Ralph Kirkpatrick

Ralph Kirkpatrick (/kɜːrkˈpætrɪk/; June 10, 1911 – April 13, 1984) was an American musician, musicologist and harpsichordist. He is best known for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas.

Kirkpatrick was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. He studied Art History at Harvard University and went on to further studies with Nadia Boulanger and harpsichord revival pioneer Wanda Landowska in Paris, as well as Arnold Dolmetsch in Haslemere, Heinz Tiessen in Berlin and Günther Ramin in Leipzig. From 1933 to 1934, he taught at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. A Guggenheim Scholarship later enabled him to study manuscripts and sources in Europe.

From 1940 he was a professor at Yale University, where he published his biography of Domenico Scarlatti and a critical edition of 60 sonatas by Scarlatti (1953). Scarlatti's sonatas are now conventionally designated by their Kirkpatrick numbers (shown as Kk. --, and more recently with a single K.), which is now considered the standard, authoritative numbering system for these works (despite at least two rival systems) (see opus number).

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