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SCARLATTI, ALESSANDRO (1659-1725) , Italian musical composer, was born in Sicily, either at Trapani or Palermo, in 1659. He is generally said to have been a pupil of Carissimi in Rome, and there is reason to suppose that he had some connexion with northern Italy, since his early works show the influence of Stradella and Legrenzi. The production at Rome of his opera Gli Equivoci nell' amore (1679) gained him the protection of Queen Christina of Sweden, and he became her Maestro di Cappella. In February 1684 he became Maestro di Cappella to the viceroy of Naples, through the intrigues of his sister, an opera singer, who was the mistress of an influential noble in that city. Here he produced a long series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency, as well as other music for state occasions. In 1702 he left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinand III. of Tuscany, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his Maestro di Cappella, and procured him a similar post at the church of S Maria Maggiore in Rome (1703). After visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, he took up his duties at Naples again in 1708, and remained there until 1717. By this time Naples seems to have become tired of his music; the Romans, however, appreciated it better, and it was at the Teatro Capranica in Rome that he produced some of his finest operas (Telemaco, 1718; Marco Attilio Regolo, 1719; Griselda, 1721), as well as some noble specimens of church music,' including a mass for chorus and orchestra, composed in honour of St Cecilia
Scarlatti's music forms the most important link between the tentative " new music " of the 17th century and the classical school of the 18th, which culminated in Mozart. His early operas (Gli Equivoci nel sembiante (1679) ; L' Honesld negli amori (168o) ; Pompeo (1683), containing the well-known airs " O cessate di piagarmi " and " Toglietemi la vita ancor," and others down to about 1685) retain the older cadences in their recitatives, and a considerable variety of neatly constructed forms in their charming little arias, accompanied sometimes by the string
contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power. The later Neapolitan operas (L'Amor volubile e tiranno (1709); La Principessa fedele (1712); Tigrane, 1715, &c.) are showy and effective rather than profoundly emotional; the instrumentation marks a great advance on previous work, since the main duty of accompanying the voice is thrown upon the string
Besides the operas, oratorios (Agar et Ismaele esiliats, 1684; Christmas Oratorio, c. 1705; S. Filippo Neri
Cecilia
interest
Scarlatti's greatest claim to remembrance lies in the fact that he practically created the language of classical music. He extended the old forms, and filled them with melody unrivalled for purity and serenity, based on a far-reaching foundation of modern harmony and tonality, combined with a remarkable power of thematic development. That his great qualities have been little recognized is due partly to the wonderful mastery with which he avoided all appearance of difficulty, and partly to the fact that he carried out in his operas and cantatas the structural methods which the present age considers to be suitable to instruments alone, but which were indeed admirably suited to vocal music in an age when the singer was technically and intellectually far in advance of all other musicians. His eldest son, DOMENICO SCARLATTI (1685-1757), also a composer, was born at Naples on the 26th of October 1685. Presumably he studied first under his father, but he was in all probability also a pupil of Gaetano Greco. In 1704 he remodelled Pollaroli's Irene for performance at Naples. Soon after this his father sent him to Venice, where he studied under Gasparini, and became intimate with Thomas Roseingrave. Domenico was already a harpsichord-player of eminence, and at a trial of skill with Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome he was adjudged his equal on that instrument , although inferior on the organ. In 1709 Domenico entered the service of Marie Casimire, queen of Poland, then living in Rome, and composed several operas for her private theatre. He was Maestro di Cappella at St Peter's from 1715 to 1719, and in the latter year came to London to direct his opera Narciso at the King's Theatre. In 1720 or 1721 he went to Lisbon, where he taught music to the princess Magdalena Theresia. He was at Naples again in 1725, but in 1729 went to Madrid as music master to the princess, who had married into the Spanish royal house
Like his father, Domenico Scarlatti was a composer of great fertility, intellectual rather than emotional, presenting us with an example of steady development of style up to the end of a long life. His operas and cantatas are of no importance, but his harpsichord pieces are the most original
Modern Printed Editions.Clementi's Practical Harmony; Czerny's edition; Farrenc, Le Tresor des piRnistes. Of recent
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