The Early Reception of Neapolitan Partimento Theory in France: A Survey

The tradition of the Neapolitan school of composition (in which the partimento and its teaching techniques played a significant role) had a major influence on musical training in Paris from the second half of the eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century. This article focuses first on some significant witnesses of this era ( Fedele Fenaroli and Emanuele Imbimbo, who followed the school of Francesco Durante) and then on an interpretation of the traditionally nonverbal rules of partimenti proposed by François-Joseph Fétis.