Alessandro Scarlatti

Background

Alessandro Scarlatti was born on May 2, 1660 in Palermo, Cicily.

Education

Scarlatti is generally said to have been a pupil of Carissimi in Rome, and there is reason to suppose that he had some connection with northern Italy, since his early works show the influence of Stradella and Legrenzi.

Career

In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians.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 Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 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 (Tdemaco, 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 for Cardinal Acquaviva in 1721.

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 best operas of this period are La Rosaura (1690, printed by the Gesellschaft fiir Musikforschung), and Pirro e Demelno (1694), in which occur the songs "Rugiadose, odorose, " "Ben ti sta, traditor. "

From about 1697 onwards (Lo Caduta dei decemviri), influenced partly perhaps by the style of Bononcini and probably more by the taste of the viceregal court, his opera songs become more conventional and commonplace in rhythm, while his scoring is hasty and crude, yet not without brilliancy (Eraclea, 1700), the oboes and trumpets being frequently used, and the violins often playing in unison.

Mitridate Eupalore, composed for Venice in 1707, contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power.

His last group of operas, composed for Rome, exhibit a deeper poetic feeling, a broad and dignified style of melody, a strong dramatic sense, especially in accompanied recitatives, a device which he himself had been the first to use as early as 1686 (Olimpia vendi- cata) and a much more modern style of orchestration, the horns appearing for the first time, and being treated with striking effect.

Works

More photos

• book

  • La principessa fedele (Arr. for Archlute, Baroque Guitar, Theorbo): Sinfonia. Repetita. Presto - Allegro
  • Scarlatti: L'honestà negli amore - Già il sole dal Gange
  • (The Operas: Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante v.7) Author: Alessandro Scarlatti published on (July, 1990)

Connections

Son:

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti

He was an Italian composer, who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families.

Son:

Pietro Filippo Scarlatti

He was an Italian composer, organist and choirmaster.