Was this composer BETTER than BACH?! 

*Correction: the picture at the beginning is not of Domenico Scarlatti, but his father, Alessandro Scarlatti. I apologize for the error... I was editing this at 4am 😬 (!)

"I've always considered Bach to be a sculpter. If you had to compare, Scarlatti would be a collage artist." Such a legendary comparison.

1685 was a great year for music. Not only were Bach and Scarlatti born that year, but also George Frederic Handel. 140 years after Bach's death, Gilbert and Sullivan went to the USA. When the boat came into the harbour, all these other boats came out to greet them, with people waving contracts they wanted the pair to sign. At that point they realised they had been pirated, and so they wrote The Pirates of Penzance. An American later wrote to Gilbert and said "I really like the music of your friend Mr. Sullivan, and also the music of Mr. Bach. Tell me, is Mr. Bach still composing?" Gilbert wrote back "... at present, Mr. Bach is not so much composing as decomposing".

This is terrific. Your Bachifying skills are astounding.

At first I was perplexed, because I thought Domenico Scarlatti is one of the easiest composers to identify - because of imitations and the binary format sonata. But if we only look at a few bars, then yes, I can see how his music may be confused with Bach's. By the way, I would love to hear more of your interpretations of Bach. I think you are a brilliant musicians, especially when playing J.S. Bach's music.

One of my parents is a classical pianist and I've grown up hearing a lot of pieces without ever really knowing who wrote what, I've most definitely confused Scarlatti for Bach at points :,) This was really helpful in a really surprising way, thank you so much!

I'm a big fan of Scarlatti. The Spanish and guitar influences are very appealing to me. The use of repeated motifs and dissonant notes in chords makes his music sound like "Pop Baroque" to my ears. I find many enjoyable qualities in his music, to a significant degree because I play guitar.

Scarlatti has long been my favorite composer. I could be wrong, but I feel like Scarlatti has been getting more and more attention lately. I love it. This was a great video.

Bach and Scarlatti have much more in common than one normally realizes - that short-clip identification test is so tricky even for trained professionals! There is no need at all to frustrate over the fact that a general audience might mistake Scarlatti for Bach🙂

Scarlatti's life was pretty unusual. If he hadn't taken a job at 34 years old, as the tutor of the musically gifted Portuguese Princess Maria Barbara, he probably would only be remembered today as the modestly talented son of Alessandro Scarlatti, instead of one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era. Some people only find their niche later in life.

For everyone who's asking, the piece played by David Louie at 6:59 is presumably Sonata in A major, K. 113 by Scarlatti, hope this helps...

I can’t tell you how excited I am to see that you’ve finally made a video on Scarlatti! Tremendously underrated master composer with some of the most exciting, dramatic, tragic, demonic, transcendental and exulted music ever written for keyboard. There is just so much character and life to discover in his over 500 sonatas. Listening and perusing through them has always given me endless pleasure.

As someone who plays both Bach and Scarlatti on the organ, I found this video really interesting. Would love to see more videos in this format, keep it going 👍

Btw, the first portrait you displayed of Scarlatti is actually of his father Alessandro not our beloved Domenico.

I’m so happy cause you posted :)

One and half years ago I started listening to all Scarlatti keyboard sonatas from a playlist including many performers. This after starting listening all Bach compositions and never finishing till now. But Scarlatti I finished in about 4 months and I was very surprised by his creativity! Such a harmonic and structural complexity! Feels like a 3 minute sonata by him has often more musical content than a 20 min romantic piece! Meanwhile I learned to play a couple of his sonatas, one of my greatest motivations during the pandemics. Touched by this experience, I also listened to all sonatas from Padre Antonio Soler and some by Carlos Seixas. Today, we know that Scarlatti influenced J.S. Bach, but probably not the opposite, since Bach's music was pretty unknown to the public during his life.

Goddd damn, I LOVED your arrangements in this video. Thank you so much for making classical music so easy to learn about.

I think my late Musicology Professor, Joel Sheveloff, would be pleased with this. He wroted his Doctoral dissertation on D. Scarlatti, and, after his retirement, his book on Bach's Musical Offering, and would often refer to the two of them in class. As a Voice Major who played piano, I had only run into D. Scarlatti in a book of old Italian songs and arias, but had been impressed by his almost modern harmonies.

Beautiful, Nahre! I love your reimaginings of various composers. That's funny I don't believe I've ever confused the two, but your quiz definitely stumped me a few times. You always do such a great job verbalizing what we experience in music.

Wow, I really enjoyed that. Your reimaginings of each composer as each other were a great insight into each (especially from a player’s perspective). Also your little test was devious and more difficult than I expected!

Very interesting video! I saw your Instagram post and thought it sounded like another composer's piece but modified to sound like Bach. Didn't expect the original piece to be from Scarlatti, but then again I barely even listen to Scarlatti :P

The longer musical clips reveal more of the differences between Bach and Scarlatti. Your beautifully bachified and scarlattified modifications also made these clearer, but as interesting I find this, I’m sure the general audience are just after pleasant baroque melodies without much focus on differences that would mostly go unnoticed to the untrained ear. Outstanding video. Enjoyed it!

What a wonderful video - thanks for making it and sharing it! You are incredibly talented.

Great Job!... This was a great session of your channel Nahre, Bach and Scarlatti. keep up the good work kind regards...

This simply made me cry of joy. Born in Vienna my musical roots are mostly in the geografical middle between these amazing composers. The depth of you knowledge of baroque musica and your ability to interpret and reinvent some of it just made my day. Thank you so much. And yes, Scarlatti was not so much on my list up to now. ;)

She nails it as always she has done. Really intriguing stuff this is! Mainly, when she digested, mixed the styles of the two composers and produced the materials of the way of hers, I just gaped and listened to the music with bliss, blessing her rare talent. Thank you for your presence, Nahre!

Brilliant combination of the two at the end! Great analysis. Such high quality. This was a creative concept all around. Please do more.

Brilliant vid! Very clear comparison that elucidates the time. Thanks!

Scarlatti is one of the most underrated composers. Absolutely gorgeous music

The Bach that Scarlatti reminds me of most is Carl Phillip Emmanuel, son of J.S. who was a big influence on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven both with his compositions and his book on playing the keyboard. Both Scarlatti and CPE Bach have huge and very consistent bodies of keyboard works that often feel like improvisations with surprises around every corner. I'm not a musician or musically trained, but understand both have a lot of hand crossing. I don't know whether CPE Bach knew Scarlatti's music or not but suspect he did, as 30 of Scarlatti's sonatas were published in 1738 when CPE Bach was 24 years old.

What amazing understanding and creativity you have, Nahre! I love listening to your videos! And I am so impressed with the interesting and knowledgeable comments of your listeners!

What an awesome video! I love both these composers, it's very interesting to observe de diferences and similarities betwen them. Thanks!

I absolutely love it when you transform a piece into the style of another composer. Cannot get enough of it. That should totally be a thing of its own that all musicians (not only composers, but performers too) are taught or at least: encouraged to do.

This is such a magnificent video in every aspect and what an amazing launch of a new highly educative series, Nahre! 👏 This is a great example of how music goes around the world and comes full circle through circular inspirations throughout history! I'm amazed by everything you have shared here! About one of their historical and cultural connections, I think J.S. Bach was influenced by Italian styles a lot in his own writing, I mean even more than we know perhaps. The Italian Concerto is there, of course, but he even learned how to write concertos by literally copying note-for-note Vivaldi's scores and he studied the Italian style of writing through transcriptions a lot! Another interesting thing is that Bach probably was much different than we know in terms of personality as well. In 1730, he provided a memorandum by writing a ten-page complaint to the town council in Leipzig (it is called ‘Short But Most Necessary Draft for a Well-Appointed Church Music’), in which he explained why it is necessary to embrace "the present musical taste" and "master new kinds of music" to the authorities during that time. Even an eminent figure in Western classical music such as Bach, who might have the most sanctioned narrative as a composer had an insatiable appetite for changes in taste. About the last footnote you shared, I think Bach being more famous might have a lot to do with the sanctioned narrative surrounding him in public outreach of music through mainstream media and teachings, thus the whole perception of music history, too. And also Mendelssohn's (and even Nadia Boulanger's) effect during the revival of Bach might have played more role as well. Perhaps, Scarlatti didn't have that much media support in later centuries. Another very innovative Baroque composer I truly love who shares a similar fate with Scarlatti in terms of being less known is Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. He was one of the first solo violin writers and arguably the greatest violin composer of the 17th century (and of all time for me). His music witnessed a revival much later than his lifetime as well, in the 20th century! His "Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas" blow my mind entirely and leave me awestruck every time I experience them. Incredibly imaginative and unique... Especially his beautiful "The Annunciation", "The Agony in the Garden", "The Crucifixion", and the final "Passacaglia"... Perhaps even Paganini was largely influenced by him... He deserves much more recognition than the current state.. His music is highly emotional yet extremely complex at the same time which is always a hard and rare balance to get when looking at great composers I think. A truly unique and marvelously creative composer, I'm a huge fan of his work, especially Rachel Podger's recordings of his music... It was an amazing video as always! Kudos to your effort and enthusiasm for learning and teaching new and exciting things every day! And of course, thanks for sharing these gems with us! I hope you overcome every obstacle and recover well very soon! I sincerely wish all is getting well there for you... 🙏 P.S. David Louie is a living legend!

Great video, thanks Nahre. I would be very interested to hear more of Louie's insights as well and hope that you include him in future videos

This was so fun! As someone who plays tons of Bach and Scarlatti (both badly) for my own pleasure, i loved the deep dive into similarities and differences.

It was very impressive and insightful as always. I would love one with Mozart vs Haydn or Ravel vs Debussy

I loved this video and I hope you do more of this comparison / transformation videos!

Nahre, love these kinds of videos! Thank you.

I would say they were both great in their own manner. They both established foundational keyboard techniques. I think it is good Scarlatti is getting more recognition. Bach has plenty of recognition. Both of their works are enlightening and fun. Thanks.

Great video as always. I think it would be cool if you do a similar format on Debussy and Ravel. Also Mozart and Heiden.

wow, I love this video. Great to see your hans while you are playing, and I loved you modifications. Awesome :)

The modification by the end of the video is fascinating and intriguing! will definitely love to hear more! Or perhaps you would be care to post more of your own composition? Thank you anyway! Lovely video!

Amazing and interesting video! Nice to see and hear both the harpsichord and the piano. The altered pieces are fantastic! That one that is written by Scarlatti but changed into Bach's style is for me extremely Bach-like, so amazing! The other one by Bach but in the style of Scarlatti is less convincing because of the lack of Spanish influence in the melody, but is also a lovely rendition. Really enjoyed this video!!

I love this!!! What about Mozart vs Haydn, Beethoven vs Schubert, Chopin vs Liszt, Brahms vs Schumann?

Very interesting video, and great work conveying the differences and similarities in this "style change" that you're really amazing at!

Wow what a great vid! Contains many things I hadn't really thought about before! Plus the skills and brains you have are incredible!

Impressive work. I would say you should publish the Scarlatti to Bach which is an improvement. Your technique is very very good, especially the articulation.

I've loved Bach's keyboard works for a long time, and just recently discovered Scarlatti, and also Padre Antonio Soler. I LOVE all three-but no one will ever surpass Bach. Excellent video, and amazing Bachification and Scarlattiification. Thank you!

This video is amazing Nahre! Thank you so much

Great video! Very entertaining and also very insightful. I would have loved to see David Louie's reaction to your new arrangements at the end, perhaps having him sightread them for extra fun.

Of the two, Domenico is my favourite, although I love many Bach pieces too. What I love about Scarlatti is probably those things that you said made him sound modern, like unresolved note clusters. I like his happy style too, his playful and often danceable music makes me feel more cheerful. (Although he wrote some beautiful sad pieces too, in the style of his dad.) So I really love that you can 'Scarlattify' pieces by Bach. And I would love to hear Scarlattified pieces by other composers too. Perhaps you could even make the boring and predictable keyboard compositions churned out by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven enjoyable. :D And I wonder if Scarlatti sonatas could be made even more 'modern' sounding, without spoiling their simple appeal?

This is very interesting! I guess it shouldn’t be such a surprise that Bach and Scarlatti sound so similar, because Bach is perhaps the most famous exponent of the early 18th century German “mixed” style that integrates elements from both France and Italy, much more cosmopolitan than the previous century. He was very aware and often admiring of his Italian predecessors and contemporaries, including Corelli, Vivaldi, and Domenico’s father Alessandro. The areas where Scarlatti differs are also understandable. Particularly his less strict eye towards counterpoint. His father Alessandro is known for being one of the founders of the Neapolitan partimento tradition, an institutionalized educational curriculum in accompaniment at the keyboard. Although the pupils all learned counterpoint, many Neapolitan teachers had much less strict rules on counterpoint than the stile antico did. I never really appreciated though unique Scarlatti was in using things like style, topic, and affect to drive his sonatas, although it is in large part why I like his sonatas so much. I am currently working on a project connecting Bach to the incoming Galant style, which is commonly held to have originated in Italy shortly before 1720. I am trying to compare Bach to a lot of his predecessors and contemporaries to identify patterns of similarity and difference. Hearing the similarities between him and Scarlatti opens up many new avenues! Thanks for the inspiration!

Fantastic job with reimagining the compositions as the other composer--really amazing work Nahre

Incredibly interesting and insightful, thank you!

La música de J. S. Bach tiene mayor equilibrio de las voces, riqueza estructural y un misticismo inigualable. La música de D. Scarlatti es una cordillera musical de cimas afiladas, rica en expresión e innovación sonora. Ambos dos grandes genios.

You blew my mind with this one. That second piece actually made me gasp several times with the hand crossing

Love your videos and your your energy, it comes through on the keys 🎹♥️🎵Always look forward to hearing more!

So well done! Very very interesting! Thanks

If I had all the money I could ever have in this world, I would assemble a group of teachers to study with things like Music Theory, Composition, Piano Technique and a bit of literature, poetry and zen-drawing.And without a doubt, I would be honored to have you as my mentor in the music areas above mentioned. You're not only a great musician but also, someone who reminds me to not take away the joy from making / studying music :-)

It is a pity that you forgot to mention or explain in detail the influence of Iberian music, specially that of Spain, in Scarlatti's sonatas. There has been a lot of investigations concerning this issue. Bach and Scarlatti are two of my favorite composers. Keep up the good work!!!

Thank you for putting together another wonderful video in the middle of all that you're going through with the move, injury, and Nella. Even though I'm more into the pop and rock wheelhouse as far as music goes, I've always looked towards the classical composers who used many of the same concepts! Awesome!

This video was amazing, loved the changes that you made.

Domenico Scarlatti, Carlos Seixas, Francisco Xavier Baptista,Antonio Soler y Ramos , Manuel Blasco de Nebra, and many others were extraodinary musicians and composers.

Would love to see similar video with Antonio Vivaldi , his fugue and counterpoint writings are criminally underrated

That was wonderful, thank you so much for this!

Very cool 🙌🏼 always pushing, always learning, and sharing with us, it helps us continue to do the same.

Great video. As always. But this one has such an intriguing question of style and personality, with national influences. It might be good to understand that Scarlatti composed later in life for an audience of one, a Portugese princess who became a Spanish Queen. The sonatas were for her to play, and that is the reason for the enormous amount of sonatas in one format, yet with vivid playful details. Teacher and pupil must have had fun to mimic everyday music outside the palace walls in this uniquely intimate music volume.

Your brilliant playing and insights definitely give me an appreciation for Scarlatti’s artistry and flare - no doubt a brilliant and innovative composer. Bach on the other hand is a giant. One of the greatest geniuses that ever lived. His music not just clever and innovative it is transcendent.

Love the explanations. It is like being in a music appreciation class.

The 'in the style ofs' were just fantastic! You're a wonder!

Because they were both heavy drinkers.

That Bach in the style of Scarlatti was ludicrously good!

Love the way you dive deep on the topics here on RU-vid

So glad to see your relationship with your teacher, love the content 👍🏻

I've listened to countless hours of both Bach and Scarlatti, and yet during the "guess which composer" segment I managed to guess wrong on almost all of them. Seems that you chose the most "Scarlatti-sounding Bach" and the most "Bach-sounding Scarlatti" pieces :)

I love Scarlatti, but Bach has more dimensions surely: the cantatas, the passions, the organ preludes, etc. And even with the dance suites, or the series of variations on a theme, he covers more musical real estate.

Thank you for this fantastic video! I was just practicing Scarlatti K27, and this came as super interesting! 🙌👍

This is a beautifully organized and executed video! I'm so impressed (and jealous).

Eventhough I'm a jazz musician I've played a lot of Bach and Scarlatti mainly for technical studies (sorry Bach and Scarlatti lovers). After some months and years I've kind of noticed that the main difference between the two is the general sound. So Bach sounds in a way german and Scarlatti italian. German sound is harsh, direct and layered. Italian is dramatic and emotional, if that makes sense. Ofc it's all very subjective and generelized and not very academic. But it's my impression I got from playing them a lot. But anyway, thanks a lot for the vid :)

I do feel in piano, Scarlatti does a lot -- but BACH -- cello suites, sonatas and partitas, orchestral suites, fugue treatment, counterpoint, like -- when you just mention a few other things that Bach did, all of the sudden Scarlatti falls way behind. So the simple answer is, no, NO ONE is better than Bach. When you ask every violinist and they tell you the greatest single work for violin is Bach's Chaconne -- that says it all. OF ALL THE GREATEST REP FOR VIOLIN -- the last movement of one of his partita suites takes the cake, it says it all. No one is better than Bach.

Wonderful video! I enjoyed every second of it!

Extremely interesting and inspiring video, thanks!

Y además de sus diferencias musicales y compositivas, Bach y Scarlatti son los compositores barrocos que mas ayudan a desarrollar la técnica al teclado, ambos fueron profesores y escribieron mas de la mitad de sus obras para la enseñanza de alumnos, de ahí que su música además de hermosa ayude a practicar la técnica del clavecin y del piano actual.

I once asked my Italian neighbour if he liked classical music, he answered "sì". I asked him what type of classical music he liked and he looked at me all puzzled. I clarified asking him if he preferred Renaissance or Romantic and he quickly confirmed Baroque! I then asked which artist he preferred and again he looked at me all puzzled. So I suggested Scarletti?, or perhaps Bach?... and he interrupted me saying: " Ba-roque, my stario, she is baroque, I no leesan to musik no more".

What a great way to end my 65th birthday :-) Very insightful video, great takeaway, thank you Nahre!

It's a pleasure to watch you play, thank you :)

Great video! I love your reinterpretations ❤️ The greatest irony of Bach representing the Baroque era, is that he was slightly after it in the Rococo era. By his time, he was considered old-fashioned which is why he was virtually unknown. If we imagine someone like Duke Ellington writing great big band music during the 1970s it wouldn’t be too far-fetched. What would Duke Ellington have become? Probably a very good lounge pianist (composing on the side) very much like how Bach became a church organist. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I realised the way to distinguish Bach. If the melody feels oddly familiar, it's Bach. If not, it's Scarlatti! :D

just to tell it in a simple way: wonderful! thanks a lot for this essay and for the time you put into this analysis :)

Very interesting and informative. Thanks. Willy

Bach made a lot of transcriptions of italian's composers like A. Vivalde, A. Marcello, B. Marcello. There was a competition Handel /Scarllati promouted by a prince. Have has Bach know Scarlatti peices (sonatas) and that competition ? Do you know? Congratulation for the performances of you and your theacher!

0:45 - That's Alessandro Scarlatti... Domenico's dad 😛

Thanks for the video! A most welcome topic, so educative, after watching the video. It seems both these composers had that "insane" loveable talent! As for the presenters, they are among the few fortunate who are able to reach such enlightment. Incomparable and adventurous!

Amazing video @Nahre Sol !!!

You're so amazing w/ compelling content and insights that's so informative and inspiring which is just what I needed today as I was working on composing so hearing Scarlatti works is a true gift only you would know to shed light on in such a fun enthralling manner. The world & music community wouldn't be the same w/out you since you playing one person's work in the style of the other's is thrilling and so enlightening. Lately for inspiration, I've been listening to Saint Saens' Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah and Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2: Farandole which if I didn't know the composers I'd think they were the same person, so maybe do a contrast of those two?

One music historian told us that a kind of a "ranking" was done that time among composers of that region, and Bach took merely 7th place. And a couple of the guys considered as superior to him are completely forgotten now.

YOU GO SIS! PLEASSSSSE DO THIS WITH OTHER COMPOSERS WHO MAY OFTEN BE CONFUSED OR WERE CONTEMPORARIES.....IF POSSIBLE? BRAVA!👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏🏻👏🏿🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵 🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

This was a lot of fun! Thank you for posting.

Amazing quality content! This must have taken so much effort to research, perform, shoot, edit 😬. Thank you^^