Una raccolta di cantate di Alessandro Scarlatti

Abstract

A collection of Alessandro Scarlatti’s cantatas

In any study of the cantata repertoire, particularly that of Scarlatti, the examination of manuscript scores is far more important (also with regard to the productive context) than it is for any other type of documentation archival or literary, frequently very revealing in the case of genres like music drama). It is the manuscript scores which supply key elements for the reconstruction of texts and for identifying the contexts in which the cantatas were conceived, flourished and enjoyed wide popularity.
The present study is centred on a volume preserved in a private library of Apulia containing seventeen cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti, together with one which the copyist attributed to Scarlatti’s son Domenico and which instead has proved to be by Benedetto Marcello. The particular interest of this source is the presence of six cantatas which do not appear in any other collection.
Research was carried out in two main directions. In the first place, an examination of the codicological unit’s external features for the purpose of tracing a clearer profile of the origin and source of the volume, together with classification of the typology. Secondly, a description of its contents, that is: examination of the musical and textual material; verification of the attributions; identification through the results of some collations - of possible stemmatic constructions; a formal and structural analysis for acquiring new elements for understanding the personal stylistic evolution of the composer. Finally, at the end of the paper, there is the catalogue of all the cantatas included in the manuscript, complete with musical incipits and concordances.