Pietro Filippo Scarlatti

Scarlatti, Pietro Filippounlocked Eva Badura-Skoda and Roberto Pagano https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.6002278257 Published in print: 20 January 2001Published online: 2001 Updated in this version updated and revised, 3 September 2014

Member of Scarlatti family

(b Rome, Jan 5, 1679; d Naples, Feb 22, 1750). Composer, son of (1) Alessandro Scarlatti. He probably received his earliest musical training from his father. From 1705 to 1708 he was maestro di cappella at Urbino Cathedral, a position he left when his father summoned him to Naples in the expectation that he would succeed Cristoforo Caresana as first organist of the royal chapel, a post which had been promised him by the viceroy, Cardinal Grimani. Grimani was mortally ill by the time Pietro Scarlatti arrived in Naples, and died (in November 1710) before his promise could be fulfilled; Scarlatti had then to wait until 1712 to succeed Giuseppe Vignola as one of the royal chapel’s organists. Not until 1728 did he receive his first commission for an opera, Clitarco – probably the only one he wrote. Burney reported that Cotumacci had called him ‘good for nothing’. He had three children (Domenico, Alessandro, and Anna); one, Alessandro, must have been a musician because after Pietro’s death the children petitioned (unsuccessfully) that their late father’s position should be given to him.

Works music lost unless otherwise stated

Giacobbe (orat), Urbino, 1705

S Andrea apostolo (orat), Urbino, 1706

La sposa de cantici (dialogo), Urbino, Oratorio della Grotta, 2 April 1706

Clitarco, o sia Il più fedel tra gli amici (drama per musica), Naples, S Bartolomeo, 1728

Cants.: Care luci del ben mio, A, 3 insts, bc, D-B; Scusatemi signora, S, bc, Dl; Cantate, S, S, A, str, hpd, I-Mc

3 minuets, vn, GB-Cfm

4 bassi numerati; 21 toccatas, hpd, 1739–42: all Mc

Badura-Skoda, E., & Pagano, R. (2001). Scarlatti, Pietro Filippo. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 10 Nov. 2020, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97815....