Francesco (Antonio Nicola) Scarlatti

Scarlatti, Francesco (Antonio Nicola)unlocked Christopher Hair https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.6002278254 Published in print: 20 January 2001Published online: 2001 Updated in this version updated and revised, 3 September 2014

Member of Scarlatti family

(b Palermo, Dec 5, 1666; d Dublin, ?after Jan 1741). Composer, brother of (1) Alessandro Scarlatti. He went to Naples some time in 1672–4, where he studied at one of the conservatories. On 17 February 1684 he became violinist at the royal court, at the same time that his brother Alessandro was appointed maestro di cappella. In 1690 he married Rosolina Albano, who bore him at least five children; she died in Palermo on 29 June 1706. In February 1691 Scarlatti was granted permission to go to Sicily, where he remained for at least 24 years. In an application, dated 29 June 1715, for the position of assistant Kapellmeister to Emperor Charles VI he stated that he had been maestro di cappella in Palermo for 26 years. This was not at the royal chapel, but that he was working in Palermo as a professional musician is shown by his inclusion in the membership lists of the city’s Unione dei Musici in January and July 1694. In 1703 a ‘dialogo a cinque voci’, La profetessa guerriera, was performed at the Convento dell’Immacolata Concezione, Palermo, and two Latin oratorios were performed at the oratory of the Arciconfraternita del SS Crocifisso, Rome, in 1699 and 1710. A dialect comedy, Lo Petracchio scremmetore, was given in Aversa, near Naples, in 1711, in collaboration with his brother-in-law Nicola Pagano. A Dixit Dominus and a mass, both for 16 voices and instruments, together with a chamber cantata, Belle pupille care, and a serenata, Il nuovo sole, for the birthday of Charles VI date from the Palermo period. A fourth oratorio, Daniele nel lago de’ leoni, and a Laetatus sum for five voices and strings may also date from this period. Despite the full support of the Kapellmeister, J.J. Fux, Scarlatti’s application in 1715 for the post of vice-Kapellmeister at the Viennese court was unsuccessful, even though he claimed to have lost his position in Palermo because of his Austrian sympathies. His Miserere in G minor was probably composed to support his application.

Scarlatti returned to the Italian mainland; in February 1719 he drew a salary in respect of his much earlier post at Naples. The same year he travelled to London, perhaps on the invitation of Handel or Geminiani; his name appears in a number of concert advertisements between 1719 and 1724. In January 1720 he was offered, but seems to have rejected, a position at Cannons. The marriage register of S Giovanni in Porta, Naples, shows Francesco Scarlatti as having died by the time his daughter Eleonora married Alessandro Binda there on 12 July 1726 (see Prota-Giurleo, Archivi, vol.27 (1960), 371) – an incorrect statement perhaps fuelled by some family dispute over his remarriage. By 1733 he had moved to Dublin, probably on the recommendation of Thomas Roseingrave or Matthew Dubourg. A disclaimer in Faulkners Dublin Journal (11–14 August 1733) stating that ‘Jane Scarlatti … hath eloped from her said Husband’ is the only indication that he remarried. A benefit concert for Scarlatti, ‘who, thro’ a long Confinement by Sickness, is reduced to very distressful Circumstances’, was advertised in January/February 1741. It is likely that he died soon after.

Works † doubtful

Lo Petracchio scremmetore (commeddia, A. Capis), Aversa, 1711, lost

Cantatas Adorna il seno, B, bc, GB-Cfm*; †Amore, ò mi togli le fiamme dal seno, S, bc, Lbl; Belle pupille care, S, bc, D-MÜs; F-Pn; GB-Mp (? partly autograph); †Chi la speranza, S, bc, Mp; †E con qual cor, oh Dio!, S, bc, Lbl; †Fileno infedel barbaro, S, bc, B-Br; Il nuovo sole, S, A, insts, A-Wn*; In solitario loco lungi, S, bc, D-Dl*; Là dove vegnano, B, bc, GB-Cfm*; O come in un’istante, A, bc, D-B, Dl*; †O come, o Dio!, S, bc, GB-Ob; Pastoral Cantata, 2vv, insts, 1724, lost

†Se lagrimate, pupille, S, bc, Cfm

Open in new tab Orats Agnus occisus ab origine mundi in Abele, Rome, SS Crocifisso, 1699, lost; La profetessa guerriera, Palermo, Convento dell’Immacolata Concezione, 1703, GB-Lbl* (frag.); Israele per foeminam triumphans, Rome, SS Crocifisso, 1710, lost; Daniele nel lago de leoni, 5vv, insts, ?Palermo, 1710, Cfm*

Open in new tab Sacred Mass, 16vv, insts, 1702, GB-Ob*; Dixit Dominus, 16vv, insts, 1703, Ob*; Miserere, 5vv, insts, 1714, A-Wn; GB-Lbl*; Laetatus sum, 5vv, insts, I-Nf

Open in new tab Other works †Comincio solo, canon, 3vv, GB-Y; †Sinfonia, C, F-Pn; †Voi sola posete, canon, 3vv, GB-Y

Source:

Hair, C. (2001). Scarlatti, Francesco. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2020, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97815....