Nov 23, 2020
My guest today is Harpsichordist and Fortepianist Professor Enrico Baiano. An award-winning international performer, Baiano has extensively recorded works by JS Bach, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Domenico Scarlatti to name a few.
He has published a method for the Harpsichord in 2010 and with Marco Moiraghi, published a book called “The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti” in 2014.
00:48 Beginnings
2:25 When did you start playing keyboard instruments?
2:53 What made you decide to make music your career?
3:41 Did you get a teacher to learn the harpsichord?
6:57 How long did you study the harpsichord at the beginning?
7:37 What age were you while studying composition?
7:51 How did you learn composition? Was it the old tradition or
new?
11:26 Did you listen to other styles of music growing up?
12:41 How you learned contrasted with the partimento approach
14:30 How extensively did you study with this older teacher?
14:53 Were these private lessons or at the conservatory?
15:43 Did you learn the modern methods of analysis like function
theory and roman numerals?
17:09 Were you one of the few students improvising?
18:10 When did you get acquainted with partimento?
19:39 Italians not feeling proud of their heritage
20:36 Learn Fenaroli in 1982
21:49 Was there anything new in the partimento that you didn’t
already know?
22:59 Are you able to distill music in the repertoire down to their
basic forms?
24:24 Did you work on written counterpoint in your studies?
27:20 What is the difference between harmony and counterpoint?
28:46 What’s the difference between learning composition today vs
back in the 18th century?
33:15 On the concern about the listen-ability of modern,
contemporary music
36:35 the link between older music like Domenico Scarlatti and
later composers like Brahms
38:56 Beethoven being very familiar with Scarlatti
43:35 What do you think about hexachordal Italian solfeggio
system?
45:33 How should someone learn partimento?
46:33 On Durante, Zingarelli and others, having more difficult
partimenti than Fenaroli
47:37 How should someone learn counterpoint?
48:34 What do you mean by Fux being “too late”?
51:17 Do you need a teacher to learn counterpoint?
51:42 Is figured bass still relevant in the modern age?
54:03 Chord Invertibility/Fundamental bass vs Counterpoint
57:45 On the question of certain chordal inversions not being
equal
59:02 What do you think of Glenn Gould’s interpretations?
1:03:42 What’s the balance between learning repertoire and
improvisation/composition?
1:05:50 What do you make of the amazing surge of interest in
partimento and other older methods of learning music?
1:09:29 Do you use these older methods when looking at music like
Ravel or Debussy?
1:13:07 Top 3 Pianists
1:13:32 Top 3 Partimenti composers
1:14:00 Top 3 Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas
1:16:59 Top 3 Pieces from Bach’s WTC
1:19:59 If you could meet any musician from history, who would it
be and what would you talk about?
1:20:38 Do you play non-classical music for fun?
1:21:58 Upcoming projects and Wrapping up