Born in Palermo, Sicily, on 5 December 1666, Francesco Scarlatti was destined to live his entire life under the all-enveloping shadows of his elder brother Alessandro, and the latter’s son Domenico. On the completion of his training at one of the celebrated Neapolitan conservatorii – a privilege awarded to Sicilian children on account of the island being a province of the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples – Francesco was accepted into the Neapolitan Royal Chapel as a violinist, at the same time as Alessandro was made maestro di cappella to the vice regal court. These appointments were not popular with local musicians, many of whom, including the vice-maestro Francesco Provenzale, resigned in protest. Both brothers retained their court positions.

In 1690 Francesco married Rosalinda Albano, who was to bear him five children before dying in 1706. In February 1691 he requested leave to return to Palermo “to attend to some personal business”, presumably connected in some way with relatives still residing in Sicily. Whether the family remained in Palermo for the next 24 years is not known. He certainly travelled on a number of occasions: two oratorios were performed in Rome in 1699 and 1710, and a comic opera was produced at Aversa in 1711. The Messa, Dixit Dominus and Miserere are all from this period. In 1714 Scarlatti unsuccessfully applied for the post of maestro di cappella at Milan cathedral. The following year he petitioned the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI for the post of assistant Kapellmeister to the court chapel in Vienna. Although he had the full support of Kapellmeister Johann Josef Fux, Scarlatti was unsuccessful once again, the post going to the Antonio Caldara.

In 1719 Scarlatti travelled to London, perhaps on the invitation of Handel, who had been in Rome and Naples a few years earlier. London attracted many foreign musicians to its theatres and music rooms, and Johann Mattheson, writing in 1713, observed that “in England one plays to gain”. Not much is known of Scarlatti’s activities in London. He presumably worked in the various theatre orchestras, and a number of “benefit” concerts were held for him. In 1720 Scarlatti was recommended to James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, by John Arbuthnot. Brydges requested he “send Scarlatti’s Brother down . . . and let me know w[ha]t Terms he will come to me upon”. Scarlatti never accepted a position in Brydge’s household, even though his colleagues Handel and Pepusch were part of the establishment.

At some point after 1724 Scarlatti travelled to Dublin, where he spent the rest of his life. Referred to there as “Master of Musick”, he was obviously an active member of the Dublin musical scene. A remarkable disclaimer in the Dublin Journal (11 – 14 August 1733) reads: “Whereas Jane Scarlatti, wife of Francis Scarlatti, Master of Musick hath elop’d from her said Husband. This is to desire that no Body may give any Credit to the said Jane Scarlatti on account of her said Husband; for he will not pay any Debts that she shall contract; nor answer any Bills she may draw on him”. This is the only indication that the composer had remarried at some point after the death of Rosalinda Albano in 1706. Scarlatti’s last few years seem to have been dogged by ill health – he was reported as being “reduced to very distressful Circumstances” – and in 1741 a “benefit” concert had to be postponed due to the aging composer being unavailable “thro’ a long Confinement by Sickness”. This is the last known reference to Francesco Scarlatti. His death was not reported by any of the Dublin papers, and no grave has been traced.

Four sacred choral works by Francesco Scarlatti have survived: three psalm settings – Miserere mei (51), Dixit Dominus (110) and Laetatus sum (122) – and a Messa in Neapolitan format (i.e. Kyrie and Gloria only). Psalms 51 and 122 are small-scale settings for five voices, strings and continuo, while the Dixit Dominus and Messa are on a monumental scale, being scored for 16 voices in four choirs of SATB, trumpet, strings and continuo, in the Roman polychoral style of Benevoli and his followers. The autograph manuscripts of both works are now held by the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and dated 1702 and 1703 respectively. Further copies of each work (also in the Bodleian) were prepared in 1786 by John Dorian, but the reasoning behind their production is unclear. The autograph of the Miserere is dated 24 March 1714. A second copy, authorised by the composer, together with a full set of vocal and instrumental parts is preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. In accordance with performance practices in German speaking countries, parts are provided for cornetti and trombones, which double the voices in choral sections. It is this set which was presented to Charles VI in support of Scarlatti’s application for a court appointment. The Laetatus sum is the only work by Scarlatti thought to have survived in an Italian collection - the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Filippini (Girolamini) in Naples. However, repeated attempts to gain access to the manuscript have proved fruitless, and it is now believed that the library sold the manuscript privately at some point to raise funds for restoration work.

Francesco Scarlatti’s musical language is very close to that of his brother Alessandro’s. His Neapolitan training is discernable through a fondness for irregular melodic phrases, colourful and often highly dissonant harmonies, contrapuntal interplay, and independent instrumental parts. His fugal writing and general skill at part-writing show him to have been a composer of considerable accomplishment. The Miserere ends with a fine double fugue, while the fugues that conclude the Messa and Dixit Dominus display a particularly Scarlattian trait: strict vocal counterpoint with a fragmented accompaniment shared between the violins. The use of a fugue subject in augmentation as a cantus firmus in the same voice in each choir is also found in similar works by Scarlatti’s Roman contemporary Giuseppe de Rossi. Evidence that the 16-part works were composed with single voices in mind may be found in the internal movements of both works, in which Scarlatti writes for quartets of equal voices.

Performances of the music contained in the first three volumes of this edition are available on CD