The art of music, Vol. 07 (of 14) : $b Pianoforte and chamber music
History
The art of music, Vol. 07 (of 14) : $b Pianoforte and chamber music
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
Whom he had to thank for instruction is not known. There is nothing in
his music to suggest that he was ever a pupil of Bernardo Pasquini,
who, however, was long held to have been his master. J. S. Shedlock, in
his ‘History of the Pianoforte Sonata,’ suggests that he learned from
Gaëtano Greco or Grieco, a man a few years his senior and a student
under his father; but it would seem far more likely that Domenico
profited immediately from his father, who, we may see from a letter to
Ferdinand de’ Medici, dated May 30, 1705, had watched over his son’s
development with great care. It must not be forgotten that Alessandro
Scarlatti’s harpsichord toccatas, described in the previous chapter,
are, in spite of a general heaviness, often enlivened by astonishing
devices of virtuosity.
Scarlatti wrote between three and four hundred pieces for the
harpsichord. The Abbé Santini[12] possessed three hundred and
forty-nine. Scarlatti himself published in his lifetime only one set
of thirty pieces. These he called exercises (_esercizii_) for the
harpsichord. The title is significant. Before 1733 two volumes, _Pièces
pour le clavecin_, were published in Paris; and some time between 1730
and 1737 forty-two ‘Suites of Lessons’ were published in London under
the supervision of Roseingrave. More were printed in London in 1752.
Then came Czerny’s edition, which includes two hundred pieces; and
throughout the nineteenth century various selections and arrangements
have appeared from time to time, von Bülow having arranged several
pieces in the order of suites, Tausig having elaborated several in
accordance with the modern pianoforte. A complete and authoritative
edition has at last been prepared by Sig. Alessandro Longo and has been
printed in Italy by Ricordi and Company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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