ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI

His developements is harmony and devices of forms were an inspirations for Haydn
and Mozart

Alessandro Scarlatti (the

father of Domenico) was
born in Sicily in 1658 or
1659 and died at Naples in
1725, aged sixty-six.

Alessandro was the great

opera composer and
founder of Neapolitan
School opera. He brought
up in Rome. When he was
twenty-one, one of his
operas attracted the
Alessandro Scarlatti attention of Queen
Christina of Sweden, who made him, her musical director. Four or
five years later the Spanish viceroy at Naples appointed him to same
position in his court.

After about twenty years there, disappointed at the viceroy's musical

taste and his treatment of him, he settled in Rome again, occupying
church posts and composing operas and some church music; but the
Pope did not approve of opera, and life became a little difficult.

After a few years he was tempted back to Naples by the offer of

increased salary and better treatment, and his brilliant period began,
his best works were writtenat this time, and his fame attained great
heights. It appears, however, that he later slipped back to Rome
again, Naples having ceased to applaud him so generously as before.
And so between those two cities he had for a lifetime alternated,
never long satisfied with either.
His great work lay in the realm of opera and that of the chamber
cantata, of which latter form he wrote five hundred examples. His
lifetime ended (1725) shortly before that of Haydn was to begin
(1732), and this has significance, for his development of harmony
and the devices of form prepared the way for the great achievements
of the Haydn-Mozart period.

© Copyright by Antigua Casa Sherry-Brener Ltd. 2001