Download File - MIchael Bruschi

Michael Bruschi
MUS 234
Dr. Lockey
18 May 2014
Scarlatti’s D Major Triptych: K.490-492
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)1 was an Italian composer born in Naples who spent
much of his later life in various posts in Spain and Portugal. During his formative period in Italy,
which included stays in Naples, Venice, and Rome, he perfected his skill on the harpsichord, first
learning music from his father, the prominent composer Alessandro Scarlatti. A major turning
point in his middle life was his arrival in Lisbon, Portugal in 1719, which marked the beginning
of a long stay on the Iberian Peninsula. During his time on the Peninsula, Scarlatti had a close
relationship with the Portuguese Princess Maria Barbara, who would become queen of Spain in
1746. He first taught her music in Lisbon during the 1720s, and then returned to her services in
1733 as her music master in Madrid, where he stayed until his death.
It was during this period in Madrid that Scarlatti composed the majority of his 555 singlemovement keyboard sonatas, including the trio of D major sonatas, K.490-492, considered in this
essay. Though exact dates of composition are unclear, it is likely that Scarlatti composed these
three sonatas in the same short timespan during the mid-1750s, and they were first preserved in
his 12th Venice volume in 1756.2 This was part of a fifteen-volume set of Scarlatti sonatas
written out for Queen Maria Barbara between 1742 and 1757.3 The collection, known as the
Biographical information in this first paragraph is from Halford, Scarlatti – An Introduction to
His Keyboard Style, 2.
2 Halford, Scarlatti – An Introduction, 3.
3 Lester, “A Passion for Flamenco,” 1.
1
Venice manuscripts, has been the property of Venice’s Biblioteca Marciana since 1835.4
However, it is very difficult to find an original autograph score in Scarlatti’s own handwriting for
any of these sonatas.5
Conventional taxonomy groups most of Scarlatti’s adjacent sonatas into pairs, but this D
major set is a rare exception. Sharing not only the same home key but also many Spanish stylistic
and programmatic features, these sonatas form a distinct set of three that are often performed
together. Though written in Madrid, the content of these sonatas is greatly inspired by Scarlatti’s
four-year stay in Seville, from 1729 to 1733, in which he became immersed in the flamenco
style, Spanish dance forms, and the music of Seville’s Holy Week.6 The end result, which draws
on these Spanish sources as well as foundational Italian ones, is a brilliant triptych in the
dignified and refined stile galant that looks both backwards and forwards, marrying Baroque
expressiveness with harbingers of classical figuration, tonality, and form.
Before delving into discussion and comparison of these three D major sonatas, it is
important to note the particular issues of performance practice that face present-day interpreters
of the works. Playing a set of pieces originally intended for harpsichord on an equal-tempered
keyboard requires a few subtle adjustments in execution. For instance, use of pedal is generally
avoided in the name of historical accuracy. Moreover, care must be taken by the performer not to
play too heavily, as the hammered strings of a pianoforte produce a much louder sound than the
plucked strings of the harpsichord or the guitar (important to note since all three works show
influence from Spanish guitar music). It is most effective to perform these three sonatas without
Halford, Scarlatti – An Introduction, 3.
Lester, “A Passion for Flamenco,” 1.
6 Halford, Scarlatti – An Introduction, 2.
4
5
breaks in order to accentuate the gradual quickening of pace of the set (K.490 is marked
Cantabile, K.491 Allegro, and K.492 Presto).7
The first of the three D major sonatas, K.490, contrasts an insistent dotted rhythmic
pattern (as in mm. 49-60, left hand) with free scalar passages (mm. 17-8) reminiscent of vocal
melismas. The resemblance is not accidental—musicologist Jane Clark has noted that this sonata
is modeled after a saeta, a Spanish religious song form performed in the streets of Seville during
the Holy Week processional.8 Typically, the saeta is marked by brass fanfares over a recurring
dotted drum pattern, juxtaposed with spontaneous melismatic incantations sung by men or
women on balconies at certain points in the route.9 As such, this sonata is rich in religious and
programmatic implications, basically serving as a musical depiction of the processional.
Although it is the only duple-meter movement in the set, some of its thematic material is
resituated in a triple-meter context in K.492, pointing to relations among the sonatas beyond their
keys and Spanish influences. The melismatic scalar motif in K.490 (as in mm. 9, 11, and 17-8) is
transformed by K.492 into the whirring scalar cascades of mm. 36-42 and mm. 91-97 that lead
into the movement’s closing theme.
K.491 is similarly inspired by Holy Week music and Spanish dance forms, though there
is some scholarly disagreement as to which form is represented. For example, Jane Clark labels
K.491 as a seguidilla sevillana,10 with its ¾ feel and phrases that begin on the downbeat’s offbeat (mm. 4-5). Musicologist Luisa Morales provides a contrasting opinion—she believes K.491
All subsequent references to these three sonatas refer to scores accessible online through
IMSLP, edited by Pierre Gouin – Montreal: Les Éditions Outremontaises, 2013.
8 Clark, Domenico Scarlatti and Spanish Folk Music, 20.
9 Lester, “A Passion for Flamenco,” 2.
10 Sutcliffe, Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century Musical Style, 110.
7
to be a bolero, a close variant of the seguidilla that better fits the movement’s overall structure.11
Regardless of form, this sonata is clearly inspired by Spanish folk dances. A frequent dancebased rhythmic trope in this movement is the dotted pickup to beat 2 (found in mm. 8-14, for
example). Moreover, the dramatic pauses in mm. 18 and 61 that precede the modulatory second
theme are characteristic of the bien parado, a dramatic pause commonly found at the end of the
verse of a Spanish folk dance, where dancers would abruptly stop and remain motionless until
the action resumed.12 As with the other two sonatas, melodic ornamentation is essentially limited
to the trillo figure; however, this figure is most thematically prominent in K.491, especially in
the opening three measures, which act as a stately introduction to the main thematic material.
K.492, like K.491, is a danceable movement in triple meter (though 6/8 instead of 3/4)
inspired by the seguidilla and its descendants, which include the Portuguese fandango and the
lively sevillanas.13 A particularly captivating passage from mm. 81-90 highlights Scarlatti’s use
of the fifth mode of A harmonic minor (a Spanish variant of the Phrygian mode), which
professor and musicologist W. Dean Sutcliffe terms the “engine of Spanish harmony” and a
modal color representative of the “Spanish sound.”14 Further harmonic interest is added by
unexpected modulations, such as the immediate and stark shift from A major to the parallel A
minor in measure 20, which sets the tone for the major-minor conflict that dominates the
movement’s macroharmonic scheme.
Unexpected modulations were a favorite device of Scarlatti’s. His penchant for traveling
to remote keys, especially following his characteristic dramatic pauses, is evident in K.491. First,
he modulates to C major in measure 19; then, to F major in measure 62. The tonic-dominant
Morales, “Sonatas-Bolero by Domenico Scarlatti,” 318-20.
Morales, “Sonatas-Bolero by Domenico Scarlatti,” 317-8.
13 Lester, “A Passion for Flamenco,” 2.
14 Sutcliffe, Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, 117-8.
11
12
relation between these distant points of arrival is no coincidence—in both cases, Scarlatti
employs a similar tertian modulation to arrive at the closing key of each half of the binary form
(first the dominant A at mm. 26, then the tonic D at mm. 69). As with the sudden shift to the
parallel minor from K.492 described in the previous paragraph, Scarlatti’s tertian modulations in
K.491 are just as abrupt and surprising, employing instant changes in melodic contour (from the
lyrical second group to the virtuosic wave of broken arpeggios) to highlight the difference in key
areas. This move sounds even more intriguing the second time around, when it underscores a
shift from mollis (F major) to durus (D major) that must have sounded compelling on Scarlatti’s
harpsichord. Thus, Scarlatti looked to past Baroque composers like Monteverdi for inspiration in
his tonal schemes, while simultaneously pioneering an innovative harmonic syntax (particularly,
third-based modulations and sudden trips to distant keys) that would later influence composers
such as Beethoven.
With this in mind, the image of Scarlatti as a transitional figure becomes clearer. In
cultivating an idiomatic and dignified style that combined his Italianate roots with his exposure
to Iberian musics, Scarlatti became a leading figure of the stile galant, which reached its height
around the middle of the 18th century. A stylistic bridge between the Baroque and Classical
periods, the galant style sought to curb the so-called musical “excesses” of the Baroque in favor
of a more dignified and composed approach. K.490-492 are representative of this approach. All
three sonatas, for example, display a move towards more homophonic textures, highlighted by
simpler inner-voice writing and ubiquitous drum-bass figures in the left hand (c.f. mm. 13-15 of
K.490, mm. 13-17 of K.491, and mm. 105-108 of K.492), often in parallel octaves. The
aforementioned broken arpeggios of K.491 (mm. 26 and 69) are forerunners of classical-style
melodic figuration. Moreover, the Lombard rhythm, another hallmark of the style, appears in
mm. 38-39 of K.490, providing a metrical foil for the conventionally dotted patterns previously
heard.
Traditionally, the stile galant emphasizes the importance of melody over harmony.
However, there are a good many passages in these three sonatas where Scarlatti does just the
opposite—where harmonic interest, rather than melodic elegance, drives the music forward. One
example is mm. 50-58 of K.490, where Scarlatti repeats the same two-note sigh motif over subtly
changing harmonies in the drum-bass left hand, as if to resituate the melodic figure in a new
harmonic context each time. Another example from K.490 is mm. 35-37, where a series of
innovatively-voiced suspended chords that rise by perfect fourth build harmonic tension,
eventually released in the next measure with the Lombard arpeggiations. Less subtle and more
direct harmonic gestures, whose immediacy and boldness supersede melodic interest, are found
in the other two sonatas. Some have already been mentioned in this essay, like the sudden
modulation to the parallel minor in mm. 20 of K.492 or the trips to distant keys that follow the
medial caesurae in K.491 (mm. 18 and 61). In all cases, Scarlatti is able to capture the aesthetic
essence of the stile galant while simultaneously taking subtle harmonic risks that drive the
movement forward without alienating the listener.
Scarlatti’s sonatas provide a glimpse into the nature of sonata form by the middle of the
18th century. In the Baroque period, generally speaking, sonatas could take on a variety of
structures. Dario Castello, for example, wrote early Baroque sonatas for violin and continuo (like
#2 from Book 2) that derive their musical momentum from contrasting sections in tempo, meter,
and tonality. Salomone Rossi, another Baroque composer considered this semester, made use of
progressive diminution as the vehicle behind his theme-and-variations Sonata #4. Scarlatti’s
sonatas descend from this Baroque lineage, occasionally employing harmonic and tonal contrasts
while presenting a variety of ways to develop thematic material and create musical momentum.
However, in keeping with the view of the composer as both transitional figure and
stylistic innovator, Scarlatti’s sonatas also contained many formal and structural elements that
would soon become codified in traditional sonata-allegro form. Not all of Scarlatti’s innovations
would gain standard acceptance. For instance, it is rare to see a single-movement sonata in the
decades following him. However, later composers like Mozart and Haydn used many of
Scarlatti’s structural, rhetorical, and tonal devices in their sonatas, especially binary form,
dramatic pauses to separate thematic episodes, and short development-like sections. The basic
tonal scheme of these Scarlatti sonatas—modulating to the dominant by the repeat sign,
beginning the second half in the new key, and ending back in the home key—became all but
standard practice by the onset of the classical period. Furthermore, his propensity to explore
remote tonal centers and third-related key areas inspired composers like Beethoven well into the
next century.
This triptych of D major sonatas, K.490-492, are a brilliant set of programmatic, Spanishinfluenced, galant style movements that simultaneously look both forwards and backwards for
inspiration. In this sense, Scarlatti embodies what musicologist Wendy Heller calls one of the
“immutable laws of music history”—that the “innovations of one age become the conventions of
another.”15
This paper represents my own work in accordance with University regulations.
/s/ Michael V. Bruschi
15
Heller, Music in the Baroque, 183.
Works Cited
Clark, Jane. “Domenico Scarlatti and Spanish Folk Music.” Early Music 4.1 (1976): 19-21. Web.
10 May 2014.
Halford, Margery, ed. Scarlatti – An Introduction to His Keyboard Works. New York: Alfred,
2001. Print.
Heller, Wendy. Music in the Baroque. New York: Norton, 2014. Print.
Lester, Richard. “A Passion for Flamenco.” Program notes. Spanish Dance Society. Purcell’s
Room, London. Feb. 2007. Web. 10 May 2014.
Morales, Luisa. “Sonatas-Bolero by Domenico Scarlatti.” Domenico Scarlatti in Spain, Almería:
Ediciones Leal, series FIMTE (2009). Web. 10 May 2014.
Scarlatti, Domenico. Sonata in D Major, K.490. Pierre Gouin, ed. Montreal: Les Éditions
Outremontaises, 2013. Web. 9 May 2014.
Scarlatti, Domenico. Sonata in D Major, K.491. Pierre Gouin, ed. Montreal: Les Éditions
Outremontaises, 2013. Web. 9 May 2014.
Scarlatti, Domenico. Sonata in D Major, K.492. Pierre Gouin, ed. Montreal: Les Éditions
Outremontaises, 2013. Web. 9 May 2014.
Sutcliffe, W. Dean. The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century
Musical Style. New York: Cambridge, 2003. Print.