Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or
Doménico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757), was an Italian
composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque
composer chronologically, although his music was
influential in the development of the Classical style.
Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he
composed in a variety of musical forms, although today
he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas. He
spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese
and Spanish royal families....(+)
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or
Doménico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757), was an Italian
composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque
composer chronologically, although his music was
influential in the development of the Classical style.
Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he
composed in a variety of musical forms, although today
he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas. He
spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese
and Spanish royal families. He was born in Naples,
Kingdom of Naples, belonging to the Spanish Crown. He
was born in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian
Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of
ten children of the composer and teacher Alessandro
Scarlatti. His older brother Pietro Filippo was also a
musician. Scarlatti first studied music under his
father. Other composers who may have been his early
teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini,
and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced
his musical style. Muzio Clementi brought Scarlatti's
sonatas into the classical style by editing what is
known to be their first publication.
Only a small number of Scarlatti's compositions were
published during his lifetime. Scarlatti himself seems
to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most
famous collection, his 30 Essercizi (Exercises). They
were well received throughout Europe and were
championed by the foremost English writer on music of
the eighteenth century, Charles Burney.
The many sonatas unpublished during Scarlatti's
lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the past
two and a half centuries. He has attracted notable
admirers, including Béla Bartók, Arturo Benedetti
Michelangeli, Pieter-Jan Belder, Johann Sebastian Bach,
Muzio Clementi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van
Beethoven, Carl Czerny, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms,
Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, Emil Gilels, Francis
Poulenc, Olivier Messiaen, Enrique Granados,
Marc-André Hamelin, Vladimir Horowitz, Ivo Pogorelić,
Scott Ross (the first performer to record all 555
sonatas), Heinrich Schenker, András Schiff and Dmitri
Shostakovich.
Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements,
mostly in binary form, and some in early sonata form,
and mostly written for harpsichord or the earliest
pianofortes. (There are four for the organ, and a few
for the small instrumental groups). Some display
harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and
unconventional modulations to remote keys.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Scarlatti).
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB), I
created this interpretation of The Magnificat in C
Major for Woodwind Quartet (Flute, Oboe, French Horn &
Bassoon).