Alessandro Scarlatti, whose biography will bepresented in this article, this is the great Italian composer who worked in the Baroque era at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. He is considered the founding father of the Neapolitan Opera School. His brother and sons were also famous composers.
Алессандро Скарлатти родился в Палермо в 1660 year His teacher allegedly was Giacomo Carissimi. His first opera A. Scarlatti wrote at the age of 19 years. In the same year she was set in Rome.
In 1684, Alessandro entered the service ofto the vice-king of Naples as a conductor. Contributed to this appointment, his sister-singer, who had an influential lover. Most of his works A. Scarlatti wrote it in Naples.
In 1702, the composer went to Florence, then to Rome, where Cardinal Ottoboni arranged for him as conductor to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
In 1708, Alessandro Scarlatti returned to Naples.
The last work of the composer was a serenade dedicated to the wedding of Prince Stigliano. Alessandro did not have time to complete the work on it. In 1725 the composer died.
Alessandro Scarlatti was the creator of hisown musical form. In his operas, the manner of singing was average between the classical and the school of early Italian baroque. Forms of building melodies in the Aryans he made three-part instead of two-part. And also carefully studied the accompaniment to them. Over time, the operas of A. Scarlatti became more traditional, he began to use the rhythm for them generally accepted, and the orchestrations became coarse.
Later, his works wrote more vivid and spectacular Alessandro Scarlatti. Opera composer:
And others.
In addition to operas, Alessandro Scarlatti wrote aboutforty oratorios, a large number of serenades, more than five hundred chamber cantatas, several masses, eighteen symphonies, fourteen sonatas, toccats, suites and variations.
The sons of Alessandro Scarlatti, like his father, becameby composers. The most famous of them is Domenico. He was born in 1685 in Naples. Domenico composed music and played the harpsichord. Most of his life he spent in Spain. The full name of the composer is Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti. It is not known for certain who his teachers were, but it is logical to assume that his first teacher was his father.
В 1701 году Доменико Скарлатти стал органистом и composer at the court of the viceroy of Naples. He then served in Venice, later in Rome. Domenico was a wonderful harpsichord and once even won the competition, which Cardinal Ottoboni arranged in his Roman palace. Domenico on this match in the harpsichord game surpassed Frederick Handel himself.
The composer wrote his first operas for Queen Casimir’s private theater at the time when he served in Rome.
In 1720-1721 D. Scarlatti lived in Lisbon. There he taught music to Princess Mary Magdalen Barbara. In 1725 he returned to Naples.
In 1729 the composer moved to Spain.Since 1733, Domenico lives in Madrid at the court of Mary Magdalena Barbara, who became the Spanish queen. His close friend was the famous sopranist singer Farinelli.
The composer died at the age of 71 in Madrid.
Domenico Scarlatti is less known than hisgreat father. Quite a small part of the works of this composer was published during his lifetime. The rest of the works were published in print after his death, and even then it is irregular and very rare.
Nevertheless, the works of Domenico attracted such musicians as Bela Bartok, Frédéric Chopin, Vladimir Horowitz, Heinrich Schenker and others.
D.During his life Scarlatti wrote more than five hundred sonatas, ten oratorios, fifteen operas (the most famous of which is Thetis on Skyros), a large number of pieces for orchestras, church music.
For the works of this composer is characteristicuse of syncopated rhythm, frequent modulations, Phrygian fret, dissonant sound, quotation of folk melodies. Domenico Scarlatti became the ancestor of the style of music, which would later be given the name "Classicism".
