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Domenico Scarlatti

Summary of sources

There are no extant autograph manuscripts of Scarlatti’s keyboard music, only contemporary handwritten and printed copies. This page gives a basic summary of the primary sources of the sonatas, with no intention of listing every possible source for every sonata. Manuscripts are listed first, followed by printed editions. The information here is based on studies by Ralph Kirkpatrick (Domenico Scarlatti; Princeton University Press, 1953) and Joel Sheveloff (The Keyboard Music of Domenico Scarlatti: A Re-Evalution of the Present State of Knowledge in the Light of the Sources; Brandeis University (thesis), 1970), and naturally updated to reflect discoveries over the past fifty years.

The two most important sources are now located in Venice, in the Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, and in Parma, in the Biblioteca Palatina. Their contents mostly overlap, and together contain the vast majority of the known Scarlatti sonatas. The ordering of the sonatas in these volumes, mostly similar although at times different, indicates that some of the sonatas were intended to be played as a pair or as a triptych.

Kirkpatrick considered Venice to be the leading source, and bases his numbering of the sonatas on this rather than Parma; the numbering by Emilia Fadini does so likewise. Sheveloff, on the other hand, argues that Parma might instead be leading and that Venice was copied from Parma.

The Venice manuscripts comprise fifteen volumes. Volumes I to XIII were compiled between 1752 and 1757; the volumes misleadingly numbered XIV and XV were compiled earlier, in 1742 and 1749 respectively.

The Parma manuscripts also comprise fifteen volumes compiled around the same time as Venice I to XIII.

There are important Scarlatti sources located in Münster, in the Diözesanbibliothek Münster (five volumes), and in Vienna, in the Bibliothek der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (seven volumes). Both were compiled after Scarlatti’s death. From the Münster collection, there are three sonatas not found elsewhere, of which one is probably spurious. A copy of this latter sonata is given in Sheveloff’s thesis.

In the Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, there is a volume containing thirty toccatas, twenty-nine by Carlos Seixas and one by Scarlatti. The Scarlatti toccata comprises four of his sonatas: three of which are found in Venice XIV, and one, the sonata in F major (K. 94), being unique to Coimbra.

There are multiple Scarlatti sources in the British Library in London. One collection of sonatas (31553), once owned by John Worgan, includes four sonatas found in neither Venice nor Parma. One of these, the sonata in D minor (K. 141) does, however, appear in the later Münster and Vienna collections. Two further collections of music by various composers (14248 and 35018) contain sonatas attributed to Scarlatti; copies of both of these are given in Sheveloff’s thesis.

A collection of sonatas in Cambridge, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, includes two sonatas found in none of the sources given above.

A collection of music by multiple composers in Paris, in the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, contains a collection of Scarlatti sonatas, including three further sonatas found in neither Venice nor Parma. The sonata in E minor (K. 147) appears in the later Münster and Vienna collections. Copies of the D major and C minor sonatas are found in Sheveloff’s thesis.

Two different collections of sonatas in Bologna, in the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, contain a fugue not identified elsewhere. A copy can be found in Sheveloff’s thesis.

In the library of the Conservatorio di Milano, there exists a short manuscript attributed to Alessandro Scarlatti. In his study on Scarlatti (Le Sonate di Domenico Scarlatti; Giappichelli, 1967), Giorgio Pestelli includes a reproduction of the final piece and argues that it might instead by Domenico Scarlatti; Sheveloff also gives a copy in his thesis.

A collection of Scarlatti sonatas found in New Haven, in the library of the Yale School of Music, includes two sonatas not found elsewhere. Sheveloff provides copies of these sonatas in his thesis.

The library of the Catedral de Valladolid has a volume containing six known Scarlatti sonatas and a further three sonatas that have been attributed to him. These were first published by Antonio Baciero (Nueva Biblioteca Española de música de teclado, Volumen III; Union Musical Española, 1978).

A private collection in Tenerife contains two sonatas attributed to Scarlatti. These were first published by Rosario Álvarez Martínez (Obras inéditas para tecla; Sociedad española de musicologíca, 1984).

The Monasterio de Santa María de Montserrat holds separate manuscripts of sonatas that have been attributed to Scarlatti. Four were first published by Bengt Johnsson (Ausgewählte Klaviersonaten, Band I; Henle, 1985), and one by Águeda Pedrero-Encabo (Tres sonates inèdites; Tritó Edicions, 2011).

A volume of music in the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid contains two sonatas possibly by Scarlatti. They are included in Malcolm Boyd’s book on Scarlatti (Domenico Scarlatti — Master of Music; Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986).

The monastery of the Santa Ana de Ávila holds a single sonata attributed to Scarlatti. This was described and published by Rosario Álvarez Martínez (Una nueva sonata atribuida a Domenico Scarlatti; Revista de Musicología (vol. 11 no. 3), 1988).

Two sonatas attributed to Scarlatti are found in a manuscript in the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, with facsimiles of the manuscript reproduced in an article by María Ester-Sala (Dos sonates de Domenico Scarlatti: Un tema abierto; Revista de Musicología (vol. 12 no. 2), 1989). The A major sonata has also been attributed to Francesco Corselli. For many years before this discovery, the sonatas were known in highly edited versions by Enrique Granados as part of his edition of twenty-six Scarlatti sonatas.

The Biblioteca nazionale universitaria di Torino has a source containing a selection of Scarlatti sonatas that includes two minuets not found elsewhere. Facsimiles of the manuscript were reproduced in an article by Giorgio Pestelli (Una nuova fonte manoscritta per Alessandro e Domenico Scarlatti; Rivista italiana di musicologia (vol. 25 no. 1), 1990).

A collection of Scarlatti sonatas found in Lisbon and published in facsimile by Gerhard Doderer (Libro di tocate per cembalo; Instituto Nacional de Investigção Científica, 1991) contains one further sonata. This sonata is also found in the New York source described below.

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York holds a collection of keyboard music by Domenico Scarlatti and Antonio Soler that was purchased in 2011. The manuscript is available to view on the website of the library. Within the source, a section of sonatas by Scarlatti contains four further sonatas apparently by him, of which one is incomplete, and also another copy of the A major Lisbon sonata.

The Archivo de Música de las Catedrales de Zaragoza contain six recently-discovered volumes of many Scarlatti sonatas, as described in detail by Celestino Yáñez Navarro (Nuevas aportaciones para el estudio de las sonatas de Domenico Scarlatti / Los manuscritos del Archivo de música de las Catedrales de Zaragoza; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (thesis), 2015). Amongst these, there are six sonatas not known elsewhere; Yáñez Navarro provides copies of these in his thesis.

The Essercizi is a collection of thirty sonatas published in Scarlatti’s lifetime, in 1738 or 1739, and likely the only set published under his supervision. Five of the sonatas are found in Venice XIV; the remainder are in neither Venice nor Parma.

Soon after the Essercizi were published, a collection of forty-two Scarlatti sonatas were published by Cooke and edited by Thomas Roseingrave. These contain the thirty sonatas of the Essercizi alongside twelve new sonatas. Amongst these twelve sonatas, five are found in Venice XIV and one in Parma III.

The French firm Boivin published various volumes of Scarlatti sonatas. These include six unique sonatas, of which one is now known to be by Baldassare Galuppi and is not given here.

A collection of music by various composers from the German publisher Haffner contains a single sonata under Scarlatti’s name not found elsewhere.

Muzio Clementi produced an edition of twelve Scarlatti sonatas. Ten of these are found in Venice or Parma, one is by Antonio Soler, and one has not been found elsewhere.

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