Scarlatti, Alessandro

Scarlatti, Alessandro an Italian musical composer, was born at Naples in 1659. He received a good musical education, and, at the age of twenty-one, wrote his first opera. Little is known of his life except that he was master of the royal chapel under Christina of Sweden in 1680. and after her death filled the same office in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. He also taught in various musical conservatories. He died Oct. 24, 1725. His principal works are about thirty in number, chiefly upon secular subjects, but among them are several oratorios, one called The Sacrifice of Abraham: — two renderings of the Stabat Mater: — and six Masses. See Fetis, Biog. Univ. des Musiciens.