Post Description

The Scarlatti family is one of the many musical dynasties in music history. Only two of its members are still well-known today: Alessandro and his son Domenico. Alessandro was born in Palermo as the second son of Pietro Scarlata (as the original family name was), who was active as a tenor. During his career Alessandro lived and worked in several cities, like Rome, Naples and Venice. At a young age he was already a famous and much sought-after composer. His younger brother Francesco - almost forgotten today - was less lucky. He was appointed as violinist at the royal court in Napels in 1684, but returned to Palermo in 1691, and stayed there for about 24 years. He tried to find appointments at the courts of Vienna and Naples, but failed. In 1719 he travelled to London, where he participated in public concerts. In 1733 he went to Dublin, where he seems to have died in 1741 or soon after. Domenico also wasn't very happy for some time: only after the death of his father he felt really free to follow his own path, although he had left Italy five years earlier, in 1720. 

This disc pays attention to a part of the oeuvre of the Scarlatti family which is not very often performed and recorded. As the title of this disc indicates its subject is the way these three Scarlatti's dealt with polyphony. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) stated that polyphony, and in particular polyphony as applied by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, was the best way to implement the liturgical ideals of the Church. But at the beginning of the 17th century the musical aesthetics fundamentally changed: the text was put into the centre, and the music was supposed to express the affetti of the text. But polyphony continued to play an important role in the style of composing during the 17th and 18th centuries, in Italy and elsewhere. There were two ways of using polyphony, and both can be heard on this disc.