Scarlatti

A le andro, compr b. Tra- pan i, Sicily, 1659; a. Naples, Oct 24, 1725. Nothing known of early life and training; conducted first known opera Rome 1680; maestro to Queen Christina of Sweden, to Viceroy at Naples 1694; a t, to Foggia, maestro at Sta Mana Maggiore, Rome, 1703, and succe or 1707-09; maestro at royal chapel, Naples; teacher at 3 conservatories there; among pupils Durante, Leo, Ba e, Porpora, etc.; dir. Sta. Mana Maggiore, dir. to Cardinal Ottobom in Rome; in Naples again after 1709; composed over 100 operas and 200 ma es; founder of Neapolitan school of opera; broke up the monotony of continued recitative by using recitative both with and without full accomp and by introducing formal aria; established popular type of overture in three movements, the 2d slow; within those forms his own work is entirely lacking in diversity; it has “ grace, suavity, dexterous neatne of articulation.’* His son Domenico Scarlatti, compr., harpsichord player, b. Naples, Oct. 26, 1685; d there, 1757. Pupil of father and Gasparmi; arranged and composed operas, chosen to compete with Handel 1709, he equaled El. on harpsichord, but not at org.; maestro at St. Peter’s, Rome, 1715-19; maestro al cembalo Italian Opera, London, 1719-20; court cembalist at Lisbon 1721-54 (except 1725-29); returned to Naples, where gambling reduced his family to poverty, which Farinelli relieved; in has harpsichord music used new effects, gamed by cro ing hands, by broken chords, by displaced accents, etc., which contributed largely to beginning of technic; style of his works also is modem in its freedom from formal construction. 225 SCHARWENKA