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Bella Dama di Nome Santa

Cantata da camera for alto, recorder, two violins and continuo

Edited by Derek Harrison

Alessandro Scarlatti’s influence was immense both through his pupils (such as Hasse and Geminiani) and his son, Domenico Scarlatti (born in 1685 and later also his pupil). Alessandro (1660-1725) is of the generation that precedes Bach and Handel (who were both born in the same year as his son Domenico). His musical career was focused in Rome and Naples. He is regarded as the Father of Neapolitan opera since he was the key figure in the development of the operatic elements in particular the arias, recitatives and in the use of the orchestra. He composed 115 operas and many other works – including oratorios, Masses, madrigals, concerti grossi and chamber cantatas (of which he wrote about 600).

As a genre, the Italian chamber cantatas (Cantate per camera) are a treasure house of adventurous compositions. They were an enormously popular art form with musical connoisseurs (both amateur and professional). While our concept of “amateur” might suggest that composers simplified their ideas for less skilled musicians, this is far from the case in the chamber cantatas. Indeed, it was a form in which composers experimented with many innovative harmonic and structural ideas.

This piece, Bella Dama di nome Santa, contains several moments that are both poignant and baffling - particularly in the recitatives where for example certain key words are underlined musically (such as the closing words of each). As in his operas, Scarlatti makes full use of the da capo form in the arias of this cantata. The colourful instrumentation sets the voice against flute (recorder) and violins. The texture is particularly enriched in the opening Introduttione by the addition of a second violin. The source for this work is the manuscript in the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples.

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1. Augellin, vago e canoro

2. Filli, tu sai s'io t'amo

3. Mentre Clori la bella

Edited by Barbara Sachs

for soprano, two recorders and continuo

 The present cantatas all come from the collection of the Roman priest (and composer), Fortunato Santini (1778-1861), housed in the Diözesanbibliothek Münster. Santini collected, copied and scored manuscripts, mainly of sacred music, but also of a few instrumental works. He had access, thanks to Cardinal Odescalchi, to ecclesiastic and aristocratic archives in Rome from 1796 to 1856. He also inherited the library of his teacher Giuseppe Jannacconi.

The three cantatas are typical of 17th century manuscripts in appearance. There is a certain amount of print-through and occasionally a note large enough to look like a correction. Augellin, vago e canoro, which is dated June 26 1699, has the smallest number of errors, and 10 staves per page of which 2 are sometimes left empty. Filli tu sai ch’io t’amo, dated 1701, shows evidence of having been written in a hurry: the first page is neat, but soon gives way to slanting bar-lines, imprecise slurs, pages containing only 4 bars, and many ink blots. Mentre Clori la bella, which happens to precede Augellin, vago e canoro, generally presents two systems of four staves, with no empty staves, but has the most errors, including missing bars of continuo.

Scarlatti wrote some 601 cantatas for solo voice and continuo, and 70 with instruments. In these the alternation of recitative and da capo aria is prevalent; his influence on Handel (in his Italian cantatas) and Bach (in his sacred cantatas) was direct. In the three cantatas of the present volume, we have works harking back to the past and just beginning to show the characteristics of the future.

Augellin, vago e canoro, in D minor, has three da capo arias, all in triple metres, separated by recits. The recorders introduce or echo the voice in the first aria, and conclude the second aria which is without them, and provide a totally independent accompaniment throughout the last aria. Syncopations make the second and third arias as unpredictable as the vagaries of the little bird.

Filli tu sai ch’io t’amo, in C major, reverses the structure, framing two da capo arias between three very short recits. In the arias the two recorders alternate with the solo voice, playing in very modern trio-style thirds (and in passages labelled unisoni). The singer is graciously insistent while berating Phyllis for not recognizing what it means to love.

Mentre Clori la bella, in C minor, is strikingly without any hint of da capo aria form. It presents a Cloris determined to have no more to do with Fileno, who, however, is listening to this outburst. Her state of mind is not quite so linear, though, and the three-part structure explains her dilemma. The opening recit is mainly by the narrator, the first aria, with recorders echoing the voice and harmonizing the cadences, is sung twice, (warning him to expect nothing more of her), followed by an instrumental ritornello. A long recit and an aria – repeated in its entirety, but without recorders, and followed by an instrumental ritornello – states that she had loved him once, but that after whatever he has done, she can only hope now to be revenged. A short recit expresses some doubt, and the following aria with recorders has no repeat, though its four lines are set twice, promising a retraction of her disdain. In this cantata Neapolitan 6ths underline all the most dramatic words (sospiri; folle t’inganni; temprati i sdegni).

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Ardo, è ver, per te d'Amore

Cantata for soprano, recorder, and continuo

Edited by Derek Harrison

The pain of love is an almost everyday theme for composers to choose in the texts that they set. For Scarlatti, the text of this cantata is no exception. It is in the middle section (the recitativo) that Scarlatti makes use of the most arresting harmonic gestures to underline the text. For example, e m'avvelena in sen ogni piacere ("and poisons in my breast all pleasure"; bar 6) and e sento pena al cor, fiera et amara ("and I feel pain in my heart, fierce and bitter"; bars 16 & 17). The use of recorder gives the outer movements a somewhat angelic and other-worldly quality which modifies and softens the distress of the text being articulated by the singer.

for countertenor/alto, 2 violins, 2 flutes/recorders and continuo

This attractive cantata for a countertenor or alto (the ‘persona’ is a love-lorn man), follows the usual pattern of alternating recitative and aria, but is introduced with a generous sinfonia in three sections, slow-fast-slow. The final aria has as a ritornello a graceful instrumental minuet. The scoring for two violins and two flauti is unusual: only a few of the cantatas by Scarlatti have this many obbligato instruments, and none have this combination. This instrumentation provides plenty of rich and lively material. While it is usual to be able to take flauti to mean recorders, the second flauto part has one bar in the sinfonia, and four in the first aria, which are too low for the treble recorder. However the second aria’s flauto solo part is typical writing for the treble recorder. Perhaps the second instrument could be a tenor recorder.

Aria: Sconsolato Rusignolo

for soprano, recorder, violin, viola and continuo

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.

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Tra speranza e timore

Cantata for bass, violin, and continuo

Edited by Timothy Roberts

In his lifetime Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) was famed above all as a composer for the voice, both in his operas and in his chamber cantatas. While his opere serie, with their formalized plots and strict musical conventions, seem unlikely to regain a place on the modern stage, his cantatas reduce the dramatic contrasts and vocal beauty of the operas to more manageable proportions.

Over six hundred of his cantatas survive, most of them for a single voice with basso continuo. Tra speranza e timore is an exception to the rule, being scored for bass (the vast majority of the cantatas are for high voice) and a single violin obbligato. This cantata survives in a single manuscript copy (British Library Add. MS 14166, ff93-107), and we are grateful for the Library making this available for study. It cannot be dated precisely; but it appears to date from after the composer’s death, for the following piece in the MS (a cantata by Domenico Scarlatti) is dated 1732. However, Tra speranza e timore is characteristic of Alessandro’s later cantatas, with its pair of contrasting arias, each preceded by a recitative (complemented in this case by an instrumental ‘Introduttione’). Many of Scarlatti’s works of this type can be assigned to 1703-7, a period when the composer received numerous commissions for cantatas and other works from such patrons as Prince Ruspoli and Cardinals Ottoboni and Pamphili, for performance in their palaces in Rome.

The original describes the work as a cantata ‘con violini’, suggesting orchestral accompaniment; this is confirmed by the indication ‘unis.’ at the start of the last movement. The use of an orchestral body of violins playing in unison is typical of Scarlatti’s opera, and of much other Italian music at this time. However, there is no musical reason why Tra speranza e timore should not be performed as a chamber cantata with solo violin.

The customary appoggiaturas to strong syllables in the recitatives are indicated in this edition by small notes above the stave. It is striking that the composer takes special care to show that each recitative should run directly into the ensuing aria; dramatic continuity is essential in the performance of Italian secular cantatas. For the same reason, it is preferable not to delay the recitative cadences in the familiar fashion.

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