Abstract. The lodging plans signed by Royal Quartermaster Domenico Maria Sani suggest that in 1737 Domenico Scarlatti - most likely referred to as Maestro de Música in the list of servants of Princess of Asturias Maria Barbara of Braganza... more
Abstract. The lodging plans signed by Royal Quartermaster Domenico Maria Sani suggest that in 1737 Domenico Scarlatti - most likely referred to as Maestro de Música in the list of servants of Princess of Asturias Maria Barbara of Braganza - might have been among the persons selected to participate in the traditional Court’s stay from July to October [Jornada] in the Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, the urban complex around La Granja Palace in the outskirts of Segovia. The composer’s participation is therefore indirectly confirmed by the inclusion in the same list of Agustín de Puertas, keeper of Maria Barbara’s harpsichords and her guitar teacher. Another possible evidence of Domenico Scarlatti’s presence at La Granja in 1737 might be traced in the version of his Sonata K.33 copied into the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana’s codex Ms. It. IV, 199 (=9770) [Venezia 1742] - its motifs seem to echo some of the events of that Jornada, in particular the fountain spectacle ordered by Felipe V on September 26th and the very first concerts at the Spanish Court of Carlo Broschi-Farinelli given at La Granja Palace. In three out of four printed editions published in Paris and London between the last months of 1737 and within 1751, this Sonata was presented in a shortened form, as part of multi-movement Suites in Delasol [D] and apparently as paired with the Aria K.32, a piece absent from the primary scarlattian manuscript sources. The short version probably resulted from cuts made by the editors precisely in order to decontextualize the piece; in fact, a comparative harmonic analysis based on criteria which - at least accordingly to Antonio Soler - were those adopted by Scarlatti himself, proves that in K.33’s copy from Venezia 1742 there is a higher degree of adherence to the compositional logic (and therefore to the lost autograph). These criteria also suggest that Aria K.32 is almost surely an authentic Scarlatti’s work and that both K.33, in its complete version, and Aria K.32 originally may have belonged to a keyboard multi-movement Toccata, or solo Suite, whose final movement might have been the Larghetto [Minuet] K.34. Side results of this research are the textual clues in the harpsichord piece K.95 - considered to be a spurious Domenico Scarlatti’s work - which permit to attribute its authorship to Michel Corrette.
