This collaborative publication is the first edition in modern times of Scarlatti's works in the genre of the solo serenata. A-R Editions series 'Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era', is the major and most respected international scholarly edition in this field. It consists of a critical edition, a historical introduction by each author, and critical notes on the sources. The edition is subscribed to by university library collections worldwide.

This is the first edition of both versions of a major work by Alessandro Scarlatti, for the foremost American musicological edition. It has been cited in a number of subsequent publications on the Neapolitan serenata, and on those of A. Scarlatti in particular. I was also the first to direct a commercially released recording of the same work. The Introduction gives insight into the relationship between the two versions composed ten years apart for Naples and Rome respectively - making it a work of unique interest in Scarlatti's output.

The significance of this paper is in the integration of performance research and musicology. It draws upon my experiences of performing and recording newly researched works to form and examine hypotheses about musical expression, and particularly the choice of keys to convey different psychological situations. The paper also examines the use of different bowed bass instruments at a moment in history - Italian practice at the turn of the 18th century - when the use of violoncello, violone and double bass was in flux. The paper is included in a publication ranging widely over performance research topics in terms of culture and period, and highlighting the contribution of performers and performance to understanding musical structures and practice.

This volume devoted to the study of Neapolitan composer Nicola Porpora is supported by the Italian Musicological Society and the series has high international standing in the study of baroque vocal music with contributors invited for their expertise in specific topics of baroque music. This essay contributes an initial study of Porpora's role in the evolution of cello playing/composing within the framework of vocal music in the early 18th century, putting it in context of cello obbligato arias and bass part scoring from the 1690s (A. Scarlatti and G. Bononcini) to the 1720s (Porpora and Leo).

This volume focusing on the theme of Pasticcio, or works of multiple authorship, appears within a significant specialist series of essay collections supported by the Italian Musicological Society on Italian baroque vocal genres. The single-author essay raises questions about stylistic consistency, updating, and the conjectural role of copyists viewed over a ten year period of the two versions of a single work. This example of Scarlatti's process of updating his works has been put in context recently by the discovery by Italian scholars of another possible example (of which only the later version of the music is known to survive); the present essay will be cited in an forthcoming essay on the 1707 work 'Il Giardino di Rose'.

The chapter is based on an invited paper given to the international conference in Naples November 2007, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of Domenico Scarlatti. The volume consists of contributions by nineteen leading scholars on the life and music of D. Scarlatti. This item is my first book chapter in an international Italian publication on the composer, and sums up original observations on parallels between compositional and stylistic characteristics of D. Scarlatti and his father Alessandro - a topic which has not been addressed in literature. The chapter is based on my original research as editor and performer of cantatas and sonatas by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti.

The chapter appears in a selection of contributions by international scholars on the theme of 'Identity and Locality', published by the reputed firm Ashgate Books. It probes the relationships between sources of a work by A. Scarlatti, entering into a number of issues not raised in my A-R Edition of the work, and illustrating the process of detailed source study. The issue of Scarlatti's simultaneous presence as a force in both Naples and Rome throughout his creative life is discussed with regard to copyists in both music centres. This important topic has not been widely discussed in the literature on Scarlatti.

This book chapter addresses the subject of night themes in cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti, and is the conceptual basis of a forthcoming A1 publication for A-R Editions (Middleton, WI), 'Solo Serenatas of Alessandro Scarlatti', ed. Marie-Louise Catsalis and Rosalind Halton.

This article in an A1 ranked journal has been cited frequently since publication. It is an original contribution based on my experience as performer and researcher, which examines the concept of 'cantabile' in the 18th century, and with regard to harpsichord playing. It makes a contribution to the debate about whether D. Scarlatti's keyboard idiom can be said to be exclusively for harpsichord or for the new Cristofori piano, concluding that it is compatible with the idiom of both instruments.

This paper has been cited in publications on the Serenata in Italy. Though not widely accessible (in CD-Rom form), it has had impact on subsequent research in the area of Scarlatti's serenatas, setting out for the first time the principal differences between the two versions 1696 and 1706 of the work. It forms the basis of my subsequent work on Alessandro Scarlatti's serenata, Venere, Adone & Amore: the first recording of the work directed by me (2007); and my edition of the work for the prestigious U.S.-based A-R Editions, Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era, published 2010. Contacts based on this work have led to the formation of an international group of researchers on the serenatas of A. Scarlatti based in the US, Australia, and Italy, which plans a complete collaborative edition of these works.

The cantatas of Antonio Cesti (1623-1669) are not yet the subject of a complete edition nor are regularly performed. Substantial work exists on his texts, particularly the relationship with poet Giovanni Apolloni, author of the text of this work. This is the first modern edition of a significant virtuoso cantata. Two questions are addressed authorship of the cantata itself (it is attributed to Carissimi in two sources), and issues of intertextuality between this work and two cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti, dating from ca. 40 years later than the Cesti work. The coincidence of substantial chunks of cantata text between this work and two separate Scarlatti cantatas on the theme of night (ca. 1704-5) is documented in the Introduction. The Introduction discusses the relationship of three main sources, and notes Cestis innovative harmonic usage and rhythmic notation/phrasing to represent the central image of time dissolving. The sharing of cantata texts between different composers is familiar to scholars but over a much closer time-frame than in this instance, which shows text being adopted and modified by a composer at least four decades after the original setting. The transmission of Cestis cantata in a recently discovered source ca. 1685 is taken into this edition, as evidence of a manuscript that could have been available to A. Scarlatti. Selection of the edition in the rigorously reviewed WLSCM catalogue ensures its accessibility to and acceptance by an international audience of specialist scholars and performers.

This single work forms part of my ongoing project aimed at increasing knowledge of and access to the cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725). This repertoire numbering over 700 works is regarded as under-represented in modern scholarly editions, leading to few recordings and thus little understanding of Scarlatti's evolution in this genre. The area investigated is the early period of Scarlatti's cantata composition (1688). The cantata belongs to a type based upon mythological or historical characters, regarded as making a link with earlier 17th-century cantata composers, Luigi Rossi and Stradella. This first edition of a significant virtuoso work is based on critical comparison of the three extant sources of the work. It is accompanied by a live recording directed from the harpsichord by the editor, the first edition on this specialist 17th-century resource to include a performance through audio streaming. “Editions are selected and reviewed by an Editorial Board of specialists in seventeenth-century music. WLSCM is pioneering the online publication of refereed musical editions” The work illustrates the fusion of earlier seventeenth-century cantata style with Scarlatti’s development of separate recitative and aria components. Edition and recording contribute to knowledge of Scarlatti’s earlier through-composed approach to dramatic narrative structure including arioso and refrain elements. The online peer-reviewed edition process guarantees adherence to scholarly international editorial standards, and access by seventeenth-century music scholars. The edition has been cited in the recent major study Aspects of the Secular Cantata in Late Baroque Italy. The performance derives special significance from the insight into 17th-century Italian declamatory performance of soprano Tessa Miller. Her dramatic recitative from the recording was used by the editor to illustrate an invited Panel Collaboratory on ‘Text, Rhythm, Gesture’.

The performances of serenate by Alessandro Stradella were based on my editions from autograph sources in Venice. They represent probable first performances in modern times of these major works.

Venere, Adone e Amore: Serenatas and Cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti represents the culmination of 20 years performance research and study of primary sources of Scarlattis secular vocal music. Priority was given to use of autograph material so that the performances are based where possible on composers original readings and performance indications. The choice of a wide range of works, covering 30 years of the composers output in this three-disc set, is designed to show how the richness and originality of Scarlattis musical invention bridges seventeenth and eighteenth-century music styles. The evolution of Scarlattis vocal and instrumental writing in his cantatas and serenatas is investigated through performance. Questions of instrumentation and realization of the bass part are particularly addressed. Liner notes give a comprehensive view of Scarlattis contribution to the cantata genre and his exploration of imagery, tonality and textures. The inclusion of the title serenata gave the opportunity to examine this comic work in two complete settings, reflecting the distinct musical idioms of Scarlatti for Naples and Rome across a ten-year span. To make this repertoire available for future performances, editions of all the recorded works have since been published, either online (Cantata Editions.com) or by leading U.S. publisher, A-R Editions (Venere, Adone, e Amore). Two recent U.S. recordings have been based on the editions. The set has been warmly received by leading Australian and British reviewers (Sydney Morning Herald, Music Forum, Early Music Review (U.K.); it is widely acknowledged internationally as a major contribution to the field.

Louis Couperin and Friends presents 17th-century harpsichord repertoire matched to the instrument, copy of a French harpsichord dated 1684. The program juxtaposes music by two major 17th century harpsichord composers, Louis Couperin and Jacques Chambonnières, suggesting stylistic resonances in pieces of three later composers, Gaspard Le Roux, François Couperin, and Rameau. Far from aiming to establish definitive readings, the recording expresses a flexible concept of 17th century harpsichord style with multiple versions as its defining characteristic. Manuscript versions of Chambonnières pieces normally sourced from printed versions were used, including suggestions for improvised ornamentation. By using an instrument of 17th century bass range, a limitation was placed on possible solutions to one of the principal works, L. Couperins Passacaille.This produced a mix of minor/major tonality at the climax of the piece which I propose as the structural intention. The relationship between refrain and episodes in this piece was re-evaluated, following clues in the manuscript about the linking and ordering of material. Solutions adopted and the basis for choosing specific readings are explained in the liner notes. The choice of pieces together with the sonority of the 17th century French design harpsichord makes a contribution to understanding issues including key choice and affect, the harmonic style of the selected composers, texture and register. The recording has had extensive airplay on ABC Classic FM; it has been well reviewed in Limelight August 2005 and chosen as release of the month, and in Early Music Review (UK).