Sax Quartets

Fuga del Gatto

Domenico Scarlatti, arr. Ben Tordoff

Composed:
1750 Arranged:
2026 Grouping:
SATB Duration:
03:05

Domonico Scalatti, son of the famous composer Allessandro Scarlatti, was an Italian composer now best remembered for the large number of works for solo keyboard that he produced. In fact during his tenure at Royal Courts in Portugal and Spain it is thought he composed more than 500 keyboard sonatas over the last ten or so years of his life.

This sonata is one of his most famous, known as the ''Cat's Fugue'' and allegedly inspired by his cat walking up the keyboard. The playful title given (by others) to this sonata underplays one of Scarlatti's more formal compositions. It is reminiscent of the baroque fugues of Bach and others that came before and sticks fairly rigidly to its original ascending motif. This theme appears in all four parts as the piece goes on, singly or in various combinations.

See also our arrangements of Scarlatti's Presto K517 and Andante Mosso K87, also for saxophone quartet.

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