Review Summary: An exquisite medium between the Late Baroque and the Early Classical eras, with Romantic flavores to boot.
Born Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti on the 26th of October 1685 in Naples Italy, Il Signore Scarlatti was a supremely gifted harpsichordist and prodigious composer of keyboard music. Although today Scarlatti is best known for his monolithic five hundred and fifty-five keyboard sonatinas, during the Maestro’s lifetime he was better known for his “Trenta Essercizi per Gravicembalo” or, “Thirty Exercises for Harpsichord” published in 1738. These “Exercises” are not to be confused with “Etudes”, or "Study Pieces"; each Essercizi conforms with sonatina principals. Etudes, on the other hand, are study pieces devoid of any specific structure.
Altogether the Thirty, part of the five hundred and fifty-five, feature both technical innovation and ideas and inspirations for composers of his day and those after. The principal novelties of the Thirty consist in arpeggiated sequences, felled notes, crossed left and right hands, broken octaves, and daring use of harmony: all characteristics that render each piece as essential for students of the piano and keyboard. More importantly, however, these innovations allow for the expressive range of keyboard music to broaden and deepen.
Each sonatina follows the same basic two-part schematic: the presentation of the formal theme, often comprised of multiple yet brief pieces of motivic material, a repeat, “the crux”, and then the development and the return. Scholar and critic Ralph Kirkpatrick defines the crucial point, “the crux”, of the sonatinas as the point, often underlined by a pause or fermata, that both separates the first half from the second and as the dramatic precipice of the piece. Before this crucial point, Scarlatti’s sonatinas often contain the principal theme, and after, the music repeats the figures with their tonality modulated.
Sonatina No. 1 in d-minor features all the aforementioned Scarlatti hallmarks. Although the main theme is harmonically rudimentary, we nevertheless have an arpeggiated sequence that cycles through g-minor, a-minor, A-major, and d-minor. Moreover, a quick glance at the score reveals that the four-part harmony (SATB) neither ventures into the upper or lower register of the keyboard. As such, hand crossing is needed for the performance.
Other highlights of the Thirty are No. 3 in a-minor with its exciting chromaticism, No. 6 in F major with its courtly and statesmen-like bounce, the allusions to Arcadia in No. 8 in g-minor, the bold even romantic dissonances of No. 12 in g-minor, the classical-esque No. 20 in E major “Capriccio”, and the heavenly and Mozartean nature of No. 27 in b-minor.
The cat’s meow of the bunch though, pun not intended, is No. 30 in g-minor, “The Cat’s Fugue”. Legend has it that Scarlatti’s cat, Pulcinella, who often walked across his keyboard one day accidentally hit upon a melody that so intrigued the Maestro that he based a fugue off its motif. The main theme, an ascending intervallic line that skips a minor third, a perfect fourth, an augmented second, a strange enharmonic major third, and another augmented second respectively, does not conform to tonality whatever. It, in fact, sounds similar to the atonal serial melodies of the early 20th century. There’s certainly a spooky vibe to the melody, and as fugues work, the repetition of the atonal ascension in different keys and different registers enhances its aural atmosphere.
It may sound as if Scarlatti’s Thirty exist only in the domain of the connoisseur. To be sure, Scarlatti’s five hundred and fifty-five aren’t as profound as the music of Bach, as grand as operas of Handel, or as important to musical history as the music of Rameau. Nevertheless, there is quite a charm and expressiveness particular to the Thirty absent from the keyboard music of any other Baroque composer. Each piece expresses a clear mood or feeling; we are outside the realm of Bach’s hyper-density. As such, the best quality about Scarlatti’s Thirty, and indeed his keyboard music in general, is that it lends itself equally well to the harpsichord and the piano. While the former harnesses the full flavor of Scarlatti's baroque, the latter allows the music to exist in the high classical and early romantic eras of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Certain Scarlatti sonatinas even lend themselves particularly well to the classical guitar, for which a substantial repertoire has developed. Through no fault of their own, the same cannot be said of the keyboard music of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc., or anyone whose primary keyboard instrument was the piano. There’s an expressiveness in Scarlatti’s melodies that have no temporal or instrumental boundary. The music can be played soft or loud, fast or slow, harsh or quaint, and each different lens through which the music is performed cranks the gears of its aural kaleidoscope equally well.
