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Naples, Venice
and Rome, Lisbon, Seville
and Madrid were the stations
in the life of Domenico
Scarlatti, who like Johann
Sebastian Bach and George
Frideric Handel was born in
1685 and who died seven
years later than the great
Thomas cantor. Already at an
early age he enjoyed the
reputation as one of the
best harpsichordists in
Europe. When young Handel
came to Rome, the musical
world waited with excitement
for a contest between the
two virtuosi. It took place
in the Palazzo of the
art-loving Cardinal Ottoboni
and concluded brilliantly
for both. “Caro Sassone”
Handel was seen as the more
accomplished improvisator on
organ, while many preferred
Scarlatti on the harpsichord
because of his inventively
elegant style of playing.
The renown of the name
Scarlatti was at this time,
however, not accorded the
instrumental virtuoso, but
rather the opera and its
great representative
Alessandro Scarlatti.
Domenico was long to stand
in the shadow of his father,
for the classical Neapolitan
da capo arias were
stirring the opera goers of
Europe and made of the
singers celebrities of a
Fascinated public. Domenico
began his studies under the
direction of this great
master in music history who
has till this day not been
fully appreciated. The
sixteen-year-old was already
active as organist and
composer at the Royal Chapel
in Naples. A stay at the
Tuscan court in Florence had
been but brief, when his
father sent him, alter
Domenico’s first successful
operas, to Venice. Here he
was a pupil of the
distinguished Francesco
Gasparini between 1705 and
1708, during which time he
became acquainted with the
young Handel and doubtless
also enjoyed the recognition
of Upper and Middle ltaly’s
high society: for in 1709 he
became the music director of
the Polish Queen Maria
Casimira, who then had her
residence in Rome. He wrote
seven operas for her small
private theatre on the
Piazza della Trinità de’
Monti, not far from the
Spanish Steps, where even
today churches, palazzi and
parks mirror the magic of
Baroque Rome. After the
Polish Queen departed Rome,
connexions with Portugal
were soon established: for
Scarlatti became music
director for the Portuguese
ambassador, who like many
distinguished Roman families
maintained a small group of
court musicians.
Simultaneously, however,
Scarlatti held for several
years the office of music
director at the Capella
Giulia at St. Peter’s, where
Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina had once been in
the same function 150 years
earlier. He wrote a few more
operas and then in 1719
resigned from all his
capacities, which came as a
surprise for many. He stated
as his reason that he would
go to England, but no visit
there can be documented. As
of 1720 at the latest,
however, we find him director
of the Royal Portuguese
ensemble in Lisbon: the
esteemed music director was
chosen by the King to be the
music teacher of the Infanta
Maria Barbara. The teacher
won the confidence of his
talented pupil, who took him
as music master with her to
Seville after marrying the
Spanish successor to the
throne, and later to Madrid
upon becoming Queen. Most of
the 555 sonatas are, in any
case, dedicated to the royal
patroness. A new composer
appears to have been born;
the times were past when
Scarlatti composed his
Neapolitan arias in the
shadow of an overwhelming
tradition - works which
admittedly did not possess
the originality of his
father’s. Even the important
sacred works of his Roman
period, which were written
as a rule in the strict
habitus of the “Stile
antico”, do not depart from
the acceptable standard of
his contemporaries. The
sonatas, on the other hand,
establish an unmistakable
keyboard style and introduce
to the art of a new period a
simple structure by virtue
of a multiplicity of
technical and musical
possibilities. This
transformation is so
astonishing that Scarlatti
was able to compose a Salve
Regina for soprano and
strings at the end of his
life which one might place
well into the Classical
period, were composer and
date of the composition
unknown.
Scarlatti’s use of the term
“sonata” has at this time
nothing to do with the
Classical form that contains
several movements. The
structure of
seventeenth-century sonatas
with their free succession
of contrasting short section
was disregarded just as was
that of the church and
chamber sonatas with several
movements. The two-part
structure, which is related
to the latter and which we
here frequently encounter,
underlies in stereotype
fashion nearly all of
Scarlatti’s sonatas. The
harmonic structure is very
clear: the first part leads
from tonic to dominant, and
the second from dominant to
tonic. These two-part
sonatas consisting of one
movement have either only
one theme or several in
succession. An exposition or
repeat in the Classical
sense is not employed. The
tonal colour in the style is
maintained both in the
“closed” mono-thematic
structure and in the “open”
structure of successive
themes or motifs (which are
held together alone by the
fundamental harmonic
constructions) by means of a
wealth of innovations in
performance technique. One
might compare Scarlatti with
Frédéric Chopin, who on his
favoured keyboard instrument
reveals artistic methods of
playing within a two-voice
composition.
The briefly described sonatas
are predominantly paired so
that emotion, tempo and
style of playing are
contrasted. Only a few of
Scarlatti’s sonatas were
conceived as individual
pieces, sonatas such as the
magnificent serious one in D
minor on our recording,
which like an elegant echo
recalls the old art of
polyphony.
The beginning of the Sonata
in E minor K. 263, also
recalls, almost ironically
in its polyphonic gravity,
the older music. Contrasting
lines in thirds in the high
and low registers, which
simulate the old choir
technique, follow the
Fugato; nonetheless, there
soon remains only a free
interplay of voices, from
which chromatic lines are
set off next to declaratory
scales. The second section,
returning to E minor from G
major, does not pick up the
polyphonic concord again;
rather, the harmonic
stimulus established earlier
leads to a digression of
sequential chords before the
lighter chromatic lines form
a transition to the playful
conclusion, which
nevertheless possesses less
of the former freedom. This
sonata is the first of a pair
of composition. The second,
written in a driving triple
time, exhibits all the
harmonic refinement of which
Scarlatti was capable. The
opening theme places
three-note scale passages
sequentially beside one
another, which are soon
intensified through
alterations. Passages of
sixths and thirds adapt to
the lively rhythm, until an
ascending chromatic figure
drives the harmonic tension
to an extreme by means of
bold suspension effects.
This intensification leads
finally to a highly virtuoso
section which in a stretta
goes playfully to the
conclusion of the first
section in the dominant. The
harmonic digression is
continued even further in
the second part. B major,
G-flat minor - A-flat
major - the last of which
even seen as a regular
modulation through new
signatures - are
intermediate stations during
an effective, rhythmically
vigorous journey. A short E
minor only takes the
transition to B major, after
which the virtuoso closing
stretta leads back to the
tonic of E major. The
playing of full chords is
characteristic for many of
Searlatti’s sonatas. The
breaks in the arpeggio
chords with their
intensifying acciaccatura,
which are found already used
by older composers, are
drawn together here to a
chord played together, whose
harmonic effect often
appears neutralized so that
one at times tends to recall
modern clusters. This tonal
colouring often lends
Scarlatti’s sonatas an
exotic charm.
The cantabile of the first
sonata opens almost
conventionally with Rococo
flourishes, but soon
striding dotted rhythms set
off those new harmonic areas
which unfold a static Quiet
and which seem to dissolve
the harmonic points of
reference. Especially the
second part of this sonata
expands these neutral fields
to the outermost boundary of
the possible. The brief
playful conclusion of the
sonata demands a
continuation, since it is
not capable of releasing the
captured tension. The
following Allegro-sonata in
3/4 time is able, after a
short introduction, to take
up the marching rhythm of
the first sonata. A false
relation, A major/C major,
severely emphasizes this
strictly rhythmical section.
It is resolved only at the
large arpeggio-laden close,
which restores the harmonic
balance once again in
emphasizing tonic, dominant
and subdominant. As a gigue
concluded the French Suite
or some closing movements in
triple time the Classical
symphony, so also here the
6/8 time of a presto
movement terminates the
sonata series. Although the
opening in thirds is
conventional and although
the end seizes upon the
virtuoso parts of the
driving passages and the
arpeggi, a middle section
nevertheless articulates the
harmonically and
rhythmically intensifying
interplay of suspensions and
sequences.
Scarlatri’s sonatas create a
pure keyboard style which
releases itself from any
schematism and which devotes
itself entirely to the
instrument. Only the
composer-pianists of the
nineteenth century were able
to attain such ideal works
for the keyboard.
Scarlatti’s compositions
were, however, without
consequence. Only once, in
1738, did he succeed in
publishing thirty sonatas in
the Essercizi per
Gravicembalo, which he
dedicated to the King of
Portugal. His sonatas were
collected only into
manuscripts, several
splendid and reliable ones,
however, which were produced
for the Spanish Queen Maria
Barbara between 1742 and
1757. The manuscripts are
preserved in Venice. The
numeration of the sonatas is
according to the catalogue
by Ralph Kirkpatrick in his
book on Scarlatti.
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