The initial impetus for my research came from a desire to find ways to perform music from the second half of the eighteenth century that were both historically appropriate and able to bring the music back to life. I was keen to comprehend an artistic practice that goes far beyond the notes, and which is so often praised in contemporary sources. The extant music of the eighteenth century has, in many cases, come down to us in sketches, so we have to be able to speak the musical language of its day if we are to do it justice in performance. Partimenti provide the necessary tools to learn the rules of harmony and counterpoint as well as the arts of accompaniment, improvisation, ornamentation, and variation. The curricula of the day taught all these skills, which were an integral aspect of achieving what was considered bon goût in musical performance.

Given the state of the existing sources and our abilities to interpret them, the forty-one recently discovered partimenti by Paisiello—published here for the very first time—assume great significance. They have survived in two manuscripts in the form of two- and three-part disposizioni (i.e., multi-part counterpoint exercises on a given bass), and are found alongside disposizioni based on thirty-one additional partimenti, published by Paisiello in his Regole (1782). The name “Taleyrand” [sic], written on the title page of one of the two manuscript collections, helped identify Paisiello as the author of the bass parts for these disposizioni, as he taught members of that family and obviously used these pieces for teaching purposes. These disposizioni show that partimenti were used to prepare students for counterpoint instruction and as a basis for actual counterpoint exercises. Appendices 1 and 2 feature a catalog of incipits of all extant partimenti by Paisiello and a concordance of the two main sources. Together, these two appendices offer a complete overview of the partimento oeuvre of Paisiello.

Above all, the present book intends to provide a new impetus to the performance practice of partimenti, encouraging the reader to find what is hidden in the notes and hopefully engage in further study himself.