Partimento/Schema

Are you new to the world of partimento ("partimenti" in the plural), schema, or both? I've created this page to preview a little bit of what these two things are about and how they can deepen your knowledge of tonal grammar, contributing to your growth as a composer, theorist, and improviser, whether or not you aspire to write in mostly tonal languages. In addition, you'll find that these studies will help you make sense of your tonal performance repertoire more quickly and easily!

Firstly, what are schemata?

(Galant) schemata are standardized two-voice "licks" (as jazz players say) or "stock phrases" (as foreign language teachers say) that composers could readily plug into a piece of music and that audiences raised in that musical atmosphere would recognize. "Once upon a time" is a great example of a schema in literary English. We know that phrase should go at the beginning of a story. If we encounter it at the end, we know we're being trolled, and we might find humor in that--because we know it's normally an "opening schema." Of course, if not done very subtly and artfully, we'll just think the author doesn't know how to write, but the humor arises out of the difference between its normal placement and where we found it. Such is the fine line composers had to walk when they wrote in the schema-filled tonal language. TV programs tend to use schemata in their own way, too: we know that the first suspect named in an episode of Law and Order: SVU is rarely the suspect who will be arrested by the episode's end. The "schema" for a crime show involves presenting a false suspect first. If the first suspect named is the correct one, that episode becomes unusual and gains additional shades of meaning for diehard fans of the show (and it might bore other fans).
For an outline of some common schemata as published in Robert Gjerdingen's excellent book Music in the Galant Style, click here (new window, takes you to partimenti.org where the file is hosted)
Want more detail? Here's another great definition of musical schemata, also from partimenti.org (click here, opens in a new window)

Now, what are partimenti?

Partimenti are single-line sketches (usually a bass, but using clef changes they can move around widely), which may or may not have figured bass numbers included, and that provide the musical information needed to flesh them out into full pieces, including halves of various 2+-voice schemata and cadences students would have to recognize, numbers in strings that would outline certain melodic contours, and even hints about where to start imitative passages (most notably in partimento fugues). Since the partimento tradition, based in 18th-century Italy, was transmitted orally within music conservatories staffed by maestri, we don't have a lot of information on how they were taught, and it's only recently that we've begun to uncover some of the approaches based on studying various manuscripts kept by these students. Thus, it's most helpful to start diving into partimenti with a knowledgeable teacher. Partimenti could be worked out directly at the keyboard or in written form while studying counterpoint. For a more detailed history of the partimento tradition, visit this page (takes you to partimenti.org in a new window).
Once students had a thorough grounding in the schemata, cadences, and the other implications of the various bass motions they may encounter in partimenti, they could easily compose quickly, improvise readily, and sight-read "like gods" because they recognized the larger musical patterns immediately. (The latter quote was supposedly an assessment of the young Beethoven.) Gaetano Donizetti, who studied with maestro Stanislao Mattei, famously composed his masterwork Lucia di Lammermoor in about five weeks. I saw the recent IU production and it's easily a 2.5-hour opera. That degree of efficiency is unimaginable for most modern composers, but with his partimento training, Donizetti could assemble the musical underpinnings of each passage almost without thinking about it, leaving more time and cognitive resources to contribute to refining the surface details.

So I'm not in Naples in a conservatory. What will our lessons be like?

I espouse what I like to call a "sensory kitchen sink" approach, adapted for the teen and adult learner. This means that we simultaneously study written counterpoint, partimento realization and keyboard-based improvisation as the student's keyboard background permits, and analysis of the existing literature. I adapt how heavily we weight each of those things as the student's needs require. While the Neapolitan maestri didn't usually include counterpoint right away, they were also usually working with much younger learners who simply couldn't read and write notation as well yet. (Parents would often drop off a 6- or 7-year-old child at the boarding school-type conservatory after realizing they were financially unable to care for that child at home.) As with adults learning a new-to-them language, I find that it's important to include all sensory pathways at once and embrace a holistic approach rather than a fully oral/aural approach that might be more suited to the typical small child. An approach that also includes written work right away is also more suitable for interested students whose piano chops aren't yet developed to the point that they can play the more technical partimento basses at sight. I accept students at earlier instrumental performance levels than my colleagues tend to, so I adapt my teaching accordingly.
Some of the books I usually employ (depending on the student's background and goals) are Ijzerman's Harmony, Counterpoint, Partimento (for written counterpoint); Gjerdingen's Music in the Galant Style (for schema analysis and historical grounding); excerpts from Strobbe's Tonal Tools (for keyboard-based improvisation and partimento realization); and various collections of partimenti by Fenaroli, Mattei, Handel, Zingarelli, Insanguine, and many others whose names sound like pasta varieties. :) Strong pianists who want to jump into improvisation immediately also benefit from working with Mortensen's The Pianist's Guide to Historical Improvisation and his newest release, Improvising Fugue.
Aside from the books we actively work from, I highly recommend every single book in the list given and summarized here at partimenti.org (click here, opens in a new window)

What skills do I need to have in order to start?

Before we begin in earnest, I'll have you work through a self-paced text like Sandy Feldstein's Practical Theory to see where your fundamentals are. Ideally, you'll be fluent in treble and bass clef, all your major and minor scales, key signatures, triads, and 7th chords first. Roman numerals are not a concern in partimento pedagogy, so there's no need to have fluency in those, although some of the modern partimento-related literature does mention them. As we proceed into more advanced partimenti, you'll start to see (and need to muddle through) the various C clefs. Having some piano chops is a bonus, but I've taught guitarists before and partimenti can be creatively realized on many instruments.

Will I be composing in a purely Baroque style after all this? What if I want more stylistic diversity?

Not at all! While the basses tend to sound more Baroque to modern ears due to their mobility and rich textures, the tonal principles you'll learn are applicable to any style that employs major/minor tonality. I encourage my students to explore applying these principles to a variety of styles, from the early Baroque of Giovanni Gabrieli to the opulent late Romanticism of Richard Strauss (who threw a thiny-veiled Fenaroli schema into his famous Composer Aria). If you'd like to hear the result of a living composer employing partimento and schema principles to write in a more Romantic vein (to prepare young pianists to play Chopin), check out my Nocturne in G# minor (click here and scroll down to hear the audio preview), which was selected for inclusion in the 22 Nocturnes for Chopin compilation, published in August 2023. It's available from various retailers; here's Hal Leonard's listing.
Of course, if you just want to specialize in Baroque writing, that's great too!

What are some real-life uses for the skills I'll gain from historical or tonal improvisation/composition training?

They're more numerous than you'd think! They include:
- Improvising preludes, offertories, communions, and postludes at church/temple services (gigging at which can pay handsomely depending on where you live)
- Composing grammatically accurate and engaging music for students of your primary instrument so that they're learning the tonal language alongside whatever technical skills your piece is teaching
- Composing structurally sound music for the church/temple that can be learned easily by a volunteer choir and elevate the church/temple service experience for its members
- Being able to improvise your way out of memory slips or other problems in the performance of tonal music
- Achieving more security and efficiency in the learning and (if desired) memorization of your tonal performance repertoire
- Sight-reading more efficiently due to the ability to recognize schemata as single units rather than collections of individual notes to process
- Finding more avenues for musical meaning and expression in performance when you recognize that a schema has been manipulated in an unusual way or is outside of its typical context
One favorite example of (mis)using tonal improvisation skills in my own life came the morning after the November 2022 American football game between Michigan (my undergraduate alma mater) and Ohio State (its biggest rival, forming what's sometimes called "the greatest rivalry in sports"). In 2022 I had an intermittent substitute church pianist gig at a Methodist church with a traditional service structure and an avid Ohio State fan music director, whom I greatly enjoyed working with. He had attended that game and was very disappointed to see Michigan handily beat Ohio State that year, when Ohio State had been projected to win the game. During the offertory, which I improvised, I snuck the opening phrase of Michigan's fight song, "The Victors," into the bass line. Neither he nor the congregants noticed.

Additionally, check out the two interviews I did with Nikhil Hogan of the Learn Partimento Podcast, one in June 2021 and another in March 2023! We touch on a number of topics, including the relevance partimento and schema study has to my current professional life as a pianist and composer. The second interview spends time discussing partimento/schema study's usefulness in writing Romantic music (including my Nocturne in G# minor).
Click here to listen to the June 2021 interview.
Click here to watch the March 2023 interview (on video).

A bit more about me as a theorist:
Nicole DiPaolo has achieved PhD candidacy in music theory at Indiana University, where she was an Associate Instructor for over five years and remains an Adjunct Lecturer online. She also holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a master's from IU. Ms. DiPaolo's previous conference presentations span over 400 years of tonality (from Giovanni Gabrieli to Rachmaninoff) and have been presented in the US and internationally. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Malaysian Music Journal, and MOSAIC: Journal of Music Research. Her other theoretical interests include music theory pedagogy; perception and cognition; form and phrase structure; partimento and schema theory; and the Romantic-era composer Giovanni Sgambati.

In addition to her IU and private teaching duties, Ms. DiPaolo is the Principal Theory Teacher at Liberty Park Music, where she creates and publishes video-based theory curricula covering music literacy, introductory music theory, and ABRSM theory exam prep course materials. Outside the classroom, Ms. DiPaolo is an active pedagogical composer, solo and collaborative pianist, piano/composition instructor, and frequent substitute church pianist. The latter position has given her many opportunities to offer tonal improvisations at the keyboard during services (fugues included!), a living testament to partimento and schema study's utility for the working musician.

Does Studio DiPaolo seem like a good fit? If so, CLICK HERE to start your music-making journey!

Partimento and Schema Studies