# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Scarlatti, Domenico

From volume 3 of the work.
​SCARLATTI, Domenico, or, according toQuadrio, Girolamo, son of Alessandro, born apparently in Naples, 1683, first learned from his father, and later from Gasparini. He has been called a pupil of Bernardo Pasquini, but that seems most improbable, seeing that Pasquini was of the school of Palestrina, and wrote entirely in the contrapuntal style, whereas Domenico Scarlatti's chief interest is that he was the first composer who studied the peculiar characteristics of the free style of the harpsichord. His bold style was by no means appreciated in Italy, for Burney remarks ('State of Music in France and Italy') that the harpsichord was so little played that it had not affected the organ, which was still played in the grand old traditional style. The first work on which Domenico is known to have been engaged was that of remodelling for Naples, in 1704, Polaroli's opera 'Irene' (Venice 1695). In 1710 he composed for the private theatre of Maria Casimira, Queen Dowager of Poland, a dramma pastorale 'Sylvia' (libretto in the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale), which was followed by 'Orlando' (1711), 'Fatide in Sciro' (1712), 'Ifigenia in Aulide' and 'in Tauride' (1713), 'Amor d'un ombra,' and 'Narciso' (1714), and 'Amleto' (1715, Teatro Capranico), interesting as the first musical setting of that subject. In 1708 he was in Venice with Handel, then on his way from Florence, which he left in January, to Rome, where he arrived in March, his 'Agrippina' being performed 27 times in Venice. Domenico seems to have accompanied him to Rome, for Cardinal Ottoboni held a kind of competition between the two, at which the victory was undecided on the harpsichord, but when it came to the organ, Scarlatti was the first to acknowledge his rival's superiority, declaring that he had no idea such playing as Handel's existed. The two became fast friends from that day, they remained together till Handel left Italy, and met again in London in 1720. Even in extreme old age Handel spoke with pleasure of D. Scarlatti, and Mainwaring ('Memoirs,' 61) relates that when Scarlatti was in Spain, if his own playing was admired, he would turn the conversation on Handel's, crossing himself at the same time as a sign of his extreme reverence. In January 1715 he succeeded Baj as maestro di capella of St. Peter's in Rome, where he composed Masses, Salve Reginas, etc. In 1719 he went to London, where his 'Narciso' was performed (May 30, 1720), and in 1721 to Lisbon, where he became a court favourite. The longing for home and kindred however drove him back to Naples, where Hasse heard him play the harpsichord in 1725. In 1729 he was invited to the Spanish court, and appointed music-master to the Princess of the Asturias, whom he had formerly taught in Lisbon. According to the 'Gazetta musicale' of Naples (Sept. 15, 1838) he returned to Naples in 1754, and died there in 1757. Being an inveterate gambler he left his family in great destitution, but Farinelli came to their assistance. (Sacchi's 'Vita di Don Carlo Broschi.')
As we have said, Scarlatti was in some sense the founder of modern execution, and his influence may be traced in Mendelssohn, Liszt, and many other masters of the modern school. He made great use of the crossing of the hands, and produced entirely new effects by this means. His pieces, unlike the suites of Handel and his predecessors, were all short. Santini possessed 349 of them. Of these Scarlatti himself only ​published one book of 30 pieces, entitled 'Esercizii per gravicembalo,' etc., printed according to Burney in Venice, but at any rate before Aug. 1746, when the Prince of the Asturias, whose name is on the title-page, ascended the throne. In the Fétis collection is a Paris edition, 'Pieces pour le claveçin,' 2 vols., published by Mme. Boivin (who died Sept. 1733) and Le Clerc. '42 Suits of Lessons' were printed by B. Cooke [App. p. 781 "John Johnson (at the Harp and Crown, Cheapside)"], London, under the supervision of Scarlatti's friend Roseingrave (between 1730 and 1737, when Roseingrave went out of his mind). [App. p.781 " in 1752 John Worgan obtained the sole licence to print certain new works by Domenico Scarlatti, and published them (at J. Johnson's, facing Bow Church, Cheapside). These were twelve sonatas, most of them new to England."] Czerny's edition (Haslinger, Vienna, 1839), containing 200 pieces, was re-edited (Paris, Sauer, Girod) and revised by Mme. Farrenc from Roseingrave's edition, and MSS. then in possession of Rimbault. There are also 130 pieces in Farrenc's 'Tremor des Pianistes' (1864); 60 Sonatas are published by Breitkopf; and 18 pieces, grouped as Suites by von Bülow, by Peters.
Though the technique of pianoforte playing owes so much to Domenico Scarlatti, he did nothing towards the development of the sonata.
[ F. G. ]
* ↑ Storia … d'ogni poesia, vii. 249.
* ↑ No. 10 in vol. ii. is an organ fugue by Alessandro Scarlatti.
* ↑ Which are not 'Suites,' but single movements.