Accompanied Keyboard Music in Portugal: The case of Francisco Xavier Baptista’s Sonata Prima

Abstract

Portuguese keyboard repertoire composed in the second half of the eighteenth century is closely related to the musical practices adopted at the time in domestic salons, namely individual practice on a keyboard instrument or the performance of these compositions for a small audience. Although minuets were highly appreciated by Portuguese society, the sonata was the predominant genre of this repertoire and formed a part of works of accompanied keyboard music written by Portuguese authors. Among them is an accompanied keyboard sonata written by Francisco Xavier Batista, the greatest Portuguese composer of keyboard sonatas of that period, which is, as far as we know, the only work of this genre composed in Portugal during the eighteenth century. The aim of this study is to date and to identify the musical characteristics of this composition. For this, a study of biographical data of the composer and an analysis based on the Sonata Theory of Hepokoski and Darcy were carried out. The identification of the period of the composition in a late stage of Baptista’s life allowed a chronological comparison with his keyboard sonatas to be established and some similarities that highlight the position of the keyboard instrument in this musical genre in Portugal to be found.