detailing for Scarlatti sonata (k 201)?

[lani]

We finally were able to track down a copy of the K. Gilbert edition of the Scarlatti Sonatas, Volume 4 which had the  k 201 score ( pub. Huegel & Cie), for Harpsichord.  Does anyone have suggestions on detailing/or ornamentation for this particular Sonata?  The score is devoid of details that my daughter is used to seeing on piano scores.
Anyone have any suggested sites or info on how one might play/approach Scarlatti Sonatas? Thanks! Lani

[bernhard]

The two best references on how to play Scarlatti (including a comprehensive discussion of ornamentation) are:

1. Ralph Kirkpatrick – Domenico Scarlatti – Princeton

Kirkpatrick – an accomplished harpsichordist and musicologist - went back to the original copies of the sonatas (the autographs are lost) and renumbered all the sonatas in chronological order (The “K” number refers to Kirkpatrick). He also discovered that most of the sonatas are to be played in pairs, and a few in threes. This is really the mother of all reference books on Scarlatti. Kirkpatrick also edited 60 of the sonatas (in two volumes) for Schirmer, and you will find a summary of his ideas on interpretation on the preface of these volumes.

Kirkpatrick wrote his book in 1953 (revised in 1983). Since then quite a lot of research has been going on. A summary of new findings can be found in the chapter about Scarlatti in Robert Marshall  - Eighteenth century Keyboard music – Routledge

2. W. Dean Suttcliff - The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti & Eighteenth-Century Musical Style – Cambridge.

Published in 2003, this book is the most up to date work on Scarlatti (and in fact the first since Kirkpatrick’s book). In depth analysis of the sonatas as well as many new and interesting facts about Scarlatti’s life and times.

I also strongly suggest you read John Sankey’s article on Scarlatti performance here:

https://www.sankey.ws/scarlattimus.html

Finally, K 201 has been recorded on the piano by Jenos Jando (Naxos) and Vladimir Horowitz (Sony). Listen to them and see how they realise the ornaments.

As for the ornamentation itself.

1.      K 201 can be played without any ornaments if you wish.

2.      The few ornaments consist of a few appoggiaturas and a couple of trills.

3.      No one knows for sure how Scarlatti realised his ornaments, so one can only make informed guesses. However it was common practice at the time to improvise ornaments freely, so chances are that the ornaments present in the score are just the bare minimum and that many more were added during performance.

4.      Repeats were rarely played exactly the same. Performance practice at the time was to play the first time as written and then improvise freely on the repeat.

5.      Unless there is strong reason to believe otherwise, trills start on the upper note, on the beat and do not end in turns. However, Scarlatti frequently used a grace note to indicate which note to start the trill/short trill. He also indicates when to play turns at the end.

6.      Scarlatti’s notation is ambiguous. The same sonata will have different symbols in different copies.

7.      It is difficult to write about this without a score.

I hope this helps. (I am afraid there are no easy answers here).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[lani]

Bernhard, thanks so much; we were hoping you'd respond to our post.  We have the Horowitz cd (Horowitz plays Scarlatti) and it has 201, as well as 19 other Scarlatti Sonatas!  My daughter's piano teacher is not as familiar with Scarlatti-he wasn't too keen on her selecting this at first, but now that we have found the score, we think he will pretty much let her work on any piece she sets her mind to.  Would it be too presumptious to provide your recommendations for ornamentation to him, or should my daughter practice it without, and as they get farther along perhaps provide this information?  Best regards, Lani P.S. Why are people unfamiliar with Scarlatti?!!!

[bernhard]

Bernhard, thanks so much; we were hoping you'd respond to our post.  We have the Horowitz cd (Horowitz plays Scarlatti) and it has 201, as well as 19 other Scarlatti Sonatas!  My daughter's piano teacher is not as familiar with Scarlatti-he wasn't too keen on her selecting this at first, but now that we have found the score, we think he will pretty much let her work on any piece she sets her mind to.  Would it be too presumptious to provide your recommendations for ornamentation to him, or should my daughter practice it without, and as they get farther along perhaps provide this information?  Best regards, Lani P.S. Why are people unfamiliar with Scarlatti?!!!

I agree with you. It is a complete mystery to me why Scarlatti is so disregarded by teachers.

Scarlatti ornamentation presents many problems:

1.      Scarlatti – being an Italian musician – follows Italian conventions, which means that most of the ornamentation is left to the performer. While French and German ornamentation is reasonably precise and detailed, Scarlatti’s is sparse and vague. In this sonata there are two notated ornaments: Trills and appogiaturas/acciacaturas.

2.      Trills  in Baroque usage always start on the upper auxiliary and are always played on the beat. E.g. a trill on the main note C (crochet) should start on the D (upper auxiliary) and alternate with the main note for its duration: DCDCDC… The set “DC” is called a repercussion and the number of repercussions depends on one’ s technique (how many can you fit in the time available) and on the character of the piece (slower pieces, less repercussions). So you could play the trill above as either DCDC (semiquavers) or DCDCDCDC (demisemiquavers) and so on.

However, right now we run into a problem. Scarlatti often writes a grace note before a trill, usually indicating the upper auxiliary. So it has been argued by a number of scholars that trills in Scarlatti should start on the upper auxiliary when a grace note is present, but otherwise it coud start either on the main note or on the upper auxiliary. In K 201 Scarlatti notates all trills []without[/] grace notes before them, so it is really up to the performer to decide which he thinks is more appropriate.

Often trills have a turn at the end. E.g. the trill above could be played: DCDCDC-BC. Although in the classical period such endings are  more or less taken for granted, in the Baroque the common practice was to specify the ending with grace notes after the trill. Most scholars agree that when Scarlatti wants an ending he will write it down, so it is to be assumed that if no grace notes are present after the trill no ending is required. This is the case with K201 where all the trills have no indication of an ending.

3.      I would suggest that your daughter learns this sonata without any ornaments whatsoever. It is quite effective even without them. Once she has thoroughly learned the sonata, then she should add the ornaments.

4.      As I mentioned before, Baroque practice was to play the repeat in a different way. Almost no modern pianist does that, preferring instead to play the repeat as an exact , well, repeat! The only exception I found amongst Scarlatti interpreters (I have not heard them all though) is Maria Tipo who often varies the repeats. So my suggestion to you r daughter is that she plays the first time without ornaments, and add them on the repeats. It is certain that performers in Scarlatti time (and Scarlatti himself) would have improvised a rich ornamentation on the repeats – and this, following Italian conventions – would never be notated.

So here are the ornaments in K 201: (When an alternative resolution is given, the first one is how I play it. Notice also that other alternatives are possible. Feel free to investigate and use other alternatives. No one has the definitive solution).

Bar 5: appoggiatura on a dotted crochet. The  appoggiatura is played as a crochet, while the main note is played as quaver. (Appogiaturas on dotted notes take 2/3 of the value of the main note). John Sankey plays it like that. Alternative: play it as an acciacatura (that is a crushed note). This is more difficult (it is the way both  Jeno Jando and Horowitz play it).

Bar 6: Another appoggiatura on a dotted crochet. Played as above.

Bar 43: short trill. Start he trill on the beat, on the upper auxiliary ending on the main note for the duration of the main note. In this case the trill is on the main note E (quaver). so play it FEFE (4 demisemiquavers = 1 quaver). John Sankey ignore this ornament altogether.

Bar 60: another short trill on the main note C (quaver). Play DCDC (demisemiquavers). Alternatively try CDC-BC (triplet semidemiquaver-semidemiquaver).

Bar 64: Short trill on the main note F (quaver). Trill only the top note F, not the chord BF: GFGF (demisemiquavers). Alternatively try FGF-EF (triplet semidemiquaver-semidemiquaver).

Bar 65: Short trill on the main note G (quaver). AGAG (demisemiquavers). Alternatively try GAG-FG (triplet semidemiquaver-semidemiquaver).

Bar 71: Appogiatura on C (quaver). Play it as D – C (both semiquavers), so that the last group in the bar (C –B- A – quaver – semiquaver-semiquaver) effectively becomes a group of four semiquavers: D-C-B-A, the D being the appoggiatura, played on the beat and displacing the C from the beat as well as shortening it to a semiquaver.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[lani]

Our thanks again, Bernhard!  This is truly helpful and appreciated.  We will go ahead without ornamentation for now, and then later introduce these ornaments should she want to play this piece for her workshop/recital.