The same year that JS Bach and GF Haendel came to the world, in 1685, the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, a son of the opera composer Antonio Scarlatti, and the most prominent of ten brothers, all of them musicians. As expected, it was his father who guided his first steps in music and by 1701, still a teenager, he would be named organist at the royal chapel in Naples.
As an adult, while serving as a teacher of the Julia Chapel, in the Vatican, he does sporadic work for the Portuguese embassy, a job that is not quite clear to us but we suppose related to "events" the embassy carried out, which required the participation of musicians – an extra income.
As a result of this sort of "casual works", Domenico and the Portuguese ambassador forged a close union that led Scarlatti to settle in Lisbon, as the cathedral's chapel master, in the court of Juan V of Portugal. He also had a role as the music teacher of Juan's children, including the charming María Bárbara de Braganza, aged tender eight years, who will show remarkable talent for music and stand out in her maturity as patroness of the arts.
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| Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1757) |
Ten years later, at eighteen, Maria Barbara will marry the prince of Asturias, who will later become Ferdinand VI, and thus, María Bárbara will become queen consort of Spain.
The close ties forged between Maria and Domenico prevented the future queen from abandoning her harpsichord teacher and for that reason she took him to Spain, first to Seville and later to Madrid, after her husband was crowned. For long years, Domenico Scarlatti will continue to be the harpsichord teacher of Queen Maria Barbara.
The "exercises"
Nowadays, Domenico Scarlatti is remembered mostly for his short sonatas written for harpsichord, intended for the recreation of the royal family. Around 550 sonatas, single movement, also called "exercises", wrote Domenico throughout his life. An Italian style predominates in some of them, although the Portuguese air and others remembering a Spanish-style are also recognized.
Sonata in D minor, K 141
The brevity of these compositions forces them to be executed only as "encores" by the musicians of our time. The pianist Martha Argerich offers us such a possibility by playing the Sonata in D minor at the end of a concert, in 2008, in Turin.
Two of Scarlatti's main innovations on the keyboard are clearly recognizable here: rapid repetitions of notes and hand crossover.
(Scarlatti's work was compiled by American harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick, hence the letter K in the catalog).
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