On Domenico Scarlatti's Birthday

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti
portrait by Domingo Antonio Velasco, around 1739
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Domenico_Scarlatti_%28azul%29.jpg)
no copyright infringement intended

Domenico Scarlatti was born in 1685 (the same year with Bach and Handel), on October 26. So it's his birthday exactly today.

Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes (there are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group); some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys (wiki).

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata K13 in G Major
Scott Ross, harpsichord
(video by Trinitrotolaissance)

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata K54 in A Minor
Pierre Hantai, harpsichord
(video by Trinitrotolaissance)

(Old Masters)