Dispositions and the Mastery of Complexity

Abstract

What today we might term “orchestration” or “arranging” would have fallen under the term “disposition” in Naples. The same counterpoint, for example, could be realized as a “disposition in three voices” or “in four voices.” Each voice or instrumental part would be written on its own staff. Unlike in partimento playing, where small errors in counterpoint could be ignored, dispositions made every interrelationship visible and open to inspection and evaluation. The French four-voice realizations (realisations) in open score that figured so prominently in the contests for harmony and fugue at the Paris Conservatory were direct descendants of Neapolitan dispositions.