This page is under construction and will expand over time. In the mean while, thank you for your patience.
Let’s be frank, there is no known connection between partimento and the late 18th/early 19th century classical guitar. But that does not mean we can’t use the method for what it’s worth.
How can we approach partimento on the guitar?
A partimento is a sketch, written on a single staff, whose main purpose is to be a guide for improvisation of a composition at the keyboard. (Sanguinetti, G. 2020, The Art of Partimento, p. 14) The key word here is keyboard, and with that in mind we should accept that playing partimenti on the guitar has its limitations but is not impossible.
I believe that to be able to achive success we should concider what is natural to do on the guitar, and if needed alter the partimento to maintain the idiomatics of the instrument.
We should also look at pieces of music and try to identify and systematise different schemata, voice leading and harmonic structure. We can then use these findings to build a library of resources for our improvisations.
A partimento to kick things off
Stanislao Matteo
Exercise no 1 in G major from Prattica d’accompagnamento sopra bassi numerati
On the top staff you can see Matteis original partimento, and underneath is my realisation of the exercise. The basic idea I had when developing the music was to base the accompaniment around guiding tones.
One challenge that every guitarist working with partimenti encounters is the endeavour to include all the different voices. In this example I had to sacrifice some of the harmonic voices in order to maintaing a natural and idiomatic middle voice.
Karl Michelson 