Alessandro Scarlatti essays

Alessandro Scarlatti essays Alessandro Scarlatti was a composer during the Baroque Era. When compared with its music predecessors, Baroque music is said to be have more lavish textures, and more intense. This period of music introduced Operas, Oratorios, and Cantatas. It also brought along orchestral forms, though Operas became very popular. Operas were very popular because Italian intellectuals wanted to recapture the Greek Dramas, in which music played a major role. A distinguishing feature of the Baroque Era was the emphasis on the musics volume, texture, and pace. The previous era, (Late Renaissance) did not focus on these very much. Cannons and Fugues (strict forms of imitative polyphony) were also very popular during the Baroque Era. In this Era, composers were expected to prove their expertise whenever asked. To this, they were expected to improvise complex Fugues on a moments notice. Only the best were able to do this. Alessandro Scarlatti was born in Palermo on May 2nd 1660. Not much is known about his family, other than the fact that he had two sisters, and his parents were Sicilian, and most likely from Artistic families themselves. At the age of twelve, Alessandro and his two sisters were sent to Rome to live with relatives. There were rumors that Alessandro studied with Carissimi while there. Carissimi was an Italian composer who composed hundreds of motets and cantatas in addition to Masses, and other sacred music. When Alessandro was seventeen, he married, and not quite nine months later, their first of six children was born. At the age of eighteen, he composed his first opera, Gli Equivoci nel sembiante, which was a great success. Some may argue that this was actually his second opera. There are rumors that he composed an earlier opera, but it was never performed, and the title is unknown. Sometime between the time he was married, and his first composition, hi...