gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly) (01/08/85)
-- >> 1985 is the 300th anniversary of the birthday of >> Johann Sebastian Bach, in my opinion >> the greatest composer that ever lived. >> Expect a deluge of concerts, recordings, books, >> and articles. Perhaps after three centuries >> his music will finally win the recognition it deserves. But let's not forget that it's also the 300th anniversary of the birthday of Domenico Scarlatti. He was a prolific composer for the harpsichord, and by employing intricate tone clusters was able to create the illusion of dynamics, indeed real passion, on an instrument incapable of them. Domenico grew up (in Italy) playing keyboard in the band of his father, Alessandro, a thoroughly mediocre composer. He remained a player, and he was regarded as a great one, until his father died. At this point Domenico was pushing 40, but he left Italy and wound up in Spain giving harpsichord lessons to the Queen. (There was probably more than one, but I can't remember which queen.) Most of the 555 short sonatas he wrote were exercises for the Queen. He composed for, and played on, a single manual instrument, by the way. Prefer the Kirkpatrick recordings for their authenticity in this regard. In an early PDQ Bach monologue, Peter Schickele mentions that Scarlatti's later works lack the elaborate hand crossings of his earlier works because Scarlatti grew so fat that he was unable to cross his hands on the keyboard with much alacrity. The crowd really howled at that one, but the crowd also howled, many years later, at Schickele's mention of the Wagner Piano Concerto. Wagner *DID* write a piano concerto. There really was a composer named Padre Martini, too. Scarlatti is a true inspiration for those of us in our late thirties who still haven't gotten around to moving heaven and earth. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 07 Jan 85 [18 Nivose An CXCIII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7188 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***
jhf@lanl.ARPA (01/10/85)
> -- > >> 1985 is the 300th anniversary of the birthday of > >> Johann Sebastian Bach, in my opinion > >> the greatest composer that ever lived. > > >> Expect a deluge of concerts, recordings, books, > >> and articles. Perhaps after three centuries > >> his music will finally win the recognition it deserves. > > But let's not forget that it's also the 300th anniversary > of the birthday of Domenico Scarlatti. Well, I looked up D. Scarlatti in a dictionary, which gave the year of his birth as 1683. To be sure, though, 1985 is also the 300th anniversary of George Frederick Handel (or Georg Friedrich Haendel, if you prefer) and the 400th of Heinrich Schuetz. Joe Fasel Los Alamos National Laboratory jhf@lanl.{arpa,uucp}
don@oakhill.UUCP (Don Weiss) (01/11/85)
[] > [...] At this point Domenico was pushing 40, but > he left Italy and wound up in Spain giving harpsichord lessons > to the Queen. [...] > Scarlatti is a true inspiration for those of us in our late thirties > who still haven't gotten around to moving heaven and earth. --ken perlow Reminds me of the Tom Lehrer line: "Why just think of it...when Mozart was my age he'd been DEAD for 3 YEARS!" Don Weiss "Thou shalt not make a machine In the image of a Human Mind." --The Orange Catholic Bible
ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (01/12/85)
> Scarlatti is a true inspiration for those of us in our late thirties > who still haven't gotten around to moving heaven and earth. --ken perlow Bach's first commercially published music (the partitas for solo harpsichord) was when he was 41. Of course, he had written a bunch of other stuff before then, but only for local consumption.
brad@esc-bb.UUCP (Brad Benton) (01/13/85)
> > But let's not forget that it's also the 300th anniversary > > of the birthday of Domenico Scarlatti. > > Well, I looked up D. Scarlatti in a dictionary, which gave the year of > his birth as 1683. To be sure, though, 1985 is also the 300th anniversary > of George Frederick Handel (or Georg Friedrich Haendel, if you prefer) > and the 400th of Heinrich Schuetz. I'm afraid your dictionary is in error. Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples on Oct. 26, 1685, the sixth of ten children. Now, he did have a sister, Flaminia Anna Caterina, who was born on April 10, 1683. Handel was born in 1685 in Germany, where the German spelling of his name, as given above, is still prefered today. However, he lived for a while in Italy, and eventually made England his permanent home. And in each place he spelled his name according to the local norms: in Italy it was Hendel, and then Handel in England. Although there are various spellings of his first names, he generally used George Frideric (no, that's not a typo, it's Frideric). BTW, while he was in Italy (1706-1710), he certainly made the acquaintance of both Domenico and Alessandro Scarlatti (Allessandro was Domenico's father). -- bb ..!ihnp4!ut-sally!cyb-eng!esc-bb!brad
gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly) (01/14/85)
-- >> Well, I looked up D. Scarlatti in a dictionary, which gave the year >> of his birth as 1683. To be sure, though, 1985 is also the 300th >> anniversary of George Frederick Handel (or Georg Friedrich Haendel, >> if you prefer) and the 400th of Heinrich Schuetz. >> Joe Fasel Better get a new dictionary. 26 Oct. 1685 is the accepted birth date for Scarlatti. You're right on Schuetz, however--8 Oct. 1585. But curiouser and curiouser... My Peters music calendar shows that 5 Sep. 1985 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Johann Christian Bach. At 50, ol' J.S. had a passion for more than just composing. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 13 Jan 85 [24 Nivose An CXCIII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7188 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***