Sonata K.3 D. Scarlatti

Описание: Today’s piece, the next in my #respite series, “Sonata K.3 “, is one of 555(!) sonatas written for the keyboard by the Neapolitan composer, Domenico Scarlatti. I play it from Ralph Kirkpatrick’s 1953 edition published by G. Schirmer. Kirkpatrick, aside from being a fine harpsichordist, wrote the definitive book about Scarlatti and his work in a 496-page book, “Scarlatti”, the product of 12 years research, also published in 1953. When I was at Yale School of Music in the early 1970’s I had occasion to accompany an instrumentalist on harpsichord with Kirkpatrick being one of the auditors, and I do remember saying to Kirkpatrick, in best fan-boy mode, that not only was I his fan, but that I was, alas, not a harpsichordist, and begged his forbearance.

This sonata shows many of what are considered main characteristics of the sonatas.
• The influence of Portuguese and Spanish folk music. I hear that in the snap of the downward scale figures, perhaps like strummed strings, or the clack of castanets, that open the piece as well as the dance like character of the music that follows. Also, characteristic of the folk music are the use of modes and other tonal inflections not part of “common practice” European music of the time. If you listen carefully to the ascending scalar passages in the left hand, you will find them a mix of major and minor and modal fragments.
• The virtuosic use of crossing hand over hand, something easily seen in the video.
• The building towards what Kirkpatrick termed the “crux”. In Wikipedia we can read that is defined as a “…formal device where each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point… sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux, the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half)”.

Technical and compositional details to the side, I offer this Scarlatti as the first of several that I plan to play and record, because it is not only fun to play, but fun to hear. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I have liked playing it.

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For those interested in the technology involved in the recording, the main video was captured with an Olympus OM-5 with the M Zuiko Digital 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. Keyboard was captured with a Lenovo FHD Webcam. Audio was captured with a kit-built microphone from JLI Electronics – the Endora. You can read more about the technology inside it on the JLI Electronics website here: https://www.jlielectronics.com/diy-mi.... This dual capsule microphone was created by Jules Ruykebusch, and you can hear how it can sound and the many ways it can be used on this recording here:    • Using Endora: ORTF with Dual Output Microp...  . Video was routed via USB into my workstation; audio was routed through XLR to an old, but still functional RME Fireface 800. Both were then routed to OBS for real-time synchronization. Minimal audio post-processing was done in Adobe Audition and video trimming in Premiere Pro.

#respite #Scarlatti #Endora #Kirkpatrick #Jules Ruykebusch