Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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246 SCARLATTI SCARLATTI
was unworthy of his best ideals ; but the mass
of chamber-cantatas and the later operas show
him to have been a thoroughly intellectual
musician, a complete master of form in its
minutest details, who made as severe demands
upon the brains of his interpreters as upon
their technical powers.
Scarlatti indeed is the founder of that musical
language which has served the classical composers
for the expression of their thoughts down
to the close of the Viennese period. Thematic
development, balance of melodic phrase, chromatic
harmony—all the devices which the 17th
century had tentatively introduced, are by him
woven into a smooth and supple texture, which
reached its perfection in one who, although he
never knew his true master, was yet his best
pupil—Mozart. [For complete list of works,
see the writer's Alessandro Scarlatti, 1905, and
the Quellen-Lexikon.l E. j. D.
=»~
SCARLATTI, Giuseppe Dqmenioo, son of
Alessandro, born in Naples, Oct. 26, 1685,
iirst learned from his father, and later from
Gasparini. [He has been called a pupil of
Bernardo Pasquini, but that seems most improbable,
seeing that Pasquini was of the school
of Palestrina, and wrote entirely in the contrapuntal
style, whereas Domenico Scarlatti's chief
interest is that he was the first composer who
studied the peculiar characteristics of the free
style of the harpsichord. Mr. Shedlock's suggestion
that he was taught, or at least largely
influenced, by Gaetano Greco is far more likely.]
His bold style was by no means appreciated in
Italy, for Burney remarks (State of Music in
France and Italy) that the harpsichord was so
little played that it had not affected the organ,
which was still played in the grand old traditional
style. The first work on which Domenico
is known to have been engaged was that of
remodelling for Naples, in 1704, Polaroli's opera
'Irene' (Venice, 1695). At Naples 'his talent
found scope indeed, ' wrote Alessandro to Ferdinand
de' Medici on May 30, 1705, but ' it was
not the sort of talent for that place. I send
him away from Rome also, since Rome has no
roof to shelter music, that lives here in beggary.
This son of mine is an eagle whose wings are
grovfn ; he ought not to stay idle in the nest,
and I ought not to hinder his flight. Since
the virtuoso Nioolino, of Naples, is passing
through Rome on his way to Venice, I have
thought fit to send Domenico with him
and under the sole escort of his own artistic
ability (which has made great progress since he
was able to be with me and enjoy the honour
of obeying Your Royal Highness's commands in
person, three years ago), he sets forth to meet
whatever opportunities may present themselves
for making himself known—opportunities for
which it is hopeless to wait in Rome nowadays.'
Domenico duly presented himself to the Prince
\^ith this letter, which is now in the Medici
archives at Florence, and presumably continued
his journey with Nicolino, at any rate as far as
Venice. In 1708 he was in Venice [studying
with Gasparini, and making the acquaintance
of Handel and Thomas Roseingrave. ] Domenico
seems to have accompanied Handel to Rome,
for Cardinal Ottoboni held a kind of competition
between the two, at which the victory was
undecided on the harpsichord, but when it
came to the organ, Scarlatti was the first to
acknowledge his rival's superiority, declaring
that he had no idea such playing as Handel's
existed. The two became fast friends from that
day ; they remained together till Handel left
Italy, and met again in London in 1720. In
1709 he entered the service of Marie Casimire,
Queen of Poland, and composed for her private
theatre in Rome several operas : a dkamma
pastorale ' Sylvia ' (libretto in the Paris Biblioth^que
Nationale), which was followed by ' Orlando
'(1711), ' Fatide in Sciro' (1712), ' Ifigenia
in Aulide ' and 'in Tauride' (1713), 'Amor d'un
ombra,' and 'Narciso' (1714), and 'Amleto'
(1715, Teatro Capranica), interesting as the
first musical setting of that subject. Even in
extreme old age Handel spoke with pleasure of
D. Scarlatti, and Mainwaring (Memoirs, p. 61)
relates that when Scarlatti was in Spain, if his
own playing was admired, he would turn the
conversation on Handel's, crossing himself at
the same time as a sign of his extreme'reverence.
In January 1715 he succeeded Baj as maestro
di capella of St. Peter's in Rome, where he
composed Masses, Salve Reginas, etc. In 1719
he went to London, where his ' Narciso ' was
performed (May 30, 1720), and in 1721 to
Lisbon, where he became a court favourite.
The longing for home and kindred, however,
drove him back to Naples, where "Hasse heard
him play the harpsichord in 1725.
In 1729 he was invited to the .Spanish court,
and appointed music-master to the Princess
of the Asturias, whom he had formerly
taught in Lisbon. According to the Gazetta
musicale of Naples (Sept. 15, 1838) he returned
to Naples in 1754, and died there in
1757. Being an inveterate gambler he l_eft
his family in great destitution, but Farinelli
came to their assistance. (Sacchi's Vita di
Don Carlo Brosehi.)
As we have said7^8carlatti-jffiaajn^gnaajfinse_
the founder of modernTexecution, and his inflnenoBTmay
be traced in ilendelssohn, Liszt,
and many other masters of the modem school.
He inade_great u3ej)fthe_CTOS3igg^of_the^hands,
and produced entirely new^BectsbythiTineans.
^is gie^, unlike the suites of Handel and his
predecesMfs, were all short. Santini possessed
349 of them. Of"Ehese^ Scarlatti himself only
published one book of thirty pieces, entitled
•Es^SJziLpa; gravicembalo,' etc., printed according
to Bufheyin Venice, but at any rate
before August 1746, when the Prince of the