Repertoire, Installment 2: Scarlatti post 2 (of 2)

Yesterday I wrote that on concert number n, I will play the nth Scarlatti sonata. Astute readers will have noted that this does nothing to make each concert specific to its place, which was my goal. But actually I’m going to play two Scarlattis in each program: one for the ordinal number of the concert in my state tour, and one corresponding to the town’s 2020 population rank. [note: see update 2, below](Burlington, with 44,743 residents, is no. 1; Lewis is no. 251, with 2 residents—that’s two with a “t” [see update 3, below].)

And in a nod to the number 251, I’ll precede each sonata with a brief jazz improvisation on the so-called II-V-I harmonic progression. This progression consists of the chord built on the second note of the scale, followed by the chord built on the fifth, followed by chord built on the scale’s key note. It is far and above the most common progression in jazz standards; playing II-V-I’s is a core practice ritual for jazz musicians. And despite the contrast in musical styles, it’s very much in keeping with Baroque musical practice to combine improvisation with carefully worked-out written compositions, a practice which is mostly defunct in the world of classical concertizing (though it’s slowly coming back).

For the first concert, these intros will consist of just a single three-chord II-V-I progression. For the second concert, I’ll do two II-V-I cycles, three in the third, and so on, up to 251 II-V-I’s in the final concert. Maybe. Like a lot about this project, plans may evolve.

It turns out I’m not the first to think of the jazz-Vermont 251 connection. My colleague, the indispensable Vermont jazz pianist Tom Cleary, has a wonderful II-V-I blog post in which he muses on the connections between the journey of the musician and that of the traveler looking to visit all of Vermont’s 251 towns.

UPDATE

In April 2022, Essex Junction voted to become Vermont’s tenth city, separating it from the Town of Essex and bringing the number of recognized Vermont municipalities to 252. I have a post about this here.

UPDATE 2

That bit about learning two Scarlattis for each concert? That lasted exactly two concerts. Now I’m playing just one, the nth Scarlatti sonata on Concert n. (One nice thing about a project with so many ambitious components is that I can pare them down and still have something left.)

UPDATE 3

Actually, Lewis, whose land is mostly wildlife refuge with the balance belonging to a timber company, pretty clearly has zero residents. The 2020 Census number reckoning of 2 must be an artifact of differential privacy.