How did 18th-century musicians move from partimento exercises to true free improvisation?

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How did 18th-century musicians move from partimento exercises to true free improvisation? In this clip, Peter van Tour and Nikhil Hogan discuss a rare passage from Luigi Palmarini that sheds light on how students were taught to create their own modulations and eventually break free from written models.

Key insights include:
• Palmarini’s step-by-step instructions for modulating from tonic → dominant → mediant → submediant → subdominant → back to tonic
• Why this process helps reconstruct the compositional thinking behind partimenti
• How students were encouraged to improvise variations, exchange themes, and invent their own modulation paths
• The fascinating bridge from sightreading → partimento realization → free improvisation → composition
• Why this rare advice is one of the few surviving traces of how teachers guided students away from notation

This conversation shows how partimento was never meant as an end in itself—but as a living bridge to creativity, variation, and composition.

📺 Watch the full HMA Podcast episode for more insights into the Neapolitan tradition, historical pedagogy, and the art of improvisation:
Full interview:    • 200: Peter van Tour on Zingarelli, Mattei ...  

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