presto ma a tempo di ballo.
Its swaying rhythm is characterised by the two semiquavers heard in
the very first bar and by two heavily-accented bass notes which
punctuate the crux.
Kk 431–Kk 433 The final stages of Kirkpatrick’s catalogue provide
confirmation for the concept of a triptychal arrangement of pieces.
These three sonatas in fast tempo are increasingly complex. The
first, Kk 431, is one of the simplest and shortest pieces you could
have. Kk 432 is a toccata with a somewhat laborious bass line.
Finally, Kk 433 is an elaborate gigue full of contrasting thematic
material. In addition to the 6/8 themes, there are polyphonic
sequences alternating with virtuoso passages.
Kk 435–Kk 437 This second triptych contains pieces of an
orchestral nature. Kk 435, which is written in imitation style, is
somewhat severe. Towards the end it becomes particularly resonant
through the use of parallel sixths and octaves. Kk 436 shimmers with
the sound of mandolines and castanets, and Kk 437 conjures up a
picture of a village band complete with drums and trumpets.
Kk 437–Kk 438 Kirkpatrick claimed he could hear the sound of
church bells in Kk 437’s minims played in unison by both hands and
repeated several times. The image is a fine one for the austere
writing of this sonata, which provides a sharp contrast to the simple
ritornellos and static development of Kk 438.
Kk 439–Kk 440 Yet another pair consisting of a prelude and a
minuet. The two pieces are rich and full of charm. Kk 439 consists
of a large number of short, dense and varied sequences. All the
features occurring in Kirkpatrick’s analysis of Scarlatti’s forms are to
be found here in the space of a few bars, and in Kk 460 they are
taken to their fullest extent. Opening (bars 1–4), continuation (5–8),
transition (9–14), pre-crux (15–19), post-crux (19–23), closing
(24–28), final closing (28–32).
The phasing of the minuet Kk 440 is absolutely regular: A (4x4), A
(2x4), B (4x4). The piece ends with a petite reprise, five bars long, the
only occasion on which Scarlatti resorted to a practice of which
Couperin was particularly fond. Had Scarlatti ever come across the
French composer’s pieces? He could well have done, since
Couperin’s fourth book of harpsichord pieces had been available in
published form since 1730.
Kk 441–Kk 442 The opening quaver motif is repeated obsessively
throughout Kk 441 and the resulting tension is reinforced by the
modulations and the figuration of the accompaniment. Scarlatti takes
these quaver motifs into the remotest tonalities and treats his
accompaniment in very much the same way as jazz players were to
do much later. All the beats are accented and the left hand leaps
as far as three octaves. The tension to be found in Kk 442 is
entirely different. It lies for the most part in the rhythm, but the
wide leaps in the accompaniment, especially in the post-crux,
reinforce it considerably.
Kk 443–Kk 444 The richness of the writing in this splendid pair of
sonatas is in sharp contrast with the simplicity of their themes and
motifs. Kk 443 is dominated throughout by a saeta rhythm, and
Kk 444, with its 6/8 metre, is in the nature of a gigue. As with
Kk 337, the melodic lines of the two sonatas often move within
the space between two notes played by the little finger of each hand.
The modulations are not only tonal but also modal. In Kk 444,
the continuity of the musical discourse is interrupted by a series
of pauses.
Kk 445–Kk 446 A particularly fast toccata serves here as an
introduction to a pastorale. Kk 445, whose kinship with Kk 348
springs from its semiquaver motifs, owes its lively character to its
tempo, modulations and punctuation. Each post-crux is brought to a
halt by rests which interrupt the flow of semiquavers. The same type
of tension is maintained in Kk 446 by the tempo and modulations
and the wide leaps in the accompaniment.
CD 28
Kk 449–Kk 450 Yet another pair made up of pieces in quick
tempo. The virtuosic character of Kk 449 is underlined by the use
of broken sixths, and in Kk 450, we have a “Spanish tango” whose
rhythm is maintained remorselessly from beginning to end.
Throughout, the piece is for four voices (sometimes five) and the
writing is particularly dense and resonant.
Kk 451 is one of the rare singletons in these final volumes. It comes
last in the tenth Venice volume and the twelfth Parma volume, both
dated 1755. Kirkpatrick thought that they were composed only
shortly before being copied into these manuscripts. In 1755, Scarlatti
had only two years left to live. He was nearly seventy, Bach had just
died, and Mozart was soon to come into the world.
Kk 452–Kk 453 These two pieces appear amongst the sixty sonatas
in the second volume of the Münster manuscript. Neither Venice
nor Parma includes them. They are the only pair consisting of two
slow pieces.
We now embark on the Venice and Parma manuscripts dated 1756.
From now on, these two sources supply the same pieces in the same
order, right up to the last twelve sonatas.
Kk 454–Kk 455 In Kk 454, the rhythm of a seguidilla serves as a
support for a wild outpouring of virtuoso figures, and in Kk 455, a
whole series of repeated notes in the post-crux provide the basis for a
long development which is occasionally sustained by a central
harmonic pedal point.
Kk 456–Kk 457 The theme of Kk 456 is limited to a five-note
motif announced in the opening. It reappears constantly, modified
and transposed. Kk 457 is a 6/8 piece, full of typical Scarlattian
syncopations.
Kk 458 Here we have a rich sonata filled with a wide variety of
components which Scarlatti succeeds in binding together by means
of a rigorously defined tonal schema supported by pedal points. All
the sources pair it with Kk 459, a highly original piece as to its form:
in both halves of this sonata, the two zones separated by the crux are
made to contrast with each other not only through their character
but also by differences of metre (3/8), of mode (minor/major) and
of tempi (Allegro/Presto).
Kk 460 This magnificent piece could well serve as the perfect
illustration of Scarlatti’s concept of the sonata. Most of the sequences
are divided off by fermatas. In order of appearance, we have the
opening (bars 1–13), its continuation (14–26), an interlude (27–30),
a repeat of the opening (31–43), a modulating transition (44–56),
and the usual sequences on each side of the culminating point of this
first half: pre-crux (56–73), post-crux (73–85) and closing in the
dominant (85–96). This material is stated in a different order in the
freely-developed second half: motifs taken from the post-crux
(96–100 and 116–122), the transition (100–116), the interlude
(123–131) and the opening (132–136) lead to the second
culminating point, itself a point of departure for the post-crux
(137–149) and the closing (149–158).
Kk 462–Kk 463 The openings of these two sonatas are unusual. Kk
462 dispenses with imitative entries of voices, and in Kk 463 there
is a canonic entry on the fourth. Both pieces are based on regular
quaver motifs in doubled thirds, sixths or parallel octaves in Kk 462
and syncopated in Kk 463.
17
Kk 464–Kk 465 The opening of Kk 464, too, is unusual on account
of the number of imitative entries. The following fingerprint appears
(as it does in Kk 462):
Note in Kk 465 the repeated notes of a prolonged pedal point
underpinning the basic tonality, and the motif:
which characterises the closings.
Kk 466– Kk 467 The opening duple motif of Kk 466 becomes the
accompaniment for a good part of the sonata. Over this
accompaniment, there are occasional ternary figures, the only
example of three against two. Groups of three notes also appear
amongst the chains of quavers in Kk 467. Note the contrary
movements of the main voices.
CD 29
Kk 468–Kk 469 Most of the material for both halves of Kk 468 up
to the crux is provided by slightly varied versions of the opening
theme. The writing of the repeated notes in the closing figures
suggests that these should be treated rather differently from the
examples already met (cf. Kk 418, 230, 104, 84). In Kk 469, there
are chains of quaver motifs which create a static development at the
beginning of the second half (cf. Kk 438).
Kk 470–Kk 471 This pair consists of a toccata and a minuet. The
phasing of the latter is as irregular as that of similar pieces (Kk 440,
397, 389, or 393). Both sonatas are in 3/4 but clearly demand to be
played one-in-a-bar. Note the saeta rhythms in the middle of each
half of Kk 470.
Kk 472–Kk 473 The writing of Kk 472 is uncomplicated. The
piece contains a typical polyphonic sequence (here for two voices)
which is subtly thrown off balance by the off-setting of rhythms
between the two hands. Similar treatment can be observed in Kk
267 and above all in Kk 254. As is so often the case, it is the
two-quaver pulse of the saeta rhythm which provides the drive for
the whole piece right up to the closings in each half.
Kk 474–Kk 475 Kk 474 is characterised by the use of mordants,
acciaccaturas and clusters. The repeated chords in thirds of Kk 474
seem to provide the initial impetus for the continuing stream of
quavers in Kk 475. The closings of each half are hurried along by a
few syncopations but especially by triplet motifs.
Kk 476–Kk 477 Much of the material for this pair is provided by
broken arpeggios and passages in contrary movement. The opening
of Kk 477 recalls the sound of hunting horns — indeed, Kirkpatrick
saw the whole of this piece as the distant echo of a hunt.
It is often possible to clear up the question as to whether sonatas
should be grouped in twos or threes by comparing the two main
sources. In this case, however, there is no sure answer, since Parma
and Venice have these sonatas in a slightly different order. There is
a choice between a triptych consisting of Kk 478–479–480 and
a singleton Kk 484 (Venice) or two pairs, Kk 478–479 and
Kk 480–484 (Parma, volumes XIII and XIV). The second
arrangement is more satisfying musically, even though it cannot be
derived from Kirkpatrick’s numbering (cf. also Kk 53 and Kk 258).
Kk 478–Kk 479 The variety of the thematic material in Kk 478 and
the range of harmonic modulation in Kk 479 mean that these two
sonatas feature amongst the many highly successful items in the last
part of Kirkpatrick’s catalogue.
Kk 480 is an orchestral piece in which solo and tutti passages reply to
each other in the manner of woodwind and strings. It can be paired
with Kk 484, a piece whose virtuosic character is not immediately
obvious from the way the music looks on the page. Fast leaps (up to
three octaves in the space of a quaver) have now replaced hand
crossings, which scarcely ever appear in these final sonatas. The
difficulty, however, is much the same!
Kk 481–Kk 483 The writing in this triptych is relatively
straightforward, most of it being for two voices (there are a few
chords in Kk 481) but there are one or two curious details such as
the highly unusual brief restatement of the opening at the end of the
second half of Kk 481 and the little handcrossings in the closings of
both halves of Kk 482.
Kk 484 is the opening piece in both Parma and Venice manuscripts
dated 1756 (Venice XII and Parma XIV).
CD 30
Kk 485–Kk 487 This is the last but one of Scarlatti’s triptychs, and
it contains a great number of technical difficulties, including fast,
rocketing scales (closings of Kk 485 and Kk 487), leaps in octaves
going progressively from a third to a twelfth (Kk 487), parallel sixths
and octaves in the minor post-crux of Kk 485 and double trills for one
hand in the opening of Kk 487 (cf. Kk 189 and Kk 501). Note that
Kk 485 demands a harpsichord with a range exceeding five octaves:
from a bottom F to a top G. This is the widest compass in all
Scarlatti’s sonatas.
Kk 488–Kk 489 A great many of Scarlatti’s sonatas deviate from the
traditional practice of landing up at the double bar in the dominant,
and this applies particularly to the later pieces. Although in this pair,
the double bar is in fact reached in the dominant, there are surprises
in store: the tonality at the beginning of the second half of Kk 488
is a third below the dominant and in Kk 489 it is a whole tone
below.
Kk 490–Kk 492 This glorious triptych contains three of the finest
of Scarlatti’s sonatas. Chords, heavily laden with acciaccaturas, lend
the music a dramatic character, and consistent use is made of Spanish
popular dance rhythms: the saeta in Kk 490
the seguidilla in Kk 491
and the bulería in Kk 492
Moreover, all three pieces are thoroughly virtuosic and the rapid
scales in Kk 490, which are already impressive, become nothing
more nor less than rockets in the post-crux of Kk 492. Note also the
arpeggios in the post-crux of Kk 491, the thirds in Kk 492 and the
sixths in Kk 490.
Kk 493–Kk 494 The imitation treatments of each successive motif
in the opening of Kk 493 are gradually brought into closer
proximity (the first motif is imitated over a two-bar distance, the
second over one and a half bars and the third over a half-bar), ending
up with a complete synchronisation of the two voices. The sonata
then takes on a polyphonic character, a typical imbalance being
created by the rhythmic off-setting of the different voices already
met with in Kk 254, 267 and 272. Kk 494 is a festival of
modulations, and a series of motifs in parallel thirds and sixths turns
the sonata into a truly virtuosic piece.
Kk 495–Kk 498 Although the pairing of sonatas is generally
governed by contrasts in style and metre, there can be a rhythmic or
thematic kinship between the two members of a pair. Kk 495 and
Kk 496, for example, share a triplet motif in quavers, and there is a
similar association to be observed between the quaver motifs of
Kk 497 and Kk 498 (a six-quaver cell in Kk 497 and a five-quaver
cell in Kk 498).
Kk 499–Kk 500 Can traces of Spanish cante hondo be discerned in
the sort of improvised chant which appears in the middle of Kk 499?
Ostinato chords provide a support for this intense melodic line and
the dramatic nature of the piece is heightened by the surrounding
festoons of arpeggios. Note the harmonic contrast achieved at the
beginning of the second half by the modulation into C major.
18
Kk 500 is constructed more simply. Note the way in which the
imitation passages are brought closer together as in Kk 493 (four
bars, then two bars in the opening and the beginning of the
development in the second half).
CD 31
Kk 501–Kk 502 The forthright construction of Kk 501 (which
would be “concentrated” were it not for the added sequences in bar
80) and the fluidity of the writing, which is enhanced by trills and
triplets, provide a sharp contrast with the complex nature of Kk 502.
Scarlatti takes unusual pains over the expression of unequal notes,
and we have here the only example of his use of dotted rests:
Note the variety of embellishments:
and the particularly resonant accompaniment in octaves.
Kk 503–Kk 504 The central part of each half of Kk 503 contains
yet another reference to Spanish popular song, a feature already
noted in Kk 499 and in many other sonatas from Kk 180 onwards.
The chant here is sparser, the accompaniment more ostinato and the
whole context is more severe; but the dramatic impact is similar. In
spite of the non-stop progression of semiquavers in Kk 504, it is
possible to make out the different divisions which Scarlatti
establishes in his movements in 3/8 metre:
Kk 505–Kk 506: Kk 505 is a toccata written in a severe style. Kk
506 is an explosion of virtuosity and Spanish rhythms. The contrast,
which could hardly be greater, is rendered even more striking by the
simplicity of the forms and the stark nature of the writing — for the
most part for two or three voices.
Kk 507–Kk 508 Several rapid note-clusters (trills and semiquavers)
lend an exciting atmosphere to Kk 507, as though the piece is
intended to serve as an announcement for the dramatic sonata to
follow. For there can be no doubt that the language of Kk 508 is full
of highly rhetorical devices such as free cadences marked arbitri,
strict-tempo cadences with arpeggios running over five octaves, and
contrasting passages with resonant octaves.
Kk 509–Kk 510 Up to the crux in each half, all the voice entries in
Kk 509 are treated in imitation. Themes and motifs announced by
one hand receive replies from the other hand. Immediately after the
opening of Kk 510, the writing becomes polyphonic, virtually note
against note. Incidentally, it is worth noting that the sonata begins in
D minor and ends in the major.
Kk 511–Kk 512 On completion of the opening, the first of this pair
moves along in a chain of quavers grouped in fours. The second half
is rich in modulations. Kk 512 exploits the modulation scenario
provided by the opening five-note pattern.
Kk 513 This piece, called a pastorale, is one of the most famous and
the most frequently recorded of Scarlatti’s sonatas. It is in two linked
movements and the rhythm of the sicilienne is doubtless more
evocative of southern Italy than it is of Spain or Portugal. The 3/8
Presto finale is a virtuosic toccata.
Here, we come to the end of the volumes dated 1756 in the Venice
and Parma sets. The subsequent volumes bear the date 1757, the
year of the composer’s death.
Kk 514–Kk 515 The first sonata in this pair is placed right at the
beginning of Longo’s edition and it is separated from Kk 515 (Longo
255). It has often come as a considerable surprise to musicians
meeting Scarlatti for the first time, for the music is exceptionally arid
and the melodic line leaps around in a totally perplexing manner.
Its meaning becomes apparent only when it is placed in its
proper context.
Kk 516–Kk 517 A dance-like piece in 3/8 metre precedes here a
concertante sonata, and the order is specifically indicated by the
scribe of the Parma manuscript. At the head of Kk 516, he writes:
“The following sonata must be played first”. Should we exclude the
theory that the instruction was faultily transcribed and that it applied
in reality either to the erroneous order of pieces in the Venice
manuscript or to the unusual order of sonatas Kk 532 and 533?
However that may be, the idea that the pieces should be paired is
quite clear. Note the fine development in Kk 516 and the way the
sonata modulates into remote keys.
Kk 518–Kk 519 These two pieces provide further evidence of the
composer’s intention to arrange his sonatas in pairs. Although Kk
518 is in F minor, it ends in the major, which is the tonality of
Kk 518 (cf. Kk 509, which is in the major, and Kk 510, in which
only the closing is in the major). Note the different closings in the
two halves of Kk 518, its numerous modulations and the use of
octaves in Kk 519.
CD 32
The following four sonatas, which constitute a couple of pairs, seem
more or less designed for work on a particular technical difficulty
(Debussy’s Études come to mind):
Kk 520 could be entitled Study in Thirds (each post-crux features
them);
Kk 521 could in turn be called Study in Embellishments on account
of the variety of mordants, acciaccaturas and note-clusters it
contains. Note the way the rhythm is broken up in the closing
figurations;
Kk 522 features a number of passages containing various octave
figurations;
Kk 523 could be a study in contrary stepwise movements and leaps,
as these raise problems for the performer throughout the piece.
Kk 524–Kk 525 One is immediately struck by the sheer volume of
sound generated by this pair. Kk 524 contains a host of double notes,
and the development is enriched by a powerful series of parallel sixths
and octaves. Eight-note chords appear on a certain number of first
beats in Kk 525. The melodic line of this sonata, which is in 6/8
metre, is in the style of the popular Andalusian dance, the bulería.
Kk 526–Kk 527 In the Venice manuscript, naturals at the beginning
of Kk 527 cancel out the accidentals on the stave in the preceding
sonata. One would have liked to have been able to observe a similar
cancellation in the Parma manuscript. Nevertheless, Venice provides
fairly convincing proof that these two pieces were meant to be
paired. Note the admirable freedom of the tonal schema.
Kk 528–Kk 529 These two particularly resonant sonatas, with their
percussive features, conjure up visions of an orchestra. Hand
crossings, which seemed to have lost favour, make a reappearance.
The fact that both sonatas contain several notes higher than top D
preclude any idea of either of them being paired with other sonatas.
Kk 530–Kk 531 The tonality of Kk 530 and the modulations the
piece goes through (B, G sharp, F sharp) lend it both great clarity
and ease of execution through the use of the sharps, i.e. the keys
which correspond with the black keys on today’s piano. This brings
us back to the problem of the temperament used by Scarlatti. As was
the case of the F sharp or B major sonatas of the middle period, it is
likely that the tuning was not far removed from equal temperament.
Note the short sequences framed between pauses in Kk 531.
Sometimes one gets the impression that in writing these sonatas —
perhaps dictating them — Scarlatti had in mind one or other of the
pieces that had previously appeared in the Parma or Venice
manuscripts. Could these pieces be reminiscences, centred around a
motif, a theme or a simple little turn of phrase? In Kk 532 for
instance, there are some quick scales which recall Kk 379, and the
way the rhythm is broken up by hemiola-like figures brings Kk 419
to mind. Some of the final sonatas in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue appear
to be curiously lacking in flesh and on occasion they contain
elements which were inserted into earlier compositions. This is not
exactly the sign of a late period. It is not, for example, the equivalent
19
of “late Beethoven”. It could well be that the sonatas grouped
together here are sketches that Scarlatti did not have time to revise,
and it should always be borne in mind that the manuscripts in which
they appear were not directly intended for publication.
Kk 534–Kk 535 This pair of sonatas is full of fine music. The first
piece is an aria cantabile, treated for the most part in free imitation. It
provides a sharp contrast with the toccata which follows it, a moto
perpetuo in semiquavers which is not far removed from Kk 198.
Kk 536–Kk 537 The fluidity of Scarlatti’s writing in 3/4 cantabile
pieces has already been pointed out. Here, we have perhaps a
reminiscence. One is reminded of Kk 501 in the style of the
development after the double bar, and in the case of Kk 537, the
opening recalls the polyrhythmic figures in Kk 193 and Kk 69,
where imitation passages are repeated in ever shorter sequences.
Kk 538–Kk 539 Note the rhythmic patterns
which provide the impetus for Kk 538, and the broad tonal schema
of Kk 539.
CD 33
The manuscript copies in the royal collections were intended for the
personal use of Queen Maria Barbara. There is a possibility that
Scarlatti did not consider these copies as final versions of his
compositions. Although Kirkpatrick looked upon these last sonatas
as the full flowering of the composer’s work, it is nevertheless
understandable that some authorities feel that they are no more than
preliminary sketches.
Kk 542–Kk 543 These are the last sonatas in the Venice manuscript.
Note the mordants, trills and spirited note clusters in Kk 543 which
contrast with the austere construction of Kk 542, a piece notable for
its shifts between major and minor and for a number of accented
rhythmic passages.
Here, we come to the final set of twelve sonatas in the queen’s
manuscripts. They are to be found only in the Parma set and were,
if not Scarlatti’s last compositions, certainly the last pieces to be
copied down during his lifetime.
Kk 544–Kk 545 The most heavily-charged of all the sonatas in this
recording serves as a prelude to one of Scarlatti’s most dishevelled
and outlandish pieces, one of the three sonatas marked Prestissimo.
Note the short cadences which punctuate the different sequences of
Kk 544 and the powerful tone of Kk 545, where the uninterrupted
stream of quavers is reinforced by a bass line in octaves.
Kk 546–Kk 547 A pair in which a cantabile piece is contrasted with
a fine toccata whose closings have much in common with Kk 545.
Kk 548–Kk 549 In this pair, a rhythmic piece precedes a sonata
which has all the appearance of a toccata, the sort of movement
which generally serves as a prelude. There is an almost obsessive
repetition of a whole series of musical ideas throughout these
sonatas, whose general structure is based on modulations and
transpositions. Note the independent finger control required of the
performer for the trills in Kk 549, as was the case with the trills
which lie in the middle of the chords in Kk 541.
Kk 550–Kk 551 The thematic material in this pair of sonatas is
developed with great freedom and imagination. Nevertheless, there
are several facile, even careless, passages which are untypical of
Scarlatti. Should we look upon these as signs of fatigue or simply
proof that the pieces were no more than preliminary sketches?
Kk 552–Kk 553 Kk 552 has a single thematic motif:
Scarlatti exploits this motif over various registers in what is a
relatively polyphonic sonata. Kk 553 has a greater wealth of
sequences which bear all the signs of being reminiscences. There is
the rhythmic fingerprint
already heard so often, and there are motifs in thirds for the
right hand which receive widespread arpeggio responses from the
left hand.
Kk 554–Kk 555 The writing and the sheer perfection of
construction of these last two sonatas takes us right back to the
opening pieces in this catalogue. It is rather as though the circle is
now complete, so that we can no longer distinguish the beginnings
and the endings of this splendid body of music which, when all is
said and done, tells us so little of the life of its author.
CD 34
Kk 81 This sonata, together with those numbered from Kk 88 to
Kk 91, forms part of a special group in Scarlatti’s compositions. Each
consists of a series of linked movements in which there is a single
melodic line accompanied by a figured bass. Played as such on the
harpsichord, these pieces really cannot be very satisfying. In the
present recording, Scott Ross plays them together with an
instrumental chamber ensemble.
Kk 88–Kk 91 The sonatas in this group, like Kk 81, consist of
a series of linked movements. They are performed here by strings:
violin and cello, and by double-reed wind instruments: oboe
and bassoon. Kk 81 and Kk 89 are performed by strings and wind,
Kk 88, Kk 90 and Kk 91 by strings alone. The continuo is provided
by a cello and harpsichord in all the pieces. There are no instructions
about instrumentation in the manuscript sources, and the choices
made for the present recording were arrived at on purely musical
grounds by Scott Ross and the musicians who worked with him.
The sonatas alternate between quick and slow movements, as was
the custom with Italian chamber music in the early part of the
eighteenth century. Corelli, for example, wrote most of his works
for violin and figured bass on similar lines.
Generally, there are four movements (It is only in Kk 89 that one
finds three movements: Allegro, Grave, Allegro). In the other
sonatas, the overture is always marked Grave, and there are four
beats to a bar. The Allegro movements are always in binary form,
with repeats. Occasionally, they take on the characteristics of a
dance, as for example the minuet which brings Kk 88 to a close and
the gigue in Kk 90.
The figuring of these sonatas is somewhat scanty. Generally, it is
only the sixth chords which are shown. There are a few sevenths
and they are more in the nature of suspensions, as are the rare ninths.
Only in the first bars of Kk 88 do we find any dynamics: bar 2 is
marked piano and bar 3 forte. Several writers, including Joël Sheveloff
and Giorgio Pestelli, have suggested that this type of instrumentation
could be applied to other of Scarlatti’s sonatas. They point out that
the minuet in Kk 73 is also figured and that the style of Kk 77 and
Kk 78 is somewhat akin to that of sonatas Kk 89 to Kk 91.
There is an interesting picture by Richard Van Loo, painter at the
Spanish Court from 1727 to 1752, which shows Queen Maria
Barbara at the harpsichord, flanked by a violinist and a viola da
gamba player. It was therefore customary to perform music with
chamber ensembles, and the instrumentation we suggest seems to be
justified even though no precise description has been provided. In
spite of all our efforts, we have not been able to obtain a
reproduction of the painting. According to all reports, it is in the
Leningrad Museum. There is, however, a monochrome
reproduction of it in Curt Sachs’s book on the history of musical
instruments.
Kk 287–Kk 288 Two of the three pieces for organ form a pair. The
score states that they should be played on an organo da camera con due
tastatura flautato e trombone, i.e. a chamber organ (a positive organ
without pedals) with main flute and reed stops. The organ used for
this recording is the one in the church at Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert.
Although it is not a chamber organ, its style and timbre meant that
it was entirely suitable for our purposes.
20
Kk 328 is the last of the three organ pieces in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue
(cf. Kk 287 and Kk 288).
Glossary
Acciaccatura From the Italian verb acciaccare meaning to crush or
flatten; the name of a type of musical ornamentation found in
eighteenth-century harpsichord music. Scarlatti made frequent use
of the acciaccatura in his sonatas. The ornament appears in a
number of accompanying bass lines in order to strengthen the
sound (bass lines in Kk 141, cadences in Kk 208 and modulations
in Kk 490). He also made use of it in a great number of melodic
lines in order to provide pointing for the phrasing (e.g. Kk 132,
etc.). The theory behind the acciaccatura appears in the writings
of Francesco Gasparini, who was one of Scarlatti’s teachers, but it
is clear that Scarlatti made a far more extensive use of the device
than Gasparini had envisaged. (cf. L’Armonico pratico al cembalo,
Venice, 1708).
Ambitus Apart from a few exceptions, the ambitus (compass) of
Scarlatti’s sonatas falls into three categories: the pieces numbered
from Kk 1 to Kk 100 are written for a keyboard on which the
highest note is a c (the lowest note, a G, occurs only twice); the
pieces numbered from Kk 101 to Kk 364 are written for a keyboard
on which the highest note is a D (the lowest note is a G); and,
finally, many of the pieces numbered from Kk 364 to Kk 555 are
written for a keyboard on which the highest note is a g (the lowest
note, an F, occurs only four times).
There are only six sonatas which fall outside these categories. All
contain errors of instrumentation, numbering or copying. Some are
of doubtful authenticity. Sonatas Kk 43, 70 and 94 require a top D,
bringing them more into the group beginning with Kk 100.
Similarly, Kk 97, 148 and 153 require an E flat. There are grounds
for doubting the authenticity of Kk 97 and the other two appear to
have been intended for the fortepiano.
Authenticity The absence of autograph manuscripts and of
contemporary accounts about Scarlatti makes it inevitable that there
are problems over the authenticity of the sonatas, even though the
choices made by Kirkpatrick are based on firm grounds. It is possible
that further works may be attributed to Scarlatti. Jack Werner and
Robert Clark Lee have researched the question and Heugel have
announced the publication in their Le Pupitre series of a twelfth
volume of sonatas edited by Kenneth Gilbert, who discusses the
arguments in favour of their being included in the works catalogued
by Kirkpatrick.
Boivin Here we have a name which appears on a good number of
French eighteenth-century scores. François Boivin was one of the
great music publishers of his time and, following his death in 1973,
his widow, Madame Veuve Boivin, kept the business going for a
further twenty years. She herself was a member of the publishing
family Ballard, and there were many publications of music in
partnership with Le Clerc, Corette, de Brotonne, Castagnerie, etc.
The signs above their shops were just as famous. The Ballards, then
the Boivins, had the Règle d’Or and the Le Clercs had the Croix d’Or
(cf. Annick Devries and François Lesure: Dictionnaire des Éditeurs de
Musique français (Dictionary of French Music Publishers), Minkof,
1979). Six volumes published by Boivin brought Scarlatti to the
attention of the French public. There is some doubt about the exact
dates of publication, but the earliest, based apparently on
Roseingrave’s edition, would seem to have come out as early as
1739. The exact sources of the editions have not yet been identified.
Kirkpatrick nevertheless adopted two of Veuve Boivin’s sonatas (Kk
95 and Kk 97) which do not appear in the so-called main sources.
There must nevertheless be some doubt about their authenticity.
Cembalo expresso This expression appears as a subtitle to Kk 356.
Nobody quite knows what it means. Kirkpatrick says only that since
the sonata in question goes up to a top g, it cannot have been
written for a fortepiano. There were fortepianos at the Spanish
court, but they did not go beyond a top E. Both Kk 356 and 357
are written out on four staves in order to bring out the different
melodic lines. Kenneth Gilbert points out that this layout, which
favours the idea of the pieces being played on a two-manual
harpsichord, is in contradiction with the structure of instruments
going up to a g. The Spanish harpsichords which appear in the court
inventories had only a single keyboard. Further to this curious
problem, Kenneth Gilbert has more recently put forward the idea
that Kk 356 could be the first of a long series of pieces of extended
range and that the marking per cembalo expresso underlined the fact
that they were intended to be played on instruments which had been
suitably extended and adapted for them. The French, in this
connection, talk about a harpsichord which has been ravalé. Why
could one not talk about a harpsichord which has been “squeezed”
(expresso) in order to extract the last drop of sound out of it, in much
the same way as one talks about squeezing a lemon to get the last
drop of juice out of it? (Kenneth Gilbert at the Nice Symposium).
Chronology Any attempt to draw up a chronology of the sonatas
is of necessity severely hampered by the lack of an autograph
manuscript and of reliable evidence as to the circumstances in which
they were written. Kirkpatrick based his catalogue on a chronology
taken from previous editions and the manuscripts at present
available. Anyone, however, who listens to the first hundred sonatas
is inevitably led to the conclusion that many of them were written
long before the Essercizi. In 1967, Giorgio Pestelli published a
different chronology based on stylistic evidence. Jane Clark has in
turn come up with a number of suggestions which shed an entirely
new light on ideas prevalent today. Alessandro Longo’s classification
in the 1906 edition was based essentially on key signatures. This led
to a total chronological and stylistic confusion.
Coimbra The University Library in Coimbra, a town a hundred miles
or so to the north of Lisbon, contains the one and only source of a
Minuet by Scarlatti (Kk 94). The town was rightly famous for having
provided shelter for the exiled University of Lisbon on several
occasions during the Middle Ages, and one of the organists at the
cathedral was the Portuguese composer Carlo Seixas. An album of
Toccatas per cembalo y organo by Seixas includes a Toccata by Signor
Domingo Escarlate. This suite consists of a group of four pieces by
Scarlatti (Kk 85, Kk 82, the first part of Kk 78 and Kk 94). Manuscript
annotations reveal that the work was well and truly designed as a suite
in which the pieces should be played one after the other. This provides
proof that on certain occasions at least, it was the practice for Scarlatti’s
sonatas to be put into groups. Seixas’s album is dated 1720, the very
year in which Scarlatti took up his post as Kapellmeister in Lisbon. He
had therefore just arrived in Portugal, and this fact provides at least
some degree of justification for the theory that the sonatas had been
previously composed in Italy.
Crux Ralph Kirkpatrick drew attention to a special characteristic of
the binary form as practised by Scarlatti. He observed that the two
halves of each sonata (which are separated by a double bar, implying
that each should be repeated) are themselves divided into two parts.
He gave the name of crux to the theoretical point dividing the zones,
the first of which is more dynamic on account of its rhythms, themes
and modulations, and the second more static, modulating practically
never and often containing virtuoso figuration. This division is to be
found but rarely in the “first manner” pieces. It is almost as though
Scarlatti adopted it as a regular practice only after being in contact
with musicians in Spain and Portugal, where it began to appear at
the end of the seventeenth century. It is occasionally underlined by
an arpeggio, a cadence or a fermata and it can be discerned both
visually and aurally by the fact that in the static zone after the crux,
the same musical sequences are to be found, on the first occasion in
the dominant (in the first halo and on the second in the tonic (at the
end of the sonata). When analysing the sonatas, Kirkpatrick uses the
terms pre-crux and post-crux to distinguish the musical sequences
immediately before and after the crux.
Gatto Kk 30 was given the nickname “The Cat’s Fugue” on
account of the cautious stepwise movement of its opening theme.
The name dates from the nineteenth century and the insistence
placed upon it by many pianists, Liszt and Moscheles prominent
amongst them, and by publishers including Clementi, Czerny and,
21
later, Longo, made sure that it would stick. We know that Wanda
Landowska had a famous cat, but we shall probably never know if
Scarlatti had such a pet. Nothing, however, is more alien to his style
than to give a title to one of his compositions, however suitable it
might be from an anecdotal point of view.
Gilbert Kenneth Gilbert was born in Montreal. After training at the
Conservatory there, he came to France and Italy to complete his
studies, working with Gaston Litaize, Ruggero Gerlin and Nadia
Boulanger. As an organist in Montreal, he played a decisive role in
the movement towards the Classical organ. After making his
London debut as a harpsichordist in 1968, he began to give concerts
in the leading towns and cities of Europe and America, and to make
a large number of records. He has taken part in numerous radio and
television broadcasts as well as in a great many festivals. His work as
a musicologist has led him to edit new editions of music for the
harpsichord by Couperin, Rameau, d’Anglebert and Frescobaldi.
He also edited Couperin’s works for the organ, Bach’s Goldberg
Variations and the monumental edition of all Scarlatti’s sonatas. The
latter work was selected by the Committee of the European Music
Year in 1985. Kenneth Gilbert taught first at the Montreal
Conservatory and at Laval University in Quebec. He was appointed
to the Royal Antwerp Conservatory in 1971. In the following year,
he took over from Gustav Leonhardt at the Haarlem Summer Organ
Academy in the Netherlands and likewise from Ruggere, Gerlin at
the Chigiana Academy in Sienna in 1981. He has conducted the
harpsichord class at the Stuttgart Hochschule since October 1981,
the year in which he became director of the Early Music
Department at the Strasbourg Conservatory where, until 1985, he
ran the post-graduate harpsichord course, the only one of its kind in
France. He has just been appointed professor of harpsichord playing
at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Kenneth Gilbert has exercised a great
deal of influence over the young generation of harpsichordists both
in Europe and America through his playing and his pedagogical
career in the field of early music.
Hand crossing Scarlatti’s sonatas are full of markings which invite
the player to play certain passages in the bass with the right hand and
others in the treble with the left hand. The actual crossing
movement is carried out over the hand which is entrusted with the
continuity of the sound in the middle. Quite often, the device
smacks of showmanship, and without resorting to a whole theory of
hand crossings, one should nevertheless draw attention to a few
salient points. Occasionally, musicality is sacrificed for the sake of
theatrical effect. For instance, in Kk 27, which is an admirable piece,
Scarlatti stipulates that the hand crossings should be alternated: the
figuration is played first by the left hand and then by the right hand
and finally by the left hand again. This means that the hands fly in
turn over the fine harmonies provided by the suspensions of sixths
and sevenths, and the pattern is repeated three times, the two hands
playing a different role each time. (I have often wondered if the last
of these repetitions imposed by the gyrations of the two forearms
was not superfluous from the musical point of view).
There are other sonatas in which it would seem simpler to play the
top notes with the outside fingers of the right hand, keeping the
inside fingers for the accompaniment. Purists like to point out that
if you do this, you lose the whole point of many of the hand
crossings, which is to impose a certain degree of psychological
pressure on the performer, even if there is nothing that can actually
be heard. I suppose that I must indeed go along with that point
of view to a certain extent, at least so far as television broadcasts
are concerned.
Kirkpatrick has decisively refuted Burney’s somewhat discourteous
comment which linked the disappearance of hand crossings with
Scarlatti’s increasing portliness. It would seem, in fact, that Scarlatti
did not put on weight as he grew older. It has to be admitted,
though, that the hand crossings are useful for determining the
chronology of the composer’s works.
Fifteen of the thirty Essercizi contain hand crossings, but they
disappear completely in the archaistic pieces between Kk 59 to Kk
96 and in the didactic sonatas after Kk 148. They are to be found in
only five of the sonatas from the so-called middle period (Kk 174,
175, 182, 217, 243). Amongst the final group of 300 sonatas, apart
from Kk 528, 529 and 554, there are only about ten which resort to
hand crossing, and even then only in moderation.
Harpsichord Even today, experts argue about the precise
instrument for which Scarlatti wrote his sonatas. Clearly, most of
them were written for the harpsichord: it is named in the title of the
Essercizi. But exactly which harpsichord? Each has particular
characteristics of tone, keyboard and compass. Scarlatti himself left
no clue as to his intentions. Some of the sonatas can be played on
the organ, and three of them (Kk 287, Kk 288 and Kk 238) are
specifically written for this instrument. But there again, which
organ? No doubt a chamber organ of some sort, since a pedal
instrument is not required. Some of the sonatas, too, could well have
been intended for the fortepiano, since these instruments were to be
found at the Spanish court. Joël Sheveloff is a keen supporter of this
idea. Finally, it is possible that Scarlatti also had in mind people who
played on clavichords or spinets, and in particular on the English
double bent-side spinet. In support of this idea, Kenneth Gilbert
notes in the preface to his edition of the sonatas that the latter
instrument has, if not a low F, at least a high g. All the authors
quoted in the bibliography at the end of this cursory notice devote
a few paragraphs to this problem, in particular William Dowd in the
paper he delivered to the Nice Symposium on Scarlatti. For the
present recording, Scott Ross used five different harpsichords:
For sonatas Kk 32 to Kk 93 (excepting Kk 80 and from Kk 88 to
Kk 91 inclusive), an Italian harpsichord made by Jean-Louis Val. All
these sonatas were most probably composed before Scarlatti went to
Portugal and, later, to Spain. The choice of this instrument, with its
highly individual timbre, seems perfectly justified.
For all the other pieces, four French-style double-manual
instruments (8, 8, 4) by the following makers were used:
· Anthony Sidey (from Kk 94 to Kk 188 and from Kk 356
to Kk 555),
· William Dowd/Von Nagel (from Kk 268 to Kk 355),
· William Martin (from Kk 1 to Kk 30, and from Kk 189
to Kk 267),
· David Ley (Kk 31 and from Kk 88 to Kk 91).
Finally, the three sonatas specifically composed for the organ were
recorded on the organ in the church of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert.
Kirkpatrick Ralph Kirkpatrick was born in the United States in 1911
and made an international career as a harpsichordist. His greatest claim
to fame, however, was his contribution to our knowledge of Scarlatti
through his book on the composer which appeared after ten years of
research. In the thirties, his studies took him to Paris, where he worked
with Wanda Landowska and Nadia Boulanger. His concerts and
recordings earned him renown. He appeared with the greatest
instrumentalists of his time, including Alexander Schneider and Pierre
Fournier, and he made a complete recording of the keyboard works of
J.S. Bach. He also took an interest in contemporary music, and Elliott
Carter wrote a concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra for him in
1961. Darius Milhaud’s Sonata for violin and harpsichord, op. 257
(1945), was given its first performance with Kirkpatrick at the
keyboard. But it was Scarlatti who lay at the centre of his life and work
He travelled all over Italy, Spain and Portugal in search of the
composer’s traces and visited all the other European countries which
housed the manuscript sources. Very little new material has come to
light during the thirty years that have elapsed since the completion of
his work. In order to bring wider attention to Scarlatti’s compositions,
he published a facsimile of the Parma manuscript (Johnson reprint,
1972, 18 volumes) and an anthology of sixty sonatas (Schirmer, USA),
which he analysed in detail and also recorded. His crowning
achievement, however, was his book, which nobody interested in
Scarlatti should fail to read. It contains not only an account of the
composer’s life and a description of his work, but also a great many
exceptionally useful hints for performers, who can, for once, take
advantage of the experience and guidance of a master of the keyboard.
Ralph Kirkpatrick died on 13 April 1984.
22
Longo The name Longo will always be associated with the first
complete edition of Scarlatti’s keyboard works and with the first
complete catalogue of the sonatas drawn up in connection with it.
The eleven volumes of the edition appeared in 1906 (the date of the
copyright) and new editions were put out regularly by the
publishers, Ricordi, until recent years. The great merit of the edition
was to acquaint the entire world with 545 sonatas. Until that time,
only a handful of pieces — forty or so — had been available.
Unfortunately, Longo’s edition reflects very much the spirit of the
age — late nineteenth/early twentieth century — and was designed
for pianists who were not particularly interested in accurate scores.
At times, one is surprised and even scandalised by the liberties taken
by Longo. He came from a Neapolitan family of musicians and was
himself a composer. It would appear that he produced his edition in
partnership with his father. Kenneth Gilbert discovered the texts
used for the first edition in the library of the Naples Conservatory.
They consist mainly of a most carefully-produced copy of the
Venice manuscript made, in all probability, by the father but heavily
laden with the son’s additions in the shape of phrase markings,
dynamics and fingerings, which means that the edition is no longer
acceptable today. What is even more serious is that Longo actually
altered the text in many places and completely destroyed the order
in which the sonatas originally appeared. He ignored the gradual
development of Scarlatti’s style and the groupings suggested by the
manuscripts (pairs and triptychs) and reorganised them into suites
according to tonality. From a musical point of view, this made no
sense whatsoever. In addition, Kirkpatrick’s catalogue reveals that
there are eleven sonatas which Longo did not include in his edition,
i.e Kk 41 (fugue in D minor), Kk 80, 94, 97, 142, 143, 144, 204a,
204b, 452 and 453. The two sonatas Kk 204a and b are in fact a
single piece.
Manuscripts There is no autograph manuscript of the keyboard
works of Domenico Scarlatti. However surprising it may seem, the
fact remains that to this day, apart from the Essercizi and a few other
sonatas published later by both Roseingrave and Boivin, the only
known source of these pieces is entirely the work of copyists. In the
main, these sources consist of two sets of fifteen bound volumes in
the libraries of Venice and Parma. Additional copies are to be found
in Münster, Vienna, Cambridge, etc. Although there appears to be
little hope of ever finding manuscript copies in Scarlatti’s own hand,
there still remains scope for research into the precise circumstances in
which the extant manuscripts came into being. It is not impossible
that they were dictated. At the time, it was not unusual for music to
be taken down during performance; this happened, for instance, in
the case of compositions by blind organists. The question arises as to
whether Scarlatti systematically resorted to the services of talented
copyists, limiting himself to actual performances of his pieces in their
presence. A careful examination, moreover, of the Venice and the
Parma manuscripts brings to light a sufficient number of disparities to
justify the theory that both are merely copies of copies (cf. the Nice
symposium, 1985, and Joël Sheveloff on the theory of there being or
having been a third source).
Minuet There are ten or so minuets to be found here and there
amongst Scarlatti’s compositions — at least, such is the title given to
these sonatas in the manuscript copies. The justification for the title
lies more in the spirit of the pieces than in their framework.
Choregraphers of the Baroque era would almost certainly have been
puzzled by these pieces, where odd and even number of bars are
made to alternate. Only Kk 440 bears a reasonable resemblance to
the standard model of a minuet by virtue of the symmetry of its
construction. Most of the other pieces marked “minuet” are
asymmetric. The only justification for the title lies in their being in
triple time and in enjoying a dance-like quality together with a
certain unity of thematic material.
Mode Shifts from major to minor and vice versa seem to have been
used by Scarlatti more as a means of bringing variety to the general
tonality of a piece than of altering the character of the musical
discourse. Many sonatas move from one mode to the other without
there being any change in the overall atmosphere. Moreover, there
are three sonatas (Kk 444, 510 and 519) which begin in the minor
and end in the major, thus lending greater homogeneity to the pairs
they form with Kk 443, 509 and 518, all three of which are written
in the major. The actual distribution of modes throughout
Kirkpatrick’s catalogue should nevertheless be noted. Most of the
first hundred numbers are sonatas in the minor. The proportion
changes radically afterwards. Twenty-three out of the twenty-five
didactic sonatas which are to be found in the initial Parma and
Venice volumes (from Kk 148 onwards) are in the major, and out
of the last three hundred sonatas there are fewer than sixty in the
minor. When there are sharps in the key signature, the chances are
that the piece will be in the major; if there are flats, one can expect
the minor. Sonatas in the major with flats in the key signature are
twice as rare as sonatas with sharps. The opposite is true in the case
of pieces in the minor.
Pairing Today, it ought to be just as outlandish to divorce a
Scarlatti sonata from its partner as it would be to separate one of
Bach’s preludes from its accompanying fugue. The last four hundred
sonatas in Kirkpatrick’s catalogue fall naturally into pairs where the
tonality is common to both pieces and contrast is provided by the
metre. The result is musically coherent and balanced. The pairing is
so clearly systematic that it is difficult to understand how Alessandro
Longo managed to ignore it in his edition of the sonatas. The
objective reasons justifying the theory that the sonatas should be
paired are to be found in the Introduction to the works. The rare
singletons and triptychs merely serve to prove the rule. It is
nevertheless far from easy to draw up an accurate catalogue of pairs
since Scarlatti himself did not make his intentions clear. Moreover,
the manuscript copies differ occasionally, which is far from helpful.
The Parma manuscript reveals 192 possible pairs and eighteen
triptychs whereas the Venice manuscript shows only a possible 187
pairs and twelve triptychs. By combining the two sources,
Kirkpatrick ended up with 194 pairs but only four triptychs. He was
left with 155 singletons. Some of these, however, can be combined
to make several triptychs or suites containing several movements.
There are also a few double sonatas which actually constitute pairs.
Parma The music department of the Biblioteca Palatina, which
today forms part of the Arrigo Boito Conservatory, has owned a
collection of fifteen bound volumes containing 464 sonatas since
1908. A facsimile edition was published in 1972 in the United States
under the editorship of Ralph Kirkpatrick (Johnson Reprint
Corporation). It is now accepted that the Parma manuscript
antedates the Venice manuscript, at least in so far as the sonatas
copied after 1750 are concerned. Joël Sheveloff examined this
question in the course of his thesis. Nevertheless, he did not entirely
dismiss the possibility that both manuscripts could have been based
on a third source which has still not come to light. Kenneth Gilbert
has noted that there are some unusual markings here and there on
the Parma manuscript which could well have been put there by the
scribe responsible for the Venice manuscript to remind him how far
he had got with his copying. During the Nice Symposium (cf.
Essential reading), Kenneth Gilbert surmised, perhaps a little
tongue-in-cheek, that these markings might have coincided with
the summons to meals, since each section of copying could well
have been completed in a single work session.
Roseingrave Thomas Roseingrave, an English organist and
composer, was one of Scarlatti’s admirers. He came to Italy after
completing his musical studies and followed Scarlatti to Venice and
to Rome. When he returned to London at the age of thirty, he put
on a production of Narciso, one of Domenico Scarlatti’s last operas,
and set about the task of making the English public aware of the
composer’s work In 1739 he published two volumes of Suites de
Pièces pour le Clavecin which contained the thirty Essercizi sonatas,
twelve further ones (Kk 31 to 43), a fugue by Alessandro Scarlatti
and one of his own compositions which he put at the beginning of
the collection. Roseingrave had virtually abandoned his own
musical career by this time. It is highly likely that he sought to make
his own edition more attractive than the Essercizi edition of the
previous year by adding some of the pieces which he had brought
back from Italy some twenty years before. However that may be,
these pieces are to be found in other sources, in particular in the
Vienna manuscript and in the Venice manuscript dated 1742. There
are, however, a few slight differences (cf. Kk 33).
23
Tempi The tempo of Scarlatti’s sonatas is the celebrated tempo
ordinario. Nearly four hundred sonatas in duple or triple metre are
marked either Allegro or Allegretto. But the number of sonatas
which are slower than the ordinario is far from negligible. More than
ninety are marked either Andante or Adagio. Also, only seventy are
given a faster tempo marking: Presto or Prestissimo. The general
distribution of tempi is therefore very much what it is in music of
the Classical or even Romantic eras. After all, the typical
four-movement sonata contains two allegros, a slow movement and
a quicker finale. In Scarlatti’s case, most of the slower pieces are
paired with a fast one, to which it forms a sort of prelude. Some
fifteen isolated slow movements date from the composer’s youth and
appear somewhat at random in the chronology (Kk 32, 34, 40, 41,
42, 52, 77, 80, 83, 86, 92, 94, 109, 132, 144).
Tonality Scarlatti joined other composers of his day in the
evolution towards the use of equal temperament, which was to
prevail in all music for the coming two centuries. He used all the
tonalities. They are often indicated in archaistic style in the sources,
thus reducing the complication of key signatures. The only tonalities
not to be found are C sharp (or D flat) major and C sharp (or D flat)
minor. All the sonatas containing many sharps or flats in the key
signature are from the middle period and Kirkpatrick considered
them to be more experimental than inspired. As a general rule, no
particular character can be ascribed to a given key. Nevertheless, it
is worth noting that D is the favourite key. About a hundred sonatas,
two thirds of them in the major, are in this tonality.
Transcriptions The orchestral character of some of the sonatas,
together with the wealth of Scarlatti’s thematic invention and the
truculence of his rhythms, have tempted many musicians to make
transcriptions. This happened as soon as the sonatas first appeared in the
eighteenth century and Alessandro Longo revived this curious tradition
in his monumental edition. The two most famous transcriptions are
those made by Charles Avison in the eighteenth century and Vicenzo
Tomasini at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Charles Avison, an English composer, published a series of concerti
grossi for strings in 1744. They are scored for seven parts and
generally consist of four movements based on all or part of a sonata
from the Essercizi or Roseingrave’s edition. Ten of the movements,
however, do not correspond with any of the sonatas catalogued by
Kirkpatrick In all probability, Avison wrote them himself in the style
of Scarlatti. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Italian
composer, Vincenzo Tomasini, used some of Scarlatti’s sonatas for
the score of his ballet Les Femmes de bonne humeur, one of the first to
be choreographed by Leonide Massine for Diaghilev’s Russian ballet.
It is based on a comedy by Carlo Goldoni, and Tomasini chose
twenty-three of the most lyrical or rhythmical of Scarlatti’s sonatas,
either entirely or in part, for the twenty-three scenes of the ballet.
Scarlatti inspired other composers such as Alfredo Casella, who in
1926 wrote a suite for piano and orchestra entitled Scarlattiana.
Arthur Benjamin wrote a suite for flute and strings in 1945. Gordon
Bryan wrote a large number of works based on Scarlatti’s works.
These include a suite for piano, percussion and strings entitled
Scarlattiana and several concertos: for oboe (1942–43), flute (1944),
viola (1946), violin (1948), and horn (1949). He also wrote two trios
for flute, oboe and piano (1947–50). Arrangements of the sonatas for
other instruments are so numerous that it would be difficult to draw
up a list of them. They include pieces for the harp, the guitar, the
accordion and for wind ensembles.
Venice Since 1835, the Palazzo Marciana, opposite the Doges’
Palace, has housed fifteen superb volumes bearing the arms of the
royal houses of Spain and Portugal. They contain manuscript copies
of 496 of Scarlatti’s sonatas. Laura Alvini is at present supervising the
production of a facsimile edition of these volumes. Joël Sheveloff
carried out a detailed analysis of the manuscripts in a thesis he
presented in 1970.
Essential reading

Ralph Kirkpatrick Domenico Scarlatti, first published in 1983 by the

Princeton University Press.
Joël Sheveloff The keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti, published by
Ann Arbor University, Michigan, USA, 1970.
Kenneth Gilbert Préface de l’édition intégrale en onze volumes de l’œuvre
pour clavier de Domenico Scarlatti, Heugel, Paris 1983.
Nice Symposium Record of the Proceedings of the International
Symposium on Domenico Scarlatti, organised by the Nice Early Music
Festival in 1985.
Roberto Pagano Scarlatti, Alessandro e Domenico, due vite in una,
published by Arnaldo Mondadori in 1985.

Credits and acknowledgements

Scott Ross began his recording of Scarlatti’s 555 sonatas on Saturday

16 June 1984.

Ninety-eight sessions were needed and the last was completed on 10

September of the following year. In all, there had been eight
thousand takes.

The recordings were made in the following locations:

Radio France, Paris: Studio 103 (Sonatas 31 to 40, 61 to 188
and 268 to 365), Studio 106 (Sonatas 41 to 60), Studio 107
(Sonatas 372 to 555)
Chapel, Château d’Assas (Sonatas 1 to 30 and 219 to 267)
Salle Tinel, Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
(Sonatas 356 to 371)

Alain de Chambure was the musical supervisor. Alain Duchemin

was in charge of the sound balance for most of the sonatas, except
for Kk 293 to Kk 355 and sonatas Kk 94 to Kk 112, which were
respectively looked after by Madeleine Sola and Bernard Charron.

The technical team consisted of Jean-Michel Bernot, Pascal Besnard

and Alain Joubert for two-thirds of the recordings and editing
sessions. The remaining third was in the hands of Solène Chevassus,
Catherine Lhéritier, Ysabelle Van Wersch-Cot, Olivier Beurotte,
François Caillard, Vincent Decque, Olivier Dupré and Patrick
Nuiry. Scott Ross himself did a great deal of the editing.

The whole project was carried out as a co-production between

Radio France and Erato.

To date, this is the only complete recording of Scarlatti’s keyboard

works.

The 555 sonatas went out on the air in a series of more than two
hundred broadcasts by Radio France and in European Broadcasting
Union programmes on the occasion of the three hundredth
anniversary of Scarlatti’s birth in 1985.

I should like to thank Kenneth Gilbert for his invaluable assistance

in the preparation of these notes. He not only undertook to give me
guidance on its contents but also agreed to read the manuscripts.

Alain de Chambure Translation: John Sidgwick

24