During the Baroque, several families made their mark in the world of music. In Italy there were few families more influential than the Scarlattis.
This story begins with the birth of Alessandro Scarlatti in Palermo, Italy in 1660. He was the second of eight children born into a poor family. At the age of 12, Alessandro, and two of his sisters were sent to Rome. Perhaps it was because of famine in the region or just poverty. It was not unusual for a poor family to send away their most talented offspring to places where that talent could be developed. Alessandro disappears from the record till his marriage to Antonia Anzalone when he was 18. Family was the most important thing to Alessandro. Most of his career choices were made for the benefit of his wife and their children. They had 10 children together, though sadly only five survived to adulthood.
In 1679, Alessandro bet everything he had on his first opera which was huge success and cemented his reputation as a composer, especially of vocal music. His catalogue of work is dominated by vocal music, secular and sacred, in what is called the Neapolitan style. He remained in Rome until 1684 when he accepted an appointment as the maestro di cappella to the Viceroy of Naples.
Alessandro’s sixth child, Guiseppe Domenico Scarlatti, was born the next year in Naples. Undoubtedly Domenico learned his craft from his father and other relatives. At the age of 16 he was appointed the organist of the Naples Royal Chapel with his own father as his boss. Alessandro was very demanding of Domenico and influenced his career for the better part of 20 years.
Finally, in 1719, Domenico left for Lisbon, Portugal. There he was employed by King John V, to instruct his children on the keyboard. Domenico was now free, free from his father’s influence and his father’s music. Domenico began to explore music of his own, improvising and composing at the keyboard in the styles that surrounded him. Over the course of the next 35 years, Domenico composed 555 single movement sonatas for solo keyboard. Although he wrote in many other forms, it is this body of work, these sonatas that have been so influential over the centuries. Chopin, Brahms, Bartok and Shostakovich have all cited the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti as a huge influence and inspiration.
