SCARLATTI, Domenico, son of Alessandro Scarlatti, was a very distinguished composer, and one of the ablest harpsichord players in Europe. He was born at Naples in 1685
and studied at first under his father, and afterwards under Gasparini, at Rome. In 1709, he met with Handel, at Venice, and was delighted with the surprising improvisations of that great master. At Rome, he composed a great number of excellent cantatas, and wrote also for the church. On 1st January 1715, he was appointed chapel-master of St Peter's, in the Vatican, but quitted that post in August 1719, when he went to London, in order to compose an opera, and to accompany on the harpsichord at the Italian Opera. He there produced Narciso on the 30th May 1720; and next year set out for Lisbon. The king of Portugal engaged him, and treated him very liberally. In 1726, he returned to Naples, but finding his great instrumental talent of small advantage to him in Italy, he accepted, in 1729, an offer from the court of Spain to give lessons to the Princess of the Asturias, whom he had formerly taught at Lisbon, as Princess of Portugal. At Madrid he enjoyed great advantages, which were continued to him by Ferdinand VI., in whose service he remained till his death in 1757. He published two sets of sonatas for the harpsichord, dedicated to the Princess of the Asturias, besides other sonatas. His sonatas are remarkable for invention, for graceful melody, and skilful construction. The number of his sonatas is wonderful. The Abate Santini, at Rome, had collected 349 of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas for harpsichord and organ, and yet had not obtained all that he had written. Clementi, in the second volume of his Selections, gives two fugue specimens of Domenico Scarlatti's music, one of them the celebrated Cat's Fugue. (G. F. G.)