Domenico Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti launched his career by producing operas, chamber cantatas, and assorted vocal compositions in the manner of his father Alessandro, yet he is chiefly recalled today for the 555 keyboard sonatas composed roughly between 1719 and 1757. Although he appears to have acquired the bulk of his training within the family circle, Alessandro remained the decisive influence, securing Domenico’s initial post as organist and composer at Naples’ Cappella Reale while urging him to pursue vocal writing despite his evident keyboard gifts. In 1705 the young musician traveled to Venice, where he encountered Handel, and three years later he moved to Rome to serve as maestro di cappella to the exiled Polish queen Maria Casimira before assuming leadership of the Cappella Giulia. During these Roman appointments he created operas, serenatas, and several sacred vocal pieces. While in the city he also formed a lasting connection with the Portuguese ambassador, the Marquis de Fontes, an acquaintance that led João V of Portugal to name him master of the royal chapel in 1719. In that capacity Scarlatti instructed members of the royal household, most notably princess Maria Barbara, for whom he had already supplied some fifty keyboard works before arriving in Lisbon; he composed still more for her and for other pupils, including Carlos de Seixas. When Maria Barbara wed the Spanish prince Ferdinando, Scarlatti accompanied her to Spain. His debut publication, the thirty sonatas titled Essercizi, appeared in 1738 and circulated widely across Europe. Although the couple, once elevated to King and Queen, fostered the introduction of opera into Spanish cultural life, Scarlatti contributed none; he did, however, participate in their private musical gatherings, supplying cantatas and collaborating with singers such as the castrato Farinelli. He maintained his teaching activities and, during the final six years of his life, devoted himself to assembling his sonatas into manuscript volumes. These single-movement works now stand as foundational texts of the keyboard literature, linking Baroque and galant idioms. They exhibit his skill at incorporating rhythmic patterns drawn from contemporary Iberian popular music, together with his originality in shaping melodic material and exploring fresh harmonic resources, and, like the music of Bach, they continue to be performed on instruments beyond the harpsichord, piano, or organ.