The Structure of Paisiello’s Regole (1782)

Paisiello wrote his Regole (1782) in the context of his work at the Russian court; nevertheless, the collection is firmly anchored in the tradition of the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio in Naples. Regole (1782) is a guide to partimento playing—an art that combines rule-based instructions, illustrative examples, and practical exercises in the form of figured and unfigured basses.

A glance at the structure of the Regole (1782) shows that it is similar to the partimento compendium by Paisiello’s teacher Francesco Durante. Therefore, it can be instructive to compare the Regole (1782) with Durante’s own “Regole per l’Accompagnamento” and with related compendia by Fedele Fenaroli (Partimenti ossia Basso Numerato), Giacomo Insanguine (“Regole con moti di Basso”), Giovanni Furno (“Metodo facile, e breve”), and Giuseppe Dol (“Regole per accompag[nare] il Basso”).

Paisiello’s Regole (1782) begins with an introductory section that makes roughly a third of the book. Here Paisiello uses fourteen partimenti that are propaedeutic in nature—eleven with figures and three without—to illustrate general rules. Next follow thirty-one figured partimenti without any explanatory text, though he often states where imitations are to be played (“imitazioni”). Paisiello generally forgoes any diminuiti section with specific performance instructions. His Regole (1782) is also largely devoid of fugues, contrary to Durante’s or Fenaroli’s partimento compendia.

The first eleven partimenti (Gj2301 to Gj2311) illustrate the rules explained in the text. Most are correspondingly brief and extensively figured. They introduce the reader to playing a full texture and attach importance to correct voice-leading and constructing an attractive upper part.

Gj2312 to Gj2314, by contrast, are the only partimenti in the whole book that are completely unfigured. They are proof that the teaching practice of Naples employs unfigured partimenti to determine whether a student was able to apply the rules, the sequential patterns, and harmonic connections he had just learned. According to Sanguinetti, one of the principal goals of the Neapolitan masters was to enable their students to play unfigured basses.

The degree of difficulty intensifies considerably after the section with the rules and the unfigured partimenti. Starting with Gj2315, the figures often do not just describe elementary compositional procedures but also suggest imitations or specific melodic lines.