b sachs em 1993 scarlatti tremolo

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Scarlatti's TremuloAuthor(s): Barbara SachsSource: Early Music, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Feb., 1991), pp. 91-93Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127955

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OBSERVATIONS

BarbaraSachs

Scarlatti s

t r e m u l o

1 Domenico Scarlatti, portrait (c. 1740) by Doi

de Veldsco

(Instituicao

Jose

Relvas,

Alpiarca)

In

seeking

a

possible

explanation

for what

Kirkpatrick

called the

'puzzlingly

consistent distinction

between

tremulo

trem., re.)

and

(,)

in the sonatasof

Domenico

Scarlatti,

t

might

be advisable

o refrain

from

hoping

that the former

will

turn out

to be a

particular

orm of

the latter.Accustomed

as we are to

deliberating

ver

the

musical

implications

of the various

ways

to

interpret

shakes,

we

usually

contrive

to make Scarlatti's

remuli

sound acceptableas trills,without identifyinga feature

that

warrantsand

requires

the use of the

special

term

tremulo.

Shouldwe be

looking

for

a

differentornament?

Kirk-

patrick

dismissed

mordents,

schnellerand

rapid

note-

repetition,

all of which

were sometimes called

tremoli

n

the

17th

century,

because

'none of these

examples

appears

o have

any

bearing

on Scarlatti'.2

his

seems

an

insufficient reason

for

dismissing

note-repetition,

which,

after

all,

has been

the standard

meaning

of trem-

olo for

strings

from Mariniand

Castello

to the

present.

Scarlatti

did,

of

course,

write out

ordinary

repeated

notes-almost

always

an

even number

of

notes,

played

through

a beat or a

bar,

by alternating

wo

fingers.

There

is

a 'touch'

however,

elated

o

note-repetition,

hat

Nic-

olo

Pasquali

onsidered

whimsical'and said

was known

as

'tremolato'

In

his

Art

of Fingering

he

Harpsichord,

book

for

teachersof

beginners

completed

by

1757

and

published

posthumously,

Pasquali

explained

'tremolato,

or

qua-

vering'

as

the

playing

of one

key by

three

fingers,

fJ.

or

2.

4 3

2 432

as

quickly

s the

quillpermits.3

His

other touches'

besides

legato

and

staccato,

were

'sdrucciolato,

r

sliding' [glis-

sando]

and

staccatissimo.

n the last

two,

all the

notes

appear

under

a slur and are

playedby

a

single

finger.

The

sdrucciolato

ertainly

corresponds

o Scarlatti's

lissandi

runs 'conun deto'

with

one

finger].)

Pasqualiprescribed

this basic three-note repetitionfor beginners;as with

beats

and

shakes,

perhaps

n some contextsmore advan-

ced

players

could add

more

repercussions.Figures

ike

J.

or

JJ432

432

4

3 2

4 3

2

43432

preserve

the

sparkling

character

of the

tremolatoand

remain

distinct

from the

trillo continuato and

from

paired repeated

notes.

Another

conjecture

is the

possibility

of

combining

such a

tremulo

with

a trill.

Christophe

Rousset4 ontests

Emilia Fadini's relating of Scarlatti'stremuloto the

repeated

notes

ending

trills

(and

called

rills)

n Lorenzo

Penna's reatise

of

1672

and

Gregorio

Strozzi's

keyboard

music

(1687).5

As 'le

contre-exemple

deal'he cites

K.n8,

where tremulo

appears

above

tr

(five

times).

But

rather

than

equating

the two terms

this

example may

actually

call for a successive

execution

of both ornaments.

The

resultcould

be either a trill

from above

followed

by

two

EARLY MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1991

91






extra

repercussions

of the

principal

note,

as

illustrated

by

Penna,

or a trill

from the

principal

note with

three to

five

repeated

notes

at the

end,

as

found

in

Strozzi.

The

superimposition

of two

ornament terms over

one note

recalls

such familiar

compound

signs

as

2

or

y.

The

tremulo

portions

of Penna's

and Strozzi's trills

were

probably played

without

changing fingers,

the

effect

beingmore vocal thanPasquali'sremolato r Scarlatti's

tremulo,

and more

suited to the

organ.

Tremuli

are

indicated in

K.96,114, 115,

118,119,

128,132,

136,137,172,

175,

183,187,

194,203, 204a,

208,

272,291,296,

510, 525

and

543.6

They

occur

only

in the

right

hand,

and

even when

they

are inserted

in

chords,

fingers

432

usually

remain

available

to

play

them;

in other

cases

some

people

might

prefer

443

or

444

to

543,

or

332

o

321.

The

following

examples

may help

to

show

that the most

logical meaning

of

the term in

question

need not be dis-

missed: it

produces

a novel

effect and

solves an old

puzzle.

Ex.1

Tremulo

on

single

notes

K.132

Cantabile)

A

_

-do-

'

R.

Kirkpatrick,

d.,

Scarlatti

Sixty

Sonatas

NY/London,

1953),

i,

p.lg9;

R.

Kirkpatrick,

Domenico

Scarlatti

Princeton,1953;

ev.

3/1968),

P.390.

2

Ibid,

P.393.

3N.

Pasquali,

The

Art

of

Fingering

he

HarpsichordEdinburgh,

1758),

pp.26-27.

4

C.

Rousset,

Approche

tatistique

des sonates' n

DomenicoScar-

latti

13

Recherches,

ahiersde la

Societe de

Musique

Ancienne de Nice

No.

1

(1985),p.79.

5

See

also

E.

Fadini,

La

grafia

dei

manoscritti carlattiani:

roblemi

edosservazione',n Gli Atti del

Convegno

carlatti il suo

tempo,

Acca-

demia

Chigiana,

1985 Florence,

199o).

6

Ibid,

p.

84.

This

helpful

list also

includes

K.357,

which, however,

contains

the trillo

continuato,

not

the

tremulo.There are no Scarlatti

autographs,

but

the

manuscript

sources

are in

substantial

agreement

regarding

tremuli.

See

Fadini's edition for

details of

slight

discre-

pancies.

Rousset

says

the

K.128 remuliare

only

in

the Parma

codices;

according

o Fadini

they

are n the

Miinster

and

Vienna

manuscripts

s

well.

7

Emilia

Fadini,

ed.

Domenico

ScarlattiSonate

per

clavicembalo,

Critical

Edition

(Milan:

1978-),

ii,

pp.159,

161.

This source is noted

because

t

differs

from

Kirkpatrick's

dition cited above.

8

Ibid,

ii,

pp.84-85.

K.291

Andante)

n

0

f

-

a.

J

t7

tremulo

I

29

tremulo

e

9

i-1---35

tre

i_

JJ :

+L-rr

J

rr

i

J

-

'-

Ex.2Tremuloon

long

notes

K.115

Allegro)

K.132

Cantabile)

3

3

3

4

32

3

432432

'

'

3432 432

L_3

J-

16

-I

I

or

47 Trlo 43emulo

LLW

r

4b

1

lo

f' L'P

9

rrr rr r

rr r r r

b X

; bJJ

vr.

' 2 -

92

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1991






Ex.2

contd.

K.96

(Allegrissimo)

A

k

7

--

5 4

3

43

4

3 2

or

4 4 3

_

-.-

h

-'1.

y

r , ~ f

m

i-2

-

. .

3 2

1

I

I

Tremulo di

sopra'l~~I

Tremulo di

sopra

i

9 : K J

r

Ex.3

Tremulo

n

chords

K.175

(Allegro)8

A

(trill)

(trill)

432

m ~ \

II 11

I

-

I-

f

--

w,

~ '

itrem.

I

trem.

^ 2 7 · f :

.̂ Q ^̂

^

K.119

(Allegro)

5

1.45

3

L

same

fingering

432

I

i

Tremulo nell'

A

la mi

re

I

o

k

56

|,

,

1'

-

1K

-J

I

_ _

K]

h

mm

tr

tr

tr

'

tr

--

Ex.4

Tremulo

as

compound

ornament

K.118

(Non

presto)

3A

^

~4

43324

4332

4

3 3 2 4

4 3

3 2

34

332

34

332

e4

3 3 2

etc.

or

:

Tremulo

=

trc

3

Y

t

[ e c .

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1991

93




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