Scarlati, ALESSANDRO, composer and teacher of music, was born at Trapani in Sicily in 1659, and is stated to have studied music under Carissimi at Rome. There too, at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden, he produced in 1680 his first opera; he remained in her service, probably, until 1688. After acting as musical director at the court of Naples from 1694 to 1703, he returned to Rome to take up the duties of musical director to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore; but two years later he went back to Naples. There he conducted, one after the other, the three musical conservatoria, and became the founder of the Neapolitan school of musical composition. He died at Naples on 24th October 1725. A man of untiring energy, Scarlati worked as composer, teacher, director, and player, and wrote a vast number of works, including nearly 120 operas, 200 masses, 10 oratorios, 500 cantatas, and innumerable motets, madrigals, and similar pieces. But, although he was so prolific, he was not a careless composer; on the contrary, he was a master of counterpoint and a fertile inventor of melodies (see OPERA, Vol.
VII. p. 608). The most celebrated amongst his pupils were his son, Durante, and Hasse. This son, DOMENICO (1683-1757), early distinguished himself as a composer of church music, and lived successively in Rome, London, Lisbon, Naples, and Madrid. In the history of music he figures as a clever writer of sonatas for the pianoforte, and as the author of various technical improvements in the writing and playing of pianoforte music.