Scarlatti K63

[worov]

Hi, everyone !

I'm currently practising Scarlatti K.63 (L84). You can listen to it here performed by Evgeny Zarafiants (Naxos) :

Here is the problem. In the penultimate bar, in the sheet music, there is a G minor chord (the one I have circled in red) :



Well, as you can see and hear in the recording, the piece is in G major. It doesn't make sense to conclude on a minor chord progression. Is this a misprint?

Evgeny Zarafiants doesn't play the Bb, he plays a B natural.

The sheet music I use comes from this edition (which is supposed to be authoritative) :

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonates, Volume II K.53-103 Le Pupitre Vol.32. Edition par Kenneth Gilbert. Heugel & Cie. Editions Alphonse Leduc & Cie. Published in 1979.

I have also checked others editions. One by Emilia Fadini (published by Ricordi) has also a G minor chord in this bar.

The ABRSM edition (AB 1285) by Arnold Goldsbrough has a G major chord. The Alessandro Longo edition also has a G major chord (but Longo is said to be sometimes unreliable).

Some performers play the minor chord :

I don't know how to go about this. What would you guys think ? Any advice ?

Thank you.

[j_menz]

In his manuscripts, Scarlatti used a flat sign to cancel a preceding sharp (where we would use a natural sign now). Could it be that the B with the natural sign in the preceding bar should in fact be a B# - Scarlatti used B#s frequently in his mss that have conventionally been notated as Cs in later published editions. The natural sign seems rather superfluous, cancelling as it does an accidental some bars previously where this would seem wholly unnecessary and more confusing than courtesy.

Using that line of logic, try the B natural in the preceding bar as a C and the Bb you've asked about as a B natural and see if the result sounds right.

[michael_c]

I would not a priori pass this off as a misprint. Scarlatti often used the interplay between major and minor harmonies. He sometimes used harmonies much weirder than this (have you looked at K175, for instance?).

The two editions that you cite that give the Bb are both respected critical editions, the Fadini being the more recent of the two. The Longo edition (which gives the B natural) is known for multiple mistakes and "corrections" invented by Longo himself.

Furthermore, the recordings you present with the Bb are all performed on period instruments by performers apparently well-versed in historically-informed interpretation, whereas the one with the B natural is performed by a pianist of the old Russian school: this school of playing is certainly not known for paying particular attention to historical details and original sources.

The only way to be sure about this would be to go and look at original sources, which most pianists certainly can't afford. However, you're in luck: Gilbert and Fadini have done it for you. 

The short of it: play the Bb. It's fun, witty and completely in keeping with the slightly quirky character of Scarlatti's music.

[richardb]

Hi worov,

When I played this piece I wondered about the same thing.  In the book
"Scarlatti -- An Introduction to His Keyboard Works (Alfred Masterwork Editions)"
there's a note about this saying "The flat before the B produces an unusual harmonic progression, but is very clear in the Venice manuscript. Other editions do not have the flat."

[michael_c]

In the book
"Scarlatti -- An Introduction to His Keyboard Works (Alfred Masterwork Editions)"
there's a note about this saying "The flat before the B produces an unusual harmonic progression, but is very clear in the Venice manuscript. Other editions do not have the flat."

This is something that often happens: a composer writes something a little out of the ordinary and an editor "corrects" it, either wittingly or unwittingly. The error is perpetrated in other editions that don't bother to check the original.

As I said before, be thankful that people like Gilbert and Fadini have put so much work into studying original sources.

A general rule to follow: if you can find something called "critical edition", always use it. It's not a complete guarantee that every tiny detail will be correct, but it is by far your best bet.

[worov]

Thank you for your answers to all all of you.

I think I'll go with the minor chord. My ears will take some time to get used to it.

[8_octaves]

Hi worov,

When I played this piece I wondered about the same thing.  In the book
"Scarlatti -- An Introduction to His Keyboard Works (Alfred Masterwork Editions)"
there's a note about this saying "The flat before the B produces an unusual harmonic progression, but is very clear in the Venice manuscript. Other editions do not have the flat."

Hi richardb, that's very interesting, because in my Peters-Edition (K 63 is, as we probably know, in Vol. I ( not II, sry ) ), where no flat is given (and furthermore other things appear) it says in the revision's commentary: "the sources of the (Peters-) Edition are the manuscripts of the Marcus-Library in Venice (Nr. 9770-9784); in single cases the manuscripts in Parma, the Santinic copies, as printed editions the English First Edition ( Roseingrave ) and furthermore the Editions of Czerny, Longo and Kirkpatrick."

Thank you for your comment, again, richardb, because the only thought that I had was bar 56, where there's a flat sign, so I thought the missing natural sign in bar 59 (together with the existing one in bar 58 ) could be classified as "warning accidental": as a warning, that now it's natural, again (compared to bar 56).

For further studies in the Scarlatti-area I would recommend the following document, in case it isn't yet known by all of you:

https://www.denzilwraight.com/Ogeil_Diss.pdf

It's very interesting to read, in my opinion! (Although K63, as I just saw, isn't discussed in detail there. But other topics are!)

Many greetings, 8_octaves!