Introduction to Scarlatti's Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin Harpsichord - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1552580

That Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), a Neapolitan composer of Sicilian origin and active at the time in Spain, should have had his first collection of harpsichord sonatas (Essercizi per gravicembalo), dedicated to John V, King of Portugal, published in London in 1739, with a preface in Italian, attests for how long Europe had already shared a common culture.

A further collection of Scarlatti's sonatas (Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin) for the harpsichord appeared later that year, also in London, this time edited by Thomas Roseingrave. It included all those published earlier (Kk 1-30), with the addition of a further twelve sonatas (Kk 31-42).

For this edition Roseingrave wrote an introduction which, contrary to what ity might sound, is not a text, but a short prelude to the music that follows. This short piece is not, as expected, in the Italian (or Spanish!) style, but could have been written by a contemporary French Claveciniste.

There is a certain swagger to the piece that appealed to me and drove me to search for the original print and this is what I offer: an urtext of the original introduction. All text in brackets is editorial. The only changes I made were in the notation (but not in the notes themselves), to render the voices clearer. I did add some ornaments in grey, which can be safely ignored, if so desired.

I hope you enjoy this Introduction!