INTRODUCTION

This edition presents the complete partimenti of Maestro Nicola Sala (1713–1801), composer and
teacher of counterpoint at the Conservatorio della Pietà de’ Turchini in Naples.1 The initial impulse to
create this edition arose after I encountered Sala’s partimenti in Alexandre-Étienne Choron’s three-
volume treatise Principes de Composition des Écoles d’Italie (1808–09). The pedagogical sophistication
of Sala’s keyboard exercises in the first volume of Choron’s Principes immediately caught my interest:
the exercises invite the student to hone their skills in counterpoint and fugue experimentally through a
series of progressive keyboard exercises. These partimenti not only address practical skills in realizing
thoroughbass, they are also designed to develop the student’s understanding of the exercise’s thematic
material and to exploit its implications in the art of practical counterpoint. As such, Sala’s partimenti
reveal what most counterpoint treatises fail to address, that is: how to develop contrapuntal fluency
systematically at the keyboard.
Despite the many difficulties inherent in the restoration of this ephemeral art, improvisation is,
today, increasingly seen as an indispensable element of counterpoint pedagogy. It should be noted,
however, that one of the most influential counterpoint treatises of the Baroque era, Johann Joseph
Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum, makes hardly any mention of improvisatory techniques, although, of
course, improvised counterpoint was widely used in early eighteenth-century southern Germany.2 As
part of the wider landscape of late eighteenth-century compositional theory, I believe this collection of
Sala’s 189 partimenti stands out as one of the most fascinating examples of a curriculum for
improvising counterpoint and fugue at the keyboard. 3
Since work began on the preparation of this edition some six years ago, partimento research has
developed considerably. When I began transcribing these partimenti, only a few scholars had been
actively mapping the partimento repertoire in its entirety.4 Many dozens of partimento collections
were already known, but more detailed information on their content and their chronology was still
lacking. Between 2012 and 2015, as part of my doctoral studies at Uppsala University, I established
the partimento database UUPart, into which I have so far catalogued some 150 partimento
manuscripts (as of December 2016). During this process, I received great help from the Italian
musicologist Eleonora Betti, who already had collected the Neapolitan manuscripts of Sala’s
partimenti.

1
For my understanding of the term “partimento,” see: Peter van Tour, Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching
Composition in Late Eighteenth-century Naples. Studia Musicologica Upsaliensia. Nova series 25 (Uppsala: Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2015), 19.
2
Fux’s Gradus relied heavily on earlier Italian counterpoint treatises. William P. Clemmons Jr. particularly stresses the
influence of three treatises: Gioseffo Zarlino’s Le Istituzioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558), Giovanni Bononcini’s Musico
Prattico (Bologna, 1673), and Angelo Berardi’s Ragionamenti musicali (Bologna, 1681). See: William P. Clemmons Jr.,
“Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum and the Traditions of Seventeenth-Century Contrapuntal Pedagogy” (PhD
diss., The City University of New York, 2001), 10–14.
3
Another recent publication regarding the art of fugal improvisation in the Baroque is Andrzej Szadejko’s edition of
Daniel Magnus Gronau’s (ca. 1699–1747) 517 Fugues (Gdansk: Akademia Muzyczna im. Stanislawa Moniuszki w
Gdansku, 2016).
4
I want to express my gratitude to Giorgio Sanguinetti, who has been very generous in sharing his vast knowledge of
partimento manuscripts.
This edition discusses several sources that have been identified with the help of the partimento
database UUPart.5 Firstly, I discovered that B-Bc 8531, previously catalogued as a manuscript
containing partimenti by Francesco Durante, contained sixteen partimenti by Nicola Sala. 6 Although
B-Bc 8531 is not an autograph, it is a reliable source, as the handwriting in this manuscript shows, that
it was written by Giovanni Antonio Salini (1739–1825), singing teacher at the Pietà from June 1793,
and thus a colleague of Sala.7 Secondly, the head of the Conservatory Library of Lecce, Sarah M.
Iacono very recently discovered a partimento collection dated 1763, containing several unica by
Nicola Sala.8 This manuscript (I-LEcon Ms. BC 4) is the earliest dated source with partimenti by
Nicola Sala known today. Thirdly, a gathering in the collection I-MC 6-F-15/2, preserved in the
library of the Montecassino Abbey, contains eight partimenti by Nicola Sala, of which two partimenti
are unica.9

Nicola Sala was born in Tocco-Caudio, near Benevento, on 7 April 1713.10 The first conservatory
librarian in Naples, Giuseppe Sigismondo (1761–1842), tells us in his “Apoteosi,” written in 1820,
that Sala entered the Pietà in 1732 where he studied with Nicola Fago (1677–1745) and Leonardo
Leo (1694–1744) until 1740.11 Just five years later, Sala had already made a serious attempt to
become Leonardo Leo’s successor as chapel master of the Royal Chapel in Naples.12 Several
renowned composers participated in this contest, among them Francesco Durante (1684–1755), but
the contest was won by Giuseppe de Majo (1697–1771). Sala taught counterpoint at the Pietà from

5
Eleonora Betti, “I Partimenti di Nicola Sala: Fonti, Aspetti stilistici e Catalogo tematico.” Unpublished bachelor’s thesis.
Rome: Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, 2008–09. The sources discussed by Betti are: I-Nc 46-1-34, I-Nc S-
1-94, I-Mc Noseda Th.c.116/b, I-PESc Rari Ms. II.20, F-Pn 4° c2 344, and F-Pn 4° c2 343. Three additional sources were
discovered after 2009: B-Bc 8531 (in 2013), I-LEcon Ms. BC4 (in 2016), and I-MC 6-F-15 (in 2016).
6
See: Alfred Wotquenne, Catalogue de la Bibliothèque du Conservatoire royal de musique de Bruxelles, dressé par ordre de
matières, chronologique et critique. Brussels, 1898. Wotquenne’s attribution to Durante is incorrect. The first twenty-six
pieces in B-Bc 8531 are partimenti by Leonardo Leo, and the last sixteen partimenti are by Sala, of which one partimento
is a unicum. None of the partimenti in B-Bc 8531 can be reliably attributed to Francesco Durante. For an up-to-date list
of concordances, see my online partimento database: Peter van Tour, UUPart: The Uppsala Partimento Database. URL:
http://www2.musik.uu.se/UUPart/UUPart.php.
7
See: Salvatore di Giacomo, I R. Conservatorii di S. Onofrio a capuana e di S. Maria della Pietà dei Turchini (Naples: Remo
Sandron Editore, 1924), 303.
8
I want address my sincerest gratitude to Sarah M. Iacono and to Paolo Sullo for making this source available to me.
This manuscript is attributed to Francesco Durante. ”Lezzioni del Sig.r D. Francesco Durante // A.D. 1763.” I-LEcon
Ms. BC 4.
9
I am most grateful to Benedetto Cipriani for making me aware of this manuscript.
10
There has been considerable confusion about Nicola Sala’s date of birth. Choron, in his Dictionnaire Historique des
Musiciens (1811), suggested that Sala “died in 1800, almost a hundred years old” (“mort en 1800, âgé de près de cent
ans”). The Biografia degli uomini illustri del regno di Napoli seems to have taken Choron literally and fixed Sala’s year of
birth at 1701. Di Villarosa, however, suggests 1732 as Sala’s year of birth. The correct year of birth, 1713, was discovered
in the birth records of Tocco Caudio by Giuseppe Marcarelli in 1916. See: Giuseppe Marcarelli, L’Oriente del Taburno:
storia dell’antica città di Tocco e dei suoi casali (Benevento: F. Caudine, 1916).
11
See: Giuseppe Sigismondo, “Apoteosi della Musica del Regno di Napoli in tre ultimi transundati Secoli” (D-B Mus.
Ms. autogr. Theor. Sigismondo, G.1, MS., 1820), Band IV, nr. 8, 1.
12
A contest was organized on the 21st of April in 1745, for which Sala composed the five-part psalmmotet Protexisti me
Deus. This motet was included in his treatise Regole del contrappunto pratico (Naples, 1794), 142–44. On page 142 of this
treatise the following inscription is given: “Questo che siegue e il concorso che lo feci per la Cappella Reale di Napoli
nell’anno 1745, a di 21. Aprile.” Translation: “The following piece was written for the contest for the Royal Chapel on 21
April 1745.”
the 1740s onward, but it was not until 1787 that he was appointed secondo maestro at the Pietà. Only
five years later he advanced to become primo maestro at the same institution, where he remained until
1799. Even though Sala regularly taught partimento and solfeggio, he is most remembered today as
one of Naples’ finest teachers of counterpoint. According to Sigismondo, it was Nicola Fago who had
particular influence on Sala’s partimento writing:

[Nicola Sala] studied incessantly in the school of the great indefatigable son of properly-based harmony, Niccolò
Fago, “il Tarantino,” a man so profound in the art of music, that he surpassed in the art, as far as taste is
concerned, his same teacher [Alessandro] Scarlatti: and since the foundation of the same harmony is based on
the basso continuo, by whose movement and by the style of movement of the musical tones is born all the
variety, the beautiful, the great of the same harmony, thus our Sala studied profoundly on the basses of the
various works of Fago for proper instruction; and perceiving in such study the great benefit that the same art
could receive from it, began for his study to train on figured basses in the style of his teacher Fago, who observing
them, encouraged him to pursue the work, which might have become of great use and benefit for the students,
and of supreme illumination and benefit of the same art. Sala pursued it, and the work grew day by day. But Fago
died, and that was the reason Sala became discouraged and discontinued his work.13

What Sala seems to have inherited from Nicola Fago’s teaching was the understanding that
partimento notation can be exploited for the sketching and writing of vocal fugues. The process of this
technique can be described as follows: the entire fugue is designed by writing down the lowest
sounding part only, on a single staff, and implying the parts over it—where this seems to be
necessary—with the aid of thoroughbass figures.14 Although this technique was already old-fashioned
by Sala’s early career in the 1740s, it profoundly influenced Sala’s approach to partimento and
counterpoint until the end of the century. The partimento fugue plays a central role in Sala’s
educational output: no less than sixty exercises in Sala’s autograph I-Nc 46-1-34 are entitled “Fuga.”
To better understand how these partimento fugues were used, their function within the larger context
of contrapuntal education at the Pietà must be taken into account.

Fluency in Writing and Improvising Fugues

The partimenti of many Neapolitan maestri (and in particular the most famous ones) are often
preserved as copies of copies: they frequently have incorrect title pages, and their content may have
been compiled from several earlier sources. Fortunately, this is not the case with Sala’s partimenti. The

13
Giuseppe Sigismondo, “Apoteosi” (1820) Band IV, nr. 8, 1: (“Elogio di Nicola Sala, Neapolitano”): “Quest’uomo
studiò indefessamente sotto la scuola del’ grande infatigabile figlio della vera basata armonia il Tarantino Niccolò Fago,
uomo così profondo nell’arte Musica, che superò nell'Arte, per ciò che riguarda il gusto, l’istesso suo Maestro Scarlatti: e
siccome il fondamento dell’armonia medesima sta basato sul Basso, dal cui movimento, e dal caminar pe’toni della
Musica nasce tutto il vario, il bello, il grande dell’armonia medesima, così il nostro Sala studiò profondamente su de’
Bassi delle varie opere del Fago per propria istruzione; e scorgendo in tale studio il gran vantaggio, che potrebbe
riceverne l’arte medesima, prese per suo studio a formar de’ bassi numerati sul gusto del suo Maestro, cui facendoli
osservare, Fago l’animo a proseguire l’opera, che avrebbe potuta divenire di grande utile, e giovamento per gli alunni, e di
massimo rischiarimento, e vantaggio dell’arte medesima. Il Sala seguito, e l’opera crebbe di giorno in giorno. Ma Fago
morì, e ciò fu causa che Sala si scoraggì, e sospese l’opera sua.” For a modern edition, see: Sigismondo, Giuseppe. Apoteosi
della musica del Regno di Napoli, edited by Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Giulia Giovani, and Raffaele Mellace with an
introduction by Rosa Cafiero. Roma: Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2016. The English translation is quoted from:
Stephen Shearon “Latin Sacred Music” (1992), 134.
14
For more information about this technique, also called basso seguente, see chapter 7, “Partimento Fugue and Basso
Seguente,” in: Van Tour, Counterpoint and Partimento, 208–26.
documentary evidence regarding Sala’s pedagogical activity is also greater than of almost any other
Neapolitan maestro. As we shall see in the description of the manuscript sources later on, no less than
three autographs of Sala’s partimenti have been preserved. This is unique in the realm of Neapolitan
partimenti. In addition to this, the educational context surrounding Sala’s partimenti is equally rich. In
addition to Sala’s printed counterpoint treatise, the Regole del contrappunto pratico (Naples, 1794),
several student counterpoint notebooks have been preserved, and all of them contain reliable
information on when they were written:

o The Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai in Bergamo holds the extant counterpoint notebooks
from Carlo Lenzi’s (1735–1805) lessons with Sala between 1755 and 1759.15
o The Archivio Capitolare di Pistoia holds the counterpoint notebooks by Giuseppe
Gherardeschi (1759–1815) written under Sala’s direction in the early 1780s.16
o The Bibliothèque Nationale de France holds one counterpoint notebook and two
partimento notebooks, written (we can assume) by Sala’s student Louis Julien Castels de
Labarre (1771–?) in 1788 and 1789.17
o The Archivio Storico Diocesano in Novara holds a counterpoint notebook by Benedetto
Neri (1771–1841), written under Sala’s direction in 1796.18

The counterpoint notebooks of Lenzi, Gherardeschi, and De Labarre give a fascinating picture of the
prehistory of Sala’s Regole, one of the most important counterpoint treatises printed in Naples in the
eighteenth century. These student counterpoint notebooks reveal important information about the
function of partimento studies within their wider educational context. We learn from these notebooks
that Sala’s pedagogical approach to counterpoint is also reflected in his partimenti. Sala’s
counterpoint lessons emphasize the writing of double counterpoint leading to two-, three-, and four-
part fugues, and ultimately leading to the sketching of choral fugues with the aid of partimento
notation. Accordingly, melodic writing was not accorded the same central focus at the Pietà (the
conservatory where Sala taught) as it was at the two other Neapolitan conservatories, the Onofrio and
the Loreto.19
As the level of musical education in Naples gradually declined from the 1760s onward, so did the
art of realizing partimento fugue. The majority of Sala’s partimenti were probably composed in his

15
Ibid., 235.
16
Ibid., 236.
17
Anonymous [Louis Julien Castels de Labarre?], untitled counterpoint notebook, “Du dimanche 11 Janvier 1789.” MS:
F-Pn Ms. 8223. The call numbers of the two partimento notebooks are F-Pn 4° c2 343/1 (dated “15 Juillet 1788”) and
F-Pn 4° c2 343/2. All three notebooks are written in the same hand. For the basis of the assumption that Louis-Julien
Castels de Labarre wrote these notebooks, see note 33, below.
18
Benedetto Neri, “Studio di contrappunto incominciato da me Benedetto Neri nell’anno 1796 alli 12. di Decembre
1796.” MS: I-NOd, Fondo cappella musicale 3387.
19
Sala’s emphasis on fugue and double counterpoint is reflected in the following quote from the autobiography of the
Irish tenor Michael Kelly (1762–1826): “He gave me the choice of three, St. Onofrio, La Pietà, or La Madona di Loretto.
At St. Onofrio, Signor Monopoli was the head master; at La Pietà, Signor Sala, who had never produced a melody worth
hearing, though the first counterpointist of the day [emphasis added]; and at La Madona di Loretto, Finerolli, a first-rate
composer of church music. He had also written several serious operas, and several great composers were his scholars,
amongst them was Cimarosa.” Michael Kelly, Solo Recital: The Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, (London: The Folio
Society, 1972), 32.
early years of teaching at the Pietà, between the 1740s and 1760s.20 Giuseppe Sigismondo tells us that
Sala eventually abandoned his own partimenti, and that he instead preferred to use the solfeggi and
partimenti by Leonardo Leo21 and Pasquale Cafaro:

As soon as the partimenti by Leo, and later on by Cafaro, were introduced at the Collegio, he [Sala] did not want
to use his own ones.22

Sala’s reluctance to use his own partimenti could, of course, be interpreted as an expression of
humility, or as a show of deference to Leo and Cafaro, two maestri whom he held in the highest
esteem. It is more likely, however, that the complexity of Sala’s partimenti made them unsuitable for
the majority of students who crossed his path in the last few decades of the eighteenth century. These
students would have been stymied by their general lack of keyboard skills. In a letter published in the
Berlinische Monatsschrift, dated 26 October 1782, a German commentator reported on the conditions
of musical life in Naples, stating:

There is great lack of good composers and it is incredible to see how the level of keyboard playing and
thoroughbass has come to be neglected here. Most of the time basses are played unfigured, and a student who
hardly knows how to play the main chords [die Hauptakkorde] is led to the study counterpoint. It is sad to see
that in these conservatories, where counterpoint once was taught by the most outstanding composers and
professors, such as Durante, Leo, Cafaro, and others, youngsters are now taught by ignorant chapel masters. 23

This decline seems to have already been underway in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1787,
the German encyclopedia Deutsche Encyclopädie oder Allgemeines Real-Wörterbuch aller Künste und
Wissenschaften makes the following remark about the lack of competence the teachers in the
Neapolitan conservatories displayed:

In the last thirty years, not only Naples, but the whole of Italy has declined regarding the [level of their] great
composers; the famous conservatories of Naples are [nowadays] equipped with mediocre heads [mittelmäsigen
Köpfen].24

20
The earliest dated source of his partimenti (dated 1763) is preserved in the Library of the Conservatory of Lecce (I-
LEcon Ms. BC4, fols. 14r–15v).
21
One of the later sources of Nicola Sala’s partimenti, F-Pn 4° c2 343, confirms Sigismondo’s statement that Sala used
Leo’s partimenti in his teaching. Both partimento notebooks under the call number F-Pn 4° c2 343 contain partimenti by
Leo. In addition to this, more than 30 of Sala’s own partimenti also appear in these two partimento notebooks.
22
See: Giuseppe Sigismondo, “Apoteosi della Musica del Regno di Napoli in tre ultimi transundati Secoli” (D-B Mus.
Ms. autogr. Theor. Sigismondo, G.1, MS., 1820), Band IV, nr. 8, 1: “Introdotti nel Collegio i Partimenti, e Solfeggi di Leo,
poscia di Cafaro, egli non volle far uso de’ suoi.”
23
Berlinische Monatschrift, edited by F. Gedike and J.F. Biester, vol. 1 (Berlin: Johann Friedrich Unger, 1783), ch. 10
“Über den Zustand der Musik in Neapel,” 308: “Es ist jetzt hier ein recht großer Mangel an guten Komponisten, und
unglaublich, wie sehr die Art das Klavier und den Generalbaß zu spielen, vernachläßiget ist. Es wird meistentheils
unbezifferter Baß gespielt, und ein Schüler, der kaum die Hauptakkorde gehörig zu nehmen weiß, wird zu dem
Kontrapunkt geführt. Es ist betrübt, wenn man in den hiesigen Konservatorien, wo ehemals die vortrefflichsten
Tonkünstler und Professoren, als Durante, Leo, Caffaro und andere den Kontrapunkt lehrten, sehen muß, daß die
lehrbegierigen Zöglinge von unwissenden Kapellmeistern unterrichtet werden.”
24
Deutsche Encyclopädie oder Allgemeines Real-Wörterbuch aller Künste und Wissenschaften, Band 12 (Frankfurt am Mayn,
1787), s.v. “Gesang,” 22: “Allein seit 30 Jahren ist nicht nur Neapel, sondern ganz Italien in Absicht auf große Tonsetzer
krebsgängig geworden, die berühmten Conservatorien von Neapel sind mit mittelmäsigen Köpfen besetzt.”
The two preceding remarks confirm that the level of competence at the Neapolitan conservatories
gradually declined from at least the mid-eighteenth century until the 1790s, when attempts were
made to restore some of what had been lost. Within this context, Sala’s partimenti represent a style of
partimento teaching, that, by the end of the eighteenth century, was held to be too complex and too
old-fashioned.

‘Straight from the Horse’s Mouth’

Partimento realizations from the eighteenth century are extremely rare. Most of the few examples that
have survived were written by students. This edition, however, presents eight partimenti for which
complete realizations by Maestro Sala himself have been preserved. These eight partimenti are Nos.
36, 42, 49, 65, 84, 93, 96, and 105.25 As I have argued in Counterpoint and Partimento, it is not entirely
correct to call these pieces partimenti, although they appear in partimento collections. It would be
more accurate, in my opinion, to call these pieces bassi seguenti. The term “basso seguente” (“following
bass”) was commonly used in the early seventeenth century for organ parts of sacred vocal
compositions, in which the lowest sounding part is extracted into a shorthand notation on a single
staff, either with or without thoroughbass figures.26 What these eight bassi seguenti show is the lowest
sounding part of sacred vocal compositions, written in partimento notation (i.e. on one stave) and
figured where this was deemed necessary. Seven of these eight exercises appear in open score in
Nicola Sala’s Regole del Contrappunto Pratico. In one case (No. 42) the partimento corresponds with
the vocal fugue Amen, which Nicola Sala used as the final section of his Dixit Dominus in D Major (I-
Nc Mus. Rel. 3059).
Both the models in score in Sala’s Regole and the bassi seguenti that correspond with these
compositions may have had more than one function. On the one hand, partimento notation was used
in sketching and composing these vocal works; on the other hand, from their appearance in
partimento collections we may assume that the bassi seguenti corresponding to these vocal works
were used as partimento exercises. In addition to this, both the vocal compositions in score in the
Regole and their corresponding bassi seguenti were almost certainly intended to be models for
students to learn how to sketch, design, and realize vocal fugues in partimento notation and in open
score. These eight realized scores are, of course, a real treasure for understanding eighteenth-century
partimento realization.27 However, the scope of this edition unfortunately does not allow the
inclusion of the complete scores for these eight vocal compositions.

25
For more detailed information of where these corresponding vocal works can be found, see Van Tour, Counterpoint
and Partimento, 290–97.
26
See: Banchieri, Adriano. L’Organo Suonarino. Edited by Edoardo Bellotti. Latina: Il Levante Libreria Editrice, 2016.
27
Alexandre-Étienne Choron was fully aware of this: in the foreword of his Principes de Composition des École d’Italie, he
states: “Here terminates the first book. […] It is followed by a collection of the Partimenti of Sala, intended to serve as
exercises for accompaniment. I should perhaps have done better to have inserted in another place those of Durante,
which are more esteemed in Italy; but as a great number of the first are to be found developed in the models which are at
the end of the other two books (Choron talks here about the various volumes of his Principes), I have considered that this
comparison would be useful for students. These partimenti not being very gradual in difficulty, I have thought it better to
place the elementary lessons of Mr. Fenaroli, which to the merit of an excellent style, unite that of graduation.” The
English translation is taken from The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, vol. II (1820), 207.
Sala’s Partimento Curriculum
The principal source for this edition is Sala’s autograph F-Pn 4o c2 344. The collection in the
manuscript displays Sala’s partimenti Nos. 1–131 as a complete series. The last partimento of this set,
No. 131 is a large fugue of 154 measures, which serves as a kind of apotheosis of the entire set. This final
fugue is actually the only piece in which Sala applies all five clefs: soprano clef (C1), alto clef (C3),
tenor clef (C4), bass clef (F4), and violin clef (G2).

A closer look at the construction of this series reveals that Sala divided these partimenti (Nos. 1–131)
into five sections:
1. Partimenti Nos. 1–24
2. Partimenti Nos. 25–51
3. Partimenti Nos. 52–72
4. Partimenti Nos. 73–87
5. Partimenti Nos. 88–131

Each section starts with a partimento in the key of C major. In Sections Nos. 2–4, the number of
accidentals in the key signatures is gradually increased, either with flats (as in Section 3) or with sharps
(as in Sections 2 and 4). The first and last sections start with a series of partimenti with an increasing
number of flats, but both end, more or less, with a series of partimenti with a decreasing number of
sharps.
Description of the Manuscript Sources
The sources of Nicola Sala’s partimenti that have been consulted for this edition are the following:
F-Pn 4o c2 344 “Racolda di lezzioni numeriche del Signor D. Niccola [sic] Sala maestro
di cappella napolino. 1776.” Autograph. This manuscript was written by
Sala, presumably for his French student Étienne Joseph Floquet (1748–
1785), who studied counterpoint at the Pietà in the spring of 1776.28
I-Nc 46-1-34 Autograph (ca. 1760). Although this manuscript is undated, it appears to
be the oldest surviving autograph of Nicola Sala’s partimenti. It contains
107 partimenti.29 The beginning of this manuscript is lost.30
I-Nc S-1-94 Partial autograph (ca. 1780). This manuscript contains several sections.
The first section with the misleading title “Elementi per ben sonare il
Cembalo del Sig.r D. Nicola Sala” was probably written by an unknown
student of Giuseppe Dol or Carlo Cotumacci at the Onofrio
conservatory. 31 The second section (fol. 7v–8v) contains two
preliminary exercises and three partimenti, all unica, and all in the hand
of Nicola Sala (Nos. 140–2). The section comprising fols. 17r–32r
contains four preliminary exercises and twelve intavolature, all in Sala’s
hand. The section comprising fols. 41r–68r contains thirty-one
partimenti, all in Sala’s hand, of which two partimenti are incomplete.32
F-Pn 4o c2 343/1 “1er Cayé de Partimenti De Basse d’accompagnement Del Signor D.
Nicola Sala, Premier Maitre de composition du conservatoire de la Pietà
a Naples, a 15 Juillet 1788.” This manuscript was probably written by
Louis-Julien Castels de Labarre (born 1771), who studied with Nicola
Sala in 1788 and 1789.33 This manuscript contains thirty-two partimenti
by Nicola Sala and nineteen partimenti by Leonardo Leo.34

28
F-Pn 4o c2 344 contains partimenti Nos. 1–131 and Nos. 132–39 (probably a later addition to the series Nos. 1–131).
29
I-Nc 46-1-34 contains partimenti Nos. 25–131. The MS starts in the middle of partimenti No. 25 (with measure 43).
30
A comparison with F-Pn 4o c2 344 suggests that the partimenti Nos. 1–24 are lacking at the beginning of I-Nc 46-1-34.
31
This first section contains several concordances with sources such as B-Lc 1042826 and I-Nc 20-8-20, both sources
deriving from the Onofrio. See: van Tour, Counterpoint and Partimento, 125–28.
32
I-Nc S-1-94 contains partimenti Nos. 25–34 (of which No. 34 shows only the beginning), Nos. 74–76 (of which No.
74 lacks the start), and Nos. 140–60 (of which Nos. 140–42 and No. 145 are unica).
33
See: Alexandre-Étienne Choron, Dictionnaire historique des musiciens, artistes et amateurs, morts ou vivans […], 2 vols.
(Paris: Valade et Lenormant, 1810), 388. Choron supposes that Labarre commenced his studies in Naples in 1791.
Since Louis-Julien Castels de Labarre is the only French student who is mentioned by Choron to have studied with Sala
around this time, I assume that Labarre is the writer of these three notebooks (F-Pn Ms. 8223, F-Pn 4° c2 343/1, and F-
Pn 4° c2 343/2).
34
Besides these two partimento sources, this student’s counterpoint notebook has also been preserved (F-Pn Ms. 8223).
Both the partimento sources and the counterpoint notebook are written in the same hand. Interestingly, this
counterpoint notebook is dated “11 Janvier 1789,” thus later than the partimento manuscript F-Pn 4o c2 343/1. These
dates support the idea that partimenti were often studied as preparation before taking lessons in counterpoint and
composition.
F-Pn 4o c2 343/2 “Deuxième Cayé di Partimenti di Leo.” This manuscript may likewise be
presumed to be in the hand of Louis-Julien Castels de Labarre. This
manuscript contains one partimento by Nicola Sala.35
B-Bc 8531 “Partimenti di Durante” (ca. 1790). This manuscript, written during the
1790s by Nicola Sala’s colleague at the Pietà, Giovanni Salini (ca. 1739–
1825), contains twenty-six partimenti by Leonardo Leo (pp. 2–43) and
sixteen partimenti by Nicola Sala (pp. 44–75).36 The erroneous title
“Partimenti di Durante” was probably added in the mid-nineteenth
century.
I-LEcon Ms. BC4 “Lezzioni del Sig.r Francesco Durante, Maestro di Cappella Napoletano.
Per uso di S.a E.a il Sig.r D. Fran.co Bozzi Colonna.” Additional title of fol.
1r: “Lezzioni del Sig.r D. Francesco Durante. A.D. 1763.” This
manuscript contains thirteen quires. Some of the quires contain four
folios, some contain eight folios. The third quire, which is made up of
two nested bifolios (fols. 14–17), contains eight partimenti, of which
three are identified as partimenti by Sala (Nos. 76, 126, and 30). I
consider the remaining five partimenti of this quire to be unica by Sala
(Nos. 183–187). Additionally, another four partimenti at the end of the
second quire (again, all unica) are ascribed to Nicola Sala, merely on
stylistical grounds. These four partimenti (Nos. 179–82) are of a more
contrapuntal style, standing out stylistically from the versetto-like
partimenti immediately preceding them. These partimenti appear to
belong together with the eight partimenti of the following third quire.
This edition thus ascribes nine otherwise unidentified partimenti (Nos.
179–187) to Sala.37
I-MC 6-F-15/2 [fols. 101r–105r]. Under the call number I-MC 6-F-15/2 we find several
gatherings of partimenti by composers such as Giuseppe Giordani
(“Giordanello”), Carlo Cotumacci, and Gaetano Carpani. The folios
101r–105r contain eight partimenti by Nicola Sala. Two of these eight
partimenti are unica. They appear as partimenti Nos. 188 and 189 in this
edition.38

35
This is Sala’s partimento No. 178 in A major (which is an unicum), see vol. 2, 326.
36
The last section (pp. 44–74) of B-Bc 8531 contains sixteen partimenti by Nicola Sala: Nos. 52, 53, 48, 54 [Tu es
sacerdos], 124 [Amen], 80, 125, 84 [Tu es sacerdos], 46, 85, 51, 47, 88, 177 (unicum), 55, and 56. For more information on
Giovanni Salini and his connection to the Pietà, see: Van Tour, Counterpoint and Partimento, 139–47.
37
I-LEcon Ms. BC 4 brings together partimenti diminuiti by Francesco Durante, partimenti and intavolature by
Leonardo Leo, and a section of partimenti by Nicola Sala. The manuscript represents partimenti commonly used in the
three Neapolitan conservatories, the Loreto, the Onofrio, and the Pietà, in the early 1760s. Two sections of this
manuscript, fols. 1–10 and fols. 60–71, contain 48 and 21 partimenti respectively that have not been ascribed to any
other maestro. Four possible candidates for the authorship of these 69 partimenti are: Antonio Sacchini (1734–1786),
Pietro Antonio Gallo (ca. 1695–1777), Gennaro Manna (1715–1779), or the young Fedele Fenaroli (1730–1818), all
maestri actively working at the Loreto in the early 1760s.
38
The handwriting of this gathering (fols. 101r–105r) is identical with the handwriting in two separate sections (fols.
9r–16v and 33r–40r) in the manuscript I-Nc S-1-94, containing partimenti by Pasquale Cafaro.
Spurious Sources
Four additional sources need to be mentioned here:
I-Mc Nos. Th. c. 116b “Fughe Del M.tro Nicola Sala.”
I-Mc Nos. Th. c. 116c “Fughe Con soggetto, e contro soggetto a suono placale Del S. D. Nic.
Sala.”
I-Mc Nos. Th. c. 116d “Disposizioni imitate a soggetto, e contro soggetto Del celebre M.o D.
Nicola Sala.”
I-PESc Rari Ms. II.20 “Partimenti di Nicola Sala.”

Although the first three of these manuscripts are written in an early nineteenth-century hand, the
content of these three manuscripts (I-Mc Noseda Th.c. 116b, c, and d) may date from the early
eighteenth century. The attribution to Sala is weak, since none of the pieces in these three sources ever
appear in the two most important autograph collections of Sala’s partimenti: F-Pn 4° c2 344 and I-Nc
46-1-34. The manuscript I-PESc Rari Ms. II.20 is an early nineteenth-century copy of Nicola Sala’s
autograph I-Nc 46-1-34 and has, for that reason, been disregarded for this edition.

Description of the Printed Sources

The printed sources of Nicola Sala’s partimenti that have been consulted for this edition are the
following:
Ch Alexandre-Étienne Choron, Principes de Composition des Écoles d’Italie
(Paris, 1808–09), volume 1. Choron’s printed edition is the first edition
of Nicola Sala’s partimenti. In the first volume of this voluminous
treatise, Choron gives 130 partimenti by Nicola Sala.39 There is no
doubt that Choron used Sala’s autograph F-Pn 4o c2 344 (dated 1776)
for his edition.
Reg Nicola Sala, Regole del contrappunto pratico (Naples, 1794).40
Nap Daniele Napoletano, Partimenti, Ricercate, Fughe e Fugati, scelti e ordinati
da Daniele Napoletano. Napoli, 1896. This late nineteenth-century print
was compiled from Sala’s autograph I-Nc 46-1-34. Nap has, for that
reason, been disregarded for this edition.

39
The first volume of Ch contains Nicola Sala’s partimenti Nos. 1–139, with the exception of partimenti Nos. 5, 19, 21–
24, 32, 33, and 38.
40
The copy of Nicola Sala’s Regole that I consulted is preserved in the Rare Collection Library of the The Royal Academy
of Music in Stockholm (known in Sweden as “Statens Musiksamlingar”). This copy was purchased in the summer of
1815 through the librarian and secretary of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Pehr Frigell.
Editorial Principles
Use of Sources
This edition uses the autograph F-Pn 4o c2 344 of 1776 as its principal source. In comparison with the
two other autographs I-Nc 46-1-34 and I-Nc S-1-94 (only partially autograph), F-Pn 4o c2 344 has
two advantages. Most importantly, the French autograph contains the largest number of Sala’s
partimenti (139 partimenti), and all are notated without showing any lacunae. Secondly, it represents
a complete and progressive course of 131 numbered partimenti, to which a small number of
considerably easier partimenti (Nos. 132–39) seem to have been added at a somewhat later stage.

Time Signatures and Key Signatures

Barlines are transcribed entirely following the principal source. According to Neapolitan practice,
compositions notated in the time signature 3/8 regularly show 6/8 measures without explicitly
changing the time signature. This edition follows the original notation, thus occasionally switching
between 3/8 and 6/8 measure, without marking these changes.
In Nicola Sala’s autographs there are numerous instances where Sala omits elements of the key
signature at stave breaks. In regions, for example, where the music has modulated to the dominant
key, Sala occasionally drops one sharp or flat from the key signature in order to avoid the placement of
cautionary accidentals. In order to make this edition as readable for a modern musician as possible,
this edition has refrained from transcribing such “dropped” key signatures.

Thoroughbass Figures
Following the standard Neapolitan practice, the figures applied in thoroughbass are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
and x (which is used instead of 10).

Slurs and Beams

In addition to the two common ways of using slurs (as a legato slur or as a tie that extends the note
value), Sala uses slurs in yet another manner. On occasions on which a harmony should be sustained
in the right hand while the bass moves on to the next note, a slur is used as a signal not to change
harmony. All such slurs are transcribed according to this principle, retaining the original notation of
the principal source.
Beams are, at all times, transcribed as notated in the principal source, except in cases of obvious
mistakes. Any editorial changes of beamings are described in the apparatus criticus.

The Signa Congruentiae

Sala uses the signum congruentia (plural: signa congruentiae) under the staff to mark an important voice
entrance, such as that which states the theme or countersubject. It appears in two different shapes: :s:
and :ss: (as in No. 159). It is not always apparent why Sala uses one shape on one occasion and
another shape on another occasion. For that reason, both shapes are transcribed as they appear in the
principal source.
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