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Father & Son: Works by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti

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In the late 1680s Scarlatti entered into direct relations with Prince Ferdinando de” Medici, who availed himself of his collaboration both for works intended for the theater of the Medici villa at Pratolino and other theaters in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and for the composition of sacred music intended for special occasions solemnly celebrated at court. After the revival of the operas, already performed in Rome, Tutto il mal non vien per nuocere in Florence and Il Pompeo in Livorno, in 1689 Ferdinando commissioned him for Pratolino to compose the music for a comedy, perhaps La serva favorita on a libretto by Giovanni Cosimo Villifranchi. In 1698 L”Anacreonte was performed at Pratolino, followed by Flavio Cuniberto (1702), Arminio (1703), Turno Aricino (1704), Lucio Manlio (1706), and Il gran Tamerlano (1706). We mark the death of the composer Domenico Scarlatti 261 years ago today, on July 23, 1757 in the Spanish capital of Madrid. In 1706 he was elected, along with Pasquini and Corelli, to the Accademia dell'Arcadia, where he must have met Handel in 1707. From 1702 until 1708 he sent Prince Ferdinando de' Medici quantities of oratorios and church music and four operas which the prince had performed at Siena, Livorno and Florence. Scarlatti also composed and directed two five-act tragedies for the 1707 Venetian Carnival. Upon his return to Rome he was made Maestro di Cappella at S. Maria Maggiore, but the salary was so meager that he was ultimately forced to return to his posts in Naples in 1709.

Handel wrote three exceptionally successful operas during a one year period which spanned 1724 and into the following year. They were Rodelinda and Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano. In fact, Handel began solely focusing on composing operas, completely halting his writing of cantatas. One of his opera’s which he wrote at the time, Scipio, is where the British Guard gets the regiment’s slow march from. Handel performed this opera as what was referred to as a stopgap, temporarily appeasing those who were waiting for the occurrence of Fuastina Bordoni’s arrival. Domenico Scarlatti composed operas, ballets, and various other works. But pride of place in his output must be given to his 555 sonatas, which together constitute one of the greatest sets of compositions written by anyone, anywhere, and at any time. (Please do not expect a measured critical tone from me regarding Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas. Along with Ann-Margret, I have loved them since I was a child and my affection sees no sign of waning.) Handel traveled to Rome where he composed, for the Roman clergy, what could only be referred to as sacred music. He was unable to compose or play operas, as opera had been banned temporarily by the Pope inside the Papal States. From this era comes Handel’s famous Dixit Cominus, which was produced in 1707. Furthermore, he composed numerous cantatas, which are vocal compositions, in reposeful style for gatherings of a musical nature which took place in the cardinal’s palaces, such as Carol Colonna, Peitro Ottoboni, and Benedetto Pamphili.Maestro Scarlatti came by his musical bona fides honestly. He was the sixth of ten children born to the composer and teacher Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (1660-1725). The elder Scarlatti is considered to be the padrino – the godfather – of Neapolitan (meaning Naples-based) opera. Paul Henry Lang, writing in his magisterial Music in Western Civilization sums up Alessandro Scarlatti’s importance this way:

Many of his oratorios were performed at the Covent Garden Theater, such as Alexander Balus, in 1747 and Solomon in 1749. His use of English singers instead of Italian ones reached its pinnacle at Samson’s first performance, second only in success to Messiah, but even more theatrical. Performed on February 1752, Jephtha was Handel’s last oratorio. However, it was every bit as masterful as his earlier works. Handel’s father passed away in February 1697, not even two weeks before his own birthday when he would turn twelve years old. As it was German custom for family and friends to write funeral odes for such a consequential member of the community such as Georg, Handel absolved his responsibility with a poem, signing his name along with a dedication to the liberal arts, in acquiescence of his father’s inclinations. Georg had seen to it that Handel’s education would be provided for. At the time of his father’s death Handle was studying at either the Latin School or the Lutheran Gymnasium in Halle, but it is not known for certain. Young George Frideric Handel

Historical records matching Alessandro Scarlatti

The great personality who virtually made Naples the Mecca of musicians was Alessandro Scarlatti. He composed more than 100 operas; the number of his oratorios is approximately 150, while the cantatas (600) and various types of church music, together with his keyboard music, complete a truly impressive oeuvre. This astounding productivity does not mean superficiality or patchwork, for his compositions show a mastery of workmanship and an abundance of original musical ideas. In his dramatic works he professed an unconditional worship of the beauty of melody [and] a complete abandonment to the sensuous charm of the singing voice. Modern Italian opera begins with [Alessandro] Scarlatti. Handel, who met him in 1708, remained a devoted admirer of the Neapolitan master throughout his life, studying and imitating his works with loving care.” Brother of Vincenzo Placido Scarlatti; Anna Maria Antonia Diana Scarlatti; Anna Maria Scarlatti; Melchiorra (Brigada) Scarlatti; Francesco (Antonio Nicola) Scarlatti and 2 others ; Tommaso Scarlatti and Antonio (Giuseppe) Scarlatti « less His few remaining masses (the story of his having composed two hundred is hardly credible) and church music in general are comparatively unimportant, except the great St Cecilia Mass (1721), which is one of the first attempts at the style which reached its height in the great masses of Johann Sebastian Bach and Beethoven. His instrumental music, though not without interest, is curiously antiquated as compared with his vocal works. The fullest surviving record of Scarlatti’s life and character is to be found in the series of harpsichord sonatas that began with the publication of his Esercizi per gravicembalo ( Exercises) in 1738, which contained 30 sonatas. The series of sonatas continued brilliantly with manuscript volumes copied out for Maria Bárbara in 1742 and 1749. She became queen of Spain in 1746, and the musical activities of the Spanish court became more lavish than ever. But the principal evidence of Scarlatti’s own activity continues to reside in the final great series of harpsichord sonatas copied out for the queen from 1752 to 1757, the year of Scarlatti’s death. The sonatas are all one movement in length and are primarily cast in “binary form”, meaning that they consist of two parts, each of which is immediately repeated. Almost all of them were composed for harpsichord or piano; four of them are for organ and a few for chamber groups.

Handel died in his Brook Street home in 1759 at the age of seventy-four. Messiah was the last performance which he attended. Buried in Westminster Abbey, over three thousand people came to mourn his passing by attending his funeral where he was given full state honors. Handel Statue

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Mitridate Eupatore, accounted his masterpiece, composed for Venice in 1707, contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power. The later Neapolitan operas (L'amor volubile e tiranno 1709; La principessa fedele 1710; Tigrane, 1714, &c.) are showy and effective rather than profoundly emotional; the instrumentation marks a great advance on previous work, since the main duty of accompanying the voice is thrown upon the string quartet, the harpsichord being reserved exclusively for the noisy instrumental ritornelli. In his opera Teodora (1697) he originated the use of the orchestral ritornello. An editing error meant that the phrase “Scarlatti is considered the father of the Neapolitan school of opera” became “Scarlatti is considered the father of modern opera”. This has now been corrected. While resident in Naples Scarlatti occasionally returned to Rome to supervise carnival performances of new operas, contributions to pasticci and cantatas at the Palazzo Doria Pamphili and the Villa Medicea (at nearby Pratolino), as well as oratorios at Ss. Crocifisso, the Palazzo Apostolico and the Collegio Clementino. Astonishingly, he also produced at least ten serenatas, nine oratorios and sixty-five cantatas for Naples. Because he never married, the initial bulk of his estate was bequeathed to his niece. However, several amendments to his will distributed between charities, friends, servants, and relations, much of his estate. An art collection which had been owned by Handel was auctioned off in 1760 and was said to have included ten prints and seventy paintings; other paintings had already been given away in the will. By the time Handel was ten years old, Zachow’s tutoring had led to his mastering of composing for the violin, oboe, and organ. Handel composed chamber music and church cantatas which didn’t get much attention. However, they were only written for small audiences and have all been lost over time. Because he recognized Handel’s talents, Zachow not only had Handel learn traditional work, but he also introduced him to a variation of masterworks and styles that he had in his own sizable collection. Zachow made Handel practice all these scores of music by having him copy a selection of them. Later in life, Handel recalled that he “used to write like the devil” during those days. Handel kept the notebook in which he copied these selected scores, maintaining it throughout his lifetime.

The fact that these Six Concertos were published some fifteen years after the composer's death was quite unusual for that time; it may be suggested that Benjamin Cooke was "cashing in" on the popularity of the Scarlatti name. Thomas Roseingrave had published in London the first edition of Alessandro's son Domenico's Essercizzi per gravicembalo a couple of years before, and Domenico's work was also being popularized in London by Thomas Kelway and Thomas Arne. That Domenico's popularity continued is witnessed by the publication in 1743 by Charles Avison of his twelve Concerto Grosso arrangements of Domenico's harpsichord sonatas. During this time, one of his most important benefactors was Lord Burlington who was the Third Earl of Burlington as well as the Fourth Earl of Cork. He was extremely wealthy and young as well as being a member of an important aristocratic family of Anglo-Irish descent. Handel wrote a magical opera called Amadigi di Gaula while living in Lord Burlington’s mansion, which was based on a tragedy about a damsel in distress. Afterward, Handel wrote Deborah and then his first English oratorio, Athaliah. These three oratorios served as a foundation for how Handel would use the chorus in his later works. Although Handel learned about writing for instruments from Arcangeol Corelli and about the solo voice from Alessandro Scarlatti, no one taught him how to write for the chorus. That, he taught himself. It was the following year, 1706 to be precise, in which Handel headed to Italy, where he would end up composing many works. He had been invited by Ferdinando de Medici who was very much interested in opera and dreamed of making Florence the musical capital of Italy. As such, he wished to attract current leading talents. As a result, Handel met many of the greatest Italian musicians while traveling in Italy over the next four years, such as Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, Arangelo Corelli, and Antonio Salvi, a librettist with which Handel collaborated at a time thereafter. During his last years Scarlatti was noted as a teacher of younger musicians and a music theorist, for example expounding his ideas on accompaniment in a treatise entitled “Regole per Principianti”.In the early Neapolitan period (1683-1702) Scarlatti was the city”s leading theatrical composer, regularly staging at least a couple of operas a year. He also composed several serenades and sacred music, publishing the collection Mottetti sacri (Naples, Muzio, 1702), later reprinted in Amsterdam under the title Concerti sacri (E. Roger, 1707-08). Handel was a very young boy, between the ages of seven and nine, when he accompanied his father to the Weissenfels. It was here that he was noticed by Duke Johann Adolf I, who Handel later regarded as his benefactor. After somehow making his way to the court organ, Handel surprised everyone with his talented playing, so much so that the Duke, overhearing his playing and realizing how young the player was, recommended to Handel’s father that he be given musical instruction. The Duke was such a man whose recommendations rarely went unheeded. Here’s a link to a reenactment by the Boston Early Music Festival of the original 1718 chamber version of Acis and Galatea: Handel then revised his Acis and Galatea and it brought him the most success of any work he’d ever created before or since, for that matter. He brought on board musicians, such as the well-known Castrato Farinelli, Nicolo Porpora, and Johann Adolph Hasse to play in the Opera of the Nobility. However, he failed to finish it, apparently due to the strong support afforded to him by the Prince of Wales which had caused much strife inside the royal family. Nonetheless, Handel still managed to compose a wedding anthem and a serenata for Princess Royal Anne. Handel then initiated short concertos by the organ between acts. Additionally, it was also the first time he allowed the substitution of arias by Gioacchino Conti, who hadn’t had time enough for learning his part. Unfortunately, even though the end of each act contained a ballet suite, Ariodante was a huge disappointment. Handel’s last opera which contained magical content was based on Alexander’s Feast by John Dryden and starred John Beard and Anna Maria Strada del Po.

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