Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (Naples, 26 October 1685 - Madrid, 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers to transition into the classical period. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.
Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, belonging to Spanish Crown, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of ten children of the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti.
He later on influenced the likes of Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók etc. Scarlatti on 23 July 1757 at 71 years of age died in Madrid he was buried in the convent there.
Famous quote by Domenico Scarlatti:
"Show yourself more human than critical and your pleasure will increase."
A classical-thinker in the Baroque Era, Scarlatti left a rich legacy to the musical world to enjoy even to this day. With the respective complete editions of Kirkpatrick and of Kenneth Gilbert (1971-84), which maintain the chronological order and pairwise arrangement of sources, an unobstructed view of Scarlatti’s keyboard work can now be obtained, revealing one of the most strikingly original styles of the 18th century.