A friend of Scarlatti’s old age told Charles Burney that when the Crown Princess's teacher arrived in Seville in 1729, he "was at first much disconcerted by the wild and unpolished music of the country; but that, upon closer acquaintance, he found in it a certain spirit and fire which captivated his imagination, and he soon began not only to admire but to adopt many of its peculiarities. The rapid passages, the crossing of hands, and the striking and unexpected modulations, which so strongly mark his style, were, in part at least, the result of his study of the songs of muleteers and the strains of the guitar."
These Spanish – or more accurately, Andalusian – elements have lent Scarlatti his reputation as an Iberian composer, and most of his fame as well. An interesting example of his transformation can be found in two related but wildly diverse pieces: K 39, which first comes to light in the 1737 Boivin print and a couple of years later in Roseingrave’s pirated edition (both in old clefs), and K 24 from Scarlatti’s authorized Essercizi – also duplicated by Rosey (both in new clefs).
K 39 is a virtuoso showpiece, dense with double 16th-note passagework. I would place it in the late Portuguese years, a time when Mimo was developing his keyboard technique as a sideline to vocal composition, but before the gypsies and workers of Seville “captivated his imagination”.
K 24 is clearly inspired by the earlier work, but has undergone a double whammy. The opening gesture, repeated a number of times at similar locations in both, is nearly identical. So are the closing cadences and the general feel of the two pieces. But what a transformation! The later piece is completely rewritten: it is some 20 bars longer (depending on how you count) and full of brilliant hand crossings (learned from Rameau in Paris?). Most importantly, “the songs of muleteers and the strains of the guitar” are present in abundance. That places the re-working of K 39 post-1730. The Essercizi, Scarlatti tells King João in his fulsome dedication, were composed under the royal auspices. These extended to the end of the composer’s life, in the form of regular emoluments, and did not cease when Scarlatti left Portugal in 1729.
The Ricordi complete edition (Moiraghi/Fadini eds., Vol. X, 2021) prints both works side by side under their unfortunate new numbering. K 24 is no. 540, K 39 is 540a – a variant. I think this is carrying the concept of Fassung, now so dominant in what is left of traditional musicology, way too far. One could speak of a point of departure for a new work, but surely not more than that? In K 39 we see the man whom Quantz met in Rome and called a galant keyboard player. K 24* gives us El Diablo de Sevilla.
February 23, 2025
* At a controversial spot in bar 40, Kenneth Gilbert’s edition surprisingly follows Longo, adding the same half bar to avoid the original’s shocking expansion to six beats.
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K 24