Keynote about Domnico Scarlatti, history lessons imparted at Allegro Music School Belize

1. Domenico
Scarlatti.

2. Important facts to
know:
✦ Born: 1685 in Italy
✦ Died: 1757
✦ Period of music: Baroque.
✦ Instruments he played: Harpsichord
and Organ.

3. ✦ Major compositions for Keyboard:
Sonatas (over 500), 30 Essercizi
per Gravicembalo, The Cat’s
Fugue. Orchestra: Several Concerti
grossi. Vocal: Cantatas, Oratorios
and Operas.
✦ Interesting facts: Scarlatti and
Handel participated in a Keyboard
tournament that ended in a tie.
Scarlatti’s cat was the inspiration for
one of his sonatas.

4. The story of Domenico
Scarlatti.
✦ In 1685, the same year that Johann
Sebastian Bach and George Frideric
Handel were born in Germany,
Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples,
Italy. His father Alessandro Scarlatti was
an important composer of operas and
was credited with developing the form of
Italian opera that prevailed in the 18th
century. Taught at first by his father,
Domenico followed in his father’s
footsteps and began to compose opera.

5. ✦ His first operas, Ottavia ristituita al trono
and Giustino were performed when
Domenico was 18 years old.
✦ In 1705, his father sent him to Venice to
study with Gasparini.
✦ While in Venice, Domenico meet
George Fridiric Handel and they
became good friends. Scarlatti and
Handel admired each other and once
traveled to Rome together. A patron of
the arts, Cardinal Ottoboni arranged a
contest between them on the
harpsichord and organ. Handel won the
organ honors, but Scarlatti was
unbeatable on the harpsichord.

6. ✦ First he composed chamber music for
the miniature opera theater of Queen
Maria Casimira who was exiled from
Poland.
✦ In 1715 he became music director of St.
Peter’s in Rome.
✦ In 1720 Scarlatti became court
harpsichordist to the King of Portugal
and teacher of Princess Maria Barbara
in Lisbon. The keyboard music he
composed for Princess Maria turned out
to be his greatest contribution to Music
Literature.

7. ✦ In 1728 he married Maria Catalina
Gentili and together they had five
children.
✦ In 1729, Princess Maria Barbara
married the Spanish crown Prince who
became King of Spain. Scarlatti followed
her to Spain and spent the rest of his life
in Maria Barbara’s service.
✦ Many of his keyboard sonatas reflect the
vivid colors and vital rhythms of Spanish
folk music and dances

8. Video of Sonate K.455. (link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIAk61xEZ80

9. ✦ In 1738, Scarlatti’s 30 Essercizi per
Gravicembalo (studies for harpsichord)
were published in London and became
widely used.
✦ He composed over 500 single-
movement sonatas as well as innovative
compositions.
✦ One of his most famous keyboard
pieces is called “The cat’s fugue”.
✦ Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas alone place
him among the great Baroque
composers.

10. Video of“The cat’s
fugue” (link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbW1nNBqVnI

11. “The harpsichord”
✦ Domenico Scarlatti was famous for his
exciting harpsichord performances
Thomas Roseingrave a gifted
harpsichordist himself, described
Scarlatti’s playing as sounding like “ten
thousand devils”at the keyboard. He
said that he had never heard such
superb execution and effect, and that
the performance so far surpassed his
own ability that he should cut off his own
fingers!. After hearing Scarlatti he did
not touch the instrument himself for a

12. ✦ Scarlatti developed a style of
harpsichord playing that exhibited much
freedom. He introduced many new
technical devices such as crossing the
hands fast, repeated notes, double note
passages, wide leaps and glissandi.
✦ The harpsichord is different from the
clavichord because the strings are
plucked rather than struck. The earliest
known reference to a harpsichord was in
1397 when Hermann Poll claimed he
had invented an instrument called the
“clavicembalum”

13. ✦ As the harpsichord developed, more
octaves, more sets of strings, and
sometimes two keyboards were added.
By the middle of the 18th century, the
harpsichord was a highly developed,
beautiful instrument that was played by
almost all baroque composers and
performers. In the mid-1700s, the piano
forte was invented. Because of its ability
to play soft and loud tones, soon
became a serious rival for the
harpsichord

14. Video of“The
Harpsichord” (link
below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd_tZ6cU1RI

15. Questions?