Professional Documents
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Carl Sloane
Early Music, Vol. xxxv, No. 4 The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1093/em/cam088, available online at www.em.oxfordjournals.org
605
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
c
g
G
G
e
B
F
d
f
E
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
D
c
D
A
f
A
b
E
D
g (fuga)
same sequence in positions 1, 3 and 4 is 1/264 if position 2 can be occupied by any different key, 1/440 if
by a major key and 1/1320 if by F major.
k912 may constitute a third group with the same
outer keys as the previous two, but this group also
involves the pair in D minor and the triptych in G,
and there are several probabilities which may be
determined, but they are more difficult to interpret. Assuming k18, with D and G minors in their
observed positions, the probability of the next four,
chosen at random from the remaining seven, having D and G minors in their observed positions, is
1/105. On the other hand, the probability of the D
minor pair and the triptych in G being formed upon
random arrangement of the last seven sonatas, if
no restrictions are placed on their position, is 1/18,
which is too high to reject the hypothesis that they
are due to chance, and there is some question in my
mind as to what significance, if any, can be given to
the probability of these two groups occupying their
observed positions. The value 1/105 is small enough
to suggest volition, and it is possible that Scarlatti
created the pair and triptych within or overlapping
a four-membered group to give the player a choice
of groupings.
In the second half of the volume, there are
two couples in E majorD major. If one couple
is assumed, and it is required that the two couples
and the remaining sonata in D be isolated from one
another, as they are, the probability of chance occurrence of a second couple is 1/24.
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
In addition, there are two exactly analogous triples, k1618 and k235, which can be expanded to
quadruples if mode is disregarded. Since the key
sequence has an a priori significance, it is legitimate
to calculate the probability of both groups rather
than just that of the second given the existence of the
first. For the two triples, this probability is 1/4000,
for the quadruples, 1/360,000. Given the triples, the
probability that sonatas in F minor and A major
would each end up where they do by chance is 1/56 if
the ED couples are also assumed in advance, which
they should be if the triples are assumed.
The above probabilities are small enough to show
beyond reasonable doubt that the Essercizi have
been extensively organized, and to obviate any argument which attempts to use their supposed random
arrangement as proof that the pairs in Venice and
Parma are due to the scribe (see Boyds caution in
note 3). The groupings themselves would seem to
be of an experimental nature, and one is bound to
wonder if they are part of Scarlattis ingenious jesting with Art; those in the first half may be founded
in modal theoryD minor is tono primo, and G
minor tono primo irregolare.6 The rationale in k16-18
and k235, or the corresponding quadruples, seems
obvious, at least to a point, but both they and the
ED couples may reflect a desire to create contrast by
exploiting the temperament. Until someone presents
a more convincing argument to the contrary than
any I have seen so far, I am compelled to believe that
Scarlatti used mean-tone,7 and although some writers are dismissive of what they regard as hair-splitting divisions of the comma, I doubt whether any
of them would extend their point of view to meantone. There is also an association between E and D
majors in Venice, particularly in the early volumes,
and in the later volumes E major tends to be found
in conjunction with A major/minor. The two observations suggest that there may be a higher level of
organization in Venice and Parma as well.
The groupings in the Essercizi can probably be
considered the immediate forerunners of the pairs
in Venice and Parma, and the precedent of the Essercizi may help to explain why each member of a pair
retains its own title and number, in contrast to the
two-movement Italian sonata, which Sheveloff
estimates to have arrived in Spain around 1745, and
which he thinks may have provided the motivation
the trill always uses the upper. Sheveloff and Neumann have arrived at much the same interpretation
reasoning from 17th-century Italian practice.
The treatise, however, leaves open the meaning
of tremulo di sopra, which occurs only once in the
entire corpus (Venice xv-6, k96). Sheveloff and Neumann are convinced that in this particular case the
upper auxiliary is required, but they do not explain
why Scarlatti chose this method of notation instead of
a simple trill sign with ties, as in k82.12 In my opinion,
di sopra should be understood in the sense of di
sopra in sotto (from above downward), by analogy
with di sotto in su (from below upward), which
is seen, for example, in the writing of the 20th-century novelist Alberto Moravia. This interpretation is
supported by a passage in a 17th-century Neapolitan
treatise cited in a more recent issue of Early Music:
the articles author translates the phrase nella seconda linea di sopra as on the second line down.13
It is a curious fact that the tremulo di sopra
represents the first appearance of the tremulo in
any form in Venice, and the suspicion thus arises
that the qualifying phrase has more to do with the
sonatas location than with the ornament itself. In
other words, this tremulo is probably identical with
the normal tremulo, and the qualifier is nothing more
than a prompt on the first occurrence to emphasize
the distinction between tremulo and trill.
Carl Sloane graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Toronto, but worked for many years as a
translator. He is an amateur harpsichordist and has written on theoretical and practical aspects of keyboard temperament in various journals, including Harpsichord and Fortepiano, The Diapason and
Journal of Sound and Vibration. carlsloane@yahoo.ca
1 G. Doderer, New aspects concerning
the stay of Domenico Scarlatti at the
court of King John V (17191727), in
the preface to Libro di tocate per
cembalo: Domenico Scarlatti (Lisbon,
1991), pp.752, cited in W. D. Sutcliffe,
The keyboard sonatas of Domenico
Scarlatti and eighteenth-century
musical style (Cambridge, 2003), p.69,
and in J. H. van der Meer, Os
instrumentos de tecla na propriedade
de D. Maria Brbara, Rainha de
Espanha, Revista Portuguesa de
Musicologia, ii (1992), pp.1619, at
p.161.
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