Francesco Scarlatti

Francesco Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer and musician, born on 5 December 1666 in Palermo, Sicily, then under the control of the Kingdom of Naples. Younger brother of Alessandro Scarlatti, uncle of Domenico Scarlatti, and mentor to Emanuele d’Astorga, he trained at the city’s conservatory before becoming a cellist at the Neapolitan royal court in 1684. His appointment sparked controversy among Neapolitan musicians who resented the rapid rise of a young provincial, and contemporary accounts suggest Alessandro’s influence as kapellmeister may have played a role. In 1690 he married Rosalinda Albano, who died in 1706 after bearing five children.

After leaving Italy, Scarlatti traveled across Europe and visited London in 1719, possibly at the invitation of Handel, whom he had met years earlier. Little is known of his activities there, though he likely worked in theatre orchestras, and despite a recommendation to James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, he declined to join the musical establishment at Cannons. From 1724 he settled in Dublin as “Master of Musick,” where he may have remarried a woman named Jane; a 1733 Dublin newspaper notice records her elopement and his refusal to honor any debts she incurred. The final known reference to him dates from January 1741, noting his ill health and inability to perform, after which nothing further is recorded.

Scarlatti’s surviving works include large-scale sacred compositions such as his Psalm 110 (Dixit Dominus) of 1702 for sixteen singers and orchestra, Psalm 122 (Laetatus sum), and Mass fragments (Kyrie and Gloria) dated 1703, as well as a Miserere (Psalm 51) dated 1714. Most autographed manuscripts of his major works are held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, while an authorized copy of the Miserere is preserved in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Several modern ensembles, including Concerto Gallese, Armonico Consort, and Ensemble Ex Tempore, have recorded his sacred works, contributing to renewed interest in his music.

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