Galuppi was an Italian composer very much associated with the city of Venice and in his life time was known particularly for his comic operas. He was a fine keyboard player and as a composer is associated with the “style galant” movement which was an important artistic movement in the 19th century. As a result of Napoleon’s invasion of Venice in 1797 many of the composer’s manuscripts were lost. This piece that has charm and beauty reminiscent of a slow movement from a Mozart keyboard sonata. The ornaments comprise acciaccaturas (crushed notes) appoggiaturas (leaning notes) mordents and trills. The mordent is a simple note, note above, repeat of note device whilst the trills beginning on the note are longer and need to played so that the symmetry and shape of the music is maintained. There are some trills that start on the note above but these are indicated in the score. Understand that no two performers play the ornaments in the same way. A further complication is the same ornament may actually be played differently in a performance or recording and on the playing of the repeat sections additional ornaments can be added at the player’s discretion. The best advice is that if some of the ornaments are difficult to deliver leave them out but be consistent in your approach. The sheet music download comprises both a performance score and an appended realisation/recording score so as to enable players to understand how the ornaments are played. In time, when players have an understanding of the style of this music they may well want to revise and even expand on how the ornaments are played. The piano melody does have score detail relating to articulation. The tempo of the realisation is 50 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute and whilst the repeats are indicated in the scores they are not played in the recording. Pianists may wish to make use of the sustaining pedal although this also has not been indicated in the scores.
