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Domenico Scarlatti
Again available in paperback, this definitive work on the genius of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) is the result of twelve years of devoted effort by America's foremost harpsichordist and one of the principal authorities on eighteenth-century harpsichord music. Mr. Kirkpatrick traveled extensively to collect material that has tripled the known facts about Scarlatti's life, providing the first adequate biography of one of the greatest harpsichord composers of the eighteenth century and one of the most original composers of all time. The second half of his book is an illuminating study of Scarlatti's 555 sonatas, concluding with a chapter on their performance. The book contains extensive appendixes, including discussions of ornamentation and Scarlatti's vocal music, and an updated section of addenda and corrigenda.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1953
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 31, 2013
Domenico Scarlatti (b. Oct. 26, 1685, in Naples; d. July 23, 1757, in Madrid) was the sixth son of Alessandro Scarlatti. The father no doubt exposed Domenico to the best possible training in Naples, taking him in about 1708 to Venice to study with Francesco Gasparini (1668-1727), himself a pupil of Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713). From Venice the younger Scarlatti journeyed to Rome — with Handel, according to report — where both performed before Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. About 1720 he moved to Lisbon, and some ten years later to Madrid.
Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 Essercizi ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Charles Burney.
The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has attracted notable admirers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heinrich Schenker, Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Marc-André Hamelin.
Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.
Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:
The influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music. An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode and other tonal inflections more or less alien to European art music. Many of Scarlatti's figurations and dissonances are suggestive of the guitar.
A formal device in which each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point, which the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick termed "the crux", and which is sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half).
Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used – the Kk. or K. number. Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". In 1967 the Italian musicologist Giorgio Pestelli published a revised catalogue (using P. numbers), which corrected what he considered to be some anachronisms.[1]
Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 Essercizi ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Charles Burney.
The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has attracted notable admirers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heinrich Schenker, Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Marc-André Hamelin.
Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.
Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:
The influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music. An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode and other tonal inflections more or less alien to European art music. Many of Scarlatti's figurations and dissonances are suggestive of the guitar.
A formal device in which each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point, which the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick termed "the crux", and which is sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half).
Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used – the Kk. or K. number. Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". In 1967 the Italian musicologist Giorgio Pestelli published a revised catalogue (using P. numbers), which corrected what he considered to be some anachronisms.[1]
December 9, 2009
Millions of glassy shards of biographical detail embedded in a marshmallow of soft-focus historical context. Reads a bit like a JL Borges fictional biography.
May 18, 2017
Over the course of several months, I played through five books of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard music, comprising 160 sonatas. For me, these pieces are second only to the works of J.S. Bach among baroque keyboard music. Among the books I was playing from were Ralph Kirkpatrick's two-volume edition of 60 sonatas for Schirmer. One day I happened to see in the introduction a reference to Kirkpatrick's biography of the composer. I promptly found a used copy!
Kirkpatrick was primarily a harpsichord performer, but his biography of Scarlatti is well-researched and clearly written. The first third or so of the book concerns Scarlatti's life, while the remainder discusses his marvelous sonatas. Potential readers should be advised that Kirkpatrick sometimes writes in a technical way about music that may be hard for non-specialists to understand. There are numerous musical examples printed in the text, but Kirkpatrick also refers at times to his own edition of the sonatas. Sometimes I had to flag a passage so that I could re-read it later while looking at the music.
With those caveats, I highly recommend "Domenico Scarlatti" to anyone interested in the composer. Kirkpatrick does a marvelous job of conjuring up the context in which Scarlatti worked. Based on how much I learned, I plan to read more musical biographies in the future. What is remarkable about Scarlatti is that those he was a lifelong musician he composed the music we remember him by, his 550 or so sonatas for harpsichord, from age 53 onwards. Before that he seems to have been a skilled, but not otherwise remarkable, composer. Late in life, out of the shadow of his father (Alessandro Scarlatti, also a famous composer), Domenico finally came into his own. And, if we are to believe one of the stories told about him, it all started when he agreed to compose a set of pieces for his royal patron in return for her paying his gambling debts!
Kirkpatrick was primarily a harpsichord performer, but his biography of Scarlatti is well-researched and clearly written. The first third or so of the book concerns Scarlatti's life, while the remainder discusses his marvelous sonatas. Potential readers should be advised that Kirkpatrick sometimes writes in a technical way about music that may be hard for non-specialists to understand. There are numerous musical examples printed in the text, but Kirkpatrick also refers at times to his own edition of the sonatas. Sometimes I had to flag a passage so that I could re-read it later while looking at the music.
With those caveats, I highly recommend "Domenico Scarlatti" to anyone interested in the composer. Kirkpatrick does a marvelous job of conjuring up the context in which Scarlatti worked. Based on how much I learned, I plan to read more musical biographies in the future. What is remarkable about Scarlatti is that those he was a lifelong musician he composed the music we remember him by, his 550 or so sonatas for harpsichord, from age 53 onwards. Before that he seems to have been a skilled, but not otherwise remarkable, composer. Late in life, out of the shadow of his father (Alessandro Scarlatti, also a famous composer), Domenico finally came into his own. And, if we are to believe one of the stories told about him, it all started when he agreed to compose a set of pieces for his royal patron in return for her paying his gambling debts!
January 26, 2023
I have read only snatches of this. The grasp and understanding that Kirkpatrick has of Domenico Scarlatti is immense. I believe that he is considered the definitive authority on the composer. However, the sheer volume of text was too much for me to take in at any one time. So I have read only portions about topics or subtopics that I was interested in.
What I did read, I found useful, if a bit dry. Though I also recall being dissapointed by Kirkpatrick's discusssion of Scarlatti's use of ornamentation, which was one of my primary purposes for looking at this book.
Some day perhaps, I will read the entire book.
What I did read, I found useful, if a bit dry. Though I also recall being dissapointed by Kirkpatrick's discusssion of Scarlatti's use of ornamentation, which was one of my primary purposes for looking at this book.
Some day perhaps, I will read the entire book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews