Domenico Scarlatti, Sinfonia, La Contesa delle Stagioni by Eleonora Amato

The seventeenth-century concepts of harmony owe their development and refinement to the Cantata even more than to other vocal genres, up to their definitive arrangement in the monodic style typical of the gallant era and which later onsigned to classicism. The great and undisputed protagonist of the Cantata da Camera between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was undoubtedly Alessandro Scarlatti with about 700 works that guarantee a relevant production for this genre. Alessandro also wrote many occasional Cantatas that accompany the Serenades written for anniversaries, birthdays and other events concerning the various gifts and noble "masters". And it is to this vein that we can trace the Serenade La Contesa delle Stagioni by his son Domenico and in this poem, as in the analogous ones of the Father, the use of Air is outlined with a new beginning.