Partimenti and schemata: seventeenth-century educational tools

This dissertation provides a pedagogical approach to incorporating Italian partimenti and schemata theory in the modern music theory classroom. Partimenti and schemata aid students in making abstract theory concepts concrete. The structure of a partimento was learned in short segments, or schemas, that a student would organize into the process of music making. Most students enter the university with little experience using chords. The two-voice schemata and harmonic plans of partimenti provide guided compositional experience to better learn harmonic function. These tools are presented here to help students today learn the language of harmony through composition. Chapter one examines the history of partimenti and investigates how they are being used today by pedagogues and researchers. Most commonly, partimenti are used for teaching improvisation at the keyboard. Less prevalent is the use of partimenti and schemata to reproduce historically informed compositions or to analyze a score for the schemata used. Chapter two provides a description of how schemata may be employed in the music theory classroom and provides a catalogue of the schemata identified by Gjerdingen, Meyer, and Heartz. The schemata are organized by their functions within a musical phrase. Chapter three explores how partimenti can function as guides to written out compositions. This chapter contains instructions for realizing partimenti for the purpose of learning harmonic function and conventional music theory concepts. Partimenti are ordered such that instructors may logically use them throughout the music theory course sequence. Chapter four offers classroom applications for employing partimenti and schemata. These resources give experiential learning and application for students in cadences, periods, sentences, tonicizations, modulations, and using chromaticism. Sample assignments are provided in the Appendix.