Domenico Scarlatti accepted a major court job in Lisbon as mestre de capela (chapel master). At the Portuguese court he became a keyboard teacher to the Infanta Maria Bárbara, a relationship that would shape the rest of his career. This move began the long Iberian phase of his life and work.
In Lisbon, Scarlatti’s responsibilities increasingly centered on teaching and private music-making rather than public church music. Training Maria Bárbara as a top-level keyboard player created steady demand for new pieces and technical challenges. This courtly teacher–performer setting helps explain why so many of his later works are compact, instrument-focused sonatas.
Maria Bárbara married Ferdinand (the Prince of Asturias, later Ferdinand VI of Spain). The marriage linked the Portuguese and Spanish courts and set up Scarlatti’s later move to Spain as part of Maria Bárbara’s household. It marked the turning point from a Portuguese appointment to a Spanish-centered career.
After the royal marriage, Scarlatti followed Maria Bárbara to Spain, where the court spent several years based in Seville. In this Andalusian environment, Scarlatti’s keyboard writing is often linked to Spanish musical color—such as guitar-like patterns and dance rhythms—adapted for harpsichord technique. This period set the stage for his mature sonata style.
The royal household left Seville and settled in Madrid, where Scarlatti continued serving Maria Bárbara as her maestro di musica. Madrid became his main base for the rest of his life, even as the court moved seasonally to nearby palaces. From this point, his work is best understood as elite private music for a highly skilled royal performer.
The celebrated castrato singer Farinelli joined the Spanish court, helping to strengthen Italian musical influence in Madrid. This mattered for Scarlatti because it shows the high level of musical resources and attention at court during these years. Scarlatti worked within this environment while focusing mainly on keyboard composition and teaching.
Scarlatti received the honor of knighthood in the Order of Santiago, a major Spanish chivalric order. The award reflects his prestige in Iberian court life, despite his work being largely private rather than public-facing. It also shows that his value was recognized at the highest political and social levels.
Scarlatti’s only collection published with his direct involvement, Essercizi per gravicembalo, appeared in London as thirty single-movement keyboard sonatas. The dedication to King John V of Portugal highlights Scarlatti’s earlier Lisbon connection and Maria Bárbara’s roots. The publication helped spread his keyboard style beyond Spain to a broader European audience.
Scarlatti’s first wife, Maria Caterina Gentili, died in 1739. The loss changed his household while he remained professionally tied to Maria Bárbara’s court circle. Biographical disruptions like this help explain why so much of Scarlatti’s story is reconstructed from court context and copied music sources rather than personal documents.
A major early manuscript source for Scarlatti’s sonatas (later known as Venice volume XIV) was copied and dated 1742. Because Scarlatti’s autograph manuscripts do not survive, these luxury manuscript volumes are crucial evidence for what he wrote and how the music circulated at court. Their careful presentation suggests they were valued as a curated royal collection, not casual copies.
When Philip V died, Ferdinand VI became king, and Maria Bárbara became Queen of Spain. Contemporary observers noted that she had unusual political and cultural influence as queen. For Scarlatti, this elevated his longtime pupil and patron to the center of Spanish power, further strengthening the court setting that supported his keyboard work.
Another important Venice manuscript volume (later called Venice XV) was copied and dated 1749. Together with the 1742 volume, it provides an earlier anchor point in the surviving source tradition, before the large run of later volumes. These dated sources help researchers understand how Scarlatti’s sonatas were organized and preserved in the royal orbit.
Most of the large Venice set of sonata volumes (I–XIII) was compiled in a concentrated period from 1752 to 1757. This cluster suggests a purposeful effort late in Scarlatti’s life to preserve and organize a substantial body of keyboard music in manuscript form. These volumes became central to later cataloging and modern editions because they contain the majority of the known sonatas.
Scarlatti died in Madrid in 1757, closing a long career shaped by service to Maria Bárbara across Portugal and Spain. By the time of his death, his sonatas were largely known through manuscript copying rather than printed publication, which affected how they spread after him. His Iberian period left a lasting model for keyboard writing that blends court virtuosity with distinctive Iberian musical gestures.
Domenico Scarlatti's Iberian period (1709–1757)