Author Archives: Nabob

François Couperin: Complete Works

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For harpsichord

First book (1713) – Ordres 1 to 5

  • Ordre 1er de clavecin in G minor: Allemande L’Auguste; Première courante; Seconde courante; Sarabande La majestueuse; Gavotte; La Milordine, gigue; Menuet (et double); Les silvains; Les abeilles; La Nanète; Les sentimens, sarabande; La pastorelle; Les nonètes (Les blondes, Les brunes); La bourbonnoise, gavotte; La Manon; L’enchanteresse; La fleurie, ou La tendre Nanette; Les plaisirs de St Germain en Laÿe
  • Ordre 2ème de clavecin in D major: Allemande La laborieuse; Premiere courante; Seconde courante; Sarabande La prude; L’Antonine; Gavote; Menuet; Canaries (avec double); Passe-pied; Rigaudon; La Charoloise; La Diane; Fanfare pour la suite de la Diane; La Terpsicore; La Florentine; La Garnier; La Babet; Les idées heureuses; La Mimi; La diligente; La flateuse; La voluptueuse; Les papillons
  • Ordre 3ème de clavecin in C minor: La ténébreuse, allemande; Premiere courante; Seconde courante; La lugubre, sarabande; Gavotte; Menuet; Les pélerines; Les laurentines; L’Espagnolète; Les regrets; Les matelotes provençales; La favorite, chaconne; La lutine
  • Ordre 4ème de clavecin in F major: La marche des gris-vêtus; Les baccanales; La pateline; Le réveil-matin
  • Ordre 5ème de clavecin in A major: La logiviére, allemande; Premier courante; Seconde courante; La dangereuse, sarabande; Gigue; La tendre Fanchon; La badine; La bandoline; La Flore; L’Angélique; La Villers; Les vendangeuses; Les agrémens; Les ondes

Second book (1717) – Ordres 6 to 12

  • Ordre 6ème de clavecin in B flat major: Les moissoneurs; Les langueurs-tendres; Le gazoüillement; La Bersan; Les baricades mistérieuses; Les bergeries, rondeau; La commére; Le moucheron
  • Ordre 7ème de clavecin in G major: La Ménetou; Les petits âges: La muse naissante, Lenfantine, L’adolescente, Les délices; La Basque; La Chazé; Les amusemens
  • Ordre 8ème de clavecin in B minor: La Raphaéle; Allemande L’Ausoniéne; Premiere courante; Seconde courante; Sarabande L’unique; Gavotte; Rondeau; Gigue; Passacaille; La Morinéte
  • Ordre 9ème de clavecin in A major: Allemande à deux clavecins; La rafraîchissante; Les charmes; La Princesse de Sens; L’olimpique; L’insinüante; La séduisante; Le bavolet-flotant; Le petit-deüil, ou Les trois veuves; Menuet
  • Ordre 10ème de clavecin in D major: La triomphante; La Mézangére; La Gabriéle; La Nointéle; La fringante; L’amazône; Les bagatelles
  • Ordre 11ème de clavecin in C major: La castelane; L’etincelante, ou La bontems; Les graces-naturéles; La Zénobie; Les fastes de la grande et ancienne Ménestrandise
  • Ordre 12ème de clavecin in E major: Les juméles; L’intîme, mouvement de courante; La galante; La coribante; La Vauvré; La fileuse; La boulonoise; L’Atalante

Third book (1722) Ordres 13 to 19

  • Ordre 13ème de clavecin in B minor: Les lis naissans; Les rozeaux; L’engageante; Les folies françoises, ou Les dominos; L’âme-en peine
  • Ordre 14ème de clavecin in D major: Le rossignol-en-amour; Double du rossignol; La linote-éfarouchée; Les fauvétes plaintives; Le rossignol-vainqueur; La Julliet; Le carillon de Cithére; Le petit-rien
  • Ordre 15ème de clavecin in A major: La régente, ou La Minerve; Le dodo, ou L’amour au berceau; L’evaporée; Muséte de Choisi; Muséte de Taverni; La douce et piquante; Les vergers fleüris; La Princesse de Chabeüil, ou La muse de Monaco
  • Ordre 16ème de clavecin in G major: Les graces incomparables, ou La Conti; L’himen-amour; Les vestales; L’aimable Thérèse; Le drôle de corps; La distraite; La Létiville
  • Ordre 17ème de clavecin in E major: La superbe, ou La Forqueray; Les petits moulins à vent; Les timbres; Courante; Les petites chrémières de Bagnolet
  • Ordre 18ème de clavecin in F major: Allemande La Verneüil; La Verneüilléte; Sœur Monique; Le turbulent; L’atendrissante; Le tic-toc-choc, ou Les maillotins; Le gaillard-boiteux
  • Ordre 19ème de clavecin in D major: Les Calotins et les Calotines, ou La piéce à tretous; Les Calotines; L’ingénuë; L’artiste; Les culbutes Ixcxbxnxs; La muse-Palantine; L’enjouée

Fourth book (1730) – Ordres 20 to 27

  • Ordre 20ème de clavecin in G major: La Princesse Marie; La boufonne; Les chérubins, ou L’aimable Lazure; La Croûilli, ou La Couperinéte; La fine Madelon; La douce Janneton; La Sezile; Les tambourins
  • Ordre 21ème de clavecin in E minor: La reine des cœurs; La bondissante; La Couperin; La harpée; La petite pince-sans rire
  • Ordre 22ème de clavecin in D major: Le trophée; Le point du jour, allemande; L’.anguille; Le croc-en-jambe; Menuets croisés; Les tours de passe-passe
  • Ordre 23ème de clavecin in F major: L.audacieuse; Les tricoteuses; L’arlequine; Les gondoles de Délos; Les satires, chevre-pieds
  • Ordre 24ème de clavecin in A major: Les vieux seigneurs, sarabande grave; Les jeunes seigneurs; Les dars-homicides; Les guirlandes; Les brinborions; La divine-Babiche, ou Les amours badins; La belle Javotte, autre fois l’infante; L’amphibie, mouvement de passacaille
  • Ordre 25ème de clavecin in E flat major: La visionnaire; La misterieuse; La Monflambert; La muse victorieuse; Les ombres errantes
  • Ordre 26ème de clavecin in F sharp minor: La convalescente; Gavote; La Sophie; L’epineuse; La pantomime
  • Ordre 27ème de clavecin in B minor: L’exquise, allemande; Les pavots; Les chinois; Saillie

A didactic treatise L’art de toucher le clavecin (1716), which includes 8 preludes and an allemande.

For organ

Two mass settings (1690)

  • Messe pour les paroisses for the parishes
  • Messe pour les couvents for the monasteries

For several instruments

Trio Sonatas (ca. 1690):

  • La Pucelle
  • La Steinkerque in B flat major
  • La Visionnaire
  • L’astrée
  • La Superbe in A major
  • La Convalescente

Quatuor sonata (ca. 1695): La Sultane in D minor

Les nations (1726): these trio pieces consist of a sonata followed by a suite:

  • La française (begins with la pucelle) in E minor
  • L’espagnole (begins with La visionnaire) in C minor
  • L’impériale (begins with La Convalescente) in D minor
  • La piémontaise (begins with L’astrée) in G minor

Apothéoses, trio suites (1724):

  • Le Parnasse ou l’apothéose de Corelli in B minor
  • Concert en forme d’apothéose à la mémoire de l’incomparable M. de Lully in G minor
  • La Paix du Parnasse in B minor
  • Essai de la réunion des Goûts François et Italien

Les concerts royaux (1714): N° 1 à 4

  • Les concerts royaux: concert No. 1 in G major
  • Les concerts royaux: concert No. 2 in D major
  • Les concerts royaux: concert No. 3 in A major
  • Les concerts royaux: concert No. 4 in E minor

Nouveaux concerts or les goûts réunis (1724): N° 5 à 14

  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 5 in F major
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 6 in B flat major
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 7 in G minor
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 8 in G major
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 9 in E major
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 10 in A minor
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 11 in C minor
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 12 in A major
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 13 in G major
  • Les goûts réunis: concert No. 14 in D minor

Pièces de violes (1728): 2 suites

  • Suite pour violes de gambe No. 1 in E minor
  • Suite pour violes de gambe No. 2 in A major

Sacred vocal

Leçons de ténèbres (1714)

  • Première leçon de ténèbres
  • Seconde leçon de ténèbres
  • Troisième leçon de ténèbres

Antiphons, psalm settings & canticles:

  • Salve Regina
  • Regina coeli laetare
  • Tantum ergo sacramentum
  • Laudate pueri Dominum in A minor
  • Magnificat in A minor

Offertories:

  • Elévation: Lauda Sion salvatorem
  • Elévation: O amor O gaudium in D major
  • Elévation: O Domine quia refugium in G minor
  • Elévation: O Jesu amantissime in G minor
  • Elévation: O misterium ineffabile in D major
  • Elévation: Quid retribuam tibi Domine in E minor
  • Elévation: Respice in me
  • Elévation: Usquequo Domine
  • Elévation: Venite exultemus Domine in E minor

Motets:

  • 4 versets d’un motet composé de l’ordre du Roy
  • 7 versets d’un motet composé de l’ordre du Roy (1704)
  • 7 versets d’un motet composé de l’ordre du Roy (1705)
  • Audite omnes et expanescite in G minor
  • Dialogus inter Deum et hominem in D minor
  • Domine salvum fac regem
  • Motet de Saint Augustin in D major
  • Motet de Saint Barthélémy in C major
  • Motet de Sainte Anne in G minor
  • Motet de Sainte Suzanne in D major
  • Motet pour le jour de Pâques in D major
  • Verset du motet de l’année dernière

Secular vocal

Canons:

  • A moy! Tout est perdu!
  • La femme entre deux draps

Songs:

  • Brunette
  • Epitaphe d’un paresseux
  • La pastorelle
  • Les pèlerines
  • Les solitaires
  • Musette
  • Sentimental air for soprano & continuo in D major
  • Sentimental air for tenor & continuo in E minor
  • Trois vestales champetres et trois poliçons
  • Vaudeville

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Glossary: Key Terms of Baroque Music

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Adagio:

Comes from the Italian expression ad agio, “at ease,” and in music refers to a slow and stately tempo.

Allemande:

One of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite. The allemande originated in the 16th century as a duple meter dance of moderate tempo, derived from dances favored in Germany at the time.

Aria:

Originally any expressive melody, usually performed by a singer. The term became used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without orchestral accompaniment, typically part of a larger work. The most common context for arias is opera, but vocal arias also feature in oratorios and cantatas,

Baroque:

A style of Western art music composed from approximately 1560 to 1750.”Baroque” comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning misshapen pearl, a negative description of the ornate and heavily ornamented music of this period. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata as musical genres.

Basso continuo:

Provides the harmonic structure of the music. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing the continuo part, if more than one, are called the continuo group. The titles of many Baroque works make mention of the continuo section, such as J. S. Bach’s Concerto for 2 violins, strings and continuo in D minor. Here’s a good example, with commentary.

Brisé (or Style Brisé):

Broken, arpeggiated texture in instrumental music. It usually refers to French Baroque music for lute, keyboard instruments, or the viol.

Canon:

A contrapuntal compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g., quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower. The follower must imitate the leader, either as an exact replication of its rhythms and intervals or some transformation thereof.

Canticle:

A hymn, psalm, or other song of praise.

Chaconne:

A type of musical composition popular in the Baroque era, when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line, which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention.

Concerto:

A musical composition usually composed in three parts or movements, in which a solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.

Contrapuntal (or counterpoint):

The relationship between voices that are harmonically interdependent but independent in rhythm and contour. It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, especially in Baroque music. The term originates from the Latin punctus contra punctum meaning “point against point.”

Fantasia:

A musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation and that seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form.

Fugue:

A contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition. A Fughetta is a short fugue in which the contrapuntal writing typically is not strict, and the setting less formal.

Gavotte:

Originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo. The distinctive rhythmic feature of the 18th-century French court gavotte is that phrases begin in the middle of the bar. In either 4/4 or 2/2 time, the phrases begin on the third quarter note of the bar, creating a half-measure upbeat.

Gigue:

A lively Baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite. The gigue was probably never a court dance, but it was danced by nobility on social occasions and several court composers wrote gigues.

Intermezzo:

A composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. In music history, the term has had several different usages, which fit into two general categories: the opera intermezzo and the instrumental intermezzo.

Magnificat:

A canticle that’s frequently sung or spoken liturgically in Christian church services. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn.

Motet:

Highly varied choral musical compositions.

Partita:

Ooriginally the name for a single-instrumental piece of music (16th and 17th centuries), but Johann Sebastian Bach and other later German composers used it for collections of musical pieces, as a synonym for suite.

Passacaglia:

A musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple meter.

Prelude:

A short piece of music that can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work. It generally features a small number of rhythmic and melodic motifs that recur through the piece. Stylistically, the prelude is improvisatory in nature. The prelude can also refer to an overture, particularly to those in an opera or an oratorio.

Recitative:

Style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. Often used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas.

Ricercar:

In common contemporary usage, it refers to an early kind of fugue, particularly one of a serious character in which the subject uses long note values. Historically, it refers to a type of early Baroque instrumental composition, one that “searches out” the key or mode of a following piece.

Scordatura:

A cross-tuning technique. For a good example, listen to this 2-minute excerpt of Franz Biber’s Partia No. 1.

Sonata:

A principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded alongside the fugue as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music.

Stretti:

A close succession of statements of the subject in a fugue, especially in the final section. In stretto, the subject is presented in one voice and then imitated in one or more other voices, with the imitation starting before the subject has finished. The subject is therefore superimposed upon itself contrapuntally.

Toccata

A piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered, or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer’s fingers. Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments (the opening of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo being a notable example).

Variation:

A formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration, or any combination of these.

Vespers:

The sunset evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours. It is also referred to in the Anglican tradition as Evening Prayer or Evensong. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe evening services.

Many of the definitions in this glossary are excerpted from Wikipedia.

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Alessandro Scarlatti: Complete Works

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The following are all operas. Excerpted from Wikipedia. Access complete information on them.

Gli equivoci nel sembiante
L’honestà negli amori
Tutto il mal non vien per nuocere
(revised as Dal male il bene Naples 1687)
Il Pompeo
La guerriera costante
L’Aldimiro, o vero Favor per favore
La Psiche, o vero Amore innamorato
Olimpia vendicata
La Rosmene, o vero L’infedeltà fedele
Clearco in Negroponte
La santa Dinna
Il Flavio
L’Amazzone corsara, o vero L’Alvilda
La Statira
Gli equivoci in amore, o vero La Rosaura
L’humanità nelle fiere, o vero Il Lucullo
La Teodora augusta
Gerone tiranno di Siracusa
Il nemico di se stesso
L’amante doppio, o vero Il Ceccobimbi
Pirro e Demetrio
Il Bassiano, o vero Il maggior impossibile
La santa Genuinda, o vero L’innocenza difesa dall’inganno (Act 2) d
Le nozze con l’inimico, o vero L’Analinda
Nerone fatto Cesare
Massimo Puppieno
Penelope la casta
La Didone delirante
Comodo Antonino
L’Emireno ovvero Il consiglio dell’ombra
La caduta de’ Decemviri
Il prigioniero fortunato
Anacreonte
La donna ancora è fedele
Gl’inganni felici
L’Eraclea
Odoardo
Dafni favola boschereccia
Laodicea e Berenice
Il pastore di Corinto favola boschereccia
Tito Sempronio Gracco
Tiberio imperatore d’oriente
Il Flavio Cuniberto
Arminio
Turno Aricino
Lucio Manlio l’imperioso
Il gran Tamerlano
Il Mitridate Eupatore
Il trionfo della libertà
Il Teodosio
L’amor volubile e tiranno
La principessa fedele
La fede riconosciuta
Giunio Bruto, o vero La caduta dei Tarquini
Il Ciro
Scipione nelle Spagne
L’amor generoso
Tigrane
Carlo re d’Allemagna
La virtù trionfante dell’odio e dell’amore
Telemaco
Il trionfo dell’onore
Il Cambise
Marco Attilio Regolo
Griselda

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Alessandro Scarlatti: Notes and Commentary

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“The center of operatic activity eventually shifted from Venice to Naples—from Menteverdi and his followers to Alessandro Scarlatti and his school. The techniques and methods developed in Naples were adopted by Italians for many years after that—until Gluck chartered a new course for opera. Even a non-Italian like Handel was influenced by, and imitated, the Neapolitans.”—David Ewen, The Complete Book of Classical Music

Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera, and was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.

Scarlatti’s music forms an important link between the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century, with their centers in Florence, Venice, and Rome, and the classical school of the 18th century. Scarlatti’s style, however, is more than a transitional element in Western music; like most of his Naples colleagues he shows an almost modern understanding of the psychology of modulation and also frequently makes use of the ever-changing phrase lengths so typical of the Napoli school. His early operas (Gli equivoci nel sembiante 1679; L’honestà negli amori 1680, containing the famous aria “Già il sole dal Gange”; Il Pompeo 1683, containing the well-known airs “O cessate di piagarmi” and “Toglietemi la vita ancor,” and others down to about 1685) retain the older cadences in their recitatives, and a considerable variety of neatly constructed forms in their charming little arias, accompanied sometimes by the string quartet, treated with careful elaboration, sometimes with the continuo alone. By 1686 he had definitely established the “Italian overture” form (second edition of Dal male il bene), and had abandoned the ground bass and the binary form air in two stanzas in favour of the ternary form or da capo type of air. His best operas of this period are La Rosaura (1690, printed by the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung), and Pirro e Demetrio (1694), in which occur the arias “Le Violette”, and “Ben ti sta, traditor”.

From about 1697 onwards (La caduta del Decemviri), influenced partly perhaps by the style of Giovanni Bononcini and probably more by the taste of the viceregal court, his opera arias become more conventional and commonplace in rhythm, while his scoring is hasty and crude, yet not without brilliance (L’Eraclea, 1700), the oboes and trumpets being frequently used, and the violins often playing in unison.

Mitridate Eupatore, accounted his masterpiece, composed for Venice in 1707, contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power. The later Neapolitan operas (L’amor volubile e tiranno 1709; La principessa fedele 1710; Tigrane, 1714, &c.) are showy and effective rather than profoundly emotional; the instrumentation marks a great advance on previous work, since the main duty of accompanying the voice is thrown upon the string quartet, the harpsichord being reserved exclusively for the noisy instrumental ritornelli. In his opera Teodora (1697) he originated the use of the orchestral ritornello.

He lived from May 2, 1660, to October 24, 1725.—Excerpted from Wikipedia

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Alessandro Scarlatti: Books and Music

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Selected Books

Alessandro Scarlatti: His Life and Works
Cornell University Library, 2009
Edward Joseph Dent
$23.99 on Amazon

alessandro-life

“Originally published in 1905. This volume from the Cornell University Library’s print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.”—from Amazon

Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti: A Guide to Research
Routledge, 1993
Carole F. Vidali
$197.35 on Amazon
$55 for used

grout

“This up-to-date guide includes an annotated bibliography which identifies and discusses selected articles, books, and dissertations about the composers’ lives and works. The guide focuses on recent studies and major review articles, which point to areas that still have to be investigated. It also includes extensive lists of modern editions, published and unpublished, as well as discographies of recordings that have current and historical interest. Some of the discussions in the guide examine the Scarlattis’ relationships to other composers, the cultural milieu in which each worked, questions of performance practice, and other research problems.”—From Amazon

Selected Music

griselda La Griselda (2001), 2-CD set

overo Il Primo Omicidio Overo (1998), 2-CD set

scarl-cantatas A. Scarlatti Cantatas, Volume III (2000), 1 CD

More Alessandro Scarlatti music

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Alessandro Scarlatti, 1660-1725

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457px-alessandro_scarlatti

Selected Recordings

Concerto No. 1

Sinfonia avanti l’Opera Griselda

Sinfonia avanti l’Opera Marco Attilio Regolo

Selected Sheet Music

“Kyrie” from St. Cecilia Mass
st cecilia

Source: CPDL.org

Showcase Piece

“Cara Tomba” aria da Mitridate Eupatore

Notes and Commentary

“The center of operatic activity eventually shifted from Venice to Naples—from Menteverdi and his followers to Alessandro Scarlatti and his school. The techniques and methods developed in Naples were adopted by Italians for many years after that—until Gluck chartered a new course for opera. Even a non-Italian like Handel was influenced by, and imitated, the Neapolitans.”—David Ewen, The Complete Book of Classical Music

Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera, and was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.

Scarlatti’s music forms an important link between the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century, with their centers in Florence, Venice, and Rome, and the classical school of the 18th century. Scarlatti’s style, however, is more than a transitional element in Western music; like most of his Naples colleagues he shows an almost modern understanding of the psychology of modulation and also frequently makes use of the ever-changing phrase lengths so typical of the Napoli school. His early operas (Gli equivoci nel sembiante 1679; L’honestà negli amori 1680, containing the famous aria “Già il sole dal Gange”; Il Pompeo 1683, containing the well-known airs “O cessate di piagarmi” and “Toglietemi la vita ancor,” and others down to about 1685) retain the older cadences in their recitatives, and a considerable variety of neatly constructed forms in their charming little arias, accompanied sometimes by the string quartet, treated with careful elaboration, sometimes with the continuo alone. By 1686 he had definitely established the “Italian overture” form (second edition of Dal male il bene), and had abandoned the ground bass and the binary form air in two stanzas in favour of the ternary form or da capo type of air. His best operas of this period are La Rosaura (1690, printed by the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung), and Pirro e Demetrio (1694), in which occur the arias “Le Violette”, and “Ben ti sta, traditor”.

From about 1697 onwards (La caduta del Decemviri), influenced partly perhaps by the style of Giovanni Bononcini and probably more by the taste of the viceregal court, his opera arias become more conventional and commonplace in rhythm, while his scoring is hasty and crude, yet not without brilliance (L’Eraclea, 1700), the oboes and trumpets being frequently used, and the violins often playing in unison.

Mitridate Eupatore, accounted his masterpiece, composed for Venice in 1707, contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power. The later Neapolitan operas (L’amor volubile e tiranno 1709; La principessa fedele 1710; Tigrane, 1714, &c.) are showy and effective rather than profoundly emotional; the instrumentation marks a great advance on previous work, since the main duty of accompanying the voice is thrown upon the string quartet, the harpsichord being reserved exclusively for the noisy instrumental ritornelli. In his opera Teodora (1697) he originated the use of the orchestral ritornello.

He lived from May 2, 1660, to October 24, 1725.—Excerpted from Wikipedia

Books and Music

Selected Books

Alessandro Scarlatti: His Life and Works
Cornell University Library, 2009
Edward Joseph Dent
$23.99 on Amazon

alessandro-life

“Originally published in 1905. This volume from the Cornell University Library’s print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.”—from Amazon

Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti: A Guide to Research
Routledge, 1993
Carole F. Vidali
$197.35 on Amazon
$55 for used

grout

“This up-to-date guide includes an annotated bibliography which identifies and discusses selected articles, books, and dissertations about the composers’ lives and works. The guide focuses on recent studies and major review articles, which point to areas that still have to be investigated. It also includes extensive lists of modern editions, published and unpublished, as well as discographies of recordings that have current and historical interest. Some of the discussions in the guide examine the Scarlattis’ relationships to other composers, the cultural milieu in which each worked, questions of performance practice, and other research problems.”—From Amazon

Selected Music

griselda La Griselda (2001), 2-CD set

overo Il Primo Omicidio Overo (1998), 2-CD set

scarl-cantatas A. Scarlatti Cantatas, Volume III (2000), 1 CD

More Alessandro Scarlatti music

Complete Works

The following are all operas. Excerpted from Wikipedia. Access complete information on them.

Gli equivoci nel sembiante
L’honestà negli amori
Tutto il mal non vien per nuocere
(revised as Dal male il bene Naples 1687)
Il Pompeo
La guerriera costante
L’Aldimiro, o vero Favor per favore
La Psiche, o vero Amore innamorato
Olimpia vendicata
La Rosmene, o vero L’infedeltà fedele
Clearco in Negroponte
La santa Dinna
Il Flavio
L’Amazzone corsara, o vero L’Alvilda
La Statira
Gli equivoci in amore, o vero La Rosaura
L’humanità nelle fiere, o vero Il Lucullo
La Teodora augusta
Gerone tiranno di Siracusa
Il nemico di se stesso
L’amante doppio, o vero Il Ceccobimbi
Pirro e Demetrio
Il Bassiano, o vero Il maggior impossibile
La santa Genuinda, o vero L’innocenza difesa dall’inganno (Act 2) d
Le nozze con l’inimico, o vero L’Analinda
Nerone fatto Cesare
Massimo Puppieno
Penelope la casta
La Didone delirante
Comodo Antonino
L’Emireno ovvero Il consiglio dell’ombra
La caduta de’ Decemviri
Il prigioniero fortunato
Anacreonte
La donna ancora è fedele
Gl’inganni felici
L’Eraclea
Odoardo
Dafni favola boschereccia
Laodicea e Berenice
Il pastore di Corinto favola boschereccia
Tito Sempronio Gracco
Tiberio imperatore d’oriente
Il Flavio Cuniberto
Arminio
Turno Aricino
Lucio Manlio l’imperioso
Il gran Tamerlano
Il Mitridate Eupatore
Il trionfo della libertà
Il Teodosio
L’amor volubile e tiranno
La principessa fedele
La fede riconosciuta
Giunio Bruto, o vero La caduta dei Tarquini
Il Ciro
Scipione nelle Spagne
L’amor generoso
Tigrane
Carlo re d’Allemagna
La virtù trionfante dell’odio e dell’amore
Telemaco
Il trionfo dell’onore
Il Cambise
Marco Attilio Regolo
Griselda

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Henry Purcell: Notes and Commentary

Posted by Nabob on

“Though he is acknowledged to be the most ‘English’ of all English composers, and though he is certainly one of the greatest, Henry Purcell was not altogether free of foreign influences. He himself confessed that in his sonatas he ‘faithfully endeavored a just imitation of the most famed Italian masters.’ By way of Italy, too, come many of Purcell’s instrumental fantasias and vocal recitatives. In his anthems, Purcell betrays the impact upon him of the French motet.”—David Ewen, The Complete Book of Classical Music

Henry Purcell was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell’s legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar. He lived from September 10, 1659, to November 21, 1695.

Purcell is said to have had a strong influence on the composers of the English musical renaissance of the early 20th century, most notably Benjamin Britten, who created and performed a realisation of Dido and Aeneas and whose The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is based on a theme from Purcell’s Abdelazar.—Excerpted from Wikipedia

In popular culture, Pete Townshend of The Who has said Purcell’s harmonies were a big influence on the band’s music, particularly in “Pinball Wizard.”

Henry Purcell Books and Music
More on Purcell
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