Transcribing Domenico Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonatas for the Guitar

1.0.0 Manuscript sources
2.0.0 Sonata Numbering
3.0.0 Instrumentation, Transcription, Performance
4.0.0 Ornamentation
4.1.0 Appoggiatura
4.2.0 Trill
4.3.0 Tremulo
5.0.0 Conclusions
6.0.0 Bibliography

1.0.0 Manuscript Sources

No autograph scores of Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas survive. Of the early manuscripts, only the Essercizi per gravicembalo (1738), a collection of thirty sonatas, received direct oversight from the composer. The two major manuscripts that followed, the Parma manuscript, containing 463 sonatas, and the Venice manuscript, containing 496 sonatas, were compiled while Scarlatti was alive, but did not receive direct oversight by the composer. Significant manuscripts are also held in Münster and Vienna, among others.The transcriptions presented here are based on the Venice and Parma manuscripts.

2.0.0 Sonata Numbering

The lack of autograph scores or authoritative first editions has generated vigorous debate over which sonatas are authentic Scarlatti compositions and which are misattributions. Alessandro Longo identified 543 sonatas as belonging to Scarlatti. Ralph Kirkpatrick identified 556. Joel Sheveloff identified 585 possible works, and attributed them to Scarlatti with varying degrees of confidence. Excluding the spurious and melo-bass categories, Sheveloff counts 548 sonatas. By Sheveloff’s reckoning, the transcriptions presented here are all in the “Certain” category.

3.0.0 Instrumentation, Transcription, and Performance

For the guitarist playing these works in transcription, certain common features of Scarlatti’s sonatas pose challenges:

• Long trills in the right hand against active left hand passages are idiomatic on the keyboard, but challenging to realize on the guitar.
• Rapid diminutions in two-voice counterpoint are often impossible to reproduce gracefully on the guitar.
• The range of keyboard instruments well exceeds the guitar. Accommodating passages of significant range necessitates octave displacement, often breaking contour patterns.

These physical constraints limit the number of Scarlatti sonatas suitable for transcription. Without substantial alterations or omissions of the musical material, many Scarlatti sonatas may never be realized on the solo guitar. The transcriptions presented here are selected for the minimal editorializing necessary to realize them on the guitar. In most cases, this means omitting some inner voices to keep the performance manageable, or displacing notes up or down an octave.

Did Scarlatti write these sonatas for the harpsichord? Was it a quill or hammer harpsichord? Were any sonatas written for the pianoforte? The clavichord? The organ? Sheveloff’s work is the most comprehensive in attributing sonatas to particular instruments,assigning about two hundred to the harpsichord, and two hundred to the pianoforte.A select few could be for organ, and a few for clavichord.The remainder are less clear. The instrumentation of the original composition has some bearing on performance, but without conclusive evidence to identify pieces with specific instruments, interpretation is left to the intuitions of the performer.

It is likely that Scarlatti intended some sonatas as pairsand the sonatas are frequently programmed in these pairs. No such pairs are presented in these transcriptions.

4.0.0 Ornamentation

Scarlatti’s ornaments come in three basic varieties: the appoggiatura, the trill, and the tremulo. The editions presented here transcribe ornaments as they appear in the Parma and Venice manuscripts to the exclusion of additional and varied ornaments appearing in other manuscripts. Many editions and transcriptions take the Parma and Venice manuscripts as their primary source, but it is worth keeping in mind that Scarlatti’s ornamentation (or rather, the ornamentation notated by the copyists) is inconsistent within and between manuscripts; definitive interpretations are simply not possible. Discrepancies between Venice and Parma are noted in these transcriptions but other manuscripts are not considered.

Ralph Kirkpatrick’s 1953 monograph Domenico Scarlatti contains some of the first insights into Scarlatti’s ornamentation and remains the most substantial attempt to codify Scarlatti’s ornamental practice and suggest interpretations for Scarlatti’s ornaments. Kirkpatrick’s interpretations are derived mostly from C.P.E. Bach’s Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen:

“For the sake of clarity and consistency I have adopted the method and most of the terminology of the best and most representative of all mid-eighteenth-century treatises dealing with ornamentation, C. P. E. Bach's Versuch. It has no direct historical connection with Scarlatti; it deals with much that is not to be found in his music; and it stems from a Franco-German tradition with which he was never associated; but little seems to occur in Scarlatti's treatment of trills and appoggiaturas that is not clearly and authoritatively discussed in Bach's treatise.”

The following analysis is shaped around Kirkpatrick’s account and supplemented by the commentary of others. The selection of examples from Kirkpatrick is not comprehensive, but feature the most common interpretive issues with Scarlatti’s ornaments. The heavy emphasis on Kirkpatrick's work is not a direct endorsement of his interpretations, but the summary of issues presented by Kirkpatrick provides a helpful introduction to the topic.

4.1.0 Appoggiatura

There are three parameters to consider when performing appoggiaturas: the starting note, the metric placement, and the duration. The starting note could be either the auxiliary note or the main note. The ornament can either begin before the beat or on the beat. The length of the auxiliary note and the main note can be divided evenly or unevenly within the total duration. The task of the performer is to apply the appropriate constraints on performance consistent with the composer’s style, the period, and perhaps the region. Given those parameters, what is stylistically appropriate for Scarlatti?

4.1.1 Appoggiatura (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

Kirkpatrick begins with an overview of common notation practices in the Venice and Parma manuscripts. Within these two manuscripts, appoggiaturas are notated with a variety of rhythmic values:

Usually, the appoggiatura is linked to the main note by a slur:

Kirkpatrick provides several examples of the inconsistent notation of the appoggiatura. In K.216, a parallel passage appears to use eighth note, sixteenth note, and quarter note appoggiaturas interchangeably. Does Scarlatti intend different interpretations for these rhythmic values? Are these merely inconsistencies in the copyist’s work?

Similarly, parallel passages in K.470 are notated differently. In the first instance, the appoggiatura is notated with a quarter note, while in the parallel passage the appoggiatura is written out.

4.1.2 Short Appoggiatura (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

According to C.P.E. Bach’s Versuch, appoggiaturas begin on the beat and subtract their value from the note which they precede. There are two types of appoggiatura, short and long, each described below with examples from Scarlatti’s sonatas.

The short appoggiatura is used in three situations: passages of fast notes, before triplets, and when a short appoggiatura maintains the rhythmic identity of the passage. The short appoggiatura is as short in duration as is possible. Kirkpatrick recommends short appoggiaturas in each of the following examples:

4.1.3 Long Appoggiatura (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

The long appoggiatura is recommended in all cases where the criteria for a short appoggiatura are not satisfied. In triplet meters, the long appoggiatura is two thirds the value of the note, otherwise the long appoggiatura should occupy half the value of the note that it modifies.

Kirkpatrick identifies a few exceptions to his general rules for the short and long appoggiatura. Although this passage from K.19 contains fast moving notes, Kirkpatrick recommends the long appoggiatura:

Likewise, these passages from K.531 contain fast moving notes, in a compound duple meter, yet Kirkpatrick recommends the long appoggiatura in m.56 to parallel the pattern established in m.38 and m.45:

In K.261, again Kirkpatrick recommends the long appoggiatura, despite the fast moving notes:

In K.246 Kirkpatrick recommends the long appoggiatura in m.21, perhaps to maintain the rhythmic character of the parallel passage in m.25:

In each of these cases, one might well find satisfying performances that use short appoggiaturas in place of long ones. The most compelling uses of the long appoggiatura are at cadential moments involving suspensions and retardations, such as K.19 and K.531 above, and the appoggiatura on the first beat of m.28 in K.261, also above.

In some places, Scarlatti writes out the appoggiatura, leaving no uncertainty to its interpretation. One such example is K.479. In m.36, Scarlatti writes out the retardation, in this case occupying one-quarter of the duration (one eighth note). In m.84, Scarlatti again writes out the retardation, this time expecting a duration one half of the full note value. In m.95, a passage similar to one beginning in m.84, Scarlatti chooses not to write out this appoggiatura, leaving its interpretation to the performer. Why the difference?

In triple meters, Kirkpatrick advises a long appoggiatura of two thirds the duration. In support of this interpretation, Kirkpatrick provides three examples where the appoggiatura is written out explicitly in a triple meter passage: K.357, K.541, and K.199.

Kirkpatrick also produces one example counter to this rule. In K.108, the appoggiatura occupies only one third of the note value in m.11. A similar passage in m.49 uses the appoggiatura notation and Kirkpatrick recommends an interpretation the same as m.11.

Kirkpatrick identifies several other passages where appoggiaturas are written out, demonstrating the variety in ornament notation within Scarlatti’s sonatas. There is neither consistency in notation within pieces nor between pieces, but Kirkpatrick is consistent in his recommendation: parallel passages ought to receive the same interpretation.

4.1.4 Appoggiatura (Michael Quantz)

Quantz recommends the following general rules for performing Scarlatti’s appoggiaturas: In tempi of andante cantabile and slower, an Italian interpretation suggests an appoggiatura of at least half the length of the main note. In quicker tempi, an appoggiatura of one-third or two-thirds the length of the main note is more appropriate. Quantz estimates that the majority of Scarlatti’s appoggiaturas are probably short. These descriptions correspond to Kirkpatrick’s long and short appoggiaturas and to this extent, Kirkpatrick and Quantz are in agreement. However, Quantz is careful to distance himself from Kirkpatrick’s dependency on the Versuch to guide his interpretations, instead recommending the early eighteenth-century Italians Francisco Geminiani (1679-1762), Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), and Nicolo Pasquali (d. 1757) as more suitable models for ornamental practice in Scarlatti’s sonatas. The Versuch, first published in 1753, was probably available too late to have a significant impact on Scarlatti’s notational practices, and unlikely inspiration for Scarlatti’s ornamentation.

Quantz also challenges Kirkpatrick’s dependency on parallel passages to interpret ornaments. Contemporaries of Scarlatti, including Antonio Soler, Sebastian Albero, Carlos Seixas, and Jose de Herrando, were just as inconsistent in notating ornaments as Scarlatti.

4.1.5 Appoggiatura (Frederick Neumann)

Frederick Neumann’s 1978 monograph Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music offers a comprehensive survey of baroque ornamental practice in the French, German, and Italian traditions. For Neumann, ornaments of a single tone, one-note graces, come in four basic types: Vorschlag, Nachschlag, Zwischenschlag, and Zusammenschlag. The four types take their names from the grace note’s relationship to its parent note or notes.

Vorschlag: a one-note grace that precedes its parent note.
Nachschlag: a one-note grace that follows its parent note.
Zwischenschlag: a one-note grace that connects two equal parent notes.
Zusammenschlag: a one-note grace that is sounded simultaneously with its parent note.

Of the four types, only the Vorschlag and Zusammenschlag use examples from Scarlatti: K.420, K.17, K.142, and K.169. Neumann’s book is broken into sections based on period and region. The Scarlatti examples appear in the section, “Italian One-Note Graces, 1710–1760,” perhaps suggesting something fundamentally Italian about Scarlatti’s practice:

“About 1710, Italian composers began to adopt the French unmetrical little notes to indicate one-note graces, slides, and occasionally, turns. During the same period, Italian and German ornamental practices began to diverge. From this time on it is therefore advisable to make a distinction between the Italians and Italianate Germans on the one hand, and those Germans on the other, who mixed French and Italian styles to achieve a measure of national or personal independence.”

Example 17.10.a shows the Vorschlag used to avoid parallel fifths and octaves between the outer voices. Neumann also writes: “In Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas we find Vorschläge that were clearly intended to add a spark of vitality and seem to call for prebeat performance.”

The Zusammenschlag, or acciaccatura, is an ornament played simultaneously with its resolution and then quickly released. In sonatas K.96, K.132, and K119, Scarlatti uses the Zusammenschlag to great effect, particularly in the repeated chords of K.119. In general, the use of the Zusammenschlag in rich harmonic textures was more common in Italian music than in French or German music.

4.2.0 Trill

There are three parameters to consider when performing a trill: the starting note, the metric placement, and the duration. The starting note can be either the auxiliary note (above or below) or the main note. The ornament can begin before the beat or on the beat. The length of the trill and its resolution note can be equal in duration or unequal in duration.

4.2.1 Trill with Appoggiatura (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

The symbols used to indicate a trill vary according to the manuscript collection. The Essercizi uses while the Venice and Parma manuscripts mostly use . Kirkpatrick’s favored interpretation is to begin the trill from the upper auxiliary note, cautioning against trills from the lower auxiliary as a nineteenth century anachronism. The favored sources for his interpretation are Johann Friedrich Agricola, C.P.E. Bach, and Giambattista Mancini. This interpretation is reinforced by the use of the appoggiatura throughout the sonatas.

According to Kirkpatrick, the trill with appoggiatura and the trill without appoggiatura are used interchangeably in so-called “parallel passages.” In the following examples, the parallel passages differ in ornamentation: some trills have preceding appoggiaturas and some do not. According to Kirkpatrick, if the first passage has an appoggiatura and trill, then the second passage should use the same ornament, regardless of the notation. For Kirkpatrick, these parallel passages both reinforce the view that trills ought to begin from the upper auxiliary (because many trills have upper appoggiaturas) and that trills without appoggiaturas ought to be interpreted identically to parallel passages with appoggiaturas.

4.2.2 Tied Trill (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

The trill with appoggiatura is not the only model found by Kirkpatrick. Though rare, Kirkpatrick identifies four examples of the tied trill in Scarlatti’s sonatas. According to Kirkpatrick, the appropriate model for performing these trills is Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg’s Anleitung zum Clavierspielen:

In the first example, from K.412, the tie is present in the first passage (m.34), but not in the second passage (m.38). Should these passage be performed differently from each other? Does the short length of the notes and fast tempo influence the interpretation at all?

How is the tied trill distinguished from the trill with appoggiatura? This example from K.127 combines the tied trill with the long appoggiatura:

In this example (K.392), the tie is absent, but the context, a long note value (B-flat) followed by shorter note values (A and G), supports the tied trill interpretation: “Generally the deciding factor is the rhythmic context. A tied trill always sound well when incorporated into a smooth diatonic line where there is no need for accent.”

According to Kirkpatrick, Scarlatti avoids a tie from weak to strong beat by interjecting a slurred appoggiatura, discouraging the “Marpurg” interpretation: “Frequently however the repeated note of the trill is needed, either for rhythmic accent or for additional weight on the appoggiatura dissonance formed by the upper note of the trill. Sometimes Scarlatti himself cautions against the use of the tied trill by inserting a grace note or appoggiatura which repeats the previous note.”

4.2.3 Trill with Termination (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

Scarlatti never uses the terminal indications common to J.S. Bach but the trill with termination does appear in written out form in Scarlatti’s music. The existence of such written out passages varies. In parallel passages, sometimes the trill with termination appears in one passage but not the other. There are also cases where a fluid performance of the piece necessitates a trill with termination to perform gracefully. K.1 is such an example where Kirkpatrick recommends the trill with termination.

A trill with termination may also be followed by an appoggiatura, as is the case in K.256:

4.2.4 Upper Appoggiatura with Trill, Lower Appoggiatura with Trill (Ralph Kirkpatrick)

The appoggiatura can precede the trill from either above or below. In this example, from K.7, Scarlatti uses the upper appoggiatura:

For the lower appoggiatura and trill, Kirkpatrick recommends either Marpurg or C.P.E. Bach:

4.2.6 Trill (Frederick Neumann)

Frederick Neumann provides four examples from Scarlatti’s sonatas where the trill has a single sensible interpretation. In K.17 and K.308, Neumann favours beginning the trill on the main note to avoid parallel fifths in the outer voices.

In K.105, Neumann recommends beginning the trill on the main note in m.42, maintaining the repeated A4 pattern in the right hand:

In K.119, Neumann recommends beginning the trill on the main note in m.35 to preserve the descending scale:

4.2.7 Trill (Dean Sutcliffe)

Sutcliffe’s book focuses on inconsistencies of ornament notation, but does have some insight into Scarlatti’s trills. He notes the influence of folk styles and the predominant Italian and Iberian influence, as Quantz had for appoggiaturas. Later editions of Scarlatti’s sonatas, including the Lisbon and Cambridge editions, have ornaments not found in Parma and Venice manuscripts that support this theory.

Tempting as it might be to invoke prohibitions against parallel fifths, it is worth remembering that elsewhere in his keyboard sonatas Scarlatti is quite audacious. Building on Kirkpatrick, Sutcliffe warns against subjecting Scarlatti’s sonatas to the same formal standards of composition applied to vocal works, including strict prohibitions against parallel fifths. Instead, these sonatas are more improvisatory, embodying the emerging galant style. Consider K.206, where the free use of parallel fifths, objectionable in strict style, are pervasive:

4.3.0 Tremulo

The tremulo, also notated tre and trem, appears in relatively few Scarlatti sonatas. There is no conclusive interpretation of the tremulo. The tremolo, the familiar string technique, is one possibility; Pasquali’s tremolato, the fast repetition of a single pitch, is another. There are a variety of terms used in the 17th and 18th centuries to describe similar ornaments:

“The terms tremulus, tremolato, tremelo, tremblement, and tremblor have one aspect in common from 1650 to 1750; a general meaning of somehow making the pitch shake by either varying the intensity of pitch (changes in loudness), repeating the pitch rapidly, or alternating the main note with another (others) in rapid succession from above or below.”

Comparative evidence from Scarlatti’s sonatas provides contextual clues for interpreting Scarlatti's tremulo. In K.175, Scarlatti uses both tremulo and trill in the same passage in alternating measures. Minor notational differences aside, the passage shows a clear alternation between trill and tremulo, suggesting differing intent for each symbol. Both Parma and Venice are consistent in this usage.

However, a passage in K.137 contradicts that interpretation. In the Parma manuscript, the two bar passage uses the symbol tre on each note in the right hand. In the Venice manuscript, the same two bar passage uses the symbol, and only on the first three notes in the right hand, in this case suggesting that tre and may have identical meaning.

Quantz identifies four such instances of inconsistency between the Venice and Parma manuscripts that suggest tre and may have identical meaning. These four ambiguities aside, Quantz believes that the tre and symbols probably have different meanings in most contexts.

Tempo is also a factor in the interpretation of the tremulo. Some passages, such as the following passage from K.510, strongly suggest a short ornament, perhaps a mordent or Barbara Such’s repeated note. The tempo Allegro molto allows for nothing more elaborate.

4.3.1 Tremulo di sotto and tremulo di sopra (Frederick Neumann)

In Scarlatti’s sonatas, the instruction tremulo di sopra appears only once: in K.96. Neumann’s recommended interpretation of the tremulo di sopra is transcribed below:

In all other instances, Scarlatti writes either tremulo, trem., or tre. Neumann reasons that in these other cases, the logical interpretation of these indications was the tremulo di sotto, also called the tremulus descendens or multiple mordent found in Praetorius' Syntagma musicum:

By expressly writing tremulo di sopra in K.96, Scarlatti differentiates the instruction from the tremulo, trem., and tre. Sheveloff is also persuaded by this interpretation.

4.3.2 Tremulo (Carl Sloane)

Carl Sloane notes that Neumann’s tremulo di sotto interpretation is corroborated by Francisco Ignacio Solano in his 1764 treatise Nova instrucção musical, ou theorica pratica da musica rythmica. Solano describes the tremulo as an inverted trill. Sloane accepts this possibility, but notes that the tremulo di sopra may have a different meaning than the one supplied by Neumann and Sheveloff. If tremulo di sopra indicates a trill from above, then what of the following passage from K.82? Is this passage from K.82 interpreted differently from the similar passage in K.96?

Why didn’t Scarlatti notate this passage tremulo di sopra but instead choose the trill with tie? Sloane remarks that K.96 is the first instance in the Venice manuscript to include the tremulo and thus is written out in full to clarify its meaning. Later instances are written as either tremulo, trem., or tre.

5.0.0 Conclusions

Scarlatti's sonatas have received little research attention relative to their status as standard keyboard pieces. The resources compiled in the Bibliography below provided some direct insight, one way or another, on the preface above. These resources more or less account for the whole of existing scholarship on Scarlatti's ornaments in English. Kirkpatrick's book, now seventy years old, and in need of update, remains the only resource that directly and systematically evaluates Scarlatti's ornamental practice. Later scholars appear less interested in advancing understanding of Scarlatti's ornamentation.

The preceding analysis is a broad introduction to the topic. Many of the examples from Kirkpatrick's book are left out of this summary and the book is worth full consideration. The hope is that this analysis might inspire those playing Scarlatti's music in transcription to consider how they justify their interpretive choices, and recognize that a transcription is a compromise between the surviving manuscripts, period practice, and the performer's own intuitions.

6.0.0 Bibliography

Books

Badura-Skoda, Eva. The Eighteenth-Century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2017.

Kirkpatrick, Ralph. Domenico Scarlatti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953.

Marshall, Robert L. ed.. Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Neumann, Frederick. Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music, with Special Emphasis on J.S. Bach. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Sutcliffe, W. Dean. The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Dissertations

Choi, Seunghyun. “Newly Found Eighteenth Century Manuscripts of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonatas and Their Relationship to Other Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Sources.” PhD diss. The University of Wisconsin,1974.

Ogeil, Jacqueline. “Domenico Scarlatti: A Contribution to Our Understanding of His Sonatas through Performance and Research.” PhD diss. University of Newcastle, 2006.

Quantz, Michael. “Practical Aspects of Playing Domenico Scarlatti's Keyboard Sonatas on the Guitar.” DMA diss. University of North Texas, 1994.

Sheveloff, Joel. “The Keyboard Music of Domenico Scarlatti: A Re-Evaluation of the Present State of Knowledge in the Light of the Sources.” PhD diss. Brandeis University, 1970.

Journal Articles

Sachs, Barbara. “Scarlatti’s Tremulo.” Early Music 19, no. 1 (1991): 91–3.

Sheveloff, Joel. “Uncertainties in Domenico Scarlatti’s Musical Language.” Chigiana 40, no. 20 (1985): 143–172.

Sheveloff, Joel. “Domenico Scarlatti: Tercentenary Frustrations, Part I.” The Musical Quarterly 71, no. 4 (1985): 399–436.

Sheveloff, Joel. “Domenico Scarlatti: Tercentenary Frustrations, Part II.” The Musical Quarterly 72, no. 1 (1986): 90–118.

Sloane, Carl. “Domenico Scarlatti's 'tremulo.'” Early Music 30, no. 1 (2002): 158.

Sloane, Carl. “A Fresh Look at Domenico Scarlatti’s Essercizi per gravicembalo, and the ‘tremulo di sopra.’” Early Music 35, no. 4 (2007): 605–608.

Williams, Peter. “Remarks on the Text of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonatas.” Recercare 16 (2004): 215–38.

Web Resources

Domenico Scarlatti: Summary of Sources

Scarlatti Sonata Incipits

IMSLP: Domenico Scarlatti

John Sankey: Scarlatti Edition