New Sources for the Reconstruction of the Eighteenth-Century Neapolitan Compositional Process

Abstract

How did eighteenth-century Neapolitan maestros approach the composition of vocal pieces? This question, notwithstanding the vast number of studies on eighteenth-century Neapolitan music, seems surrounded by an aura of mystery. In this article, I attempt to identify three among the compositional stages that preceded the submission, to the copyist, of an aria (or opera) score in eighteenth-century Naples. The first, which I will refer to as the abbozzo, is a one-staff score in which the vocal line is consistent and neatly written, but coexists with other melodic lines. The second stage, the non strumentato score, consists of a full score in which only the vocal lines appear and the other staves are either empty or filled inconsistently. At the end of the article, I suggest that there could be another compositional stage preceding the abbozzo: the notating of simple vocal melodies (the “melodic sketch”). To substantiate these claims, I refer to different sources: a previously unnoticed letter by the Neapolitan maestro Pietro Pulli, two late eighteenth-century working scores by Nicola Zingarelli, some music sketches notated by a non-identified Neapolitan maestro, perhaps Saverio Valente, and a musical scribble by Domenico Sarro.