If I told you that I could give two outcomes to your child's music education, which would you pick?
1) My child can learn to perform Mozart's music, but they won't be able to create their own music. The only music they can play is what's written down.
2) My child can come up with music on the spot, improvising like Mozart and composing their own music like Mozart. They would have learned Mozart's thought processes and creative abilities. Instead of copying, they can express their own individuality through music. In fact, they will absorb the music of other styles and compose in different genres because they have great fundamentals.
Hopefully you picked number 2, because that's how music was taught for centuries before the 20th century. Before rote memorization and music exams, music students would learn the fundamentals of music through the acts of improvisation and composition using tools like partimento.
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The great composers learned through composing and improvising rather than simply memorizing music. They would have never learned music like how we teach our children today, with just rote memorization and performance. They would never have separated music theory from performance, like how we do with our music exams today. A music education would have yielded a composing and improvising artist, not just memorizing recital performer.
As recent musicological research has shown, the Italian Neapolitan Partimento tradition was well known in Europe during the golden age of Classical music and was a popular model of music instruction. Students of the Italian Naples conservatories were grilled in partimenti, solfeggio, written counterpoint and keyboard training. Some examples of the influence of Italian music:
Johann Sebastian Bach had scores of Francesco Durante, a noted Neapolitan composer, on his music stand.
George Frederic Handel taught Princess Anne in Britain partimenti exercises.
The great Naples-trained opera composer Giovanni Paisiello was hired by Catherine the Great to work in Russia.
Joseph Haydn studied privately with Nicola Porpora, a famous Neapolitan trained composer and singer, and learned the "true fundamentals of composition".
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart studied privately with the famed Italian composer Padre Martini.
The Paris Conservatory was founded modeled after the conservatories of Naples.
Richard Wagner studied intensively with the "old school" Italian trained Christian Theodor Weinlig.
Even modern atonal composer, Luciano Berio, studied Fenaroli partimenti exercises in his youth. Fedele Fenaroli was a famous Neapolitan teacher who's collection of partimenti were widely sold throughout Europe.
So as you can seen, the Italian connection was extensive and far more prevalent than musicologists realized in recent years. We are hoping to revive this tradition again to inspire our students to create their own identities.
If all this information intrigues you, I invite you to listen to the following 7 interviews with the most influential people in this exciting movement, known as partimento, from the Nikhil Hogan Show.
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One of the main people in this revolutionary movement is the great scholar Professor Giorgio Sanguinetti who released the excellent book on the subject, "The Art of Partimento", released in 2012 which every parent should buy for their child. Get it hard copy, because you'll want to read it over and over.
Along with Professor Sanguinetti, Professor Robert O. Gjerdingen is the other big figure in this movement when he launched his essential book, "Music in the Galant Style" in 2007. Buy this book hard copy, don't get the kindle version.
Another very important figure in the movement is Professor Peter van Tour, who's dissertation became a book, "Counterpoint and Partimento", takes a really close look at how the students of Naples studied written counterpoint.
Professor Marco Pollaci gives great insights into Opera of the 19th century, and how the Partimento tradition influenced the course of Opera past after Galant ("Classical") era. He also runs the fast growing Facebook Group, "The Art of Partimento".
Superstar teacher Tobias Cramm is definitely worth listening to because of the amazing students he has taught such as the famous prodigy, Alma Deutscher. His students receive a rigorous training in Partimento and Galant Schema, and the products are amazing!
Professor John Mortensen is a wonderful improviser and eloquent teacher. A master at improvising fugues and the partimento tradition, Professor Mortensen has done much for the movement, exposing many people to it and is releasing an exciting book with Oxford University Press, "The Pianist’s Guide to Classical Improvisation".
Finally, Dr. Johnandrew Slominski is a widely admired improviser and teacher.
Many more great partimento-specific guests will be coming onto the Nikhil Hogan Show in the future so subscribe for more interviews!
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In many ways, partimento is very similar to learning music like a jazz musician. The parallels are very fascinating and here at Songbird we want to connect the old working traditions with newer styles. Ultimately, we want our students to compose and improvise music in all styles, not just classical music. Partimento helps explain why all the great classical composers were often very good improvisers and so individual in their creativity.