Scarlatti

Question 1

Birth

Answer 1

1685-1757

Question 2

Life

Answer 2

Born in Naples, Italy.
Moved to Portugal and then to Spain in 1729. Spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families (Maria Barbara and Fernando VI). Died in Madrid
Nobody knew to where or to what he belonged, like all traces removed.

Question 3

Work

Answer 3

Baroque composer but his music influenced the development of the Classical Style. Like his father Alessandro, he composed in a variety of musical forms (operas, cantatas, liturgical pieces) but he’s mainly known for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

• Stabat Mater (1715)
• Salve Regina (1757)

Sonatas:

• virtuosity (including hand crossing)
• audacious dissonances
• far-flung modulations
• fast movement earlier sonatas, slow movements in the middle.
• one movement
• binary form, divided into two halves by a double bar, first half announced a basic tonality and then moves to establish the closing tonality in a série of decisive cadences.
• differences with classical sonatas: in Scarlatti, the section before the double bar-line is likely to be longer than the other. Secondly, in the Scarlatti scheme, hardly never any recapitulation of the «A» theme in the tonic after the double bar-line