- Title
- 'Senza cimbalo al tavolino': Alessandro Scarlatti and his 4 Sonate a quattro
- Creator
- Halton, Rosalind
- Relation
- Studi Musicali Vol. 6 , Issue 1, p. 97-130
- Relation
- http://www.torrossa.com/pages/ipplatform/itemDetails.faces
- Publisher
- Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Among Alessandro Scarlatti's instrumental compositions, the VI Concerti in Seven Parts hold a uniquely mysterious position. Published in London 15 years after the composer's death, their connection with Scarlatti has been justifiably questioned, but their origins as a set of four Sonatas for '2 Violini, Violetta, e Violoncello' was already known to Edward J. Dent early last century. Dent's article 'The Earliest String Quartets' (1903) showed his awareness of their significance. The highly secretive process by which these works were transformed into a British concerto grosso publication, with the addition of two works by Scarlatti's brother Francesco, has been the subject of my recent collaborative research with Michael Talbot. From a study of all the known surviving sources, it seems that the 19th-century collector, Fortunato Santini, was the first to use the title 'Quartetti'. In doing so, he also suppressed the phrase 'Senza cembalo' which appears on the title pages of the set of parts in his collection. The paper will addresses questions raised in title pages of the two sources most connected with the composer: a complete set of parts in the Santini Collection, Münster, and an incomplete set of parts in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which is likely to be the earliest extant source. It contains the most explicit description of the works: 'Al tavolino senza cimbalo, with the surviving bass parts named 'Liuto, violoncello ò arpa'. The phrase 'al tavolino', associated above all with the madrigal genre, is examined in the context of these unique instrumental works, in which Scarlatti looks both forward to the new medium of the string quartet, and back to the contrapuntal thinking of previous generations. The idea of string quartets with lute or harp continuo is far removed from the concerto grosso form in which these works have been known and recorded so far: but the survival of these title pages indicates a specific sound concept and structural plan envisaged by Scarlatti, which remains to be explored.
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1330557
- Identifier
- uon:26419
- Identifier
- ISSN:0391-7789
- Language
- eng
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