Domenico Scarlatti

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life on the Iberian Peninsula and is best remembered for his 555 keyboard sonatas, works that expanded the technical and expressive possibilities of the harpsichord and influenced the development of keyboard writing across Europe.

Scarlatti was born on October 26, 1685, in Naples, the sixth of ten children of the composer Alessandro Scarlatti. He likely received his early musical education from his father and possibly from Francesco Gasparini in Venice. In 1701 he was appointed organist and composer at the royal chapel in Naples, where his father was maestro di cappella.

From 1709 he served Maria Casimira, the exiled queen of Poland, in Rome, composing several operas including Tolomeo et Alessandro (1711). He held positions at the Cappella Giulia at St Peter's Basilica from 1715 and at the Portuguese embassy in Rome from 1719. A celebrated 1709 contest with Handel in Rome was reported as a tie at the harpsichord, with Handel preferred at the organ.

In 1719 he moved to Lisbon as music master to the Portuguese royal family, including the princess Maria Bárbara. When she married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain in 1729 he followed her to Madrid, where he remained for the rest of his life. The keyboard Essercizi was published in London in 1738. He died in Madrid on July 23, 1757, aged 71.

His name Domenico derives from the Italian form of Latin Dominicus, from dominus meaning "lord," originally given to children born on a Sunday. Domenico has been common in Italy since the medieval period.