Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1757) Italian - to Spain

online piano

An interesting article on Scarlatti:  White, Robert.  The Mercurial Maestro of Madrid, 2007.  

            Domenico Scarlatti while known in his era, was much less famous than his father.  

      Although in his younger years he composed in various formats including religious works 

      and operas, he is best known for 555 keyboard sonatas he published in the last 25 years 

      of his life.  His employer, the Spanish crown, had reduced much of the demand for him  

      to compose official court music, leaving him time to experiment with new musical ideas.

            One important idea was the early development of the sonata form that Haydn, Mozart, 

      and Beethoven would make great us of in the later Classical era.  These were also composed 

      in the galant style that would replace Baroque music between 1730 and 1770.  For these two 

      reasons, Scarlatti can be scene as an influence in the passing of the Baroque era.

            Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; 

      Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous 

      collection, his 30 Essercizi ("Exercises").  These were well received throughout Europe, 

      and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, 

      Charles Burney.

 Biography

            Domenico was Alessandro's fifth child and his father provided for his musical education.  

      He was born in Naples, Italy when it was a possession of the Spanish crown, and Scarlatti 

      would ultimately spend most of his life living in Iberia.  Few of Scarlatti's compositions 

      were published during his lifetime.  Little is known of Scarlatti's personality.  He was said 

      to have played the harpsichord "demonically" but Handel and others report he had a genial 

      personality.

            His father sent him to Venice in 1704 where he studied music for 5 years. Then, in 1709, 

      Scarlatti went to Rome where he composed for the exiled Polish queen Maria Casimire.  He 

      composed several operas for her.  He was also the Maestro Di Cappella at St. Peter's from 

      1715 to 1719.  In Rome, Scarlatti engaged George Frideric Handel in a keyboard completion, 

      besting Handel on harpsichord but not on organ (according to some reports). 

            Scarlatti arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719.  There he taught music to the Portuguese 

      princess Maria Magdalena Barbara.  He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he 

      married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728.  In 1729 he moved to Seville, staying for four 

      years. 

            In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, daughter of King 

      John V of Portugal, who had married into the Spanish royal house when she married Phillip V's 

      son Ferdinand.  The Princess later became Queen of Spain.  Scarlatti remained in the country 

      for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there.  After the death of 

      his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes.  

            The 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known are influenced by northern Portuguese 

      and Spanish (Moorish Seville) folk music.  An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode, 

      also known as the Spanish Gypsy scale, and other tonal inflections more or less alien to Euro-

      pean art music.  Many of Scarlatti's figurations of rapid, repetitive notes and dissonances are 

      suggestive of the Spanish guitar.

In the modern major scale half steps are between 3 & 4, and 7 & 8.

In the modern minor scale, the half steps are between 2 & 3, and 6 & 7.

In the Phrygian mode, half steps are between 1 & 2 and 6 and 7. 



Orchestral music:

           "Overture: from the opera Narcio  (4:30)

Religious music:

            Stabat Mater a 10 voci  ("The sorrowful mother)"  (Mary)  for 10 voices).  (4:00) 


A list of Scarlatti's keyboard compositions


Transcription for guitar:

           Sonata K. 213  John Williams, guitar  (5:10)


More Scarlatti Keyboard sonatas (audio only)on YouTube: 

Glenn Gould, piano  (63 minutes)  play

András Schiff, piano  (73 minutes)  play

Scott Ross, harpsichord  (65 minutes)  play