Scarlatti was the first great composer to illustrate the cante jondo tradition, where persecuted Andalusian minorities expressed despair and rebellion through lyrical melismata.
Historical Context
Maria Barbara of Braganza, the Spanish queen and Scarlatti's student and benefactor, was crucial in preserving reliable and complete sources of his sonatas.
Critical Reception
Hans von Bülow, a legendary pianist and conductor, published an anthology of Scarlatti sonatas in 1864, arranging them into suites and sometimes transposing them to appeal to the German public.
Interpretation
Hans von Bülow's 1864 edition of Scarlatti's sonatas changed tempo indications, such as K. 8 from Allegro to Moderato, ma deciso, which influenced performance traditions for many years.
Instruments
Historians have found a correlation between the spread of Bartolomeo Cristofori's Gravicembalo col piano e forte (early fortepiano) in the Iberian Peninsula and Scarlatti's movements with Maria Barbara's court.
Compositional Technique
The critical edition by Emilia Fadini preserves the Andalusian harmonies in Scarlatti's sonatas, which other editions misinterpreted.
Composition History
No autograph manuscripts of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas have ever been found, and only 30 of his pieces were published during his lifetime.
