Chapter VI: Instrumental Music (1)
1. Six Sonatas for two oboes with thorough-bass for
harpsichord (73) 1696.
2. Sonata for viola-da-gamba and cembalo concertata in
C (48) Hamburg, 1705.
3. _Klavierbuch aus der Jugendzeit_ (48) 1710.
4. Three Sonatas for flute and harpsichord
(48) Probably Hanover, about 1710.
5. Water Music (47) 1715.
6. _Suites de pieces pour clavecin_ (2) Published 1720.
7. Fifteen Solos for a German flute, oboe or violin,
with a thorough-bass for harpsichord or bass violin (27) 1724.
8. Six Concertos (21), Op. 3. _Concerti grossi con due
violini e violoncello di concertino e due altri violini,
viola e basso di concerto grosso ad arbitrio_, known as
the Oboe Concertos Walsh, 1729.
9. Nine Sonatas or Trios for two violins, flutes, or
oboes, with a thorough-bass for harpsichord or
violoncello, Op. 2 (27) Walsh, 1733.
10. _Suites de pieces pour clavecin_ (2). Second
volume pilfered by Walsh in 1733.
11. _Pieces pour clavecin_ (2). Five pieces Witvogel
in Amsterdam, 1733. Several clavecin pieces still
remain in MS. at Buckingham Palace and Fitzwilliam
Museum.
12. Overture for the pasticcio _Oreste_ (48) 1734. 13. Six "Fugues or Voluntaries for the organ or harpsichord," Op. 3a (2) Walsh, 1735. 14. Overture in G minor for the pasticcio _Alessandro Severo_ (48) 1738. 15. Six Organ Concertos, Op. 4 (48) Walsh, 1738. 16. Seven Sonatas or Trios for two violins or German flutes, with a thorough-bass for the harpsichord or violoncello, Op. 5 (27) Walsh, 1739. 17. Hornpipe, composed for the concert at Vauxhall (48). For strings in three parts 1740. 18. Six Concertos for organ arranged by Walsh from the Orchestral Concertos 1740. 19. Twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6a (30). For strings only, in seven parts Walsh, 1740. 20. _Pieces pour le clavecin_ (2) Cluer, 1742. 21. Forest Music (47) 1742. 22. Fire Music (47) 1749. 23. Concerto for two organs and orchestra in D minor (48). Movement only exists. 24. Overture in B minor (48). Adapted by Walsh from the Overture to _Trionfo del Tempo_. 25. Organ Concerto in D minor (48). Two movements. 26. Organ Concerto in F (48). 27. Partita in A (48). 28. Six little Fugues. (Dubious.) 29. Concerto for trumpets and horns. 30. Concerto for horns and side-drums. 31. _Sinfonie diverse_ (48). Eight short pieces for orchestral instruments. 32. Overture in five movements (incomplete) for two clarionets and corno di caccia. MS. in Fitzwilliam Museum.
* * * * *
The COMPLETE HANDEL EDITION contains as supplements several volumes of works by various Italian and German composers, which Handel has utilised in his compositions, namely:--
1. _Magnificat_ said to be by Erba. 2. _Te deum_ said to be by Urio. 3. _Serenata_ by Stradella. 4. _Duetti_ by Clari. 5. _Componimenti musicali_ by G. Muffat. 6. _Octavia_ by Reinhard Keiser.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FRIEDRICH CHRYSANDER, _G. F. Handel_. 3 vols., 1858-67, Leipzig.
(The name of Chrysander ought to be attached permanently to that of Handel, for his life was entirely devoted to him. It was he who founded in 1856, with Gervinus, the GERMAN HANDEL SOCIETY and who accomplished nearly the whole of the Complete Edition of the Works of Handel in one hundred volumes by himself alone. His biography is a monument of science and devotion comparable with Philipp Spitta's _J. S. Bach_ and Otto Jahn's _Mozart_. Unfortunately the work remained unfinished: it stopped at the year 1740. Max Seiffert completed it.)
SCHOELCHER, _The Life of Handel_. 1857.
(Schoelcher's works, anterior to those of Chrysander, are valuable on account of their collection of documents rather than that of the general laying out of the works. As we have seen, the priceless collection of these documents is housed at the Paris Conservatoire.)
HERMANN KRETZSCHMAR, _Georg Friedrich Handel_ (published in the _Sammlung musikalischer Vortraege_ by Paul Graf Waldersee).
FRITZ VOLBACH, _Georg-Friedrich Haendel_ (Collection: _Harmonie_. 1898, Berlin).
(These two last works are excellent little _resumes_ of the life and works of Handel.)
J. A. FULLER-MAITLAND, _The Age of Bach and Handel_ (The Oxford History of Music, Vol. IV). 1902, Oxford.
R. A. STREATFEILD, _Handel_. 1909, London.
(This book is one of the first in England which has freed the figure of Handel from the false mass of moralising and teaching under which the author of the _Messiah_ was buried. He shows the richness and freedom of Handel's work and rectifies several points in the German biographies.)
ADIMOLO, _G. F. Handel in Italia_.
SEDLEY TAYLOR, _The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by other Composers_. 1906, Cambridge.
P. ROBINSON, _Handel and his Orbit_. 1908, London. (These two last books are concerned with the question of Handel's plagiarisms.)
F. VOLBACH, _Die Praxis der Haendel-Auffuehrung_, 1889. Thesis for Doctorate.
(On the Orchestra of Handel.)
HUGO GOLDSCHMIDT, _Die Lehre von der vocalen Ornamentik_. 1907.
(On the vocal execution of Handel's works, and particularly on the question of Handel's ornaments. This matter has been the subject of numerous discussions in the numbers of the _International Musical Gazette_, especially by Max Seiffert.)
WEITZMANN, _Geschichte der Klaviermusik_, Vol. 1, 1899 (continued and completed by Seiffert and Fleischer). (For the Clavier Works of Handel.)
ERNEST DAVID, _Handel_. 1884.
CAMILLE BELLAIGUE, _Les Epoques de la Musique_, Vol. I, 1909.
For readers desirous of consulting the sources of the biographies of Handel, the most interesting works written by his contempories are:
JOHANN MATTHESON, _Handel_ (in his _Ehrenpforte_, 1740).
MAINWARING, _Memoirs of the Life of the late G. F. Handel_. London, 1760. (Translated into German with annotations by Mattheson, 1761; into French by Arnaud and Suard in 1778.)
BURNEY, _Commemoration of Handel_. London, 1785.
HAWKINS, _General History of Music_. London, 1788.
W. COXE, _Anecdotes of G. F. Handel and Smith_. London, 1799.
INDEX
A
Academy of Ancient Music, 54, 137
Academy of Italian Opera, 73
_Acis and Galatea_, 7, 46, 72, 85, 108, 120, 182
Addison, 16, 60
_Agrippina_, 46, 183
Airs adapted to French words, 191 n.
Alberti, 6
_Alceste_, 104
_Alcina_, 91, 122, 127
_Alexander Balus_, 102
_Alexander's Feast_, 92, 108, 93 n., 160 n.
_Almahade_, 62
_Almira_, 33, 34, 36, 124
Amadigi, 68
Amsterdam, 149
Ademollo, 40
Arbuthnot, Dr., 81 n.
Architecture, Musical, 138
_Arianna_, 88, 95
_Arias Buffi_, 128
_Arietti Da Capo_, 125
_Ariodante_, 91, 122
_Arioso_, 133
Ariosti, 11
Aristoxenians, 24
_Arminio_, 91, 93 n.
Arne, 96 n.
_Arsinoe_, 62
_Astarto_, 78
_Atalanta_, 91, 93, 124, 131, 182
_Athaliah_, 85, 86
_Athalie_, 48
Augsburg, 53
Augustus of Saxony, Duke, 1, 3, 42
B
Babell, Wm., 145, 149 n.
_Bacchus und Ariadne_, 90
Bach, 3, 21, 29, 56, 70, 104, 113, 119, 121, 150, 152
Ballet-Operas, 122
Bankruptcy, 93, 100
Bartolommeo, 57
Bass soloists, 123 n.
Bassoons, 160
Battle of Dettingen, 99 n.
Beech Oil Company, 63
Beethoven, 10, 108, 142, 154, 176, 192
Beethovenians, 164
_Beggar's Opera_, 62, 81
_Belshazzar_, 99, 128, 135, 136, 184
_Berenice_, 91, 93 n.
Berlin, 11, 108
Berlioz, 109, 121, 142, 154
Bernabei, 51, 56
Bernhard, 16
Bible, 2
Biblical dramas, 71, 85
Birds, 187
_Birthday Ode to Queen Anne_, 66, 138
Blindness, 105
Bolingbroke, 100
Bologna, 75
_Bonduca_, 59
Bononcini, 62, 74, 75, 79, 86 n., 122
Brandenburg, 3, 12
Breslau, 108
British Museum, 165
Brockes, 64
Burlington, Lord, 67, 74
Burney, 187
Buxtehude, 29, 30, 31
C
Cadenzas, 128
_Camilla, Regina de Volsei_, 62
Canons, 149
_Cara sposa (Rinaldo)_, 125
Carey, 96
Caricature of Handel's art, 144
Carriage-accident to Handel, 104
Carillon in _Saul_, 115
_Castrati_, 80
Cavalli, 193
Chaconnes, 149 n.
_Chandos Anthems_, 71, 85, 136
Characters, 135
_Choice of Hercules_, 104, 187 n.
Choruses, 132, 140
Chrysander, 57, 110
Cibber, Colley, 81 n.
Classical chorus, 136
Clavier pieces, 145
Clayton, 61
_Cleopatra_, 32, 160
Colour, 140, 141
Comic style of Keiser, 128
Commemoration festival, 107
Composing music, 142 n.
Concert overture, 183
_Concerti Grossi_, 95, 165, 166
_Concertino_, 165
Concerto, 168, 190, 188
Concerto for two organs, 154
Concerto for organ with chorus, 154
Concerto for two horns, 145, 159
Concerto for organ, 183
Conductor, 165
Corelli, 11, 115, 168
_Coronation Anthems_, 83, 85
Cousser, 18
Covent Garden Theatre, 92
_Creation_, Haydn's, 108
_Crescendo_, 163
_Critica Musica_, 24
Culloden Moor, 101
Cuzzoni, 80 n.
D
_Da Capo_ form, 56, 77, 124, 132
Dances, 133
Death, Handel's, 107
_Deborah_, 85, 95, 110, 184
_Deidamia_, 91 n., 95, 122, 124
Dent, Edward, 38
Descartes, 49
_Dettingen Te Deum_, 99, 160 n.
_Dido and AEneas_, 59
_Die lustige Hochzeit_, 35
_Diminuendo_, 163
_Dioclesian_, 59
_Divertissement_, 183
Domenico Scarlatti, 44
Double fugue, 150
Drums, 160
Drury Lane Theatre, 81 n.
Dryden, 92
Dublin, 97
Dubourg, 156
Duchess Sophia, 67
Duel with Mattheson, 33
Duets, Vocal, 131
Duke of Chandos, 71, 72
Duke of Cumberland, 101
Dukes of Hanover, 49
Duerer, 176
E
Education, 6
_Ehrenpforte_, 26
England, 70, 109, 112, 113, 148, etc.
English taste, 59
English country, 114
Ensemble pieces, 133
_Entr'actes_, 151
Erba, 118
Ernest Augustus, Duke, 49
_Esther_, 48, 70, 71, 72, 120, 161, 184
Eugene, Prince, 37, 157
Exotism, 160
_Ezio_, 84
F
_Faramondo_, 91, 93
Faustina, 80
Festivals, 107
Fifth Concerto, 176
_Finale_, 133
Fire-arms in orchestra, 160
Firework music, 103, 159, 189
First Sonata, 157
Flemish carillon in _Saul_, 115
Florence, 39
_Floridante_, 79
_Florindo und Daphne_, 35
Forms, 133, 134, 158, 168
Foundling Hospital, 103, 105 n., 165
France, 122
Fraudulent copies, 143 n.
Free theatre, 121, 134, 139
French dances, 91
French influences, 14
French language, 48
French model, 89
French organists, 113
French rhythm, 148
French style, 148
French vocal style, 48
Froberger, 6
Fugues, 149
_Funeral Anthem_, 93, 93 n.
G
Garden scene, _Rinaldo_, 124
Gay, 67, 72 n.
Geminiani, 144, 163, 164
_Genre_ pictures, 135, 138
George of Hanover, 68
German geniuses, 112
German Handel Society, 109, 201
German influences, 147, 148 n.
German patriotism, Handel's lack of, 67
Germany, 109, 142
Gervinus, 110, 201
_Giulio Cesare_, 79, 122, 127, 182
_Giustina_, 93, 124
Gluck, 36, 99, 101, 122, 127, 191, 192
Goethe, 109, 112
Goldschmidt, 55
Graces, 128
Grattan-Flood, 97
Graun, 124
Greece, 110
Green, Maurice, 96
Green Park, 198
Grimani, 46
Griselda, 79
_Grub Street Journal_, 152
H
Hailstone chorus, 118
Halle, 14, 64, 66, 69, 74, 113
_Haman_, 71
Hamburg, 7, 15, 18, 35, 113
Handel Society, 109, 201
Handel musical festivals, 119
Handel's joust with Bononcini, 79
Hanover, 19, 42, 49, 51
Hanoverian nobles, 49
_Harmony in revolt_, 143 n.
Harp, 160 n.
Hasler, 36
Hasse, 36, 45, 87, 115, 117, 124
Hawkins, Sir J., 91, 152
Haydn, 108
Haymarket Theatre, 74, 89
Heidegger, 89
_Henrico Leoni_, 52
_Hercules_, 8, 99, 110, 127
Herder, 109
Hill, Aaron, 63
Hiller, 108
Holland, 31, 58
Horn, 159
Hornpipe, 187
House of Hanover, 65
Humour in Handel, 128
I
_Il Pastor Fido_, 65, 182
_Imeneo_, 91 n., 95 n.
Imitative effects, 141
Improvisation, 143, 150, 152
Improviser, 116
Independence, Handel's, 109
Instrumental music, 9, 143, 144, 146
Ireland, 97
_Israel in Egypt_, 71, 94, 95, 118, 137, 145, 150
Italian homophony, 148
Italian influences, 147
Italian musicians, 36
Italian songs in _Hercules_, 115
Italian violinists, 113
Italy, 37, 112, 113
Italianised Germans, 63
Italians, 61, 148
J
James I, Stuart, 49
Jennens, 97, 99
_Jephtha_, 104, 116
_Jerusalem Delivered_, 63
John Frederick, Duke of Hanover, 49
_Joseph_, 99, 127
_Joshua_, 80, 102
_Jubilate_, 66
_Judas Maccabaeus_, 101, 102, 106, 109, 139, 184, 192
_Jugendbuch_, 146, 149
K
Keiser, 17, 19, 21, 31, 35, 122, 126
Kerl, 6
Kielmansegg, 49
_King Arthur_, 59, 60
Krieger, 6, 150
Kuhnau, 7
L
_L'Allegro_, 95, 114
Languages, 22
_La Salle_, 90
Latin Psalms, 39
Law, 14
Lawyers, 4
Leibnitz, 69
_Leit-motiv_, 128
_Leider_, 77 n.
Leipzig, 16, 108
Lent, 106, 107
Leo, 178
Leonardo, 118
Light and shade, 161
Liszt, 109, 154
Local colour, 160
Locatelli, 168
London, 42, 58, 65, etc.
London Academy of Opera, 83
_London Daily Post_, 96
London operas, 126
_Lotario_, 84
Lubeck, 28
_Lucretia_, 39
Lully, 18, 19, 181
M
Mad scene in _Orlando_, 127
Mahler, 154
Mainwaring, 47
Manchester, Duke of, 42
Mandoline, 160 n.
Mannheim players, 164
Marcello, 3
Marylebone, 167
Mattheson, 5, 18, 21, 23, 27, 82
Mayence, 110
Medici, 36
Mendelssohn, 119
Melodic lines, 117
Melodist, 28
_Messiah_, 8, 59, 97, 98, 104, 108, 119, etc.
Miller, 99
_Mitridate Eupatore_, 41
Modulations, 76
Muffat, 168
Mozart, 21, 36, 88, 108, 117
Munich, 51, 52
Musette, 178
Musical architecture, 132
Musical comedy, 128
Musical dramas, 135
_Musical Patriot, The_, 24, 27
_Muzio Scevola_, 79
N
Naples, 112, 145
National musician of England, The, 102
Natural scenes, 170
_Nero_, 33, 34
Newspapers, The first, 16
Nicolini, 63
_Nitocris_, 128
Nuance, 163
O
Objective art, 133
Oboe concertos, 64, 158
_Occasional Oratorio_, 101, 139, 185 n.
_Ode to Queen Anne_, 68
_Ode to St. Cecilia_, 92, 95
_Ombra cara_ from _Radamisto_, 125
Open-air fetes, 120, 190
Open-air music, 187
_Opera Buffa_, 137
_Opera Comique_, 91, 122, 128
_Opera Diabolica_, 17
Opera houses, 51, 102
Oratorios, 120, 122, 136, etc.
Orchestra, 9, 103, 153, 165
Orchestral concertos, 181 n.
Orchestral music, 158
Organ, 105
Organ concertos, 150-153
Organ music, 30
_Orlando_, 84, 122
Ottoboni, Cardinal, 43, 46
_Ottone_, 79, 190
P
Pagan life, 185
Painting in music, 141
Painting, 185
Palestrina, 114 n.
Pantheon, 107
_Parnasso in festa_, 89 n., 96 n.
_Partenope_, 84
_Partenza_, 45
Pasquini, 43, 44
_Passion according to St. John_, 25, 32
_Passion after Brockes_, 70, 138, 182
Passionate scenes, 133
_Passions_, 69
_Pastor Fido_, 89
_Pastoral Symphony_, 170
Pepusch, 96
Piccadilly, 67
Pictures, Love of, 115
Pietism, 12, 39, 71
_Pifferari_, 46, 114
Pirro, 13
Pistocchi, 11
Pistol-shot in orchestra, 160 n.
Plagiarisms, 118
_Polifemo_, 76
Pope, 67, 82, 142 n.
_Poro_, 84
Porpora, 87, 88
Postel, 22, 31
Pratolino, 38
Pretender, Charles Edward, 100
Princess of Wales, 81
Programme music, 184, 185 n.
Psalms, 70, 120
Purcell, 58, etc.
Puritanical opposition, 61
_Pygmalion_, 90
Pythagoreans, 24
Q
Quartets, 131
Queen Anne, 65, 68
Quintet, 132
R
_Radamisto_, 74, 78
Rameau's _Acanthe_, 164 n.
Ranelagh, 187
Raphael, 10
Recitative, 20
_Recitative-arioso_, 126
Recitatives and airs, 128
Relationship with vocal, 145
Resurrection, 44, 159, 161
Rhythms, 134
_Riccardo I_, 81, 186 n.
Rich's theatre, 90
Rigid and stolid manner of rendering Handel's works, 119
_Rinaldo_, 63, 64
_Roderigo_, 40, 42, 182
_Rodelinda_, 80
Roles, Singers', 123
Romances, 91
Rome, 39
_Rosamunde_, 62
Roseingrave, 114 n.
Rosenmueller, 4
Roubiliac, 107
Ruspoli, Cardinal, 42
S
St. John Chrysostomo's Theatre, 41, 47
St. Paul's Cathedral, 66
Saint-Saens, 140, 141
_Samson_, 31, 98, 126
_San Giovanni Grisostomo_, 41, 47
_Saul_, 94, 126, 183
Scarlatti, 38, 41, 43, 76, 122, 127
Schott, 22
Schumann, 109
Schuetz, 36, 56
_Second Concerto in F major_, 170
_Semele_, 127, 135
Semi-romantic colour, 115
_Serse_, 91 n., 122, 124, 98 n.
_Servio Tullio_, 52
Seven Trios or Sonatas in two parts, 94
_Seventh Concerto_, 169
Shakespeare, 121
Sicilian legend, 72
Sight gone, 105
_Singakademien_, 108, 110
_Siroe_, 81
Six Fugues or Voluntaries, 149
Six Sonatas in Trio, 154
_Sixth Concerto in G minor_, 176
Smith, C., 107
Smollett, 100
Society for the Maintenance of Poor Musicians, 96, 107
Solo voices, 123
_Solomon_, 102, 131
Sonata for Viola da Gamba, 154
Sonatas or trios for two violins, flutes, 155
Sonatas or trios for two violins, 155
Sonatas for the flute, violin, and harpsichord, 145
Sonatas for flute and bass, 64, 155
Sophia Charlotte, Princess, 11
Speed of working, Handel's, 116
Steffani, 7, 11, 19, 46, 51, 64, 122
Storms, Musical, 142
Streatfeild, 37, 40
Strungk, 6
Stuart party, 68
Stuart, James I, 66
Strauss, R., 121
Stradella, 118
_Sturm und Drang period_, 143
Styles, 133, 134, 137
Suites, etc., 146
_Suites de pieces pour le clavecin_, 143
_Susanna_, 102
Symphonies, 158
Swift, 67, 82
T
_Tamerlano_, 79, 84, 122, 127
Tarquini, 40
_Te Deum_, 65, 66, 68, 120
Telemann, 56, 141
Tendencies, 122
Tenor, 123
_Terpsichore_, 90
_Teseo_, 65, 127
Theatre, 120
Theatre closed, Handel's, 93
Theile's _Creation_, 17
_Theodora_, 48, 104, 135
Theologians, 4
Theology, 12
_The Triumph of Time and Truth_, 106, 159, 160, 161
Third Violin, Part for, 161
Thirty Years' War, 4
Thornhill, 23
_Tomomeo_, 81
Tone-colour, 159, 160, 161
_Tor di Nona_, 39
Touch, 151
_Trionfo del Tempo_, 106
Trios, 131
Tunbridge Wells, 92
Tyer, 187
U
Utrecht, 66
V
Vatican, 44
_Vaudeville_, 138
Vauxhall Gardens, 94, 100, 101, 107, 187
Venice, 40, 42
_Vierge d'Martyre_, 48
Vinci, 84
Viola, 160, 161
Violoncellist, 75
Violoncello, 160
_Violette marine_, 160 n.
_Virtuoso_ powers, 40, 49
Vivaldi, 168
Vocal _ensemble_ pieces, 130
Vocal ornamentation, 128, 129
W
Wagner, 142
Walpole, 81
Walsh, 145, 149, 181 n.
Water music, 68 n., 158, 188
Weissenfels, 3
Westminster Abbey, 107
Witchcraft, 13
Z
Zachau, 5, 15, 113
_Zadock the Priest_, 109 n.
Zappi, 43
THE MUSIC LOVER'S LIBRARY
A series of small books on various musical subjects written in a popular style for the general reader.
EDITOR: A. EAGLEFIELD HULL, MUS. DOC. (OXON.)
Each about 200 pages.
1. SHORT HISTORY OF MUSIC. By the EDITOR.
2. SHAKESPEARE: HIS MUSIC AND SONG. By A. H. MONCUR-SIME.
3. THE UNFOLDING OF HARMONY. By CHARLES MACPHERSON, F.R.A.M., Sub-Organist St. Paul's Cathedral.
4. THE STORY OF MEDIAEVAL MUSIC. By R. R. TERRY, Mus. Doc. (Dublin), Director of Music at the pro-Cathedral, Westminster.
5. MUSIC AND RELIGION. By W. W. LONGFORD, D.D., M.A.
6. MODERN MUSICAL STYLES. By the EDITOR.
7. ON LISTENING TO AN ORCHESTRA. By M. MONTAGU-NATHAN.
8. EVERYMAN AND HIS MUSIC. By P. A. SCHOLES.
9. MUSIC AND AESTHETICS. By J. B. MCEWEN, M.A., F.R.A.M.
10. THE VOICE IN SONG AND SPEECH. By GORDON HELLER.
11. DESIGN OR CONSTRUCTION IN MUSIC. By the EDITOR.
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD., LONDON
PRINTED BY
WM. BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND
* * * * *
These typographical errors were corrected by the text transcriber:
constituted for it a model for emulatation=>constituted for it a model for emulation
Hinweg, du Dornen schwangre Krone!=>Hinweg, du Dornen schwangere Krone!
his voice suberbly depicted=>his voice superbly depicted
George Moffat=>Muffat [Muffat, Georg (1653-1704)]
Vivaldi's influence in Germany on a Granpuer=> Vivaldi's influence in Germany on a Graupnuer [Graupner (Christoph, 1683-1760)]
_Te deum_ said to be by Vrio.=>_Te deum_ said to be by Urio. [Urio, Francesco Antonio, 1631-1719]
Domenio Scarlatti=>Domenico Scarlatti
Andimollo, Andimolo=>Ademollo
Christoph Bernhart, pupil of Schuetz=>Christoph Bernhard, pupil of Schuetz
Bernhardt, 16=>Bernhard, 16
He stayed at Dusseldorf with the Elector=>He stayed at Duesseldorf with the Elector
Locatalli and Vivaldi came under the influence of the Italian Opera.=>Locatelli and Vivaldi came under the influence of the Italian Opera.
of Locatalli (Op. 7, 1741) was named _Il pianto d'Arianna_.=>of Locatelli (Op. 7, 1741) was named _Il pianto d'Arianna_.
(1890 in the _Vierteljahrsschrift fuer Musikwissenfchaft_)=>(1890 in the _Vierteljahrsschrift fuer Musikwissenschaft_)
Abbe Prevost=>Abbe Prevost
Reinhaerd Keiser=>Reinhard Keiser
Max Seifiert: Haendels Verhaeltnis zu Tonwerken aelterer deutscher Meister=>Max Seiffert: Haendels Verhaeltnis zu Tonwerken aelterer deutscher Meister
_Siroe_, 81=>_Siroe_, 81
Pratelino, 38=>Pratolino, 38
that Lecerf de la Vieville wrote his _Comparaison de la musique francaise et de la musique italienne_=>that Lecerf de la Vieville wrote his _Comparaison de la musique francaise et de la musique italienne_
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The genealogical tree of Handel has been prepared by Karl Eduard Foerstemann: _Georg Friedrich Haendel's Stammbaum_, 1844, Breitkopf.
The name of Handel was very common at Halle in different forms (_Hendel_, _Hendeler_, _Haendeler_, _Hendtler_). One would say that its derivation signified "merchant." G. F. Handel wrote it in Italian _Hendel_, in English and French _Handel_, in German _Haendel_.
[2] It is interesting to note that Johann Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach on March 21, 1685.
[3] Of the four children by the second marriage, the first died at birth. George Frederick had two sisters: one, two years, the other, five years younger than himself.
[4] He died in 1672.
[5] Legendary anecdotes of the little Handel are often quoted, showing him rising from his bed in the middle of the night to play a little clavichord, which was concealed in an upper garret.
[6] See the Preface which the choirmaster of the Thomas School at Leipzig, Tobias Michael, wrote to the second part of his _Musikalische Seelenlust_ (1637); and in the life of Rosenmueller the story of the scandalous affair which in 1655 forced this fine musician to flee from his country (August Horneffer: _Johann Rosenmueller_, 1898).
[7] F. W. Zachau was born in 1663 at Leipzig, and died prematurely in 1712. His father came from Berlin. The original spelling of the name was _Zachoff_.
[8] Since the publication of the works of Zachau by Max Seiffert in the _Denkmaeler deutscher Tonkunst_, Vols. XXI and XXII, 1905, Breitkopf.
[9] Matheson refers to this briefly also, but the later historians, Chrysander, Volbach, Kretzschmar, Sedley Taylor have not taken any account of these words, which they attribute to the generosity of Handel, and to the malevolence of Matheson. In their judgment he did not even know the works of Zachau--this is very hard on Handel's master. Since the publication of the _Denkmaeler_ it is impossible not to recognize in Zachau the true originator of his style, and even, so to speak, of the genius of Handel.
[10] _Lebensbeschreibung Haendels_ (1761).
[11] One notices many of Kerl's themes in one of Handel's Organ concertos, and in a Concerto Grosso. A _canzone_ of Kerl; also a _capriccio_ of Strungk has been transferred bodily into two choruses of _Israel in Egypt_ (Max Seiffert: _Haendels Verhaeltnis zu Tonwerken aelterer deutscher Meister_, Jahrbuch Peters, 1907).
[12] The two parts of the Clavier Exercises of Kuhnau appeared in 1689 and 1692. The new Clavier Pieces in 1696 and the Bible Sonatas in 1700. (See the Edition of Kuhnau's clavier works by Karl Pasler in the _Denkmaeler deutscher Tonkunst_, 1901).
[13] See Chrysander. We shall speak later on of the work of Steffani and its relation to Handel.
[14] The volume of his published works comprises 12 cantatas for orchestra, soli, and chorus, and a _capella_ (unaccompanied) Mass, a chamber work (trio for flute, bassoon, and continuo), 8 preludes, fugues, fantasias, capriccios for clavecin or organ, and 44 choral variations.
[15] Compare the Tenor air _O du werter Freudengeist_ (p. 71) and accompaniment, and _ritornello_ of the _violini unisoni_ in the 4th cantata _Ruhe, Friede, Freud und Wonne_ with the air of Polyphemus in Handel's _Acis and Galatea_; compare also the subject in the Bass air of the 8th cantata (p. 189) with the well-known instrumental piece which Handel used for the Symphony in the Second Act of _Hercules_; also the Tenor solo with horn, _Kommt jauchzet_ (p. 181) in the 8th cantata: _Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele_ with the soprano air in _The Messiah_. One also finds in the cantata _Ruhe, Friede_ (p. 83) the sketch for the famous chorus of the destruction of the walls of Jericho in _Joshua_.
[16] _Ruhe, Friede_, p. 122.
[17] _Ibid._, pp. 113, 183.
[18] _Ibid._, pp. 110, 141, 254, 263.
[19] _Ibid._ 8th Cantata. _Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele_, p. 166, the German _Hallelujah_ with its fine flow of jubilant vocalizing--especially on page 192, the great final chorus.
[20] See his pretty trio for flute, bassoon and clavier (p. 313). It is a small work in 4 movements (1. _Affettuoso_; 2. _Vivace_; 3. _Adagio_; 4. _Allegro_), where clear Italian grace mixes itself so happily with German _Gemueth_.
The orchestra for the cantatas seldom includes anything but the strings with the organ or the clavier. But in general the palette of Zachau is very rich, comprising violas, violetti, violoncello, harps, oboes, flutes, hunting horns, bassoons and bassonetti, and even clarini (high trumpets) and drums (Cantata: _Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar_).
Zachau amuses himself by combining the tone-colours of the different instruments with those of the voices in the solo airs; thus a Tenor air is accompanied by a violoncello solo; another by two hunting horns; an air for the Bass is combined, with the bassoon _obbligato_; another with 4 drums and trumpets; a Soprano air with the bassoon and 2 bassonetti; without mentioning innumerable airs with oboes or flutes.
Thanks to Zachau, Handel was familiarized at an early date with the orchestra. He learnt at his house how to play all the instruments, especially the oboe, for which he has written many charming numbers. When he was ten years old he wrote some Trios for 2 oboes and bass. An English nobleman travelling in Germany found a little collection of 6 Trios (Sammlung dreistimmiger Sonaten fuer Zwei Oboen und Bass, sechs Stueck) dating from this period (Volume 28 of the Complete Handel Edition).
[21] See his beautiful air for bass in the Cantata _Lobe den Herrn_, p. 164.
[22] Certain very simple phrases as in the Cantata for the _Visitation_, "_Meine Seel erhebt den Herren_," the recitative for Soprano "_Denn er hat seine elende Magd angesehen_" (p. 112) have an exquisite flavour of virginal humility which we never find in Handel.
[23] The Torellian violinist, Antonio Pistocchi, who was one of the masters of Italian song, the father, Attilio Ariosti, Giovanni Bononcini, Steffani, who wrote for the Electress some famous duets, and Corelli, who dedicated to her his last Violin Sonata, op. 5.
[24] The first representation took place June 1, 1700, with a pastoral ballet of Ariosti. Leibnitz was present at the full rehearsal.
[25] All that one has heard of his meeting with Ariosti and Bononcini is somewhat legendary. A. Ebert has shown that Ariosti only went to Berlin in 1697, and that Bononcini did not arrive in Germany till November, 1697, and they were not there together before 1702. In order that Handel should have met them there it was necessary that they should return in 1703 on their way to Hamburg. But then he was eighteen years; and the legend of the infant prodigy being victorious over the two masters thus disappears (_Attilio Ariosti in Berlin_, 1905, Leipzig).
[26] The broad-minded policy of the Electors of Brandenburg attracted to their University at Halle many of the most independent men in Germany who had been persecuted elsewhere. Thus the Pietists who were driven from Leipzig came to Halle. Indeed they flocked there from all parts of Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries (Volbach: _Vie de Haendel_, and Levy-Bruhl: _L'Allemagne depuis Leibnitz_, 1890).
[27] See the fine studies of J. S. Bach by Pirro.
[28] One knows that the trial of witchcraft was one of the many blots on this period. More than a hundred thousand victims perished in the funeral pyres of witchcraft in one century! Frederick II said that if women could die peacefully of old age in Germany, it was all owing to Thomasius.
[29] The yearly contract with the Cathedral church was dated March 30, 1702, a month after he had signed the faculty of law.
[30] Telemann, passing through Halle in 1701, said that he made the acquaintance of Handel, who was already there "a man of importance" ("Dem damahls schon wichtigen Herrn Georg Friedrich Haendel")--a singular epithet indeed to apply to a child of sixteen years! Chrysander had indeed reason to insist on the precocious maturity of Handel, "No one was his equal in that, even J. S. Bach, who developed much more slowly!"
[31] Already for several years he had composed "like the devil," as he said of himself once.
[32] There are attributed to him two oratorios (very doubtful), one Cantata, _Ach Herr mich armen Suender_, and a _Laudate Pueri_ for Soprano solo, which are anterior to his departure for Hamburg.
[33] Alfred Heuss was the first to show what attraction the musical drama had for Zachau, who introduced it even into the Church. Some of his cantatas, the 4th, for example, _Ruhe, Friede, Freud und Wonne_, very unjustly criticised by Chrysander, is a fragment of a fantastic opera where one finds David tormented by evil spirits. The declamation is expressive, and the choruses have a highly dramatic effect. Thus we see the theatrical career of Handel was prepared in Halle, and perhaps it was Zachau himself who sent Handel to Hamburg (A. Heuss: _Fr. Wilh. Zachau als dramatischer Kantaten-Komponist_). (I.M.G., May, 1909).
[34] In reality under the influence of English publications, and notably _The Spectator_ of Addison, 1711. About 1713 _The Man of Reason_ appeared in Hamburg. In 1724 to 1727 the journal _The Patriot_ of Hamburg was founded by a patriotic society. The original intention was to print 400 copies, but 5000 were subscribed for in Upper Saxony alone.
[35] The secular music about 1728 reckoned in its ranks 50 masters and 150 professors. In comparison, religious music was much more poorly represented than in many other cities of north Germany.
[36] _The Birth of Christ, Michael and David, Esther._
[37] _Dramatologia antigua-hodierna_, 1688.
[38] _Theatromachia_, or _die Werke der Finsterniss_ (The Powers of Darkness), by Anton Reiser, 1682.
[39] _Histoire de l'Opera avant Lully et Scarlatti_, 1895, pp. 217-222.
[40] Reinhard Keiser was born in 1674 at Teuchern, near Weissenfels, and he died in 1739 at Copenhagen.
See Hugo Leichtentritt: _Reinhard Keiser in seinen Opern_, 1901, Berlin; Wilhelm Kleefeld: _Das Orchester der ersten deutschen Oper_, 1898, Berlin; F. A. Voigt: _Reinhard Keiser_ (1890 in the _Vierteljahrsschrift fuer Musikwissenschaft_)--the Octavia and the _Croesus_ of Keiser have been republished.
[41] For instance in the overtures in 3 parts, with French indications "_Vitement, Lentement_"; also in the instrumental preludes, and perhaps in the dances.
[42] Principally in the duets, which have a slightly contrapuntal character.
[43] "Is it the orchestra which is the hero?" asked the theorist of Lullyism, Lecerf de la Vieville. "No, it is the singer...." "Oh, well, then, let the singer move me himself, and take care not to worry me with the orchestra, which is only there by courtesy and accident. _Si vis me flere...._" (_Comparaison de la Musique italienne et de la Musique francaise_, 1705).
[44] "One can represent quite well with simple instruments," says Mattheson, "the grandeur of the soul, of love, of jealousy, etc., and render all the feelings of the heart by simple chords and their progressions without words, in such a way that the hearer can know and understand their trend, the sense and thought of the musical discourses as if it were a veritably spoken one" (_Die neueste Untersuchung der Singspiele_, 1744).
[45] The preface of the _Componimenti Musicali_ of 1706. Mattheson exaggeratingly says that "to compose well a single recitative in keeping with the feelings and the flow of the phrase as Keiser did, needs more art and ability than to compose ten airs after the common practice."
[46] Compare the _recitative_ in the first great cantatas of J. S. Bach, "Aus der Tiefe, Gottes Zeit," which cover from 1709 to 1712-14, with such _recitatives_ from "Octavia" of Keiser (1705), notably Act II, _Hinweg, du Dornen schwangere Krone!_ Melodic inflections, modulations, harmonies, grouping of phrases, cadences, all in the style of J. S. Bach even more than in that of Handel.
[47] See in _Croesus_ (1711) the air of Elmira, with flute, which calls to mind a similar air from _Echo and Narcissus_ by Gluck.
[48] In this genre a scene from _Croesus_ is a little masterpiece in the pastoral style of the end of the eighteenth century; and is very close to Beethoven.
[49] Such as the _Song of the Imprisoned Croesus_, which calls to mind certain airs in _The Messiah_.
[50] I need only cite one example: it is the air of Octavia with two soft flutes, "Wallet nicht zu laut," one of the most poetic pages of Keiser, which Handel reproduced several times in his works, and even in his _Acis and Galatea_, 1720.
[51] Postel, who used seven languages in the Prologues of his Libretti, was opposed to this mixture in poetical works, "for that which ornaments learning," he says, "disfigures poetry."
[52] Certain German operas mix High German, Low German, French and Italian.
[53] He was born at Hamburg in 1681, and died there in 1764. See L. Meinardus: _J. Mattheson und seine Verdienste um die deutsche Tonkunst_, 1870; and Heinrich Schmidt: _J. Mattheson, ein Foerderer der deutschen Tonkunst_, 1897, Leipzig.
[54] He violently attacked in the _Volkommene Kapellmeister_ (1739) the "Pythagoreans" of whom the chief was Lor. Christoph Mizler, of Leipzig, who attempted to work out music on the lines of mathematics and logic. With the "Aristoxenians" (harmonists) he wished to rescue music from an iron vice, from the hands of the skeleton of a dead science, and from scholasticism. The ear was his law. "Let your art be encompassed where the ear alone reigns: that should suffice. Where nature and experience leads you, all is well. Do it, play it, sing it; for wrong doing, avoid it, efface it" (_Das forschende Orchestre_). Against the scholastic, he opposed the fecund and living harmonic science (_Harmonische Wissenschaft_); he demanded that the latter should be taught in the universities, and offered to bequeath a large sum to found a Chair for a musical lectureship in the college of his native city.
[55] Especially in _Das neueroeffnete Orchestre_ (1713), _Das beschuetzte Orchestre_ (1717), _Das forschende Orchestre_ (1721). We might say that the most fruitful of his theoretical writings is _Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister_ (1739), which might even to-day serve as the basis of a work on musical aesthetics, and that it was the work which produced a good part of our musicology.
[56] He warns German musicians against going to Italy, whence they return like so many birds plucked of their feathers, with their great weaknesses hidden, and an intolerable presumption. He reproached Germany with not helping her national musicians, who were languishing and becoming extinct (_Volk. Kapellm._ and _Critica Musica_).
[57] Twenty-four monthly books which appeared with interruptions from May, 1722, to 1725, Hamburg. There were musical polemics, correspondence, interviews with musicians, analyses of their books and works, a shoal of letters on the last opera, on the last concert, on the life of a musician, on a new clavier, on a singer, etc. One finds pre-eminently very solid musical critiques, perhaps the oldest which exist. The minute analysis of Handel's _Passion according to St. John_ was still celebrated when the work itself was forgotten. "It is perhaps," said Marpurg in 1760, "the first good critique which was written on choral music" since it sprang into being.
[58] _Critica Musica._
[59] "When I think as a tone-poet (Tondichter)," he says, "I think of something higher than a great figure.... Formerly musicians were poets and prophets." In another place he writes, "It is the property of music to be above all sciences a school of virtue, _eine Zuchtlehre_" (_Vollk. Kapellm._).
[60] _Grundlagen einer Ehrenpforte, worin der tuechtigsten Kapellmeister, Komponisten, Musikgelehrten, Tonkuenstler, etc. Leben, Werke, Verdienste, etc., erscheinen sollen, 1740._
[61] _Vollkommene Kapellmeister_, 1739--he devoted a very important study, which he called the _Hypokritik_ (Pantomime), to it in this work.
[62] _Ibid._
[63] In theory rather than in practice: for his operas are mediocre. Besides, he soon lost his taste for the theatre, his religious scruples being too strong for him. He wished at first to purify the Opera, to make the theatre something serious and sacred, which should act on the masses in an instructive and elevating manner (_Musikalischer Patriot_, 1728). Then he saw that his conception of a moral and edifying opera had no chance of being realised. Finally he lost his interest, and even rejoiced in 1750 over the final ruin which overtook the Hamburg Opera.
[64] Mattheson, who spoke perfect English, and who became a little later the secretary to the English Legation, then resident in the interim, presented Handel to the English Ambassador, John Wich, who entrusted them both with the instruction of his son.
[65] _Ehrenpforte._--Telemann, a co-disciple of Handel, says also that both Handel and he worked continually at melody.
[66] With a kind of protective touch, however, on the part of Mattheson. During the first months Handel would never have dreamt of offending him. The style of his letters to Mattheson in March, 1704, was extremely respectful. In fact Mattheson was then in advance of him, and his superior in social position.
[67] See in the _Ehrenpforte_ the story of this journey, and the frolics which happened on the way to the two joyful companions.
Buxtehude was a Dane, born at Elsinore in 1637. He settled at Lubeck, where he remained as the organist of St. Mary's Church, from the age of thirty years until his death in 1707.
[68] It was the custom that the organ of a church should be given with the daughter, or the widow of the organist. Buxtehude himself, in succeeding Tunder, had married his daughter.
[69] J. S. Bach went to Lubeck in October, 1705, and instead of staying a month, as arranged, he spent four months there; an irregularity which cost him his position at Celle.
[70] The organ works of Buxtehude have been republished by Spitta and Max Seiffert, in 2 volumes by Breitkopf (see the short, but pithy, study of Pirro in his little book on _L'Orgue de J. S. Bach_, Paris, 1895, and Max Seiffert: _Buxtehude, Handel, Bach_, in the Peter's Annual, 1902). A selection (too restricted) of the cantatas has been published in a volume of the _Denkmaeler deutscher Tonkunst_. Pirro is preparing a longer work on Buxtehude.
[71] Particularly during 1693.
[72] The part played by these free cities, Hamburg, Lubeck, the abodes of intelligent and adventurous merchants, in the history of German music, should be specially noticed. The part is analogous to that played by Venice and Florence in Italian painting and music.
[73] There are about 150 manuscripts in the libraries of Lubeck, Upsala, Berlin, Wolfenbuettel, and Brussels.
[74] His organ music bears witness to his mastery in this style.
[75] See the penetrating intimacy, the suave melody, of the cantata _Alles was ihr tut mit Worten oder Werken_, and the tragic grandeur with such simple means of the magnificent cantata _Gott hilf mir_.
[76] We find on page 167 of the _Denkmaeler_ volume, a _Hallelujah_ by Buxtehude for 2 clarini (trumpets), 2 violins, 2 violas, violoncello, organ, and 5 vocal parts, which is pure Handel, and very beautiful.
[77] Mattheson adds: "I know with certainty that if he reads these pages, he will laugh up his sleeve, but outwardly he laughs little."
[78] Amongst others, the subject from an air in minuet form, which he repeated exactly in the minuet of his overture to _Samson_.
[79] In the same week, Keiser and the poet Hunold gave another Passion, _The Bleeding and Dying Jesus_, which made a scandal: for he had treated the subject in the manner of an opera, suppressing the chorales, the chief songs, and the person of the evangelist and his story. Handel and Postel more prudently only suppressed the songs, but reserved the text of the evangelist.
[80] This criticism, certainly written in 1704, was repeated by Mattheson in his musical journal, _Critica Musica_, in 1725, and even twenty years later on, in his _Wollkommene Kapellmeister_, in 1740.
[81] The two young men had charge of the education of the English Ambassador's son, Mattheson in the position of chief tutor, Handel as music master. Mattheson took advantage of the situation to inflict on Handel a humiliating rebuke. Handel revenged himself by ridiculing Mattheson, whose _Cleopatra_ was being given at the Opera. Mattheson conducted the orchestra from the clavier, and took the _role_ of Antony as well. When he played the part he left the clavier to Handel, but after Antony had died, an hour before the end of the play, Mattheson returned in theatrical costume to the clavier, so as not to miss the final ovations. Handel, who had submitted to this little comedy for the first two representations, refused on the third to give his chair to Mattheson. In the end they came to fisticuffs. The story is told in a rather confusing manner by Mattheson in his _Ehrenpforte_, and by Mainwaring, who sided with Handel.
[82] _Der in Krohnen erlangte Gluecks-Wechsel, oder Almira Konigen von Castilien_ (The Adventures of the Fortune of the Kings, or Almira, Queen of Castile). The libretti was drawn from a comedy by Lope de Vega by a certain Feustking, whose scandalous life Chrysander has recorded, and also the battle of the ribald pamphlets with Barthold Feind on the subject of this piece. Keiser ought to have written the music of _Almira_, but, being too occupied with his business and his amusements, he handed the book over to Handel.
Once for all I will say here that the exigences of this book will not allow of any analysis of Handel's operas. I hope to give detailed analyses of them in another book on Handel and his times (_Musiciens d'autrefois_, Second Series).
[83] _Die durch Blut und Mord erlangte Liebe, oder Nero_ (Love obtained by blood and crime, or Nero), poem by Feustking. Mattheson played the part of Nero. The musical score is lost.
[84] In 1703 Handel returned his mother the allowance which she made him, and added thereto certain presents for Christmas. In 1704, 1705 and 1706 he saved two hundred ducats for his travels in Italy.
[85] The new Nero was played under the title of _Die Romische Unruhe, oder die edelmuethige Octavia_ (The troubles of Rome, or the magnanimous Octavia). The score has been republished in the supplements to the Complete Handel Edition by Max Seiffert with Breitkopf. _Almira_ took the title: _Der Durchlanchtige Secretarius, oder Almira, Koenigen in Castilien_ (His Excellency the Secretary, or Almira, Queen of Castile).
Besides these two works, Keiser wrote in two years, seven operas, the finest he had done, an evident proof of his genius, which, however, lacked the character and dignity worthy of it.
[86] Under the title _Componimenti Musicali_, 1706, Hamburg.
[87] For the space of two years no one knew what had become of him, for he had taken care to elude the restraint of his creditors. At the beginning of 1709 he quietly reappeared in Hamburg, took up again his post and his glory, without anyone dreaming of reproaching him, but then Handel was no longer at Hamburg.
[88] Besides the operas, and his _Passion_, Handel wrote at Hamburg a large number of cantatas, songs, and clavier works. Mainwaring assures us that he had two cases full of them. Mattheson doubts the truth of this statement, but the ignorance which he shows on this subject only goes to prove his growing estrangement from Handel, for we have since found both in his clavier book, etc. (Volume XLVIII of the complete works), and in the Sonatas (Volume XXVII) a number of compositions which certainly date from the Hamburg period 1705 or 1706.
[89] He was the last of the Medici. He came to the title in 1723, but after several years of brilliant rule he retired into solitude, sick in body and in spirit (see Reumont: _Toscana_, and Robiony: _Gli Ultimi dei Medici_).
[90] Later on Handel said after he had been to Italy that he never had imagined that Italian music, which appears so ordinary and empty on paper, could make such a good effect in the theatre itself.
[91] Mr. R. A. Streatfeild believes that he even stayed in Florence until October, 1706, for the Prince Gastone dei Medici, who ought to have presented him to the Grand Duke, left Florence in November, 1706. He also places in this first sojourn in Florence the production of Handel's _Roderigo_, of which all precise records in the archives of the Medicis and the papers of the time are lost. I am more inclined to follow the traditional opinion that _Roderigo_ dates from Handel's second stay in Florence, when he commenced to work in the Italian language and style.
[92] Bartolommeo Christofori, inventor of the pianoforte, made several very interesting instruments for him.
[93] April 2, 1706.
[94] April 23, 1707. See Edward Dent: _Alessandro Scarlatti_.
[95] Volume LI of the Complete Works. It was pretended at the time that this _Lucretia_ was written by one Lucretia, a singer at the court of Tuscany, who showed Handel for the first time the great beauty of the Italian song--and of the Italians.
[96] The whole of Europe in the commencement of the eighteenth century had passed through a vogue of Pietism. Historians have scarcely paid sufficient attention to local influences. It was thus that they attributed the reawakening of the religious spirit in France entirely to the influence of Louis XIV. Analogous phenomena were produced in Italy, in Germany, and in England, at the same time. There were great moral forces awakening, which, one cannot exactly say why, suddenly broke out over the whole of the civilized world like a stroke of fever.
[97] A _Dixit Dominus_ is dated April 4, 1707; a _Laudate Pueri_, July 8, 1707.
[98] A letter from Annibale Merlini to Ferdinando dei Medici, recently published by Mr. Streatfeild, says that on September 24, 1707, the famous Saxon (_Il Sassone famoso_), as Handel was already called, was still enchanting hearers in the musical evenings at Rome.
[99] Both Mr. Ademollo, in an article in the _Nuova Antologia_, July 16, 1889, and Mr. Streatfeild, have established the true name of the chief singer in _Roderigo_. Thus the romantic story believed ever since Chrysander of Handel's love for the famous Vittoria Tesi has been destroyed. She was only seven years old in 1707, and did not come out until 1716.
[100] Occasionally in St. Mark's there were six orchestras, two large ones in the galleries with the two grand organs, four smaller ones distributed in pairs in the lower galleries, each with two small organs.
[101] Mainwaring relates that Handel arrived _incognito_ at Venice, and that he was discovered in a masquerade where he was playing the clavier. Domenico Scarlatti cried out that it must either be the celebrated Saxon, or the devil. This story, which shows that Handel was celebrated already as a virtuoso, accords very well with his taste for mystifying people, a marked trait in his character.
[102] This appears thoroughly established by recent researches, and contradicts the statement of Chrysander that Handel's _Agrippina_ had been played at the commencement of 1708 at Venice. All the documents of that time agree in placing the first production of _Agrippina_ at the end of 1709 or at the beginning of 1710.
[103] An autograph cantata by Handel, which is found in London, was dated Rome, March 3, 1708.
[104] This Academy was founded at Rome in 1690 for the production and exposition of popular poetry and rhetoric.
[105] Amongst the "shepherds" of Arcadia were counted four Popes (Clement XI, Innocent XIII, Clement XII, Benoit XIII), nearly all the sacred colleges, the Princes of Bavaria, Poland, Portugal; the Queen of Poland, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and a crowd of great lords and ladies.
[106] Scarlatti under the name of Terpandro; Corelli under that of Archimelo; Pasquini as Protico; Marcello as Dryanti. Handel was not inscribed on the Arcadia list because he was not yet of the regulation age, twenty-four years.
[107] Cardinal Ottoboni was a Venetian, and nephew of the Pope Alexander VIII. A good priest, very benevolent, and ostentatious art patron whose prodigalities were celebrated even in England, where Dryden eulogised them in 1691 in the Prologue of Purcell's _King Arthur_. He was a great _dilettante_, and even wrote an opera himself, _Il Columbo, overo l'India scoperta_, 1691. Alessandro Scarlatti set to music his libretto of _Statira_, and composed for him his _Rosaura_, and his _Christmas Oratorio_. He was particularly intimate with Corelli, who lived with him.
[108] Corelli took the first violin, and Francischiello, the violoncello.
[109] At one meeting of the Arcadia in April, 1706, Alessandro Scarlatti seated himself at the keyboard, whilst the poet Zappi improvised a poem. Hardly had Zappi finished reciting the last verse than Scarlatti improvised music on the verses--similarly at Ottoboni's house Handel improvised many secular cantatas whilst the Cardinal Panfili improvised the verses. It is related that one of these poems constituted a Dithyrambic eulogy, and that Handel, unperturbed, amused himself by setting it to music, and doubtless singing it.
[110] The manuscript of _The Resurrection_ bears this superscription: April 11, 1708, _La Festa de Pasque dal Marche Ruspoli_ (The Easter Festival at the Marquis Ruspoli's).
[111] They occupy four volumes in the great Breitkopf edition--two volumes of cantatas, of solo cantatas, with single bass for clavier, and two volumes of cantatas _Con stromenti_, of which certain are serenatas for two or three parts.
[112] The _Armida abbandonata_. The copy, very carefully penned in the writing of Bach, is now lodged in the house of Breitkopf.
[113] It is related that at one of the Ottoboni evenings there was a contest on the clavier and on the organ between Domenico Scarlatti and Handel. The result was undecided on the clavier, but for the organ Scarlatti himself was the first to declare Handel the victor. After that, whenever Scarlatti spoke of him he always made the sign of the Cross.
[114] Scarlatti was attached to the Royal Chapel of Naples as principal Organist in December, 1708. Then he was reinstated in this post in January, 1709, and in the course of the same year he was nominated master of the Conservatoire of _Poveri di Gesu Cristo_.
[115] All his life one of his chief hobbies--as with Corelli and Hasse--was to visit picture galleries. It is necessary to note this visual intelligence with the great German and Italian musicians of this period, since one does not find it with those of the end of the eighteenth century.
[116] One of his cantatas is preserved, _Cantata spagnola a voce sola a chitarra_ (Spanish Cantata for solo voice and guitar, published in the second volume of Italian cantatas _Con stromenti_), and seven French songs in the style of Lully, with accompaniment of Figured Bass for the clavier. One copy of these songs is found in the Conservatoire Library, Paris (Fonds Schoelcher).
[117] One of them forms the inspiration for the Pastoral Symphony of _The Messiah_. Handel also acquired in Italy his taste for the Siciliano, which became the rage in Naples, and which he used, after _Agrippina_, in nearly all his operas, and even in his oratorios.
[118] The _Acis and Galatea_ of 1708 has no relation to the one of 1720, but in taking up the later work in 1732 Handel made a rearrangement of his Italian serenade, and gave it in London, mingling with it the English airs of his other _Acis_.
[119] Concerning Steffani, see page 51 and following. It seems quite compatible with this meeting with Handel at Rome in 1709 to relate the story made by Handel of a concert at Ottoboni's, where Steffani supplied the improvisation of one of the chief singers with a consummate art. Chrysander places this story at the time of the second Italian journey of Handel in 1729, but that is impossible, for Steffani died in February, 1728.
[120] That is to say on December 26, 1709. That is the date which the recent researches of Mr. Ademollo and Mr. Streatfeild have established in accordance with the indications of the contemporary histories of Handel by Mattheson, Marpurg, and Burney, of the date inscribed on the _libretto_ itself. This contradicts the statement of Chrysander adopted on his authority by most of the musical writers of our own time, stating that _Agrippina_ was played at Venice in the Carnival of 1708.
[121] There was so much probability of this that he tried his hand on the French vocal style by writing seven French songs, of which the manuscript was carefully revised by him, for the sheets contain evidences of a close revision in pencil. How changed things would have been there if he had really come and settled in the interregnum between Lully and Rameau. He had that quality which none of the French musicians possessed--a superabundance of music, and he had not that which they had got--lucid intelligence and a penetration into the true need of the musical drama and its possibilities. (It was at that time that Lecerf de la Vieville wrote his _Comparaison de la musique francaise et de la musique italienne_, of which certain pages forestall the musical creed of Gluck.) If Handel had come to France, I am convinced that that reform would have been brought about sixty years sooner, and with a wealth of music which Gluck never possessed.
[122] It is the language which he used in his correspondence, even with his own family, and his style, always very correct, had the fine courtesy of the court of Louis XIV.
[123] _Esther, Athalie, Theodore, Vierge d'Martyre._
[124] Even in 1734 Sere de Rieux wrote of Handel: "His composition, infinitely clever and gracious, seems to approach nearer to our taste than any other in Europe" (p. 29 of _Enfants de Latone_, poems dedicated to the King). Handel particularly pleased the French because his Italianism was always restrained by reason, and French musicians loved to think that logic was totally French.
"Son caractere fort, nouveau, brillant, egal, Du sens judicieux suit la constante trace, Et ne s'arme jamais d'une insolente audace."
_Ibid._ (pp. 102-3.)
[125] See the book abounding in picturesque documents by Georg Fischer, _Musik in Hannover_, Second Edition, 1903.
[126] In 1676, Leibnitz was then thirty years old. He received the title of Councillor and President of the Library at the Castle.
[127] Moreover, by the quaintnesses of the Treaties of Westphalia, this Protestant Princess found herself under the care of the Catholic Bishop of Osnabruck.
[128] Madame Arvede Barine has given an amusing portrait of her, although a little severe, in her charming studies on _Madame Mere du Regent_, 1909 (Hachette). See particularly the Memoirs of the Duchess Sophia, written by the same author in French.
[129] Thus a French traveller, the Abbe Tolland, in 1702, expresses it.
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HandelChapter VI: Instrumental Music (1)
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