The Partimenti of Giovanni Paisiello: Pedagogy and Practice

Giovanni Paisiello's Regole per bene accompagnare il Partimento (Rules for Harpsichordists; 1782) is a valuable resource for understanding his musical and pedagogical thinking. It contains forty-six partimenti and forty-one unknown partimenti, providing insights into how to perform the music of Paisiello and his contemporaries. This study is relevant for keyboard players, singers, instrumentalists, and anyone interested in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century music.

Format: Hardback
Length: 324 pages
Publication date: 13 September 2022
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) was a prominent composer of opera during the eighteenth century, known for his works that were performed across Europe. His reputation as a maestro di cappella and composer at prestigious European courts led to his appointments. This book is the first study to examine his work as a composition teacher and what we would now consider music theory.

The practice of partimento, which involved the use of figured or unfigured bass lines, was an essential component of music education at the renowned conservatories in eighteenth-century Naples. Young musicians learned various techniques, including variation, improvisation, and composition, by playing these often-unappealing bass lines on the harpsichord.

Paisiello's Regole per bene accompagnare il Partimento, also known as Rules for Harpsichordists, was published in 1782 and contains forty-six partimenti that are considered the core of his pedagogical oeuvre. However, two recently discovered manuscripts have revealed forty-one unknown partimenti, notated as two- and three-part disposizioni.

This present study offers valuable insights from the surviving sources and enhances our understanding of how to perform the music of Paisiello and his contemporaries. Music from this period, often surviving in incomplete forms, is relevant not only for keyboard players but also for singers, instrumentalists, and anyone interested in the inner workings of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century music.

Weight: 562g
Dimension: 321 x 313 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781648250361