Composers : Domenico Scarlatti |
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| No. | Song Name | No.of pages | Transcription by | MIDI |
| 1 | Allegro | 3 | ||
| 2 | Allegro | 2 | ||
| 3 | Aria | 1 | Theodore Norman | |
| 4 | Gavotte | 2 | Dirk Meineke | |
| 5 | Sonata | 2 | Andres Segovia | |
| 6 | Sonata | 2 | Andres Segovia | |
| 7 | Sonata K078 | 2 | Dirk Meineke | |
| 8 | Sonata K083 | 3 | ||
| 9 | Sonata K322 | 3 | Dirk Meineke | |
| 10 | Sonata L023 | 5 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 11 | Sonata L079 | 2 | ||
| 12 | Sonata L083 | 1 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 13 | Sonata L162 | 2 | ||
| 14 | Sonata L187 | 4 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 15 | Sonata L238 | 2 | Dirk Meineke | |
| 16 | Sonata L349 | 4 | ||
| 17 | Sonata L352 | 2 | Miguel Abloniz | |
| 18 | Sonata L374 | 6 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 19 | Sonata L430 | 6 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 20 | Sonata L437 | 5 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 21 | Sonata L454 | 4 | Carlos Barbosa Lima | |
| 22 | Sonata L483 | 3 |
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (October 26, 1685 – July 23, 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in Spain and Portugal. He was extremely influential in the development of the Classical period in music through his individual style, though he lived mostly during the Baroque era.
Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Italy, in 1685, the same year as two other baroque masters, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel. He was the sixth of ten children and a younger brother to Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, also a musician. Most probably he first studied under his father, the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti; other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini, and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom seem to have influenced his musical style.
He became a composer and organist at the royal chapel in Naples in 1701. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's opera Irene for performance at Naples. Soon after this his father sent him to Venice; no record exists of his next four years. In 1709 he went to Rome in the service of the exiled Polish queen Marie Casimire, where he met Thomas Roseingrave who would later lead the enthusiastic reception of the composer's sonatas in London. Already an eminent harpsichordist, there is a story that in a trial of skill with George Frideric Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome he was judged perhaps superior to Handel on that instrument, although inferior on the organ. Later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill.
Also while in Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas for Queen Casimira's private theatre. He was maestro di cappella at St Peter's from 1715 to 1719, and in the latter year came to London to direct his opera Narciso at the King's Theatre.
In 1720 or 1721 he went to Lisbon, where he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He was at Naples again in 1725. During a visit to Rome in 1728 he married Maria Caterina Gentili. In 1729 he moved to Sevilla where he stayed for four years. There he got to know the Flamenco. In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to the princess, who had married into the Spanish royal house. Maria Barbara became Queen of Spain, and he remained in Spain for some twenty-five years and had five children there. After the death of his wife in 1742 he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. During his time in Madrid, Scarlatti composed over five hundred keyboard sonatas. It is for these works that he is best remembered today.
Scarlatti befriended the castrato singer Farinelli, a fellow Neapolitan enjoying royal patronage in Madrid. The musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick acknowledges Farinelli's correspondence as providing "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day."
Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, aged 71. His residence on Calle Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid.
Only a fraction of Scarlatti's compositions was published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, a book of 30 Essercizi ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Dr. Charles Burney.
The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has, however, attracted notable admirers, including Chopin, Brahms, Bartók, Heinrich Schenker and Vladimir Horowitz. The Russian school of pianism has particularly championed the sonatas.
Scarlatti wrote over five hundred keyboard sonatas, generally single movements in binary form. Modern pianoforte technique owes much to their influence. Some of them display harmonic audacity, both in the use of discords or clusters and in adventurous use of unconventional modulations to remote keys. Scarlatti was also a pioneer in the realm of rhythm and musical syntax: syncopation and cross-rhythms are common in his music.
Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:
Many harpsichordists and pianists have recorded Scarlatti sonatas.
Scott Ross recorded all 555 of them in a 34-CD set, mostly on harpsichord, but also accompanying some which scholars suggest are more appropriate as instrumental sonatas, and those written for organ. The record label Naxos is recording all the keyboard sonatas on the piano, a series of discs performed by various artists. The Dutch harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder is also working on a full recording of all the 555 keyboard sonatas in sequential order for the label Brilliant Classics.
Other harpsichordists to perform Scarlatti are Wanda Landowska, Gustav Leonhardt and Ralph Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick was also a renowned Scarlatti scholar who published his own edition of the sonatas.
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz made several recordings of various Scarlatti sonatas. These include:Sonata in G (K 146), Sonata in A (K 39), Sonata in E (K 531), Sonata in G (K 455) and Sonata in D (K. 149). These recordings were performed on a modern Steinway piano, rather than Period instruments. They are the subject of much critical debate and discussion, considering their performance by Horowitz, a pianist almost always associated with Romantic repertoire. Horowitz also made similar recordings of Clementi sonatas. He even called on guidance from Ralph Kirkpatrick in preparation for the release of "Horowitz Plays Scarlatti."
Among famous pianists to record Scarlatti are Vladimir Horowitz, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Dinu Lipatti, Mikhail Pletnev, Clara Haskil, Murray Perahia, András Schiff, Christian Zacharias and Ivo Pogorelich. Of great historical importance is also the recording of some of the sonatas by Béla Bartók.
The Assad brothers of Brazil (Sergio
and Odair), virtuoso classical guitarists, have arranged and recorded several of
Scarlatti's Sonatas for the Keyboard on the guitar.
Scarlatti is featured as a secondary character in José Saramago's nobel prize winning novel Baltasar and Blimunda.
