Keyboard Sonatas Of Domenico Scarlatti Study

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) was a great composers, harpsichord performer and educator in the Baroque Era. The Three Masters in Baroque Era were Bach, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti. The most important achievement of Domenico Scarlatti was his 555 sonatas. At that time the works were prepared for the princess Barbara, who practiced playing the harpsichord. However in the three hundreds years, these diverse, novel and fresh sonatas played a significant role in the research and performance.The paper consists of four chapters, which discusses the composition overview, style origin, musical analysis, acoustics features and performance interpretation of the sonatas, with the purpose to provide the theory for the future teaching activities and performance.Chapter One includes the introduction of Domenico Scarlatti, the composition overview and style origin, specifically analyzing the reasons of sonata mixed musical style: the influence of the times, the influence of other musicians and the influence of the music of Italy and Spain.Chapter Two introduces the musical analysis of the sonatas, including musical structure, modal tonality, acoustic features, subject characteristics, form texture and rhythm characteristics,for the purpose of having an outline for the composing techniques of the sonatas. Chapter Three is the focus of the paper, further analyzing the acoustics features: bright acoustics, color acoustics, instruments animation acoustics, folk music acoustics and magnificent acoustics.Chapter Four discusses the sonatas from the aspects of intensity, timbre, rhythm and pedal.The paper offers the performing notes, using the comprehensive researching methods, basing on the overall analysis of the sonatas, emphasizing the acoustics features, so as to make a contribution for the research of sonatas.