Domenico Scarlatti: Master of the Keyboard

A detail from a portrait of Domenico Scarlatti, 1738, Domingo Antonio Velasco. Casa-Museu dos Patudos, Portugal. (Public Domain)

The year 1685 was an auspicious time for the arts. That year, three men were born who would forever change Western music through their technical mastery and innovations.

Two of these men, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), are household names. The third, Domenico Scarlatti, has also earned a high place in the annals of musical history.

Like Bach, Scarlatti was descended from a family of musicians. He came into the noisy world of Naples, Italy in 1685. The busy hum of street life, along with the in-house sounds of rehearsing instrumentalists and stage performers filtered into his nursery.

Many of Domenico’s relatives were professional singers. One was a renowned violinist. The most famous of them all was his father, Alessandro Scarlatti, a celebrated opera composer. Sicilian in origin, the Scarlatti family settled in Naples by the time of Domenico’s birth. There, Alessandro took up a post as the music director to the Spanish Viceroy. He had already served in the same position to Queen Cristina of Sweden. His son would likewise benefit from high connections in aristocratic circles, and even come to outshine his father.

Portrait of Domenico Scarlatti, 1738, Domingo Antonio Velasco. Casa-Museu dos Patudos, Portugal. (Public Domain)

Scarlatti and Handel

A man of high connections, Scarlatti was acquainted with the greatest composers of his day. In 1705, he went to study music in Venice, Italy. It was during his time here that he met George Frideric Handel and developed a friendly rivalry with the German composer. The two men, born in the same year, were still in their early 20s. Neither were yet affiliated with the royal families that would result in their greatest works. Both, however, were already making a name for themselves as renowned keyboard players.

As the legend goes, Scarlatti first encountered Handel at a masquerade. The German was playing the harpsichord, disguised in a visor. Upon hearing him, Scarlatti concluded that it must be “the famous Saxon” playing, “or the devil.”

About a year later, the two men met again in Rome. This time their host challenged them to a keyboard competition. While Scarlatti was acknowledged the superior in his delicate and elegant expression on the harpsichord, Handel triumphed on the organ. The two always spoke highly of one another for the rest of their lives. According to Scarlatti’s biographer Ralph Kirkpatrick, the Italian would “cross himself in token of veneration” whenever he mentioned Handel.

Scarlatti in Spain

Scarlatti had several royal patrons throughout his career, including the Queen of Poland and King John V of Portugal. When King John’s daughter, Maria Barbara, married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain in 1729, Scarlatti followed the princess to that country and remained in her service until his death three decades later.

Unlike his father Alessandro, who was a major innovator in Italian opera and a prolific composer of sacred cantatas, Domenico’s legacy rests largely on his keyboard sonatas. It was during his time in Spain that he composed more than 550 of these pieces for Maria Barbara.

The sonatas reflect the influence of his adopted nation, evoking flamenco dancing and Spanish folk melodies. Charles Burney, the most important music historian of his day, wrote that, “There are many passages in Scarlatti’s pieces, in which he imitated the melody of tunes sung by carriers, muleteers, and common people.”

Scarlatti composed hundreds of keyboard sonatas for the amusement of his Queen and patroness. This is the 13th book and it contains sonatas 514 to 541. (Patachonf/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The famous opera singer Farinelli also lived at the Spanish court and was a friend of Scarlatti. Together, the two Italians exercised such sway over the King and Queen that some Spaniards complained “the country was now being ruled by musicians.”

Of the two, Farinelli was the more influential because his singing was perceived to cure the King’s depression. Scarlatti, rarely mentioned in documents by members of the court, made his influence felt more indirectly through his music.

Scarlatti and Maria Barbara

Queen Maria Barbara was an accomplished keyboard player and owned five pianofortes (a forerunner of the modern piano). Thanks to her advanced abilities, Scarlatti was able to experiment with difficult compositional techniques tailored to her wish for challenging pieces to play.

This 1722 Cristofori piano is just one of three revolutionary pianos that survive to this day. It is believed that Maria Barbara was in possession of no less than five such pianofortes, which were likely heavily decorated and adorned. (LPLT/CC BY-SA 3.0)

One of his most celebrated and technically innovative pieces is the Sonata in D Major (K. 96).

Like Scarlatti’s other sonatas, it has a binary form with two  sections that are each repeated. The piece’s cheerful tone, combined with the drive of repeated notes, give it a lively dance-like quality. With its rapid scales and hand crossings that alternate between major and minor keys, it would have challenged Maria Barbara’s dexterity as they played in the private chambers of the royal court, or she perhaps entertained the king and a select group of nobles.

Charles Burney records an anecdote that Scarlatti became “too fat to cross his hands” in his later years, and that as a result his final keyboard works were simpler in composition. However, this seems, to be an exaggeration not supported by evidence. While his style continued to evolve, Scarlatti’s sonatas remained technically innovative and challenging to the end.

The Baroque period of classical music is usually given a standard end date of 1750, the year Johann Sebastian Bach died. However, Scarlatti and Handel both outlived Bach, and each continued to write in the Baroque style until their deaths—Scarlatti dying in 1757 and Handel in 1759—belying the historians’ tendencies to oversimplify things for convenience. It was only when the curtain finally closed on the lives of all three men that we can we say the Baroque period was truly over. Their legacies continue to resonate today.

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