Volume 39, Issue 2, May 2011, Pages 245-252
A Spanish harpsichord from Domenico Scarlatti's environs (Review)
University of South Dakota, United States
Abstract
S everal years ago, in my article Towards an optimal instrument: Domenico Scarlatti
and the new wave of Iberian harpsichord making ' ( Early Music , xxxv/4
(2007)), I developed the thesis that the Iberian school of
harpsichord-making was fundamentally related to the northern European
schools until some Italian characteristics were absorbed during the 18th
century. fn1 1 In particular, the evidence suggests that the
instruments of the Florentine school of Bartolomeo Cristofori strongly
influenced Iberian makers in circles of patronage associated with
Domenico Scarlatti, who served
the Portuguese royal court from 1719 to 1729, then the Spanish court
from 1729 until his death in 1757. Although I could point to a fair
number of surviving Portuguese harpsichords in what might well be called
the Ibero-Florentine style, I could only surmise that such instruments
had also been made in Spain. No Spanish example had yet been discovered.
I noted that ' there remains a void at the principal centre of
interest, Scarlatti's environs,
where we can only attempt to extract information from documents of
which the most relevant concern Diego Fernández (1703 - 1775), who
maintained and made harpsichords for the Spanish royal family from 1722
until his death. © 2011 The Author.
ISSN: 03061078Source Type: Journal
Original language: English
DOI: 10.1093/em/car013Document Type: Review
