Towards a Galant Pedagogy

Abstract

[1.1] In recent years, there has been a growing scholarly interest in eighteenth-century Neapolitan partimenti and galant schemata on the one hand, and in the practice of teaching theoretical concepts to modern musicians through improvisation and model composition on the other. The work of Gjerdingen (2007) and Sanguinetti (2012) has yielded significant insights into historical models for composition, improvisation, and, presumably, into the cognition of eighteenth-century musicians and listeners. The cognitive archaeology offered in Robert Gjerdingen's (2007) book, Music in the Galant Style, (1) relies on three main sources: period theoretical treatises including the Italian pedagogical tradition of partimenti, a wide repertoire of pieces from the period, and modern-day research in cognitive psychology. Gjerdingen thereby attempts to reconstruct eighteenth-century cognitive schemata or mental patterns that are defined primarily by outer-voice scale-degree pairings. Sanguinetti's work is more historical in nature: in his monograph on the tradition of partimenti, Sanguinetti offers a reconstruction of this lost pedagogical tradition. A partimento is a bass line, typically unfigured, used in the teaching of composition and improvisation. The tradition flourished in conservatories in Naples and other Italian cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and continued onwards, in different incarnations, into the nineteenth century and beyond. ABSTRACT: This article presents a pedagogical approach for teaching modern-day students how to improvise in eighteenthcentury style based on Gjerdingen's schemata and the tradition of partimenti. We present results from a pedagogical experiment conducted at the Eastman School of Music, in which students' improvisations were recorded. We offer a qualitative assessment of selected student improvisations in order to demonstrate the merits of this approach for teaching music theory and historical improvisation. We also address the challenges associated with implementing such a pedagogical approach in modern-day theory curricula. We conclude by reflecting on sonata-form improvisations by the authors and discuss the theoretical implications of attempting to construct complete movements based on Gjerdingen's schemata and formal considerations.

Revisiting the Galant in Gjerdingenian Schemata

“…Sanguinetti's work is more historical in nature: in his monograph on the tradition of partimenti, Sanguinetti offers a reconstruction of this lost pedagogical tradition. (Rabinovitch and Slominski 2015, [1.1])…”

Sound Structures and Naked Fire Gestures in Cecil Taylor’s Solo Piano Music

“…Return to text 15. For more on galant schemata and improvisation, see Rabinovitch and Slominski (2015). Return to text 16.…”