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observation

Carl Sloane

ccording to their dedication, Domenico


Scarlattis Essercizi per gravicembalo, which
number 1 to 30 in Kirkpatricks catalogue and were
published in London in 1738 or 1739, were born
under the highest auspices of John V of Portugal, in
the service of the kings daughter Maria Barbara and
brother Antonio, and therefore between 1719 and
1727, during Scarlattis residence there.1
The apparent lack of organization in the Essercizi compared to the later Venice and Parma manuscripts,2 where most of the sonatas have been arranged
in twos or threes with a common tonic, has led almost
all writers to the conclusion that the single pair and
triptych which do occur (k9-10 and k12-14, see Table
1), are coincidental, if they acknowledge them at all.3
If major and minor are lumped together, D and G are
the most plentiful keys in the Essercizi, with eight and
six examples respectively, so that coincidental groups
would most likely involve these keys, and this may
be the underlying reason for the general disinclination to accept the two groups. On the assumption,
implicit in the earlier discussions, that the collection
was randomly assembled, i.e. that all arrangements
were equally likely, it is possible to test the hypothesis
that the two groups are due to chance by determining
the mathematical probability of such an occurrence.
It is stipulated beforehand that the hypothesis will be
questioned if the probability is less than 0.05 or 1/20
(best read in this context as 1 in 20). It is found that
the probability of exactly one pair in D and one triptych in G is 0.021 or 1/48.4 Not only, therefore, was the
rejection of these groups ill-considered, but there are

also several manifestations of ordering, some clearly


deliberate, which have never been recognized.
If the collection is broken down into two halves,
the first half is found to contain four (27 per cent)
major keys, the second, nine (60 per cent), this latter proportion being almost identical to that in Venice XV (1749).The probability of including just four
major-key sonatas in the first fifteen by chance if the
pieces were arranged randomly with respect to mode
is 1/25 (again k30 is left out). In addition, the key signatures in the second half tend to be more complex,
all but k17, 18 and 30 having at least two accidentals
in the signature, whereas k11 is the only piece in the
first half with more than one. The probability of this
distribution resulting from random arrangement
with respect to key signature is 1 in 50,000.
These discrepancies between the two halves may
reflect an earlier composition date for k115, alow ratio
of major keys being more typical of Scarlattis earlier
compositions,5 and simpler key signatures being more
representative of an archaic style generally.
Another, more important, aspect of organization,
and one which may be in part responsible for the above
discrepancies, is represented by various key groupings,
whose nature again differs between the two halves.
It will be seen from Table 1 that the first eight
sonatas form two four-membered sequences whose
tonic keys correspond in all but the second position.
This particular order of keys has no obvious a priori
significance, but given the first four sonatas in their
present order, the probability of the next four, chosen randomly from the remaining eleven, giving the

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

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A fresh look at Domenico Scarlattis Essercizi per


gravicembalo, and the tremulo di sopra

Table 1 Essercizi per gravicembalo, showing Kirkpatrick


number and key
Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick
no.
Key no.
Key no.
Key
d
G
a
g
d
F
a
g
d
d

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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1
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 tremulo di sopra


Some readers will recall a short discussion in this
journal of a passage in a Portuguese treatise of 1764,
which explains the tremulo, an ornament used by
Scarlatti in about two dozen of his sonatas, mostly
in the early volumes.11 The treatise makes a clear distinction between the tremulo and the trill, stating
that the tremulo uses the lower auxiliary, whereas

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.

2 Two series of volumes copied by


professional scribes, starting in 1742
with what is now referred to as Venice
xiv. The numbers xiv and xv attached
to the two earliest volumes in Venice
are not original.
3 R. Kirkpatrick, Domenico Scarlatti
(Princeton, 1953, R1983), pp.1412, 162;
H. Keller, Domenico Scarlatti, ein
Meister des Klaviers (Leipzig, 1957), p.34;
J. Sheveloff, Domenico Scarlatti:
tercentenary frustrations, Musical
Quarterly, lxxi (1985), pp.399436, at
p.431; C. Rousset, Approche statistique
des sonates, in Domenico Scarlatti: 13

recherches, Cahiers de la Socit de


Musique Ancienne de Nice, no. 1 (Nice,
1985), pp.6887, at p.71; F. Hammond,
Domenico Scarlatti, in Eighteenthcentury keyboard music, ed. R. L.
Marshall (New York, 2/2003), pp.154
90, at p.181; M. Boyd, Domenico
Scarlatti: master of music (London,
1986), p.165; M. Flannery, A
chronological order for the keyboard
sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (16851757)
(Lewiston, NY, 2004), p.192n (p.190 in a
later printing). Hammond is undecided
about the groups, Boyd seems to accept
them, but even he hedges, remarking

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for Scarlattis sonata pairing, while not causing him


to discard the separate title and numbering.8
The groups would have gone unnoticed if they
had not been duplicated in some form. While they
may have been inherently more apparent to Scarlattis contemporaries, it still seems strange that he
made no attempt to define them clearly. Duplication may always have been the key to their identification, and it should be noted that there are very few
explicit indications of pairing in Venice and Parma
either (which may, in fact, have been intended for
publication), and often, especially in the earlier volumes, the pairs are not consistent from one source
to the other, even when the members are explicitly
linked in one of them.9 There does not appear to be
any relation between the groupings in the Essercizi
and the inconsistent handling of the repeat signs,10
or the variable compass in the bass.

that the ordering . . . cannot be taken as


proof that the later pairs did not
originate with the composer. Flannery,
besides not accepting the groups, misstates the overall keyboard compass
required by the Essercizi (p.48). For a
recent expression of doubt as to
Scarlattis role in the pairings see
Sutcliffe, The keyboard sonatas of
Domenico Scarlatti, p.371.

5 C. Sloane, Some new reflections on


Domenico Scarlattis sonatas, Revista
de Musicologa, xxiv (2001), pp.10713.
It is unlikely that the second half is
exactly contemporary with Venice xv,
despite the similar proportions of
major and minor keys. Most (88 per
cent) of the sonatas in Venice xv
ascend to d, while none in the
Essercizi rises above c. If Scarlatti
made his selection from a pool
consisting only of Venice xv (42
sonatas, 5 to c) plus the 14 sonatas
from the Essercizi, the probability of
his choosing 14 sonatas ascending no
higher than c is 1 in 500 million if
the sonatas were drawn randomly
with respect to compass. This is a
model that did not occur to me in my
earlier article, and results in a much
higher probability than the one given
there, but one which is still

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6 See Studio primo, in Francesco


Durante, Sonate per cembalo, divise in
studii e divertimenti (Naples, 1732).
Vicente Rodriguezs Libro de Tocatas
para cmbalo (Ms. 1744) also opens in
D minor, then ascends chromatically,
omitting those keys not suited to the
temperament, probably with some
allowance for retuning (sonatas in A ,
B and D majors are included).
7 C. Sloane, The case for meantone in
Scarlatti, Continuo, xvi/6 (1992),
pp.1516; Sloane, Some new reflections
on Domenico Scarlattis sonatas;
Sloane, The persistence of meantone
in the Iberian peninsula, Revista de
Musicologa, xxv (2002), pp.4715.
8 J. Sheveloff, Domenico Scarlatti,
tercentenary frustrations, at p.431.
9 In Venice xv, for example, k99 and
100 are unified by a Volti subito and
subsumed under one number, yet in
Parma they appear as two singletons,
and k99 also appears in Venice ii as
the third member of a triptych which
does not include k100. The almost
invariable number of 30 sonatas per
volume, particularly in Parma, has
been seen as an indication that
Scarlatti planned on publishing the
entire series (see Boyd, Domenico
Scarlatti, p.165). There are even a
couple of places near the end of the
catalogue where the pairing has been
sacrificed on this account, illustrating
once more the labile nature of the
pairs.
10 See P. Cienniwa, Repeat signs and
binary form in Franois Couperins
Pices de clavein, Early Music, xxx
(2002), pp.94103, at p.102.
11 C. Sloane, Domenico Scarlattis
tremulo, Early Music, xxx (2002),
p.158. Two citation errors should be

november 2007

corrected: intende should read


entenda, and espresso should read
expresso.
12 J. Sheveloff, Domenico Scarlatti:
tercentenary frustrations, p.102; F.
Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque
and post-Baroque music (Princeton,
1978), pp.3524. See also
E. Fadini, La grafia dei manoscritti
scarlattiani: problemi e osservazioni,
in Domenico Scarlatti e il suo tempo,
Chigiana xl (Florence, 1985), pp.183
206, at p.205. Fadini not only favours
the upper auxiliary, she also advocates
an upward shift of the ornament as
each higher note enters, but Scarlattis
failure to use standard trill signs would
be even more surprising in this case.
13 S. Picerli, Specchio secondo di musica
(Naples, 1631), p.192, cited in A.
Johnstone, High clefs in
composition and performance, Early
Music, xxxiv (2006), pp.2953, at p.48.

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4 The probability of a chance event,


such as the adjacency of two D minor
sonatas, or a tossed coin coming up
heads, can be expressed as a decimal or
rational fraction between 0 and 1, 1
being certainty, or as a per cent from 0
to 100. Thus 0.05, 1/20 and 5 per cent
are equivalent ways of stating the same
probability. For the reader with betting
proclivities, a probability of 1/20
corresponds to odds of 19 to 1 against.
This particular value is the one at or
below which it is generally felt that
chance can reasonably safely be
rejected as the cause (see J. S.
Rosenthal, Struck by lightning
(Toronto, 2005), p.101).The calculation
is based on the first 29 sonatas only,
since the position of k30, a fugue, is
undoubtedly deliberate (see Boyd,
Domenico Scarlatti, p.288). The basic
approach used was to divide the total
number of distinguishable
arrangements into the number of
distinguishable arrangements possible
when the relevant conditions are
satisfied.

vanishingly small. The argument that


Scarlatti deliberately chose pieces not
exceeding c in order to satisfy
purchasers with a narrow-compass
harpsichord is unconvincing, since
nine, almost a third of the collection,
go below C in the bass, which is
probably the lowest note that Scarlatti
could count on a purchaser having.
The overall compass of the Essercizi is
54 notes if a chromatic keyboard is
assumed, 53 otherwise, G not being
required.

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