N. BARAGWANATH, The Solfeggio Tradition: A Forgotten Art of Melody in the Long Eighteenth Century; R. CAFIERO, La didattica del partimento. Studi di storia delle teorie musicali

Abstract

Both of these works help shed light on a field that has been increasingly investigated in recent decades: musical pedagogy in Naples in the 18th century. Cafiero’s volume contains a collection of his works, mainly with a historical focus, which were written in about three decades of research and have formed the basis for the current rediscovery of Neapolitan theory. Baragwanath’s volume completes the third, and until now most neglected, pillar of 18th-century Neapolitan theory: solfeggio (the others being partimento and counterpoint), reconstructing a complex practice that leads from hexachordal solmisation to the elaborate diminutions created by castrati on the notation of opera arias.