3 - Pedagogical Training and Formation in the Conservatory Curriculum

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of the curriculum and modes of instruction within the Neapolitan conservatory curriculum. It focuses specifically on the instructional methods of solfeggio and partimento, drawing on exercises found in surviving eighteenth-century Neapolitan sources. It also considers larger historical contexts such as the diverse approaches of Francesco Durante and Leonardo Leo, whose students have been labeled as “Durantisti” and “Leisti.” Contemporary scholarship on the topics of solfeggio and partimento are also considered – in particular, the work of Robert Gjerdingen and Peter van Tour. The pedagogical importance of the conservatory curriculum served as the basis for a broad, diverse skill set, and the educational methodologies of the conservatories served as the foundation for prevailing stylistic unities derived from techniques learned in these institutions. The emergence of specific shared performance practices, compositional strategies, and broad parameters of style was closely associated with Neapolitan music in the eighteenth century and was widely discussed by contemporary and subsequent sources.