Scarlatti, Domenico (EN)

Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico, *26 October 1685 Naples, †23 July 1757 Madrid, Italian composer. He was the sixth child of Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonia Anzalone, and grew up in a family with many musicians. He received his musical education under the tutelage of his father, who recognized his son’s talent early on. In 1701, he employed him at the Cappella Reale in Naples as an organist and composer, and in 1702 took him on a trip to Florence to visit Duke Ferdinand de’ Medici. Three cantatas, Scarlatti’s first surviving works, date from this period. In 1703, his first operas, L’Ottavia restituita al trono and Il Giustino, premiered in Naples, and in 1704, his adaptation of G.B. Pollarolo’s opera L’Irene was staged there. Seeing no prospects for his son’s artistic career in Naples and Rome, Alessandro sent him to Venice, providing him with a letter (dated 30 May 1705), a well-known document illustrating the relationship between a patron and a musician seeking employment at court. In Venice, then one of the most important musical centers in Italy, Scarlatti broadened his musical knowledge by apprenticing with F. Gasparini, maestro di coro at the Ospedale della Pietà, who was probably working at that time on L’armonico pratico al cembalo (1708), a manual on basso continuo realisation. There, Scarlatti befriended Th. Roseingrav (also a student of Gasparini) and probably met G.F. Handel; at the request of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a legendary competition of virtuoso skills between the two young composers was held in Rome, ending in a significant draw: Handel was given priority in organ playing, while Scarlatti was given priority in harpsichord playing. It is not known when Scarlatti left Venice, but in 1709 he was already working in Rome as a Kapellmeister at the court of Queen Marie Casimire, widow of John III Sobieski, who had established a theater in her Palazzo Zuccari; he held this position until 1714, i.e. until the queen left Rome. From 1714, Scarlatti worked at the Cappella Giulia in the Vatican, initially as assistant to the then Kapellmeister T. Bai, and after his death (22 December 1715) as maestro di cappella. Thanks to his excellent performance of this honorable function, he became a well-known musician, and his contacts with the Portuguese ambassador in Rome paved the way for him to the court of the Portuguese king John V. He arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719, and took up the position of mestre de capela; in addition to composing and supervising the chapel, his duties included educating Maria Barbara, the king’s daughter. A bond developed between the master and his pupil that would determine Scarlatti’s future; the infanta loved music, sang, later even composed, and was an excellent harpsichordist. Scarlatti also taught Don Antonio, the king’s younger brother, and C. Seixas, a Portuguese composer. During his years of service at the court of John V, Scarlatti visited Italy several times. In 1728, he married Maria Catalina Gentili (1712–1739), a Roman woman, with whom he had six children. With his second wife, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes, he had four children. Contrary to the traditions of the Scarlatti family, none of them chose to become musicians.

Since the marriage (1729) of Maria Barbara to the heir to the Spanish throne, Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, Scarlatti was associated with the royal court in Spain until the end of his life, first with Philip V and then with Ferdinand VI. The princely couple had their own court and separate residence, but, being completely subordinate to the mentally unstable Philip and his domineering wife Isabel Farnese, they had to accompany them on numerous ceremonies and frequent trips. Initially, Scarlatti stayed in Seville, later in Madrid, but he traveled extensively around the country with the princely entourage, where he encountered Spanish folk music and became acquainted with guitar music. The famous castrato Farinelli, brought to Madrid in 1737 to save Philip V’s mental health, was the leading figure at the royal court; the organist J. de Nebra was the Kapellmeister at the time, and Scarlatti, as a harpsichordist accompanying Farinelli, found himself in the background. However, he remained under the patronage of Maria Barbara, thanks to whom John V ennobled him in 1738, awarding him a knighthood. That same year, a collection of 30 works by Scarlatti entitled Essercizi per gravicembalo was printed in London, accompanied by an extensive, obsequious dedication to John V and a contrasting short, succinct preface to ‘readers.’ A year later, Roseingrave published an expanded edition of Essercizi in London, and in the 1740s and 1750s, editions of Scarlatti’s harpsichord works appeared in Paris, Venice, and Parma, arousing admiration or disapproval, and copies of his works began to circulate – Domenico Scarlatti became famous. Under the rule (from 1746) of the “music lovers” Ferdinand VI and Maria Barbara, music took on a privileged position at court, with the king’s favorite, Farinelli, still reigning supreme. At the request of the queen, 13 volumes of Scarlatti’s harpsichord works were copied between 1752 and 1757, during which time he was visited by A. Soler. Salve Regina dates from 1756 or 1757, with the annotation “Ultima delle sue composizioni, fatta in Madrid poco prima di morire” (The last of his compositions, written in Madrid shortly before his death).

In the absence of source documentation (especially autographs), destroyed as a result of natural disasters (in 1734, the entire library of the royal chapel in Madrid burned down, and in 1755, a huge earthquake struck Lisbon), historians reconstruct the composer’s life based on indirect sources. He lived in geographically close but culturally different environments; in Italy, there was creative rivalry between artists inspired by the actions of the secular and spiritual aristocracy, while in Spain, splendor and rigor, surrounding despotic rulers engulfed in devotion, prevailed. Scarlatti served in a subservient role, but lived in his own purely musical world, in the colorful world filled with the sounds of the harpsichord.

Scarlatti was an outstanding individual who practiced various types of music, but concentrated his creative inventiveness on harpsichord music, proving that it is possible to be a master of a single musical genre. A comprehensive overview of his work is not possible in the current state of research due to the source situation, which hinders stylistic interpretation, especially in the context of the controversial periodization of 18th-century music and the many traditional and innovative stylistic trends that ran parallel and intersected at the time. There is a lack of biographical data and information on his ideological and artistic stance, most of Scarlatti’s compositions have been lost, and only a small part of his abundant harpsichord legacy was published during his lifetime. In general historiographical works, Scarlatti is usually classified as a late Baroque composer, considered a representative of the Rococo style, sometimes Gallant, a precursor of the classical sonata, but Scarlatti’s entire oeuvre defies periodization schemes due to the unique nature of his harpsichord music. He lived in the first half of the 18th century, a time of flourishing monumental musical forms, the reign of lavish Neapolitan opera, national varieties of comic opera, the emergence of the symphony as a cyclical form, and perfectionism in polyphonic technique; against this backdrop, Scarlatti appears as an extremely talented loner, experimenting with the sound of the harpsichord. The scant information about his life and the lack of dates on his manuscripts (copies) make it impossible to periodize his work. A biographical turning point was undoubtedly his departure from Italy in 1719 to the Iberian Peninsula, where Scarlatti spent the second half of his life. This move brought a change of environment, the composer became independent from his famous and influential father, and took on completely new responsibilities related to teaching, which led to the creation of the most important parts of his work — the publication of Essercizi (1738) marked a decisive moment in the composer’s life. The topographical criterion, which fits J.S. Bach so perfectly, is useless in the case of Scarlatti; his chamber cantatas, religious works, and harpsichord pieces could just as easily have been written in Rome, Venice, or Naples, in Lisbon or Madrid. Scarlatti’s legacy consists of two parts: vocal-instrumental music, rooted in tradition, and harpsichord music, revealing new creative horizons.

Scarlatti’s musical education, in accordance with the practice accepted at the time, consisted of mastering the principles of basso continuo and polyphonic technique, singing lessons, and playing a fundamental instrument (the organ) and a melodic instrument (the violin or flute). His operas, serenades, cantatas, and sacred works point to his connection with tradition, demonstrating that Scarlatti had a perfect command of the compositional craft in accordance with the conventions of the time. Of all of his stage works, only the opera Tolomeo et Alessandro (with a libretto alluding to Prince Alexander Sobieski) has survived. The score of Tetide in Sciro, found in the mid-20th century, has disappeared again, and the remaining operas have survived only in fragments (arias, duets). They feature elements typical of Neapolitan opera, rich vocal coloratura and virtuoso instrumental figurations; the adaptation of the music to the poetic text testifies to the composer’s melodic inventiveness. Scarlatti composed his operas mainly for the theatre of Maria Casimira in Rome, collaborating with librettist C.S. Capece and the outstanding architect F. Juvarra; the theater also staged the oratorio La conversione di Clodoviceo, the cantata Applauso devoto, and other works. After leaving Italy, Scarlatti no longer composed operas, even though there was an opera theater in Madrid. He also introduced instrumental voices into his serenades and cantatas, especially in compositions written to celebrate ceremonies at the court of John V in Lisbon, where he had a large ensemble of performers at his disposal (30 singers and almost as many instrumentalists). However, his vocal-instrumental output is dominated by small chamber cantatas for one (sometimes two) solo voice (usually soprano), always accompanied by basso continuo, sometimes also by two violins; this type of music was particularly popular in the 18th century; Scarlatti composed chamber cantatas in the stylistic convention of the era in Italy and probably during his stay at both royal courts. In his sacred works, Scarlatti, like other composers of the time, referred to Palestrina’s style, ensuring the coherence of words and music and the fluidity of the flow; these are mainly works for four voices a cappella or accompanied by organ. Among these compositions, which induce a meditative mood, the expressive Salve Regina (I), possibly Scarlatti’s last composition, stands out.

Scarlatti’s harpsichord work was of great importance for the development of music. Contrary to the contemporary view of the harpsichord as an instrument useful mainly for basso continuo, he demonstrated its potential as a concert instrument, providing scope for virtuoso performances; thus, the harpsichord became emancipated in relation to other instruments. With the growing interest in autonomous instrumental music in the 18th century, A. Agazzari’s old division into fundamental and ornamental instruments was devalued, but polyphony still prevailed, and even harpsichord concertos were primarily a test of polyphonic craftsmanship, and the principle of concert performance was reduced, following the model of the concerto grosso, to contrasting quantitatively diverse ensembles. Scarlatti made a radical change in his approach to the harpsichord as an instrument associated with basso continuo. His harpsichord works for a single performer are homophonic. He abandoned independent melodic lines in favor of treating both hands equally, with polyphonic technique appearing sporadically in the form of imitation or so-called polyphonization. The parts for both hands serve to demonstrate technical skill (various figurations, crossing of hands, different forms of broken chords, large leaps and intervallic series of multiphonic sounds). The realization of the idea of virtuosity was facilitated for Scarlatti by his experience as a maestro di cappella, his familiarity with the specific textures of the violin and guitar, and especially with vocal coloratura, as well as his lifelong association with the harpsichord, on which he improvised while providing the harmonic foundation.

Scarlatti’s harpsichord works have survived only in copies, which makes it difficult to chronologize and name them, and undermines the validity of pairing them according to the same major-minor keys, although this was a common practice at the time. The title of the collection Essercizi per gravicembalo clearly indicates the author’s didactic intention. Reprints and copies of the essercizi became widespread in England as “lessons,” and in France they were published under the more general but more accurate title “pièces de clavecin.” Currently, the harpsichord works are known under the misleading name – “sonatas.” From the word suonare (as opposed to cantare), meaning to play an instrument, Scarlatti extracted its essence, sonorité (sonority), thus emphasizing that virtuosity is inextricably linked to the art of expression. Scarlatti’s harpsichord pieces are sometimes referred to as toccata, fugue, pastorale, aria, capriccio, minuet (or minuetto), gavotte, giga; this indicates their connection with various Baroque musical forms. However, the Essercizi have little in common with either the Baroque solo sonata or the theoretical model of the classical sonata. Scarlatti wrote his “exercises” not only to master technical skills, but also to provide pleasure and intellectual entertainment; they are characterized by strong lyrical or dramatic expression; in relation to the past, they are, in a way, an attempt to transfer musical rhetoric to the purely instrumental realm; in relation to the future, they became an anticipation of the 19th-century piano étude.

The Essercizi are generally single-movement works, internally divided into two sections separated by a repeat sign, which is reiterated at the end of the piece. In the first section, there is a modulation from the tonic to the dominant, while in the second section a return to the tonic takes place. The whole is maintained in the same key and tempo; therefore, these compositions differ from the early Italian sonata in two or three movements. The character of the works is determined by richly ornamented melodies, expressively varied through carefully chosen harmonic means (chromaticism), rhythmic devices (inspired by Spanish folk music), and agogic and dynamic nuances (analogies with the toccata). The structure of a piece is based on the sequencing of melodic phrases and various types of figurations – that is, melodic ideas that are repeated literally, altered, or entirely different.

The publication of Essercizi resonated with contemporaries, who were enchanted by the finesse of the ‘sound play’ reflecting a whole range of moods: from calm to frenzied fury. The dissemination of Scarlatti’s harpsichord music in England was aided by Roseingrave’s publishing activities, Ch. Burney’s opinions expressed in his books, and R. Fitzwilliam’s passion for collecting. Reprints of English editions appeared in Paris and Amsterdam, and manuscript copies of Scarlatti’s works multiplied and began to circulate among musicians and music lovers. In the 19th century, Scarlatti’s works attracted the attention of many composer-pianists, led by F. Liszt. C. Czerny’s publication of the collected works (1839) marked the beginning of a whole series of smaller publications, in which H. von Bülow (1864) and, in the 20th century, E. Granados (1905) and B. Bartók (1921), among others, were involved in adapting them for school use. Various editions attempted to group Scarlatti’s works into sonatas da camera, suites, according to key or degree of difficulty. The Opéré complété edition, compiled by A. Long, became the basis for academic work focusing on performance issues (ornamentation, transfer of harpsichord pieces to the piano), the question arose as to which instrument Scarlatti played – the harpsichord or the clavichord, the gravicembalo or another prototype of the piano. Monographic works were published (W. Gerstenberg). In his meticulously documented book, R. Kirkpatrick suggested directions for research and compiled a chronology of Scarlatti’s harpsichord works, which was later corrected and supplemented by other historians. Scientific and analytical research intensified in 1985 in connection with the 300th anniversary of Scarlatti’s birth. Numerous international scientific conferences were held at that time, and editorial initiatives in the field of 18th-century music undertaken in the United States opened up new interpretative perspectives. Today, Scarlatti’s harpsichord works have not only entered school curricula, but also the concert repertoire of the most outstanding pianists. With his harpsichord works, Domenico Scarlatti, a contemporary of Bach and Handel, enriched the picture of 18th-century music.

Literature: A. Longo Domenico Scarlatti, Naples 1913; W. Gerstenberg Die Klavierkompositionen Domenico Scarlattis, Regensburg 1933, repr. 1969; S. Sitwell A Background for Domenico Scarlatti, London 1935, repr. Freeport (New York) 1970 and Westport (Connecticut) 1971; C. Valabrega Il clavicembalista Domenico Scarlatti, Modena 1937, Parma 2nd ed. 1955; S.A. Luciani Domenico Scarlatti, Turin 1939; A. Longo Indice tematico delle sonate per clavicembalo, Milan 1952; R. Kirkpatrick Domenico Scarlatti, Princeton 1953, revised ed. New York 1968, 6th ed. 1970, German expanded ed., 2 vols., Munich 1968; M. Bogianckino L’arte clavicembalistica di Domenico Scarlatti, Rome 1956, English trans. 1967; G. Pestelli Le sonate di Domenico Scarlatti. Proposta di un ordinamento cronologico, Turin 1967; M. Viale-Ferrero Filippo Juvarra, scenografa e architetto teatrale, Turin 1970; R. Pagano Scarlatti, Alessandro e Domenico. Due vite in una, Milan 1985; M. Boyd Domenico Scarlatti. Master of Music, London 1986; C.F. Vidali Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. A Guide to Research, New York 1993; W. Dean Sutcliffe The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century Musical Style, Cambridge 2003

conference proceedings: Händel e gli Scarlatti a Roma, Rome 1985, eds. N. Pirrotta and A. Ziino, Florence 1987 (including: R. Pagano Venni a Roma cristiana e non Cristina, G. Rostirolla Domenico Scarlatti e la Congregazione dei musici di santa Cecilia, M. Boyd Domenico Scarlatti’s „cantate da camera ” and their Connexions with Rome, E. Simi Bonini L’attività degli Scarlatti nella Basilica Liberiana), Domenico Scarlatti e il suo tempo, Siena 1985, ed. E. Fadini, «Chigiana» no. seria XX, 1985 (including: M. Boyd Scarlatti Sonatas in Some Recently Discovered Spanish Sources, M.C. de Brito Scarlatti e la musica alia corte di Giovanni V di Portogallo, E. Fadini La grafia dei manoscritti scarlattiani. Probierni e osservazioni), Domenico Scarlatti, Nice 1985, «Cahiers de la Société Internationale de Musique Ancienne» I, 1985 (including: E. Fadini Hypothèses à propos de l’ordre des sonates dans les manuscrits vénitiens, E. Andreani Autour de la musique sacrée de Domenico Scarlatti, W. Dowd Le clavecin de Domenico Scarlatti); Metamorfosi della musica del novecento. Bach, Händel, Scarlatti, proceedings of the congress in Cagliari 1985, ed. A. Trudu, Milan 1987 (including: P. Santi Domenico Scarlatti fra i due nazionalismi)

A. Cametti Carlo Sigismondo Capece (1652–1728), Alessandro e Domenico Scarlatti e la Regina di Polonia a Roma, “Musica d’oggi” XIII, 1931; R. Newton The English Cult of Domenico Scarlatti, “Music and Letters” XX, 1939; C. Hopkinson Eighteenth-Century Editions of the Keyboard Compositions of Domenico Scarlatti, «Transactions of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society» III, Edinburgh 1948/49; A. Della Corte „Tetide in Sciro”, l’opera di Domenico Scarlatti ritrovata, “La rassegna musicale” XXVII, 1957; G. Pannain L’arte pianistica di Domenico Scarlatti, “Studi musicali” I, 1972; R. Kirkpatrick Who Wrote the Scarlatti Sonatas? A Study in Reverse Scholarship, “Notes” XXIX, 1972/73; M. Bristiger, W. Malinowski O teatrze królowej Marii Kazimiery, Domenico Scarlattim i kilku innych sprawach, “Ruch Muzyczny” 1976 no. 13 (conversation); M. Bristiger Domenico Scarlatti fra le due epoche, in: Vita teatrale in Italia e Polonia fra seicento esettecento, eds. M. Bristiger, J. Kowalczyk, J. Lipiński, Warsaw 1984; S. Daw Muzio Clementi as (…) Collector and Performer (…) of Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti and G. Pestelli Bach, Händel, Domenico Scarlatti and the Toccata of the Late
Baroque, in: Bach, Händel, Scarlatti. Tercentenary Essays, ed. P. Williams, Cambridge 1985; E. Badura-Skoda Domenico Scarlatti und das Hammerklavier, “Östereichische Musikzeitung” XL, 1985; J. Sheveloff Domenico Scarlatti. Tercentenary Frustrations, “The Musical Quarterly” LXXI, 1985 and LXXII, 1986; A. Szweykowska Wystawienie „Tetide in Sciro” we Wrocławiu and L. Erhardt “Narcyz” Domenico Scarlatti w Teatrze Wielkim w Warszawie, «Pagine» V, Krakow 1989; J.V. Gonzales Valle Fondos de música de tecla de Domenico Scarlatti conservados en el Archivo capitular de Zaragoza, “Anuario musical” XLV, 1990; G. Pestelli Una nuova fonte manoscritta per Alessandro e Domenico Scarlatti, “Rivista Italiana di Musicologia” XXV, 1990; G. Doderer Aspectos novos em torno da estada de Domenico Scarlatti na corte de D. João V (1719–27), preface to Domenico Scarlatti. Libro di toccate per cembalo, facs., Lisbon 1991; D. Sutherland Domenico Scarlatti and the Florentine Piano, “Early Music” XXIII, 1995; M. Boyd „The music very good indeed”, Scarlatti’s „Tolomeo et Alessandro’’ Recovered, in: Studies in Music History, celebratory publication for H.Ch.R. Landon, eds. O. Biba and D.W. Jones, London 1996; A. Kamińska Z repertuaru prywatnego teatru królowej Marysieńki w rzymskim Palazzo Zuccari. Drammaper musica „ Tolomeo et Alessandro” Domenica Scarlattiego, “Muzyka” 2005 no. 3.