Domenico Scarlatti as Master of Sequence

Timestamps / chapters
00:00 - INTRO
02:00 - ascending 5ths sequence (a.k.a. "monte romanesca") in general
02:39 - basic example taken from Sonata K 287
03:53 - advanced / PRETTY LUSH example taken from Sonata K 224
06:40 - BROAD BRUSH example taken from Sonata K 479 + comparison with 19th century example
08:26 - chronology issues explained
09:49 - boring circle of 5ths basic examples taken from Sonata K 35
12:18 - INCREDIBLY NICE circle of 5ths sequence taken from Sonata K 54
14:14 - "Romanesca" in general + its syntactical norms
15:19 - WEIRD "Romanesca" example taken from Sonata K 251
17:55 - moti del basso vs. BIG- / mono-sequences as 2nd rotation opener
19:13 - basic example of a mono-sequence from Sonata K 425
20:17 - NICE sequencial episodes in the 2nd rotation of Sonata K 269
22:22 - "Monte"-sequence in Sonata 434 initiates INCOMPREHENSIBLE FLOW in the 2nd rotation
23:57 - CRUNCHTIME
24:14 - FINAL EPIC example: 4 sequencial episodes in a row in Sonata K 296
26:33 OUTRO
Concept, presentation, video editing and piano playing by Michael Koch.
Cam: Fuji X-T10
Recording: Zoom H6

[@LesterBrunt]

Scarlatti is such an underrated composer.

[@AlessandroSistiMusic]

Rarely have I clicked so fast. Thanks so much for this-as usual, there is so much the student could work with here! I appreciated the map with our place on the musical iceberg 😄 For myself in future: the book mentioned by Cherubini is his Marches d'harmonie and covers some imitations and diminutions that fit with important bass motions. The book is discussed at 6:22

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Thank you very much, Alessandro!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Timestamps 00:00 - INTRO 02:00 - ascending 5ths sequence (a.k.a. "monte romanesca") in general 02:39 - basic example taken from Sonata K 287 03:53 - advanced / PRETTY LUSH example taken from Sonata K 224 06:40 - BROAD BRUSH example taken from Sonata K 479 + comparison with 19th century example 08:26 - chronology issues explained 09:49 - boring circle of 5ths basic examples taken from Sonata K 35 12:18 - INCREDIBLY NICE circle of 5ths sequence taken from Sonata K 54 14:14 - "Romanesca" in general + its syntactical norms 15:19 - WEIRD "Romanesca" example taken from Sonata K 251 17:55 - moti del basso vs. BIG- / mono-sequences as 2nd rotation opener 19:13 - basic example of a mono-sequence from Sonata K 425 20:17 - NICE sequencial episodes in the 2nd rotation of Sonata K 269 22:22 - "Monte"-sequence in Sonata 434 initiates INCOMPREHENSIBLE FLOW in the 2nd rotation 23:57 - CRUNCHTIME 24:14 - FINAL EPIC example: 4 sequencial episodes in a row in Sonata K 296 26:33 OUTRO

[@playbach3243]

Merci encore pour ces vidéos réellement instructif mais aussi bourrés d'humour, enrobé d'une passion pour la musique qui est véritablement admirable. Bravo!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Merci! :D

[@ernsterlanson]

Your channel is amazing, recently discovered it. Great!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

THANKS man!

[@Pretzels722]

Lots of effort has gone into this amazing video - great work. Subscribed!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

THX, Pretzels!

[@ZapataCarratala]

Wonderful content as always!

[@gabrielakochmusic]

Again such a great and interesting video! ✨

[@1980subrosa]

Incredible content!!! Thank you for sharing your videos!!!

[@thelime9133]

Youre videos are gold, thank you :)

[@miriamcarpinetti5140]

Thank you! Beautiful and instructive video.

[@olavmars7846]

😮 immensely interesting and well made, thank you!!!

[@srothbardt]

Thanks for this! Very interesting.

[@Juanesloc]

My favourite video on youtube

[@LemonMonde]

Ich freue mich immer auf Ihre Videos, und dieses war ganz, ganz toll! Domenico Scarlatti hat einen besonderen Platz in meinem Herzen.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Vielen Dank, Doug! :D

[@jose-cortes]

OMG, i enjoy this videos so much! Thanks for ever and greetings from Berlin

[@Łukasz_Jastrzembski]

Your knowledge and skills are impressive!

[@Kelliancamus]

Nice stuff I love Scarlatti !

[@synesthetically]

I can’t believe I’ve only just found your channel. I LOVED this video. Thank you for your efforts!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Haha, lova ya comment✌️😎

[@lesliesanford1113]

Wonderfully inspirational as usual. A video that warrants repeated viewings. And the production values just keep getting better. I'm very grateful for your channel.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Thx, Leslie! Especially for appreciating the procuction values :DD I'm trying my best...

[@themusicprofessor]

Masterful discussion! Thank you

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

V.i.P. youtuber comment gets a heart. Thanks for watching, professor. And thanks for doing those vidz, I‘ve watched several of them.

[@aaronmendez372]

Count me amongst your admirers. Thank you.

[@genustinca5565]

Great video. Thanks especially for turning me on to K.434, a sublime piece. With so many hours or Scarlatti's sonatas, it's a daunting task to flesh out the real special ones, so thanks again.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

:DDD thank you! On a good day he was able to put together sheer masterworks. My expierience: you can't decide from the initial phrases and sometimes not even from the A-part if a Sonata is a masterwork because in many cases the genius sparks begin to fire just in the middle of the piece. Totally unpredictable this guy...

[@erickramirez5483]

Dude! Im so grateful for discovering your channel! I was having a hard time on a sequence and your video showed me the way to go deeper than I imagine with sequences, thanks for the study material. ❤

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

thanks man! maybe check my video on „the circle of fifths revisited“

[@erickramirez5483]

@@en-blanc-et-noir I will 😉

[@Zimzamzoom95]

These instructional videos are so good for practicing.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Hey Will, thx... I saw earlier that you rather'd prefer tutorials like the one one the Durante... Are you interested in a special topic?

[@Zimzamzoom95]

@@en-blanc-et-noir It's easy to find information about chordal realization online, but there isn't much about diminution and melodic playing which was why the Durante video is so good.

[@Zimzamzoom95]

@@en-blanc-et-noir More videos like that one with tips for different schemata would be amazing.

[@awakenwithoutcoffee]

Scarlatti is a great master indeed! I love learning and playing his work. Another great one is Handel and his figurative.

[@alialloush3579]

This guy deserves way more views

[@haakonstring2968]

Great stuff! Keep on the good work =) (P.S The fingerings look good to me 😉)

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Phew! Thx a lot!

[@uhoh007]

Incredible introduction to Alessandro's son ;) Now I start to understand why everyone is crazy about him, and how I might use his work to help my study.

[@valobarroco]

Thanks for your video. I've just subscribed to your channel and it's full of wonderful analysis and the way you play is remarkable. I think Scarlatti deserves a profound review of his keyboard works, they have marvellous passages and a Spaniard scent. I don't know if you have another video about Scarlatti, if you haven't, I think you should, you have the talent to do it enjoyable. Saludos desde Iquique, Chile.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

some day for sure! I love this guy! :DDD

[@michaeltilley8708]

Not parallel fifths if you start the trill on the upper! Cheers and thanks for more first rate content!!

[@Jonas-bg1nk]

Großartig!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Jonas! Finde ich gut, dass du hier vorbeikommst um Nerdcontent zu gucken!

[@HathaYodel]

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the care and thought you put into creating this splendid creation. I was a teenager in the 1950s in Sydney when I discovered Scarlatti, persuaded my father to pay for the entire Longo edition and for decades worked my way through almost all of them - I still have the full Longo set. In those days there wasn't much discourse on Scarlatti's artistry and i figured otu a lot for myself, with much pleasure. Now I'm 80 and discover your discourse, thrilled to see you answer some questions I've brooded on over the decades.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Thanks so much! I'm happy to hear that! Scarlatti is still a composer to brood on, in some ways he's just uncomprehensible...

[@HathaYodel]

@@en-blanc-et-noir He enjoys flirting with chaos

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

@@HathaYodel Hey I actually think that is a great way of putting it.... and this goes as well for many other great composers

[@HathaYodel]

@@en-blanc-et-noir Let's see. Mozart doesn't flirt with chaos. He flirts all right - but not with chaos! Beethoven? Hmm... he WRESTLES with chaos! Brahms? he and chaos are like an old married couple! How about Bach? What does Bach do about chaos? Back to Scarlatti: His sense of humor lets him treat chaos like the Devil in a puppet play who hits Harlequin on the head with a stick to make you laugh. Chaos is a bogey-man. The final cadence is always a happy ending... What do YOU have in mind about other great composers and how they cope with chaos?

[@michaelcalder9089]

Terrific analysis, as you have explained yet the musical end result, for many baroque music lovers, falls short. Few of his ( keyboard)works move me as much as Bach ( obvious) , Handel, Fischer, Couperin etc. Including the composers a generation before. Eg Buxtehude, Pachelbel,etc. Now Allesandro S was a great composer especially his sacred music.

[@amalgamaxG]

Hoffentlich gibt's bald auch ein Video über Reger!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

haha! :DD hier wird nicht getrollt!

[@alcyonecrucis]

All hail our hero and patron Scarlatti!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

couldn't put it better

[@neville132bbk]

On the same pedestal as Soler, to my appreciative ears

[@AEPMUSlC]

24:16 nice

[@lesliesanford1113]

One thing I find interesting about K.35 is that the sequence starting at 10:56 seems unbalanced. By that I mean that the upper part of the sequence takes up a full measure while the lower part takes up only a half measure. This causes the repetition of the sequence to begin at different points in the measure. But the by the end of the sequence we end at the beginning of a new measure. I don't think I've seen this very often. It adds a bit of spice to an otherwise straightforward sequence.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

I think this is a good observation. In this particular sequence in doesn't mess up the meter :D sometimes when I improvise, I notice stuff like this happening and then it really does damage to the meter.

[@ili626]

Sonata K35 is like a two-part invention

[@TheRobTV]

those sequences in k224. I don't know much about theory. But it sounds like the second sequence and third sequences are a key change?

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

yes, I'd see it that way, too.

[@steveistheman84]

what's with the gnarly 5ths between bass and sop bars 6-7, etc? great videos btw

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Thanks for watching Mr. Steveistheman! Well... at least tell me to which example you're referring, then I can give you a reply...

[@worldmusictheory]

Can you elaborate on what a monte sequence is? I’ve heard it be discussed as useful for composers to use during climactic events but this isn’t too helpful.

[@jackiepike1466]

Did Scarlatti write out the notes? 1. It was my understanding that he had scribes to write them out, 2. The Venice and Parma manuscripts are by different scribes, duplicating some sonatas, 3. Which explains the different scores I find, for example, of K 109, Sonata in a minor. Do you know?

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Hey... as far as I know: no, he didn't write them out on his own. The scribe did use the initials "S" or "SA" in both volumes (Parma and Venice) - following Dean Sutcliffe there is just one scribe, but I'm surely not an expert on this kind of topics. Most Sonatas been covered in both volumes but not all and thats the odd thing, besides that they are grouped in key-pairs which again makes it somehow unlikely that the volumes reflect any chronology of their order but where rather more a complilation that was made afterwards. There were around 70 Sonatas published throughout the lifetime of Scarlatti - among them the Essercizi (containg for example the K 27 Sonata) by 1739, which is pretty late! And this fact obviously doesn't proof that these where the first Sonatas written as these already show quite a level of sophistication. There are several articles on that topic and if you wanna dig deeper you should have a look at Sutcliffe's Book or the article "tercentary frustrations" by Sheveloff in the Musical Quaterly (1985 and 1986).

[@jackiepike1466]

@@en-blanc-et-noir thank you!!

[@ernsterlanson]

Lol at the Iceberg with Monk way down in the bottom. Interesting that he is the only pianist I have been listening to for the last months!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

haha! Is he?

[@ernsterlanson]

@@en-blanc-et-noir Haha yes, twas great. Scarlatti is awesome I should play and explore some more of it

[@maxjohn6012]

Can someone tell me the name of the beautiful piece played at the "Chronology" section? Need to learn that!

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Is it this one? vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/6/6f/IMSLP626858-PMLP333847-Sonata_K._69_(as_L._382).pdf

[@maxjohn6012]

@@en-blanc-et-noir Oh you superstar! I didn't get notified that you'd replied, but came back to the video and found this waiting for me - thank you :)

[@christianindividual4550]

What is the music in the outro?

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Oh dear that's as well a Scarlatti Sonata, it's L67... I'm sorry I just can tell you the Longo number... it's a fun piece to play though! Check it out

[@chrismurrayguitar]

Take it easy, what did K35 ever do to you?

[@kaptnkirk2740]

Mit welchen Stücken von Scarlatti sollte man denn anfangen? Also, welche sind nicht so schwer?

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Ich glaube von Henle oder von Peters gibt es eine Edition in 3 Bänden mit ausgewählten Sonaten. Die 3 Bände sind ganz offensichtlich nach spieltechnischem Schwierigkeitsgrad angeordnet, schau mal nach dem ersten.

[@kaptnkirk2740]

@@en-blanc-et-noir Danke.

[@kaptnkirk2740]

@@en-blanc-et-noir Falls es noch jemanden interessiert: "Scarlatti: Ausgewählte Werke, 48 Sonaten und Stücke" aus dem Schott Verlag ist auch ziemlich einfach und progressiv geordnet. Hab' ich gerade in der Bücherei entdeckt.

[@davidfreel1451]

Father and son Allessandro and Dominico. Integration of Spanish/Arabic harmonic elements from time at Spanish court. Tenacious mathematical exploration of motifs in uncritical counterpoint.

[@sarcletti]

Puh! You need to be close to a composer to understand this.

[@christianindividual4550]

Good video. For me, Scarlatti is 100% a master in this area (sequences). But I think Bach is *the* master in this area. No slight to Scarlatti.

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Yeah, I understand! I think both are masters but operating at different artistic areas so to say. In my opinion sometimes they aren't really comparable, just too different concepts of music in general. Bach can really be an architect with sequences, Scarlatti rather a poet... dunno

[@christianindividual4550]

25:19

[@sapiensfromterra5103]

Scarlatti ist wirklich ein Meister der Emotionen, kaum ein anderer schafft es, jugendliche Lebenskraft, leidvolle Melancholie, reife Nachdenklichkeit, rohe Aggression und Sehnsucht in einem Stück auszudrücken und logisch zusammenhängend. Wirklich ein großes Juwel des 18. Jahrhunderts! Danke für dieses interessante Video, es bedarf auf jeden Fall mehrmaliges Anschauen. Werden mehr Videos über ihn folgen?

[@en-blanc-et-noir]

Schön, dass es interessant war. Ob mehr Videos über ihn folgen? - das kann ich nicht sicher beantworten weil ich eigentlich immer spontan entscheide was ich für ein Video machen will. Im Moment beschäftige ich mich nicht so viel mit ihm, aber das kommt vermutlich irgendwann wieder :D

[@sapiensfromterra5103]

@@en-blanc-et-noir Naja die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt :D