Aria: Sconsolato Rusignolo

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Ref. no Sca 5 (in 'cantatas')      Price £ 6.60      sample page      cover page      To order: ☞     

This single aria is found in the manuscript MÜs HS 3934 in the Santini Sammlung of the Diözesanbibliothek Münster. The aria Sconsolato Rusignolo is closely followed in the manuscript by the cantata Filli tu sai s’io t’amo, well accepted as by Alessandro Scarlatti, which is also available in a Green Man Press edition.(See Sca 2 above). Although the top edge of the first folio has sustained some damage, the ascription to Alessandro Scarlatti is just discernable as Del Se Alesso Scarlatti / 1701. Curiously this aria is listed in Grove among the cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti, as if it were the title of a cantata the first line of which is Filli tu sai s’io t’amo. In fact it does not relate to that cantata in key, instrumentation, text or copyist. This strange error has been copied from the first to the second edition of the New Grove.

This amusing short da capo aria for a soprano with ‘flautino’ and strings contains light-hearted writing in imitation of the birdsong. The soprano recorder may well be the best instrument to convey the playful spirit of this piece.