Programme
The craft of partimento
The rebirth of the long-forgotten partimento tradition may be considered as one of the most unexpected turns of today’s music theory and pedagogy. This course is an introduction to the improvisation of keyboard music based on regole and partimenti of Eighteenth century masters, from the very basics (cadenze, Rule of the Octave, bass motions), introducing the concepts of diminution and imitation, to finally arrive to the realization of pieces in different styles such as kayboard concerto, toccata, invention, and fugue. A working knowledge of the basics of thoroughbass is welcome, but not indispensable.
Bio
Giorgio Sanguinetti is professor of music theory at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He gave classes and seminars in several European and American institutions, such as the Orpheus Institute in Ghent (Belgium), the Schola Cantorum Basilensis (Switzerland), the NUI in Maynooth (Ireland), the CUNY, Northwestern University, Indiana University, Boston University (USA), the University of Leuven (Belgium), the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki). During the winter semester 2012 he has been visiting professor at the McGill University in Montreal (Canada) and in 2013 at the University of North Texas (Denton). He was the organizer of the GATM Annual Seminars for Music Analysis and of the VII Euromac conference (Rome 2011). He has been member of the scientific board of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani (Parma).
He wrote extensively on the history of Italian theory from 18th to 20th century, Schenkerian analysis, analysis and performance, classical form, and opera analysis. As a pianist he performed as soloist and in chamber groups. He wrote monographs on analysis and performance, partimento, and Beethoven's piano sonatas. His book The Art of Partimento. History, Theory and Practice is published by Oxford University Press (2012): for this book the Society for Music Theory conferred him the Wallace Berry Award (2013). He is currently writing The Craft of Partimenti. A Textbook, for Oxford University Press.