Channels, Spring 2017

Page 26 Longnecker • The Partimento Tradition Octave and the compositional models.” 13 It is this definition of partimento as a theoretical approach that describes the unique system of pedagogy in the Neapolitan schools. Partimento’s distinctive form and use was molded by the oral, hierarchical teaching methods of the Neapolitan schools. As Sanguinetti states, “Partimento tradition was essentially a practical, teacher-to-student way of transmitting musical knowledge” that worked very well in the generational system of the Neapolitan schools. 14 As such, there was no need within the Neapolitan school for written theoretical treatises since musical knowledge and theory were transmitted orally through the teacher-student relationship. 15 Though some written rules of partimento survive, they tend to be notes compiled by teachers or students as a reminder of the concepts taught through partimento, not a complete presentation of the theory on paper. 16 Instead, extant partimento sources tend to consist mostly of partimenti examples in musical notation. For example, in The Langloz Manuscript , a collection of partimento fugues used by J. S. Bach, no words of explanation are included with the partimento fugues. 17 In addition, teachers did not teach generative system of theory in the Neapolitan schools. Rather, because of the close relationship between keyboard improvisation and written composition, theory tended to exist latently in the form of useful rules of thoroughbass and partimento realization. One such rule was the règle de l’octave (or Rule of the Octave as mentioned above), a harmonization of the ascending and descending scale (see Ex. 2). Not only did teachers us the rule as a utilitarian tool to make the task of harmonization easier, but the règle de l’octave also contained tonal implications and relationships between chords (i.e. theoretical concepts). 18 Thus, instead of being taught first with abstract theory and then applying the theory to examples, students worked with practical examples and assorted rules such as the règle de l’octave , memorizing and internalizing them at the keyboard. In the process of working their way through partimento and counterpoint, students better understood the underlying theoretical concepts. These concepts automatically increased the students’ proficiency at partimento improvisation and thoroughbass accompaniment. 19 The committed teachers, the master-apprentice relationship between teachers and students, and a culture of oral transmission created the ideal environment for students to learn this organic and eminently applicable theory within the Italian schools. 13. Ibid., 25. 14. Sanguinetti, The Art of Partimento , 47. 15. Ibid., 96. 16. Ibid., 47. 17. Renwick, William, ed. The Langloz Manuscript: Fugal Improvisation through Figured Bass (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 113-187. 18. Sanguinetti, The Art of Partimento , 113. 19. Ibid., 7.