but with a group of semiquaver notes which appears later in that
section. In No. 20 Scarlatti preserves the rhythm, but with total
change of notes (No. 20)--

[Music illustration]

The same number gives another interesting specimen of change of
rhythm. In No. 48 he picks out an unimportant group of notes, and
works it by imitation and sequence. There are some interesting
specimens of development in the thirty sonatas printed from
manuscripts in the possession of Lord Viscount Fitzwilliam by Robert
Birchall. Scarlatti's development bars are seldom many in number.

After modulation and development, the music slides, as it were, into
some phrase from the first section,[14] and allowance being made on
account of difference of key (there the music was passing, or had
passed from tonic; here it is returning to that key), the rest is more
or less a repetition of the first section. _More or less_: sometimes
the repetition is literal; at other times there is considerable
deviation; and shortenings are frequent. With regard to style of
writing for the clavier--a few canonic imitations excepted--there is
no real polyphony. Most of the sonatas are in only two parts. The
composer revels in rapid passages (runs, broken chords, simple and
compound), wide leaps, difficult octaves, crossing of hands, and, of
course, short shakes innumerable. Domenico Scarlatti was indeed one of
the most renowned _virtuosi_ on the clavier. Handel met him at Rome in
1708, and Cardinal Ottoboni persuaded them to compete with each other.
We are told that upon the harpsichord the victory was doubtful, but
upon the organ, Scarlatti himself confessed the superiority of his
rival.[15]