Alessandro Scarlatti (1660*-1725):
O cessate di piagarmi
(from the opera [Il] Pompeo) (1683)
Text:  Nicola Minato

Recorded (Schirmer Medium High) Key:  G Minor
Original (1683) Key:  D Minor
Teach-Track begins:  m. 1
Accompaniment Track begins:  m. 1
Pianist:  Daniel Michalak

*  This birthdate according to The New Grove?s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, London, 1980, ed. Stanley Sadie).  The date of 1659 given in the Schirmer anthologies 24 Italian Songs and Arias and Anthology of Italian Song (and in the Ricordi 30 Arie Antiche Vol. 1) has since been revised by more recent scholarship.

N. B.  Our recordings feature the piano accompaniments as they appear in the G. Schirmer volume of 24 Italian Songs and Arias (LB1722).  These often differ in significant ways from those found in the recent John Glenn Paton (ed.) edition of 26 Italian Songs and Arias: the Paton-edition accompaniments are usually sparer and simpler, and the suggested tempos often faster and more dancelike; the voice parts sometimes differ melodically and/or rhythmically; and the pieces themselves may even differ in length (e.g., because the introduction or postlude is different).  His scholarly approach, returning wherever possible to the original manuscripts, is extremely welcome, and wherever he has updated the historical record (e.g., reassigning dubious attributions, and even exposing a few pieces as deliberate forgeries) we have gratefully included this information. For each piece (see below), we have also indicated any melodic/rhythmic differences between the two editions that would directly affect the singer, so that even if you are working from the Paton edition, our recording can still be used successfully as a learning tool.  

Our experience has been that a sizeable majority of voice teachers and students remain attached to the Schirmer versions, not only because of their greater familiarity, but also because of their generally richer and fuller sound (which gives beginning voice students in particular a welcome feeling of support).  The Schirmer arrangements may not always be models of historical ?authenticity,? but  they have proven their musical effectiveness for more than a century.  Because these pieces are being used primarily to teach general principles of good singing (and because in most cases the putative ?original? versions have no comparable performance tradition of their own), such concerns are not as pertinent as they might otherwise be.  (Indeed, for several generations of singers, these versions are ?the originals? simply because we have grown up hearing them that way.)   None of this is to deny the value of historically-informed performance practice--merely to observe that the relative effectiveness of one piano accompaniment vis-a-vis another may depend on factors other than musicological correctness.   In their efforts to make these pieces both accessible and appealing to an audience still largely unacquainted with Baroque music, the original editors of the Schirmer edition (Parisotti, Banck, et al.) may occasionally have erred on the side of Romantic-period tempi and dynamics.   Yet we must remain grateful for their achievements: had they not so shrewdly tailored their versions to prevailing tastes, many of these pieces might not even remain in the repertoire today.

?O cessate di piagarmi?: Major Differences Between Schirmer and Paton Editions

The Schirmer edition cuts the introduction, the ritornello between the verses, and the text of the second verse (instead simply repeating the first verse at a slower tempo).  In measures 6 through 11 of the Schirmer (= mm. 11-16 of the Paton), the original melody of steadily ascending repeated notes has been altered with appoggiature and chromatic passing notes.


Notes © 1999 by Daniel O. Michalak