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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Romain Rolland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+Title: Handel
+
+Author: Romain Rolland
+
+Translator: A. Eaglefield Hull
+
+Release Date: May 11, 2012 [EBook #39671]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL
+
+(_From a Portrait by Mercier in the possession of the Earl of
+Malmesbury._)
+
+_Frontispiece._]]
+
+
+
+
+HANDEL
+
+BY
+
+ROMAIN ROLLAND
+
+TRANSLATED BY
+A. EAGLEFIELD HULL
+
+MUS. DOC. (OXON.)
+
+_WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR_
+
+_17 MUSICAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND 4 PLATES_
+
+[Illustration: colophon]
+
+NEW YORK
+HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
+1916
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+For a proper appreciation of the colossal work of Handel many years of
+study and a book of some two hundred pages are very insufficient. To
+treat at all adequately of Handel's life and work needs a whole lifetime
+in itself, and even the indefatigable and enthusiastic Chrysander, who
+devoted his life to this subject, has hardly encompassed the task.... I
+have done what I could; my faults must be excused. This little book does
+not pretend to be anything more than a very brief sketch of the life and
+technique of Handel. I hope to study his character, his work, and his
+times, more in detail in another volume.
+
+ROMAIN ROLLAND.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                 PAGE
+
+HIS LIFE                                            1
+
+HIS TECHNIQUE AND WORKS                           111
+
+  (1) THE OPERAS                                  122
+
+  (2) THE ORATORIOS                               134
+
+  (3) THE CLAVIER COMPOSITIONS                    143
+
+  (4) THE CHAMBER MUSIC (SONATAS AND TRIOS)       154
+
+  (5) THE ORCHESTRAL WORKS                        158
+
+
+APPENDICES--
+
+  LIST OF HANDEL'S WORKS                          193
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHY                                    201
+
+INDEX                                             204
+
+
+
+
+PLATES
+
+
+PORTRAIT BY THORNHILL                       _frontispiece_
+
+GEORGE I AND HANDEL'S WATER MUSIC _to face page_       69
+
+HANDEL'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY                107
+
+HANDEL DIRECTING AN ORATORIO                          165
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+BY THE EDITOR
+
+
+Here in England we are supposed to know our Handel by heart, but it is
+doubtful whether we do. Who can say from memory the titles of even six
+of his thirty-nine operas, from whence may be culled many of his
+choicest flowers of melody? M. Rolland rightly emphasises the importance
+of the operas of Handel in the long chain of musical evolution, and it
+seems impossible for anyone to lay down his book without having a more
+all-round impression than heretofore of this giant among composers.
+
+M. Saint-Saens once compared the position of a conductor in front of the
+score of a Handel oratorio to that of a man who sought to settle with
+his family in some old mansion which has been uninhabited for centuries.
+The music was different altogether from that to which he was accustomed.
+No nuances, no bowing, frequently no indication of rate, and often
+merely a "sketched-in" bass.... Tradition only could guide him, and the
+English, who alone could have preserved this, he considers, have lost
+it.
+
+Can it be recovered to any extent, and, if so, how?
+
+Behind each towering figure of genius are to be found numbers of
+eloquent men who prepared the way for him; and amongst these precursors
+there is frequently discovered one who exercised a dominating influence
+over the young budding genius. Such an influence was exercised by Zachau
+on Handel, and M. Rolland rightly gives due importance to the
+consideration of this old master's teachings and compositions, a careful
+study of which should go far to supplying the right key to Handel's
+music. One of the great shortcomings in the general musical listener is
+a lack of the historical view of music. It is a long cry from Bach and
+Handel to Debussy and Scriabin, but we shall be all the better for
+looking well at both ends of the long musical chain which connects the
+unvoiced expression of the past with the vague yet certain hopes of the
+future.
+
+No doubt we have hardly yet recovered from the false position into which
+we have all helped to place Handel. He was never the great Church
+composer which has been assumed for so long. Perhaps, rather, he leaned
+to the pagan side of life in his art. As Mr. Streatfeild says, "You can
+no more call the _Messiah_ a work of art than you can call the _Book of
+Common Prayer_ popular as a masterpiece of literature.... Handel the
+preacher is laid for ever in the tomb, but Handel the artist with his
+all-embracing sympathy for human things and his delight in the world
+around him lives for evermore." Handel has been greatly, almost
+wilfully, misrepresented; but he has played too great a part in the
+history of English music to be cast aside on this account. It is true
+that there are many difficulties in the way of a clearer understanding
+of his music. A two-hundred years' overgrowth of vain vocal traditions
+is not going to be torn away in the space of a few years.
+
+If the operas have been overlooked in favour of the oratorios, then his
+instrumental music has been even more neglected on account of the
+preponderance of his vocal movements. In a recent important contribution
+to Handelian biography only a few pages are given to the instrumental
+works. In this respect M. Rolland's clear and critical biography fills
+in a distinct _hiatus_.
+
+Moreover, Handel sojourned in Germany, Italy, finally (and longest) in
+England--but never in France. M. Rolland, therefore, a Frenchman and the
+author of that brilliant work _Histoire de l'Opera en Europe avant Lulli
+et Scarlatti_, may, more than any other writer, be expected to bring a
+freshness of vision and an impartial judgment to bear on Handel's works.
+_And he has not disappointed us._
+
+A. E. H.
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL
+
+
+
+
+HIS LIFE
+
+
+The Handel family was of Silesian origin.[1] The grandfather, Valentine
+Handel, was a master coppersmith at Breslau. The father, George Handel,
+was a barber-surgeon, originally attached to the service of the armies
+of Saxony, then of Sweden, later of the French Emperor, and finally in
+the private service of Duke Augustus of Saxony. He was very rich, and
+purchased at Halle in 1665 a beautiful house, which is still in
+existence. He was married twice; in 1643 he married a widow of a barber,
+who was ten years older than himself (he had six children by her); and
+in 1683, the daughter of a pastor who was thirty years younger than he
+was: he had four children by her, of which the second was George
+Frederick.
+
+Both parents sprang from that good old _bourgeois_ stock of the
+seventeenth century which was such excellent soil for genius and for
+faith. Handel, the surgeon, was a man of gigantic stature, serious,
+severe, energetic, religiously attached to duty, upright and affable in
+his dealings with those around him.
+
+His portrait exhibits a large clean-shaven face which has the impression
+of one who never smiled. The head is carried high, the eyes morose;
+prominent nose and a pleasant but obstinate mouth; long hair with white
+curls falling on his shoulders; black cap, collar of lace, and coat of
+black satin: the aspect of a parliamentary man of his time.--The mother
+was no less sturdy a character. Of a clerical family on the maternal
+side as well as on the paternal side, with a spirit imbued with the
+Bible, she had a calm courage, which came out prominently when the
+country was ravaged by pestilence. Her sister and her elder brother were
+both carried off by the plague; her father was also affected. She
+refused to leave them and remained quietly at home. She was then engaged
+to be married.--This sturdy couple transmitted to their distinguished
+son in place of good looks (which he certainly had not, and which never
+disquieted him) their physical and moral health, their stature, their
+keen intelligence and common sense, their application to work, and the
+indestructible essence of their quiet, calm spirit.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+George Frederick Handel was born at Halle on Monday, February 23,
+1685.[2] His father was then sixty-three years, and his mother
+thirty-four.[3]
+
+The town of Halle occupied a singular political situation. It belonged
+originally to the Elector of Saxony; by the Treaties of Westphalia it
+was ceded to the Elector of Brandenburg; but it paid tribute to the Duke
+Augustus of Saxony during his lifetime. After the death of Augustus in
+1680, Halle passed definitely to Brandenburg; and in 1681 the Grand
+Elector came to receive homage there. Handel then was born a Prussian;
+but his father was in the service of the Duke of Saxony, and he retained
+relationship with the son of Augustus, Johann Adolf, who moved his court
+after the Prussian annexation to the neighbouring town of Weissenfels.
+Thus the childhood of Handel was influenced by two intellectual forces:
+the Saxon and the Prussian. Of the two the more aristocratic, and also
+the more powerful was the Saxon. Most of the artists had emigrated with
+the Duke to Weissenfels. It was there that the genial Heinrich Schuetz
+was born and died:[4] it was there that Handel found his first impetus,
+and where the calling of the child was first recognized. The precocious
+musical tendencies of the little George Frederick were somewhat curbed
+by the formal opposition of his father.[5] The sturdy surgeon had more
+than objection--he possessed an aversion to the profession of artist.
+This sentiment was shared by nearly all the sturdy men of Germany. The
+calling of musician was degraded by the unedifying spectacle of many
+artists in the years of relaxation which followed the Thirty Years'
+war.[6] Besides which, the _bourgeois_ German of the seventeenth century
+had a very different idea of music from that of our French middle
+classes of the nineteenth century. It was with them a mere art of
+amusement, and not a serious profession. Many of the masters of that
+time, Schuetz, Rosenmueller, Kuhnau, were lawyers, or theologians, before
+they devoted themselves to music; or they even followed for a time the
+two professions. Handel's father wished his son to follow his own
+profession, that of law; but a journey to Weissenfels overcame all his
+objections. The Duke heard the little seven-year-old Handel play the
+organ, with the result that he sent for the father to see him and
+recommended him not to thwart the child's obvious musical talents. The
+father, who had always taken these counsels very badly when they came
+from anyone else, doubtless appreciated them when they came from the
+lips of a prince; and without renouncing his own right over his son
+(for he still had the legal plan in his head) consented to let him learn
+music; and on his return to Halle he placed him under the best master in
+the town, the organist Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau.[7]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Zachau was a broad-minded man and moreover a good musician, whose
+greatness was only appreciated many years after his death.[8] His
+influence on Handel was splendid. Handel himself did not conceal it.[9]
+This influence affected the pupil in two ways: by his method of
+teaching, and by his artistic personality. "The man was very well up in
+his art," says Mattheson,[10] "and is possessed of as much talent as
+beneficence."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handel's devotion to Zachau was so great that he seemed never able to
+show him sufficient affection and kindness. The master's first efforts
+were devoted to giving the pupil a strong foundation in harmony. Then he
+turned his thoughts towards the inventive side of the art; he showed
+him how to give his musical ideas the most perfect form, and he refined
+his taste. He possessed a remarkable library of Italian and German
+music, and he explained to Handel the various methods of writing and
+composing adopted by different nationalities, whilst pointing out the
+good qualities and the faults of each composer; and in order that his
+education might be at the same time theoretical and practical, he
+frequently gave him exercises to work in such and such a style.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This education with a true European catholicity was not confined to one
+particular musical style, but spread itself out over all schools, and
+caused him to assimilate the best points of all, for who can fail to see
+that the conception and practice of Handel, and indeed the very essence
+of his genius, was the absorption of a hundred different styles! "One of
+his manuscripts dated 1698, and preserved carefully all his life,
+contains," so says Chrysander, "some airs, choruses, capriccios, and
+fugues of Zachau, Alberti (Heinrich Albert), Froberger, Krieger, Kerl,
+Ebner, Strungk, which he had copied out whilst studying with Zachau."
+Handel could never forget these old masters, distinct traces of whom are
+found from time to time in his best-known works.[11] He would doubtless
+too, with Zachau, have seen the first volumes of the clavier works of
+Kuhnau, which were published at that time.[12]
+
+Moreover, it seems that Zachau knew the work of Agostino Steffani,[13]
+who later on took a fatherly interest in Handel; and Zachau followed
+sympathetically the dramatic musical movement in Hamburg. Thus the
+little Handel had, thanks to his master, a living summary of the musical
+resources of Germany, old and new; and under his direction he absorbed
+all the secrets of the great contrapuntal architects of the past,
+together with the clear expressive and melodic beauty of the
+Italian-German schools of Hanover and Hamburg.
+
+But the personal influence of the character and the art of Zachau
+reacted no less strongly on Handel than did his methods of instruction.
+One is struck by the relationship of his works[14] to those of Handel;
+they are similar in character and style. The reminiscences of motives,
+figures, and of subjects count for little;[15] there is the same essence
+in the art of both master and pupil; there is the same feeling of light
+and joy; there is nothing of the pious concentration and introspection
+of Bach, who goes down into the deeps of thought, and who loves to probe
+into all the innermost recesses of the heart, and--in silence and
+solitude--converse with his God. The music of Zachau is the music of
+great spaces, of dazzling frescoes, such as one sees on the domes of the
+Italian cathedrals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but
+Zachau's work contains more religion than these. His music pulses with
+action like the bounding and rebounding of great springs of steel. It
+has triumphant subjects with expositions of great solemnity. There are
+victorious marches, carrying everything before them, which go crashing
+on without stopping, ever spurring on the sparkling and joyous patterns.
+There are also pastoral themes, pure and voluptuous reveries,[16]
+dances, and songs accompanied by flutes, with a Grecian perfume,[17] and
+a smiling virtuosity, a joy intoxicated with itself, twisting lines, and
+vocal arabesques, vocalizations, trills for the voice which gambol
+light-heartedly with the little wave-like arpeggios of the violins.[18]
+Let us unite these two traits: the heroic and the pastoral, the
+warriors' marches and the jubilant dances. There you have the Handelian
+tableaux: the people of Israel and the women dancing before the
+victorious army. You find in Zachau a sketch for the monumental
+constructions of Handel in his Hallelujahs; those mountains of sound
+which resound their joy, the colossal _Amens_ which crown his oratorios
+like the dome of St. Peter at Rome.[19]
+
+Add to this also Zachau's marked liking for instrumental music,[20]
+which makes him combine it so happily with the vocal solos; and very
+often he imagines the voice as an instrument, which combines and gambols
+with the other instruments, thus forming a decorative garland
+harmoniously woven.
+
+To sum up, it was an art less intimate than expansive, an art newly
+born; not devoid of emotion though,[21] but above all, restful, strong,
+and happy--an optimistic music like that of Handel.
+
+Truly Handel in miniature, with much less breadth, less richness of
+invention, and particularly a smaller power of development. There is
+nothing of the attractiveness of Handel's colossal movements, like an
+army which marches and sings; and more solid strength is necessary to
+carry the weight right to the end without bending. Zachau flinches on
+his way; he has not the vital force of Handel, but in compensation he
+has more _naivete_, more tender candour, more of the childlike
+chasteness and evangelic grace.[22] Certainly there we have the master
+really necessary to Handel, a master more than one great man had the
+good fortune to find (it is Giovanni Santi for Raphael; it is Neefe for
+Beethoven): good, simple, straightforward, a little dull, but giving a
+steady and gentle light where the youth may dream in peace and abandon
+himself with confidence to a guide almost fraternal, who does not seek
+to dominate him, but rather strives to fan the little flame into a
+greater fire; to turn the little rivulet of music into the mighty river
+of genius.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whilst studying with Zachau the young Handel visited Berlin. After
+having paid his homage to his former master, the Elector of Saxony, he
+was wise enough also to present himself to the new one, the Elector of
+Brandenburg. It seems that this journey took place about 1696 when the
+boy was eleven years old, and his father, being ill, did not accompany
+him.
+
+The Berlin Court lived a very short life of artistic brilliance between
+the wars of the Grand Elector and those of the Prince-Regent. Music was
+greatly in honour, thanks to the Electress, Sophia Charlotte, daughter
+of the celebrated Sophia of Hanover. She attracted to her the best
+Italian instrumentalists, singers, and composers.[23] She founded the
+Berlin Opera,[24] and even conducted several concerts at Court.
+Doubtless the movement was but superficial. It was only held together by
+the impulse of the Electress, who had more spirit than earnestness. Art
+was for her only a fond distraction; so that after her death the musical
+_fetes_ in Berlin became extinct. But it was something to have lighted,
+only for a brief hour, this flame of beautiful Italian art, and it was
+thus that the little Handel came into contact for the first time with
+the music of the South.[25] The child, who displayed his powers on the
+clavecin before a princely audience, had so much success that the
+Elector of Brandenburg wished him to enter his service. He offered
+Handel's father to send the child to Italy to finish his studies. The
+old man refused. "He had a stubborn pride, and did not desire," so says
+Mainwaring, "that his son should be tied too soon to a Prince." He
+wished to see his child again, as he considered that he himself might
+die at any moment.
+
+Little Handel returned. Too late! He learnt _en route_ that his father
+had died on February 11, 1697. The principal obstacle in the way of his
+musical vocation had now disappeared, but he had so profound a respect
+for his father's wishes that he forced himself to study law for many
+more years. After having completed in due course his classes at the
+college he was entered for the Faculty of Law at the University of Halle
+on February 10, 1702, five years after his father's death.
+
+University life in Halle at that time was of a revolting character. But,
+in spite of this, an intense life of thought and religion was also to be
+found there. The Faculty of Theology was the centre of Pietism.[26] The
+students devoted themselves to religious exercises which led to
+ecstasy.--Handel, independent as he always was, kept clear of the brutal
+amusements, just as he did of the mystic contemplation. He was religious
+without being sentimental. For the rest, an artist could only listen to
+the Pietists with difficulty, for their religious devotion was too often
+oppressive to art. Even J. S. Bach, Pietist at heart, by his public acts
+declared himself opposed to the Pietists, who were on certain marked
+occasions inimical to music.[27] For a still stronger reason Handel had
+no leaning towards mysticism.
+
+Religion was not his business; Law certainly was not. However, he had
+for his master the most remarkable professor in Germany, Christian
+Thomasius, the advocate in the arraignment of witchcraft,[28] the
+reformer of the teaching of law, who himself made a thorough study of
+German customs, and who did not cease to make battle with the gross and
+stupid abuses of the universities, with their spirit of caste, pedantry,
+ignorance, hypocrisy, and judicial and religious acerbity. If such a
+training was not of the nature to retain Handel it was certainly not the
+fault of the professor; there were no more vital lessons in the whole
+of the Germany of that day; none which offered a more fruitful field of
+activity to a young man. Let us be sure that a Beethoven would not have
+been insensible to them. But Handel was a pure musician; he was music
+itself; nothing else could occupy his thoughts.
+
+In the year in which he had completed his terms in the Faculty of Law he
+found a post of organist at Halle: and in a church more than strictly
+Lutheran, being of the Reformed order, where the organist had expressly
+to conform to the new cult. However, he was only seventeen years
+old.[29] This simple fact showed what musical authority he already
+exercised in the town where he had studied law.[30] Not only was he
+organist, but he was also Professor at the College of the Reformists; he
+took vocal music there for two hours every week; he selected the most
+gifted of his pupils and formed from them a vocal and instrumental body
+which was to be heard every Sunday in one church or another of the town.
+He included in his musical repertoire, chorales, Psalms, motets,
+cantatas--which were changed every Sunday. Truly an excellent school for
+learning to write quickly and well. Handel there formed his creative
+fecundity.[31] Of hundreds of cantatas which he then wrote, none were
+preserved by him.[32] But it is certain that his memory retained more
+than one idea to serve in later compositions, for he never lost
+anything, and from that time for the rest of his life he retained in his
+mind his earlier musical ideas. This should not be attributed to his
+speed in working, but to the unity of his thought and his strenuous
+search for perfection.
+
+Handel renewed neither his yearly engagement at the Cathedral of Halle
+nor at the University. In his period as organist he had gauged his own
+musical force and he no longer wished to constrain it. A wider field of
+activity was necessary. He quitted Halle in the spring of 1703, and
+guided both by his instincts and by a preference of his master
+Zachau[33] he betook himself to Hamburg, the city of German Opera.
+
+Hamburg was the Venice of Germany. A free town far from the noise of
+wars, a refuge of artists, and people of large fortunes, the centre of
+the commerce of Northern Europe, a cosmopolitan city where they spoke
+all languages and especially the French tongue, it was in continual
+relationship with both England and Italy, and particularly with Venice,
+which constituted for it a model for emulation. It was by way of Hamburg
+that the English ideas were circulated in Germany. It was there where
+the first German newspapers appeared.[34] In the time of Handel, Hamburg
+shared with Leipzig the intellectual prestige of Germany. There was no
+other place in Germany where music was held in such high esteem.[35] The
+artists there hobnobbed with the rich merchants. Christoph, pupil of
+Schuetz, had founded there a celebrated Collegium Musicum, a Society of
+Musicians, and started there in 1677-8 the first theatre of German
+Opera. It was not a princely opera open only to those invited by the
+prince, but a public opera, popular in spirit and in prices. It was the
+example of Italy, notably that of Venice, which called forth this
+foundation, but the spirits of the two theatres were very different.
+Whilst that of Venice satisfied itself with fantastic melodramas,
+curiously devised from the ancient mythology and history, the Hamburg
+Opera retained, despite the grossness of taste and licentiousness of
+manners, an old religious foundation. The Hamburg opera was inaugurated
+in 1678 by the production of Joh. Theile's _Creation of the World_. The
+composer was a pupil of Schuetz. From 1678 to 1692 a large number of
+religious dramas were given there; some of an allegorical character,
+others inspired by the Bible. In certain of these subjects one can
+already see the future oratorios of Handel.[36] Feeble as these pieces
+were, they were yet on the definite road for the founding of a real
+German theatre. It seems to have been the idea of one of these poets,
+Pastor Elmenhorst, who wished to give to the religious opera the value
+of a classic form of art.[37] Unfortunately, the public spirit was on
+the decline; its religious resources, however, were well protected, save
+in a minority where religion took a more aggressive character as it felt
+itself less able to hold people. There were two factions in the Hamburg
+public; one (the most numerous) whom religion bored, and who wished to
+amuse themselves at the theatre. The other party was religious and would
+not have anything to do with the opera under the impression that it was
+a work of Satan, _opera diabolica_.[38] The struggle was warmly
+contested between the two factions, and religious opera came to grief.
+The last representation took place in 1692. When Handel arrived it was
+truly the _opera diabolica_ which ran with its many extravagances and
+its licentious habits.
+
+I have told elsewhere[39] the story of this period of theatrical history
+in Hamburg, of which the golden age was certainly between 1692 and 1703.
+Many conditions contributed to the establishment of a good Theatre and
+Opera at Hamburg; money and the wealthy patrons disposed to expend it,
+an excellent band of instruments, good but small in number, a scenic art
+well advanced, a luxury of decoration and machinery, renowned poets,
+musicians of great value, and, rarest of all, the poets and musicians
+who assembled from "die sich wohl verstanden," as Mattheson wrote. The
+poets were named Bressand of Wolfenbuettel, who was inspired by the
+French theatre, and Christian Postel, whom Chrysander calls very
+complacently a German Metastasio. The feeblest part was the singing. For
+a long time the Hamburg Opera had no professional singers. The _roles_
+were taken by students and artisans, by shoemakers, tailors, fruiterers,
+and girls of little talent and less virtue; generally the artisans found
+it more convenient themselves to take the female _roles_. Men and women
+alike had a profound ignorance of music. Towards 1693 the Opera at
+Hamburg was fortunately completely transformed from top to bottom by the
+great Kapellmeister Sigismund Cousser, who introduced reforms in the
+orchestra after the French model, and in the singing on Italian lines.
+France was represented in his eyes (as for all foreign musicians) by the
+personage of Lully, by whom Cousser was trained for six years in Paris.
+Italy was represented by a remarkable artist settled at Hanover from
+1689 to 1696, who produced ten operas; Agostino Steffani from the
+province of Venice.
+
+This dual model from Italy and France, aided by the personal example of
+Cousser, played the chief part in producing the best musician of the
+Hamburg Opera, Reinhard Keiser, a man who, despite his character and
+presumptuous knowledge, had certainly genius.[40]
+
+Keiser was under thirty years old when Handel arrived, but he was then
+at the zenith of his fame. Kapellmeister of the Hamburg Opera since
+1695, then director of the theatre since the end of 1702, very highly
+gifted, but of scanty culture, dissipated, voluptuous, careless, he was
+the incontestable ruler of the German Opera; the artist type of that
+epoch, overflowing with material life, and devoting itself to the love
+of pleasure. The influence of both Lully[41] and that of Steffani[42] is
+shown in his first operas. But his own personality is easily
+recognizable under these traces of borrowing. He has a very fine sense
+of instrumental colour, widely differing from that of the followers of
+Lully, who were a little disdainful of expressive power in the
+orchestra, and were always disposed to sacrifice it to the primacy of
+the voice.[43] He believed, as did his admirer and commentator,
+Mattheson, that one can express the feelings by means of the orchestra
+alone.[44]
+
+He was, moreover, a true master of _recitative_; one might say that he
+created the German _recitative_. He attached extreme importance to it,
+saying that the expression in _recitative_ often gave the intelligent
+composer much more trouble than the invention of the air.[45] He sought
+to note with exactitude, accent, punctuation, the living breath itself,
+without sacrificing anything of the musical beauty. His _Recitative
+arioso_ takes an intermediate place between the oratorical _recitative_
+of the French, and the _recitative secco_ of the Italians, and was one
+of the models for the _recitative_ of J. S. Bach,[46] and even not
+excepting Bach and Handel, Mattheson persists in seeing in Keiser the
+master of this style.--But the real supreme gift of Keiser was his
+melodic invention. In that he was one of the first artists in Germany,
+and the Mozart of the first part of the eighteenth century. He had an
+abundant and winning inspiration. As Mattheson said, "His true nature
+was tenderness, love...." From the commencement to the end of his career
+he could reproduce voluptuous feelings with such exquisite art that no
+one could surpass him. His melodic style, much more advanced than that
+of Handel--not only at this particular epoch but at any moment of his
+life--is free, unsophisticated and happy. It is not the contrapuntal
+style of Handelian Opera, but it inclines rather to that of Hasse (who
+was trained entirely in it), to the symphonists of Mannheim, and to
+Mozart. Never has Handel, greater and more perfect as he was, possessed
+the exquisite note which breathes in the melodies of Keiser--that fresh
+perfume of the simple flower of the field.[47] Keiser had the taste for
+popular songs and rustic scenes,[48] but he knew also how to rise to the
+very summits of classical tragedy, and some of his airs of stately
+grief might have been written by Handel himself.[49] Keiser was, then,
+full of lessons and of models for Handel, who was not slow to take
+them,[50] but he also set him several bad examples too. The worst was
+the renunciation of the national language. Whilst Postel and Schott had
+been at the head of the Hamburg Opera the Italian language had been kept
+within bounds,[51] but since Keiser had become Director he had changed
+all that. In his _Claudius_ (1703) he made the first barbarous attempt
+at a mixture of Italian and German languages. It was for him a pure
+fanfare of virtuosity, and he wished to show, as he explained in his
+Preface, that he was capable of beating the Italians on their own
+ground. He took no account of the detriment to German Opera. Handel,
+following his example, mixes, in his first operas, the airs with Italian
+words with those set to German words.[52] Since that time he no longer
+wrote Italian operas; and after that, his musical theatre was without
+foundation and without public. The sanction of this error resulted in
+Germany's neglect of Keiser's operas and even of those of Handel,
+despite the genius of both composers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handel arrived at Hamburg during the summer of 1703. One can imagine him
+there at that time of life as in the portrait painted by Thornhill,
+which is in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge: a long face, calm, but
+a little coarse, large and serious eyes, large and straight nose, ample
+forehead, vigorous mouth, with thick lips, cheeks and chin already full,
+very straight head without wig, and covered with a biretta after the
+manner of Wagner. "He was rich in power, and strong in will," says
+Mattheson, who, by the way, was the first acquaintance he made in
+Hamburg. Mattheson, who was then twenty-two,[53] four years older than
+Handel, came from a rich Hamburg family, and possessed vast knowledge.
+He spoke English, Italian, French, was trained for the law, well
+grounded in music, could play nearly all the instruments, and wrote
+operas, of which he was the poet, the composer, and the actor all in
+one. Above all he was a master theorist, and the most energetic critic
+of German music. With an immense _amour-propre_ and many passionate
+dislikes, he had a robust spirit, very sound, and very honest, a sort of
+Boileau or of Lessing in music half a century before _la Dramaturgie_.
+On the one side he combated scholastic routine and abstract science in
+the name of nature, and laid down the rule that "music is that which
+sounds well" ("Musik muesse schoen klingen").[54] He played his part in
+the banishment of the obsolete theories (solmisation, ecclesiastical
+modes) and the definition of our modern system.[55] On the other hand,
+he was the champion of German art and German spirit. From Lessing he
+derived his patriotism, his rough independence, his impetuosity, which
+seemed to possess a violence almost brutal. All his books cry "Fuori
+Barbari."[56] One of his works was entitled _The Musical Patriot_ (_Der
+Musikalische Patriot_, 1728).
+
+In 1722 he founded the first German musical journal, _Critica
+Musica_,[57] and all his life he waged a vigorous war for good sense,
+real musical intelligence, music which speaks to the heart and not to
+the ear, moving and strengthening the soul of the intelligent man with
+beautiful thoughts and melodies.[58] He saw in music a religious
+idea.[59] By his wide culture, his knowledge of the artistic theories of
+the past, his familiarity with all the important French and Italian
+works, his relationships with the principal German masters, with Keiser,
+Handel, J. S. Bach, by his rich practical experience, his acute critical
+sense, his ardent patriotism, his virile and flowing language, he was
+well fitted to be the great musical educator of Germany, and he
+accomplished his task well. In the dispersion of German artists which
+took place then, in addition to the many vicissitudes of their work,
+there was chiefly lacking a support of political solidarity which could
+cause music to rise above the fluctuations of the tastes of little towns
+and the small coteries. Mattheson was then for half a century the sole
+tribune of German music, the intellect where thoughts concentrated from
+all quarters, and from him radiated an influence over all the country
+in return. It was thus that he preserved the ideas of Keiser, which
+apart from him would have fallen into oblivion without leaving any
+traces of their existence. It was these traces that he rescued out of
+the _debacle_ and preserved for us--a multitude of imperishable
+souvenirs for the musical history of the eighteenth century--which
+Mattheson gathered together and published in his monumental
+_Ehrenpforte_.[60] He acted powerfully on his times. His books laid down
+the law for the Kapellmeisters, the Cantors, the organists, and the
+teachers.
+
+His criticisms, his advice on style in singing, on gesture in acting,
+were no less efficacious. He possessed the real "theatre" feeling. He
+expected life in the stage action, attaching considerable importance to
+the pantomime "which is a silent music."[61] He waged war against the
+impossible action and the want of intelligence amongst the German
+singers and choralists, and he desired that the composer should think
+always in writing of the action of the player. "The knowledge of facial
+expression by the actors on the stage," says he, "can often be a source
+of good musical ideas."[62] This is indeed the language of a true man of
+the theatre.[63] For the rest, Mattheson was too good a musician to
+serve music in words. He sought to unite them by safeguarding the
+independence of both, but ended by giving the preference to the soul
+over the body, the melody over the words. The words he wrote are the
+body of the discourses; the thoughts are the soul; the melody is the sun
+shining on the soul, the marvellous atmosphere which envelops it all. We
+have said enough to give some idea of this great critic, intelligent and
+intrepid, who, with many faults, has yet many virtues. One will see how
+important it was to the young Handel to meet such a guide, even though
+they were both too original and too self-sufficient for the association
+to last long.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mattheson did Handel the honours of Hamburg. He introduced him at the
+Opera, and the concerts, and it was through him that Handel entered for
+the first time into negotiations with England, which was to become his
+second country.[64] They helped one another mutually. Handel had
+already an exceptional power on the organ, and in fugue and
+counterpoint; above all, in improvisation. He shared his knowledge with
+Mattheson, who in return helped him to perfect his melodic style.
+Mattheson believed him to be a very feeble melodist. He wrote his
+melodies at that time, "Oh, long, long, long" (_sehr lange lange
+Arien_), and cantatas without end, which had neither ability nor good
+taste, but perfect harmony.[65] It is very remarkable that melody was
+not a natural gift with Handel, for he now appears to us as a melodic
+genius. It is not necessary to believe that the simple, beautiful
+melodies rushed forth without effort from his brain. The melodies of
+Beethoven, which seem the most spontaneous, cost him years of thoughtful
+work during which he brooded continually over them, and so Handel also
+only came to his full power of melodic expression after years of severe
+discipline, where he learnt as an apprentice-sculptor to model beautiful
+forms, and to leave them neither complex nor unfinished.
+
+Handel and Mattheson spent several months in intimate friendship.[66]
+Handel joined Mattheson at table for meals, and in July and August,
+1703, they made a journey together to Lubeck to hear the renowned
+organist, Dietrich Buxtehude.[67] Buxtehude had thoughts of retiring,
+and was looking for a successor. The two young men were greatly affected
+by his talent, but they did not care to succeed him in the post, for it
+was necessary to wed his daughter[68] to have his organ, and, said
+Mattheson, "neither of them wanted her."--Two years later they would
+have met on the road to Lubeck a young musician also going, like them,
+to pay Buxtehude a visit, not like them, however, in a carriage, but
+more humbly on foot: J. S. Bach.[69] Nothing makes us realise the
+importance of Buxtehude in German music better than this magnet-like
+attraction which he exercised over the German musicians of the
+eighteenth century. Pirro has remarked at some length his influence on
+the organ style of J. S. Bach. I consider that it was no less marked,
+though quite different, on the oratorio style of Handel.[70]
+
+Buxtehude gave at St. Mary's Church, Lubeck, his celebrated
+_Abendmusiken_ (evening concerts), which took place on Sundays from St.
+Martin's Day to Christmas,[71] by the request of the Merchants' Guilds
+at Lubeck, which occupied themselves keenly with music.[72] His
+cantatas, of which the number is considerable,[73] were all composed for
+these occasions. Writing for a concert public, and not for a religious
+service, he felt the need of making his music of a kind which would
+appeal to everyone. Handel later on found himself in similar
+circumstances, and the same need led them both to a similar technique.
+Buxtehude avoided in his music the ornate and clustering polyphony which
+was really his _metier_.[74] He sought nothing but clear, pleasing, and
+striking designs, and even aimed at descriptive music. He willingly
+sacrificed himself, by intensifying his expression, and what he lost in
+abundance he gained in power. The homophonic character of his writing,
+the neatness of his beautiful melodic designs of a popular clarity,[75]
+the insistence of the rhythms and the repetition of phrases which sink
+down into the heart in so obsessive a manner, are all essentially
+Handelian traits. No less is the magnificent triumph of the ensembles,
+his manner of painting in bold masses of light and shade.[76] It is to a
+very high degree, as with the art of Handel, music for everyone.
+
+But much time passed before Handel profited by the examples of
+Buxtehude. On his return from Lubeck he seems to have forgotten them. It
+was not so, however, for nothing was ever lost on him.
+
+At the end of August, 1703, Handel entered the Hamburg orchestra as a
+second violinist. He loved to amuse himself amongst his kind, and he
+often made himself appear more ignorant than he was. "He behaved," said
+Mattheson, "as if he did not even know how to count five, for he was a
+'dry stick.'"[77] That year at Hamburg, Reiser's _Claudius_ was given at
+the Opera, and many of the phrases registered themselves in Handel's
+marvellous memory.[78]
+
+When the season was finished, Mattheson made a journey to Holland, and
+Handel profited by the absence of his young adviser to assert his own
+individuality. He had made the acquaintance of the poet Postel, who,
+old, ill, and troubled by religious scruples, had given up the writing
+of opera _libretti_, and no longer wished to compose anything but sacred
+works. Postel furnished Handel with the text for a _Passion according to
+Saint John_, which Handel set to music, and performed during Holy Week
+in 1704.[79] Mattheson, piqued at the _volte face_ which had happened in
+his relationship with Handel, criticised the music severely, but not
+unjustly.[80] Despite the intense feeling of certain pages, and the fine
+dramatic nature of the choruses, the work was uneven, and occasionally
+lacked good taste.
+
+From this moment the friendship between Handel and Mattheson was
+finished. Handel became conscious of his own genius, and could no longer
+stand the protectorship of Mattheson. Other occurrences aggravated the
+misunderstanding, which ended in a quarrel, which narrowly escaped a
+fatal issue.[81] Following the altercation at the Opera on December 5,
+1704, they fought a duel in the market-place at Hamburg, and Handel only
+escaped being killed by a stroke of luck: for Mattheson's sword snapped
+on a large metal button on Handel's coat, after which they embraced, and
+the two companions, reconciled by Keiser, took part together in the
+rehearsals of _Almira_, the first opera of Handel.[82] The first
+representation took place on January 8, 1705, and the work was a
+brilliant success. A second opera of Handel, _Nero_[83] was played on
+February 25 following, but it had not quite the success of _Almira_.
+Handel himself occupied the placards of the opera during the whole of
+the winter season. It was a fine _debut_. Too fine indeed, and Keiser
+became jealous of him. The Hamburg Opera, however, was gradually waning.
+Keiser gaily led it to its ruin. He led the life of a gay libertine,
+and all the artists around him rivalled him in his follies. Alone Handel
+held aloof from the follies, working hard, and spending only what was
+barely necessary.[84] After the success of these two operas he resigned
+his post as second violin and clavecinist to the orchestra, but
+continued to give lessons, and his reputation as a composer kept pace
+with that of his teaching. Keiser was uneasy. Handel's increasing
+reputation aroused his _amour-propre_. Nothing was more stupid, however,
+than his jealousy. He was Director of the Opera, and it was in his
+interest to give those pieces which were written by popular composers,
+and to maintain relationships with successful composers, but jealousy
+knows no reason. He reset _Almira_ and _Nero_ to music in order to put
+Handel out of joint,[85] and as he had not the opportunity of publishing
+his opera _in toto_ he hastily printed the most taking solos from
+each.[86] But, however quickly he went, his downfall followed faster.
+Before the volume of his opera airs appeared he had to fly. This was in
+the end of 1706.[87] Handel and he were destined never to meet again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Keiser having brought disaster to the Hamburg Opera, there was nothing
+left to keep Handel in that city. The direction of the theatre had
+fallen into the hands of a Philistine, who, to make money, played
+musical farces. He certainly commissioned Handel for the opera _Florindo
+und Daphne_, but he mutilated the work on its presentation "for fear,"
+so he said in the Preface of the libretto, "that the music might tire
+the hearers"; and lest the public should find the work too serious, he
+intersected it with a farce in low German, _Die lustige Hochzeit_ (The
+Joyous Wedding). One can well understand that Handel was little
+interested in his piece so disfigured, and that he did not himself
+attend the production, but quitted Hamburg. It was about the autumn of
+1706 that he made the journey to Italy.[88] It was not, however, that
+Italy particularly attracted him. Strange to say--it is not unique in
+the history of art--this man, who was later on to be caught by the
+fascination of Italy, and secure an European musical triumph in the
+beautiful Italian style, had then a very strong repugnance for the
+foreign art. When _Almira_ was being given, he made the acquaintance of
+the Italian prince, Giovanni Gastone dei Medici, brother of the Grand
+Duke of Tuscany.[89] He was astonished that Handel interested himself so
+little in the Italian musicians, and bought him a collection of their
+best works, offering to take him to Florence to hear them performed. But
+Handel refused, saying that he could find nothing in these works which
+deserved the Prince's eulogies, and that angels would be necessary to
+sing them in order to make such mediocre things sound even
+agreeable.[90] This disdain of Italy was not peculiar to Handel. It
+characterised his generation, and above all, the cult of German
+musicians who lived at Hamburg. Before then, and later on, the
+fascination of Italy took hold of Germany. Even Hasler, Schuetz, Hasse,
+Gluck, and Mozart made long and earnest pilgrimages to that country, but
+on the other hand J. S. Bach, Keiser, Mattheson, and Telemann never went
+there. The Hamburg musicians truly wished to assimilate the Italian art,
+but they never wished to place themselves under the thraldom of the
+Italian school. They had the laudable ambition of creating a German
+style independent of foreign influences. Handel shared these great
+hopes, sustained for a time by the theatre at Hamburg, but the sudden
+collapse of this theatre made him see little ground on which to build up
+the taste of the musical public in Germany, and against his own
+inclinations, he turned his eyes towards that habitual refuge of German
+artists: Italy, which the older ones so affected to disdain, that
+country where music expanded itself in the sun, where it was not cheated
+out of its right of existence as with the Hamburg Pietists. It
+flourished in all the Italian cities, and in all classes of Italian
+society with the transports of love. And all around it was an
+efflorescence of the other arts, a superior civilization, a life smiling
+and radiant, of which Handel had some foretaste in his dealings with the
+Italian nobles who passed through Hamburg.
+
+He departed. His leaving was so brusque that his friends knew nothing of
+it. He did not even say good-bye to Mattheson.
+
+The period at which he arrived in Italy was not the most fortunate. The
+war for the Spanish Succession was in full swing, and Handel met at
+Venice, in the winter of 1706, Prince Eugene and his staff-major, who
+were resting after their victorious campaign in Lombardy. He did not
+stay there, but went right on to Florence, where he remained till the
+end of the year.[91]
+
+Doubtless he bore these offers of protection in mind which the Prince
+Gastone dei Medici had made him. Was such protection as useful to Handel
+as he had hoped? One may be allowed to doubt it. In truth the son of the
+Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand, was a musician. He played the clavier
+well;[92] he had caused an opera house to be built in his villa at
+Pratolino; he chose the _libretti_, advised the composers, corresponded
+with Alessandro Scarlatti, but he had never a very reliable taste. He
+found Scarlatti's style too learned. He begged him to write some easier
+music, and, as far as possible, lighter.[93] He himself did not continue
+the fastidiousness of the Medici, his ancestors. He somewhat stinted his
+outlay on music. He decided not to appoint Scarlatti his chapel-master,
+and when this great artist asked for money at a period of embarrassment
+he responded "that he would pray for him."[94] One can scarcely believe
+that he was less economical in his dealings with Handel, who had less
+reputation than Scarlatti. He seems to have paid little attention to him
+during his first visit. The Prince himself seemed out of his element in
+this new world. It was necessary for him to catch up with his times.
+Handel certainly wrote some cantatas, only one of which, _Lucretia_,
+with a dramatic character, was very popular in Italy and in Germany
+later on.[95] Its style was nearly completely German.
+
+From Florence he went to Rome for the Easter festivals in April, 1707.
+Even there the moment was not very favourable for him. The Grand Opera
+House, the _Tor di Nona_, had been destroyed as immoral by an edict of
+Pope Innocent XII ten years before. Since 1700, things had been a little
+easier for the musicians, but in 1703 a terrible earthquake had
+desolated the country, and reawakened religious qualms.[96] Even in
+1709, during the whole of Handel's sojourn in Italy, there was not a
+single representation of Opera at Rome. On the other hand, religious
+music and chamber music were enjoying a great vogue. Handel, during the
+first months, listened and studied the religious music at Rome, and
+tried his hand on similar works. From this period dated his Latin
+Psalms.[97] Thanks to the letters of recommendation he had from the
+Medici, he had also been introduced into the Roman _salons_. He became
+famous there, more on account of his _virtuoso_ powers on the keyboard
+than of those of composer. He remained at Rome until the autumn of
+1707.[98] Doubtless, he returned to Florence in the month of October,
+and it appears that he then produced _Roderigo_ for the first time.
+Handel had then been nearly a year in Italy. He set about writing an
+opera in Italian. His boldness was justified. _Roderigo_ was successful.
+Handel gained through it the favour of the Grand Duke, and the love of
+the Prima Donna, Vittoria Tarquini.[99] Fortified by his first victory
+he went on to try his luck at Venice.
+
+Venice was then the musical metropolis of Italy. It was in a way the
+real kingdom of Opera. The first public opera house had been already
+open there for half a century, and after it, fifteen other opera houses
+had sprung into being. During the Carnival no less than seven opera
+houses were open each evening there. Every night also a musical union
+was held at the Academy of Music, and occasionally twice or even three
+times in one evening. Every day in the churches, musical solemnities
+and concerts, which lasted for many hours, with several orchestras, many
+organs, and numerous full and echo choirs,[100] and on Saturday and
+Sunday the famous Vespers of the Hospitals, those conservatoires for
+women where they taught music to orphans and foundlings, or, more
+frequently, to the girls who had fine voices. They gave orchestral and
+vocal concerts, over which all Venice raved. Venice, indeed, was bathed
+in music, the entire life was threaded with it. Life was a perpetual
+round of pleasure.
+
+When Handel arrived, the greatest of the Italian musicians, Alessandro
+Scarlatti, was about to produce at St. John Chrysostom's Theatre his
+chief work, _Mitridate Eupatore_, one of the rare Italian operas of
+which the dramatic beauty is on a par with the musical value. Was
+Alessandro Scarlatti still in Venice when Handel met him? We do not
+know, but in any case he encountered him at Rome some months later, and
+it appears that at that time Handel was tied by bonds of friendship to
+the son of Alessandro,--Domenico.[101] He also made many other
+encounters in Venice, which were destined to change his life. The
+Prince of Hanover, Ernest Augustus, and the Duke of Manchester, the
+English Ambassador Extraordinary at Venice, were both passionate
+music-lovers, and interested themselves in Handel. The first invitations
+which Handel received to go to Hanover, and to London, dated doubtless
+from that time.
+
+But if the visit to Venice was not fruitless to the future of Handel, it
+brought him very little at the time. Handel could produce nothing at any
+of the seven opera houses.[102] He was much happier at Rome, where he
+returned at the beginning of March, 1708.[103] The renown of his
+_Roderigo_ had preceded him. All the Italian merchants strove to receive
+him with honour. He was the guest of the Marquis Ruspoli, whose gardens
+on the Esquilino formed the bond of reunion for the Academy of the
+Arcadians.[104] Handel found himself agreeably placed amongst the most
+illustrious men which Italy boasted in literature, the arts, and in the
+aristocracy. Arcadia, which united the nobility and the artists,[105] in
+a spiritual brotherhood, counted amongst its members, Alessandro
+Scarlatti, Archangelo Corelli, Bernardo Pasquini, and Benedetto
+Marcello.[106] A similar _elite_ society was found at the _soirees_ of
+the Cardinal Ottoboni.[107] Every Monday, in the palace of Ottoboni, as
+at the meetings of the Arcadia, concerts and poetical recitations were
+given. The Cardinal Prince, Superintendent of the Pontifical chapel, had
+in his service the finest orchestra in Italy,[108] and the singers of
+the Sistine Chapel. At the Arcadia there was also to be heard a numerous
+orchestra, under the direction of Corelli, of Pasquini, or of Scarlatti.
+Musical and poetical improvisation was also given there. It was that
+which provoked the artistic jousts between poets and musicians.[109] It
+was for the concerts at the palace of Ottoboni that Handel wrote his
+two Roman oratorios, _The Resurrection_ and _The Triumph of Time and
+Truth_,[110] which were really but disguised operas. One finds traces of
+the Arcadia _coterie_ in the compositions which are perhaps the most
+characteristic of this period in the life of Handel: the Italian
+cantatas,[111] of which the reputation spread itself very wide, for J.
+S. Bach made a copy of one of them before 1715.[112] Handel passed three
+or four months at Rome. He was friendly with Corelli, and with the two
+Scarlattis, especially with the son, Domenico, who made many trials of
+virtuosity with him.[113] Perhaps he also played with Bernardo Pasquini,
+whom he doubtless heard more than once on his organ at Great St. Mary's.
+He was interested in the life of the Vatican, and they tried to convert
+him to Catholicism, but he refused. Such was the friendly tolerance
+which prevailed then at the Court of Rome that, notwithstanding the war
+between the Pope and Emperor, this refusal did not alter the friendly
+relationships between the young German Lutheran and the Cardinals, his
+patrons. He became so attached to Rome, that it was difficult for him to
+leave it until the war which approached the city obliged him to take his
+way in the month of May or June, 1708, to Naples. One of the Italian
+cantatas entitled _Partenza_ shows his grief at leaving the lovely
+banks, the dear walls, and the beautiful waters of the Tiber.
+
+Soon after his arrival at Naples, Alessandro Scarlatti returned to
+settle there after seven years of absence.[114]
+
+Thanks to this friendship, and his membership of the Arcadia, Handel was
+received into the best circles of Neapolitan society. He remained at
+Naples for nearly a year, from June, 1708, to the spring of 1709,
+enjoying princely hospitality, "which placed at his disposal," says
+Mainwaring, "a palace, a well-supplied table, and a coach." If the
+softness of the Italian life enervated him, he appears to have wasted no
+time. Not only did he assimilate the style of his friend Corelli--he
+conceived in Italy a passionate love of pictures[115]--but he attempted
+with a carefully cultivated dilettantism the most diverse styles, with
+which the cosmopolitan society of Naples amused its careless curiosity.
+Spanish and French influence fought for the honours of this city.
+Handel, as indifferent as Scarlatti to the victory of either of these
+parties, tried to write in the style of both.[116] He interested himself
+also in the Italian popular songs and noted down the rustic melodies of
+the Calabrian _Pifferari_.[117] For the Arcadians of Naples he wrote his
+beautiful serenata, _Acis and Galatea_.[118] Finally he had the good
+fortune to please the Viceroy of Naples--the Cardinal Grimani. He was a
+Venetian and his family owned the theatre of San Grisostomo at Venice.
+Grimani wrote for Handel the libretto of the opera _Agrippina_, of which
+Handel probably composed part of the music at Naples. A similar
+collaboration assured it of being produced at Venice without trouble.
+
+He left Naples in the springtime, and returned to Rome, where he met, at
+the Palace of the Cardinal Ottoboni, Bishop Agostino Steffani, who by a
+curious combination of attributes was at the same time Kapellmeister at
+the Court of Hanover, and charged with secret missions by different
+German princes.[119] Steffani was one of the most finished musicians of
+his time. He established a firm friendship with Handel, possibly when
+travelling together to Venice, where Handel's _Agrippina_ was played at
+the opening of the Carnival season, 1709-10, at the theatre of San
+Giovanni Grisostomo.[120] The success exceeded all anticipations.
+Mainwaring says that he took all his hearers by storm. There were great
+acclamations, and cries of _Viva il caro Sassone_ and extravagances
+impossible to record. The grandeur of the style struck them all like
+thunder. The Italians had good reason to rejoice, for they found in
+Handel a most brilliant exponent, and _Agrippina_ is the most melodious
+of his Italian operas. Venice then made and unmade reputations. The
+enthusiasm aroused by the representations at San Giovanni Grisostomo's
+spread itself out over the whole of musical Europe. Handel remained the
+whole of the winter at Venice. He seemed undecided as to what course to
+follow. It was quite on the cards that he should pass through
+Paris.[121] Handel had familiarised himself with the French
+language.[122] He showed, as it happened, a singular attraction for the
+most beautiful subjects of our French tragedy.[123] With his prodigious
+adaptability, and his Latin qualities, the clarity of his lines, his
+eloquence, logic, and his passionate love for form, he would have
+rejoiced exceedingly in assimilating the tradition of our art, and
+taking it up with an irresistible vigour.[124] But at Venice, whilst he
+was still hesitating what to do, he encountered the Hanoverian nobles,
+amongst whom was the Baron Kielmansegg, who invited him to follow them.
+Steffani himself had offered him with a charming grace his post as
+Kapellmeister at the Court of Hanover. Handel went then to Hanover.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were four brothers who became in turn Dukes of Hanover: Christian
+Louis, George William, John Frederick, and Ernest Augustus.[125] All
+four were under the spell of France and Italy. They passed the greater
+part of their time away from their own States, choosing Venice for
+preference. George William married morganatically a French lady of the
+noble family of Poitou, Eleonora d'Olbreuse. John Frederick was
+pensioned by Louis XIV, and became Catholic. He took Versailles for his
+model, and founded an Opera in 1672 at Hanover. He had also the acumen
+to call Leibnitz into his States,[126] but he took great care on his
+side that he should remain there. He died in the course of a journey to
+Venice. Ernest Augustus, who succeeded him, in 1680, was the patron of
+Steffani. He married the beautiful and intelligent Duchess Sophia, a
+Palatine princess, stepdaughter of James I Stuart, aunt of the Palatine
+of France, and sister of the Princess Elizabeth, friend of
+Descartes.[127] She herself was the friend and correspondent of
+Leibnitz, who admired her. She had great intellectual gifts, spoke seven
+languages, read widely, and had a natural taste for the beautiful. "No
+one had greater gifts," said Madame her niece, Michel de Montaigne. With
+great lucidity of thought, decidedly outspoken, she professed an
+epicurean materialism of great superiority and intelligence.[128] Her
+husband valued her little, but he was brilliant and ostentatious. They
+were the most polished and distinguished couple in Germany at the Court
+of Hanover.[129] Both loved music, but Ernest Augustus seems never to
+have dreamt that it existed anywhere outside of Italy, and he might
+almost as well have been called the "Duke of Venice" as the Duke of
+Hanover, for he was constantly in Venice, and never wished to leave it
+for long.[130]
+
+The Hanover people began to murmur. The only means they could find of
+keeping their Prince at home with them was to build a magnificent opera
+house where spectacles and _fetes_ resembling those in Venice could be
+given. The idea was good. Ernest Augustus warmly took up the scheme for
+his opera house, which, built and decorated by the Italians between 1687
+and 1690, was the most beautiful in all Germany.[131] For this opera
+house Steffani was engaged as Kapellmeister.[132] Agostina Steffani is
+one of the most curious figures in history.[133] Born in 1653 at
+Castelfranco, near Venice, of a poor family, after being a choir-boy at
+St. Mark's, he was taken in 1667 to Munich by the Count of Tattenbach,
+who had been the pupil of Ercole Bernabei, a master brought up in the
+purest Roman style.[134] At the same time he had been given a very
+complete education in literature, science, and theology, for he was
+destined for the priesthood, and with a view to becoming Abbe.[135] He
+was appointed organist at the Court, and music-director. Since 1681 a
+set of his operas, played at Munich (and especially _Servio Tullio_ in
+1685[136]), spread his renown through Germany. The Duke of Hanover
+enticed him to his Court, and in 1689 the new Hanoverian theatre was
+inaugurated by one of Steffani's operas, for which the Duchess Sophia
+furnished, it is said, the patriotic subject _Henrico Leoni_.[137] Then
+followed a set of fifteen operas of which the _mise en scene_ and music
+had an amazing popularity in Germany.[138] Cousser introduced them at
+Hamburg as models of true Italian song, and Keiser modelled himself
+partly on them, ten years before Handel in his turn followed Keiser's
+pattern. The Opera did not enjoy a long life at Hanover. The Duke alone
+liked it. The Duchess Sophia had much less sympathy for this kind of
+art.[139] The ballets and the masquerades put the Opera to shame.
+Steffani was otherwise occupied with more serious business elsewhere. In
+the Treaty of Augsburg, Ernest Augustus of Hanover had taken sides with
+the Emperor. To recompense his fidelity the Emperor bestowed on him the
+dignity of Prince-Elect, but in the confusion of the Empire it was not
+easy to clear up the situation. It was necessary to send an Ambassador
+Extraordinary to the great German Courts. The choice of all fell on
+Steffani, who, being a Catholic Abbe, could more easily serve as
+intermediary between the Protestant Court of Hanover and the Catholic
+Courts;[140] his mission was so well accomplished that in 1697 the Duke
+of Hanover obtained for him the title of Elector. This astonishing
+diplomat had found the means of writing operas. After the death of
+Ernest Augustus in 1698 he gave up opera writing, but continued to
+occupy himself with politics. He became in 1703 the secret adviser to
+the Elector Palatine, the President of the Religious Council, who was
+created a noble. At the same time Pope Innocent II made him in 1706
+Bishop of Spiga.[141] The Elector Palatine created him his Grand Almoner
+and gave him charge of the Italian and Latin correspondence with the
+Duke of Brunswick. From November, 1708, to April, 1709, Steffani stayed
+at Rome, where the Pope crowded honours on him, making him Prelate of
+the Chamber, Assistant to the Throne, Abbe of St. Steffano in Carrara,
+and Apostolic Vicar of the north of Germany, with the supervision of the
+Catholics in Palatine, Brunswick, and Brandenburg.[142] Then it was, as
+we have seen, that he met Handel. It is necessary to sketch briefly the
+life of this extraordinary personage, who was at the same time Abbe,
+Bishop, Apostolic Vicar, intimate Councillor and Ambassador of Princes,
+organist, Kapellmeister, musical critic,[143] chief singer,[144] and yet
+composer--not only for the interest of his personality, but because he
+exercised considerable influence on Handel, who always retained a
+pleasant remembrance of him.
+
+The feature in Steffani's art, and that by which he is superior to all
+of his own time, is his mastery of the art of singing. Well accustomed
+as all the Italians were to it, none wrote so purely for the voice as
+he. Scarlatti was not concerned with carrying the voice to its full
+limits, either for an expressive purpose or with a concerted intention.
+Thus in Steffani, as Hugo Goldschmidt says, "the singer held the pen."
+His work is the most perfect picture of Italian song in a golden age,
+and Handel owes to it his very refined feeling for the _bel canto_. In
+truth Steffani's operas gained little by this virtuosity. They were
+mediocre from the dramatic point of view, not very expressive, abused
+the vocalisation, and were essentially operas for singers.[145] They
+revealed a curious harmonic vein, and a contrapuntal alertness, which
+strongly contrasted with the nearly homophonic writing of Lully,[146]
+but the principal glory of Steffani was in his chamber vocal music, and
+especially in his duets.[147] These duets are of various types, and of
+various lengths. One is a single piece. Others are in the _Da Capo_
+form. Some are veritable cantatas with recitatives, soli, and duets.
+Others are consecutive pieces, forming, as it were, little song-cycles.
+The writing in this form was evolved from Schuetz and Bernabei to Handel
+and Telemann, but their inner construction is usually the same: the
+first voice announces alone the first phrase, which reflects the poetic
+emotion of the piece; the second voice repeats the subject in the unison
+or in the octave; with the second subject the voices leave the unison
+and indulge in canonic imitations which are freely treated. Then a
+return is made to the first part, which concludes the piece. When the
+duet is more developed, after the first air in the minor key, a second
+one comes in the major, where virtuosity is given free play, after which
+the minor air recurs. These works possess an admirable melodic beauty,
+and an expression often quite profound. In the lighter subjects Steffani
+has an easy gracefulness, the elegant fancy of Scarlatti. In his sad
+moments he reaches the highest models: from Schuetz, from Provenzale,
+even to J. S. Bach. He is one of the greatest lyricists in the music of
+the seventeenth century.[148] These duets set the style in this form of
+work. The _role_ played by Steffani in music can very well be compared
+with that of Fra Bartolommeo in painting;--both applied themselves with
+perfect art, and steadfast spirit, to find the laws of composition in
+limited and restrained forms: Fra Bartolommeo sought for the balance of
+groups, and the harmony of lines in scenes, with three or four persons
+grouped in a round picture; Steffani concentrated all the efforts of his
+ingenuity, invention, and artistic science into the somewhat limited
+form of the duet. These two religious artists both have a luminous art;
+both are sure of themselves, have learning and simplicity, with little
+or no passion. Their souls are noble, pure, a little impersonal. They
+were intended to prepare the way for others. As Chrysander says, "Handel
+walked in the steps of Steffani, but his feet were larger."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handel made only a short stay at Hanover in 1710. Hardly had he taken up
+his duties when he asked and obtained leave to go to England, from
+whence proposals had been made to him. He crossed Holland, and arrived
+at London at the end of the autumn, 1710. He was then twenty-five years
+old. The English musical era was broken off. Fifteen years before,
+England had lost its greatest musician, Henry Purcell, who died
+prematurely at the age of thirty-six.[149]
+
+In his short life he had produced a considerable amount of work: operas,
+cantatas, religious music, and instrumental pieces. He was a cultured
+genius, and intimately acquainted with Lully, Carissimi, and the Italian
+sonatas, at the same time very English, possessing the gift of
+spontaneous melody, and never losing contact with the spirit of the
+British race. His art was full of grace and delicacy, much more
+aristocratic than that of Lully. He is the Van Dyck of music. Everything
+of his is of extreme elegance, refinement, ease, slightly _exsangue_.
+His art is natural: always steeped in the country life which is indeed
+the source of the English inspiration. There are no operas of the
+seventeenth century where one finds fresher melodies which are more
+inspired and yet of a popular character. This charming artist was
+delicate, of a weak constitution, somewhat feminine in character,
+feeble, and of little stamina. His poetic languor was his strongest
+appeal, and at the same time his weak point; he was prevented from
+following his artistic progress with the tenacity of a Handel. Most of
+his works lack finish. He never tried to break down the final barriers
+which separated him from perfection. His musical compositions are
+sketches of genius with strange weaknesses. He produced many hastily
+finished operas with singular awkwardnesses in the manner of treating
+the instruments and the voice,--ill-fitting cadences, monotonous
+rhythms, a spoilt harmonic tissue, and, finally, in his larger pieces
+and those of grander scale, there is a lack of breath, a sort of
+physical exhaustion, which prevents him reaching the end of his superb
+ideas. But it is necessary to take him for what he is, one of the most
+poetic figures in music--smiling, yet a little elegiac--a miniature
+Mozart eternally convalescent. Nothing vulgar, nothing brutal, ever
+enters his music. Captivating melodies, coming straight from the heart,
+where the purest of English souls mirrors itself. Full of delicate
+harmonies, of caressing dissonances, a taste for the clashing of
+sevenths and seconds, of incessant poising between the major and minor,
+and with delicate and varied nuances of a pale tint, vague and slightly
+blurred, like the springtime sun piercing through a light mist.[150] He
+only wrote one real opera, the admirable _Dido and AEneas_, of 1680.[151]
+His other dramatic works, very numerous, were music for the stage, and
+the most beautiful type of this kind is that which he wrote for Dryden's
+_King Arthur_ in 1691. This music is nearly all episodical. One cannot
+remove it without causing the essential action to suffer. The English
+taste was impatient of operas sung from one end to the other, and in
+Handel's time Addison endeavoured to voice this national repugnance in
+his _Spectator_.
+
+It was a good thing that Handel had an altogether different idea of
+opera, and that his personality differed greatly from that of Purcell,
+which left him no point for profiting (as he had done with others) by
+the genius of his predecessor. Arriving in a strange country, of which
+he did not even know the language or the spirit, it was natural that he
+should take the English master as his guide. Hence the analogies between
+them. Purcell's Odes often give one the impression of being merely a
+sketch of the cantatas and oratorios of Handel. One finds there the same
+architectural style, the same contrast of movements, of instrumental
+colours, of large ensembles, and of _soli_. Certain dances,[152] some of
+the heroic airs, with irresistible rhythms and triumphant fanfares,[153]
+are there already before Handel, but they are only there as brilliant
+flashes with Purcell. Both his personality and his art were different.
+Like so many fine musicians of that time, he has been swallowed up in
+Handel, just as a stream of water loses itself in a river. But there was
+nevertheless in this little spring a poetry peculiar to England, which
+the entire work of Handel has not--nor can have.
+
+Since the death of Purcell the fount of English music had dried up.
+Foreign elements submerged it.[154] A renewal of Puritanical opposition
+which attacked the English stage contributed to the discouragement and
+abdication of the national artists.[155] The last master of the great
+epoch, John Blow, an estimable artist, famous in his time, whose
+personality is a little grey and faded, was not wanting in distinction
+or in expressive feeling--but he had then withdrawn himself into his
+religious thoughts.[156]
+
+In the absence of English composers, the Italians took possession of the
+field.[157] An old musician of the Chapel Royal, Thomas Clayton, brought
+from Italy some opera _libretti_, scores, and singers. He took an old
+_libretto_ from Boulogne, caused it to be translated into English by a
+Frenchman, and clumsily adapted it to music of little worth; and, such
+as it was, he proudly called it "The first musical drama which has been
+entirely composed and produced in England in the Italian style,
+_Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus_." This nullity, played at Drury Lane in 1705,
+had a great success, which even exceeded the authentic Italian opera
+given in the following year in London, _Camilla, regina de' Volsci_, by
+Marc Antonio Bononcini.[158] Vainly Addison tried to battle against the
+Italian invasion. By writing skits on the snobbism of the public with
+pleasant irony, he endeavoured to oppose the Italian Opera with a
+national English one.[159] He was defeated, and with him the entire
+English theatre collapsed.[160] "Thomyris" in 1707 inaugurated the
+representations half in Italian and half in English, and after the
+_Almahade_ in January, 1710, all was in Italian. No English musician
+attempted to continue the struggle.[161]
+
+When Handel arrived then, at the end of 1710, national art was dead. It
+would be absurd to say, as some have often done, that he killed English
+music. There was nothing left to kill. London had not a single composer.
+On the other hand, she was rich in excellent players. Above all she
+possessed one of the best troupes of Italian singers which could be
+found in Europe. Having been presented to the Queen Anne, who loved
+music, and played the clavier well, Handel was received with open arms
+by the Director of the Opera, Aaron Hill. He was an extraordinary
+person, who travelled in the East, wrote a history of the Ottoman
+Empire, composed tragedies, translated Voltaire, founded the "Beech Oil
+Company" for extracting the oil from the wood of the beech, mixing it
+with chemicals and using it for the construction of ships. This
+orchestral man composed during a meeting the plan of an opera, after
+_Jerusalem Delivered_. It was _Rinaldo_, which was written, poem and
+music, in fourteen days, and played for the first time on February 24,
+1711, at the Haymarket.
+
+Its success was immense. It decided the victory of the Italian Opera in
+London, and when the singer, Nicolini, who took the _role_ of Renaud,
+left England he carried the score to Naples, where he had it produced in
+1718, with the aid of young Leonardo Leo. The _Rinaldo_ marked a
+turning-point in musical history. The Italian Opera, which had conquered
+Europe, began to be conquered in its turn by foreign musicians, who had
+been formed by it--the Italianised Germans. After Handel it was Hasse,
+then Gluck, and finally Mozart; but Handel is the first of the
+conquerors.[162] After _Rinaldo_, and until the time when Handel had
+settled definitely in London, that is to say, between 1711 and the end
+of 1716, was an indecisive period which oscillated between Germany and
+England, and between religious music and the Opera.
+
+Handel, who bore the title of Kapellmeister of Hanover, returned to his
+post in June, 1711.[163] At Hanover he found the Bishop Steffani again,
+and attempted to write in his style. In this imitation he composed some
+twenty chamber duets, which did not come up to their model, and some
+beautiful German songs on the poems by Brockes.[164] Several of his best
+instrumental pages, his first Oboe Concertos, his Sonatas for Flute and
+Bass,[165] seem to date from this time. The cavaliers of the Court of
+Hanover were ardent flautists, and the orchestra, under the direction of
+Farinel, was excellent; especially had the oboes reached a high degree
+of virtuosity, which has hardly been approached at the present day. On
+the other hand, the Opera at Hanover was closed, and Handel could not
+even give _Rinaldo_.
+
+He had a taste of the theatre, and did not like abandoning his plan; so
+he turned his eyes again towards London. Having tested the soil of
+England, and judged it favourable, Handel decided to establish himself
+there. He received regular news from England whilst in Hanover.[166]
+Since his departure no opera could hold its own except _Rinaldo_. The
+English amateurs recalled him, and Handel, burning to depart, asked for
+a new leave from the Court of Hanover. This was granted on the easiest
+of terms: "on condition that he returned after a reasonable time."[167]
+
+He returned to London towards the end of November, 1712, in time to
+supervise the representation of a pastoral, _Il Pastor Fido_, a hasty
+work, from which he abstracted the best airs later on.[168] Twenty days
+later he had finished writing _Teseo_, a tragic opera in five very short
+acts,[169] full of haste and of genius, which was given in January,
+1713.
+
+Handel endeavoured to settle himself firmly in England. He associated
+himself with the loyalty and pride of the nation by writing for
+political celebrations. The conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht, a
+glorious day for England, approached. Handel prepared a _Te Deum_, which
+was already finished in January, 1713, but the laws of England forbade
+a foreigner to be charged with composing music for official ceremonies.
+Parliament alone could authorise the representation of this production.
+Handel cleverly wrote the flattering Ode for the anniversary of the
+birth of Queen Anne, _Birthday Ode of Queen Anne_. The Ode was performed
+at St. James's on February 6, 1713, and the Queen, enchanted with the
+work, commanded Handel to write the _Te Deum_ and the _Jubilate_ for the
+Peace of Utrecht, which was played on July 7, 1713, at a solemn service
+at St. Paul's, on which occasion the Members of Parliament attended.
+These works, in which Handel was helped by the example of Purcell,[170]
+were his first great efforts in the monumental style.
+
+Handel had succeeded in securing, despite precedent, the post of
+Official Composer to the English Court. But he had not acted without
+grave neglect of his duties towards other masters, the princes of
+Hanover, in whose services he still was. The relationship was extremely
+strained between the cousin by heritage and her poor parents at Hanover.
+Queen Anne had taken a dislike to them, especially as she could not
+endure the intelligent Duchess Sophia. She made up songs about her, and
+dealt secretly with the Pretender Stuart, for whom she wished to secure
+the Heritage. In remaining in her service then, Handel took sides
+against his sovereign at Hanover. Certain historians have even breathed
+the word "treason." It is the only fault which his biographer,
+Chrysander, does not excuse, for it wounded his German patriotism. But
+it is very necessary to say here that of German patriotism Handel had
+hardly any. He had the mentality of the great German artists of his
+time, for whom the country was art and religion; the State mattered
+little to him.
+
+He lived then amongst the English patrons--for a year with a wealthy
+music lover in Surrey--then in Piccadilly at Lord Burlington's palace.
+He remained there three years. Pope and Swift were familiars in the
+house, which Gay had described. Handel performed there on the organ and
+clavecin before the _elite_ of London society by whom he was much
+admired--with the exception of Pope, who did not like music. He composed
+a little,[171] being satisfied to exist, as in his sojourn at Naples,
+waiting without hurry to be saturated by the English atmosphere. Handel
+was one of those who can write three operas in two months, and then do
+nothing more for a year. It is the rule of the torrential river which
+sometimes overflows, and then runs dry. He awaited the course of events.
+The inheritors of Hanover seemed decidedly ousted. The Duchess Sophia
+died on June 7, 1714, Chrysander says of grief (but it was certainly
+also apoplexy)--convinced that the Stuart would attain the coveted
+heritage. Less than ever did Handel breathe a word of returning to
+Hanover, but chance upset all his plans. Two months after the death of
+the Duchess Sophia, Queen Anne died suddenly on August 1, 1714. The same
+day, in the confusion into which events had thrown the Stuart party,
+George of Hanover was proclaimed King by the secret council. On
+September 20 he arrived in London. He was crowned at Westminster on
+October 20, and Handel, very perturbed at the thought of his _Ode to
+Queen Anne_, had the mortification of seeing that had he waited another
+year his _Te Deum_ would have served for the enthronement of the new
+dynasty.
+
+To do him full justice, he did not seem much discomfited by this turn of
+fortune's wheel. He did not put himself about to ask for pardon. He set
+to work instead and wrote _Amadigi_. It was the very best way for him to
+plead his cause. George I of Hanover had many faults, but he had one
+good quality. He loved music sincerely, and this passion was shared by
+very many of the people more or less notable in his Court. Music had
+always been for Germany the fountain where soiled hearts purified
+themselves, the redemption from the petty basenesses of "the daily
+round, the common task." Whatever King George thought of Handel, he
+could not punish him without punishing himself. After the success of his
+charming _Amadigi_, played for the first time on May 25, 1715, he had
+not the courage to harbour malice any longer against his musician. They
+were reconciled.[172] Handel resumed his post of Kapellmeister at
+Hanover by now acting as the music master to the little princesses, and
+when the King went to Hanover in July, 1716, Handel travelled with him.
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE I., IN HIS ROYAL BARGE, LISTENING TO HANDEL'S
+"WATER-MUSIC."
+
+(_From a Painting._)]
+
+It was not that he had much occupation at the Court. The King was too
+engrossed in State business, and with hunting. He did not even find time
+to be anxious about his old retainer, Leibnitz, who died at Hanover on
+November 14, 1716, unnoticed at Court. Handel took advantage of this
+leisure to renew his acquaintance with the German art.
+
+There was then in Germany a fashion for musical Passions. There was a
+religious and theatrical tendency at that time. One cannot separate the
+influence of Pietism and that of the Opera. Keiser, Telemann, Mattheson,
+all wrote Passions, which caused a great stir[173] at Hamburg, on the
+famous text of the Senator Brockes. Following their example, perhaps in
+order to measure himself with these men, who had all three been rivals
+or friends,[174] Handel took the same text and wrote on it in 1716 his
+_Passion after Brockes_. This powerful and disparate work, where bad
+taste mingles with the sublime, where affectation and pomposity are
+mingled with the most profound and serious art--a work which J. S. Bach
+knew well, and very carefully remembered--was for Handel a decided
+experience. He felt in writing it what a great gulf separated him from
+the Pietist German art, and on his return to England[175] he composed
+the _Psalms_ and _Esther_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This was the principal epoch of his life. Between 1717 and 1720, whilst
+he was in the service of the Duke of Chandos,[176] he made a careful
+examination of his own personality, and created a new style in music,
+and for the theatre.
+
+The Chandos Anthems or Psalms[177] stand, in relationship to Handel's
+oratorios, in the same position as his Italian cantatas stand to his
+operas: they are splendid sketches of the more monumental works. In
+these religious cantatas, written for the Duke's chapel, Handel gives
+the first place to the choruses: it is the exact words of the Bible
+which they sing. Strong heroic words, freed from all the commentary and
+sentimental effusions with which German Pietism had loaded them. There
+is already in them the spirit and the style of _Israel in Egypt_, the
+great monumental lines, the popular feeling.
+
+It was only a step from this to the colossal Biblical dramas. Handel
+took the step with _Esther_, which in its first form was entitled _Haman
+and Mordecai, a masque_.[178]
+
+Quite possibly the work had its first presentation at the Duke of
+Chandos', but on August 29, 1720, it was presented on the stage. It was
+in any case one of the greatest tragedies in the old style which had
+been written since the Grecian period. It was as though the spirit of
+Handel had been led insensibly towards the Hellenic ideal, for he
+composed nearly at the same time his pastoral tragedy _Acis and
+Galatea_, to which he also gave the name of masque,[179] and which did
+not disengage itself from the complete idea of a free theatre. This
+little masterpiece of poetry,[180] and of music, where the beautiful
+Sicilian legend unfolds itself in pictures smiling and mournful, has a
+classical perfection which Handel never surpassed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Esther_ and _Acis_ bore witness to Handel's desire to bring to the
+surface of dramatic action all the powers of choral and symphonic music.
+Even in these two works, which unquestionably opened up the way for his
+future oratorios, it is not the oratorio which is his aim, but the
+opera. Always attracted by the theatre, only a succession of disasters
+of accumulating ruin thrust him away later against his will. So it is
+natural to find him at the same time when he was writing _Esther_ and
+_Acis_, also undertaking the musical direction of a theatre enterprise,
+which led later on to one of the most important steps of his life, the
+Academy of Italian Opera.[181]
+
+Handel saw, it is said, in the year 1720 the end of his years of
+apprenticeship; he certainly terminated (although he knew it not) his
+years of tranquillity. Up to then he had led the life of numberless
+other great musicians, who lived under the protection of princes, and
+wrote for a select audience. He had only occasion to leave this path,
+with his religious and national works, where he had voiced a people's
+feelings. After 1720, and indeed up to the time of his death, all the
+rest of his art belonged to everybody. He put himself at the head of a
+theatre, and opened a struggle with the public at large. He exerted
+prodigious vitality, writing two or three operas every year, knocking
+into shape an undisciplined troupe of _virtuosi_ smothered with pride,
+harassed with intrigues, hindered by bankruptcy, using his genius for
+twenty years in the paradoxical task of thrusting on London a shaky and
+shallow Italian opera, which could not live under a sun and in a climate
+unsuitable to it. At the end of this strife, enraged, conquered, but
+invincible, sowing on his way all his masterpieces, he reached the
+pinnacle of his art--those grand oratorios which rendered him immortal.
+
+After a voyage in Germany to Hanover, to Halle, to Duesseldorf, and to
+Dresden, to recruit for his troupe of Italian singers,[182] Handel
+inaugurated at the Haymarket Theatre the London Opera of April 27, 1720,
+with his _Radamisto_, which was dedicated to the King.[183] The rush of
+the public was very great indeed, but it was due more to curiosity than
+to the turn of the fashion. Soon the snobbishness of the amateurs could
+no longer content itself with Italianized German as the representative
+of Italian Opera, and finally Lord Burlington, Handel's former patron,
+went to Rome to induce the king of the Italian style, Giovanni
+Bononcini, to come over.[184]
+
+Bononcini came from Modena. He was about fifty years old,[185] son of an
+artist of great merit, Giovanni Bononcini, whose premature death cut
+short a career rich with promise.[186] Brought up with an almost
+paternal affection by one of the first masters of that epoch, one of the
+few who had preserved the cult and the science of the past, Giampaolo
+Colonna, organist of St. Pietronio at Bologna, he had benefited early in
+life by a high princely, even Imperial,[187] protection. More precocious
+even than Handel, he published his first works at the age of thirteen,
+was member of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna at fourteen, and
+master of the Chapel at fifteen. His first works were instrumental. This
+was his speciality, having inherited his gift from his father.[188] He
+only reached the Opera after having tried all the other styles. It was
+not with him a natural calling. He was a born concert musician, and he
+remained so even in the Opera. His tours in Germany and in Austria,
+where he was created Imperial Composer in 1700, and gave his _Polifemo_
+at Berlin in 1703,[189] fully established his renown in Europe. His
+music spread in France after 1706 and excited there an almost incredible
+infatuation.[190] When in Italy his reputation surpassed even that of
+Scarlatti, who himself, according to Mr. Dent, came under his influence
+to a small extent. He had a European vogue for about ten or fifteen
+years. He was, so to speak, the reflection of the society of his time.
+
+What strikes one in his music, if we are to believe Lecerf de la
+Vieville, is the boldness of his modulations, the abundance of his vocal
+ornaments, the unruliness of his mind. His style seemed to the Lullyists
+that of the affected and distorted order as opposed to the school of
+common sense. Bononcini was a "verticalist" then, differing from the
+"horizontalists" of the preceding epoch.[191] He was essentially a
+sensuous musician, and an anti-intellectualist. Right from the
+beginning, as an instrumental composer he always remained indifferent to
+his poems, to his subjects, and to everything which was outside of
+music. In his music he set a pleasing sonority above everything;[192]
+and it was evidently on this account that his work required less effort
+of the intelligence than was necessitated by the severe art of
+Scarlatti, or the recitative and expressive art of Lully.[193] In him
+was inaugurated the reaction of fashionable good taste in the general
+public against that of the savant.[194] Contrast the grand airs _Da
+Capo_, broadly developed in a more or less contrapuntal fashion, with
+his tiny little airs, also _Da Capo_, but in miniature, easy to
+understand, which touched the popular feeling for melody. He carefully
+perfumed it and served it up for the taste of the elegant and
+fashionable.[195] This distinguished simplicity, this delicate
+sensibility, rather feeble, always so correct in its audacities and
+restrained in its pleasures, made Bononcini a drawing-room favourite, a
+fashionable revolutionary. The more he worked, the more his traits were
+accentuated, and became permanent. As happens to all artists who enjoy
+too much success, this reacted on his art, and imposed on him the
+repetition of certain fixed patterns. The natural laziness of Bononcini
+only exaggerated this tendency, so that from year to year this
+affectedness appeared in his art, making it quite mechanical. His music,
+often beautiful and gracious, always harmonious, never expressive,
+unrolled itself as a succession of elegant and highly finished subjects,
+all cut out as if with scissors on the same pattern, and indefinitely
+repeated. At first in London one was only conscious of his charm. The
+personality of the musician added to the attractions of his music. The
+gentle Italian had polished manners, a quality at once lovable, and
+penetrated by a bold courage. He was a _virtuoso_ like Handel, but on an
+instrument more distinguished than the clavier--on the violoncello; and
+he was listened to with respect in the aristocratic _salons_. He was, so
+to speak, the author _a la mode_; and his _Astarto_,[196] given at the
+end of 1720, erased the impression made by Handel's _Radamisto_.
+
+Handel had his work cut out. He was not suited to strive with Bononcini
+on the ground of Italianism. However, he was up against the wall. The
+English public, always keen on bear fights, cock fights, and _virtuoso_
+contests, amused themselves by arranging a joust between Bononcini and
+Handel. They were to be tested by an opera written in combination.
+Handel took up the glove--and was beaten. His _Muzio Scevola_[197]
+(March, 1721) is very feeble, and the _Floridante_ which followed
+(December 9, 1721) is little better. The success of the Italian
+increased his fame, and the pretty _Griselda_ (February, 1722)
+consummated Bononcini's glory. He benefited by the strenuous opposition
+of the English _litterateurs_, and the leading aristocrats, against the
+Hanoverian Court and the German artists.
+
+Handel's situation was much involved, but he took his revenge with the
+melodious opera _Ottone_ (January 12, 1723), which was the most popular
+of all his operas. Victorious then,[198] he went straight ahead without
+troubling himself about Bononcini, and he composed, one after another,
+three masterpieces in which he inaugurated a new musical theatre, as
+musically rich, and more dramatic than that of Rameau, some ten years
+later: _Guilio Cesare_ (February 20, 1724); _Tamerlano_ (October 21,
+1724), and _Rodelinda_ (February 13, 1725). The last of _Tamerlano_ is a
+magnificent example of the great music drama, an example nearly unique
+before Gluck, in its poignancy and passion. Bononcini's party was
+definitely ruined,[199] but the greatest difficulties now began for
+Handel. The London Opera was delivered over into the hands of _Castrati_
+and _Prime Donne_, and the extravagances of their supporters. In 1726
+there arrived the most celebrated Italian singer of the time, the famous
+Faustina.[200] From this moment the London representations became mere
+jousts of song between Faustina and Cuzzoni--jousts as strenuous as the
+shouting of their various partisans. Handel wrote his _Alessandro_ (May
+5, 1721) for an artistic duel between the two stars of his troupe, who
+acted as the two mistresses of _Alessandro_.[201] In spite of all, his
+dramatic genius won the day by several sublime scenes from _Almeto_
+(January 31, 1727), the grandeur of which veritably seized hold of the
+public. But the rivalry of the singers, far from being appeased,
+redoubled in fury. Each party had its hired pamphleteers, who let loose
+on the adversary the most degrading libels. Cuzzoni and Faustina
+reached such a state of rage that on June 6, 1727, during the play, they
+fought and tore each other's hair unmercifully, amidst the yells of the
+audience, the Princess of Wales being present.[202]
+
+After this everything went to the dogs. Handel tried hard to take the
+reins, but, as his friend Arbuthnot said, "the devil was loose, and
+could never be caged again." The battle was lost, despite three new
+works of Handel, where his genius again shone forth: _Riccardo I_
+(November 11, 1727); _Siroe_ (February 17, 1728); and _Tolomeo_ (April
+30, 1728). A little venture by John Gay and by Pepusch, _The Beggar's
+Opera_ (A War Opera) finished the defeat of the London Academy of
+Opera.[203] This excellent operetta, spoken in dialogue, with popular
+songs interspersed, was at the same time a trenchant satire on Walpole,
+and a spirited parody of the ridiculous sides of the opera.[204] Its
+immense success took the character of a national manifestation. It was
+a reaction of popular common sense against the pompous childishnesses of
+the Italian Opera, and against the snobbishness which attempted to
+impose it on other nations. We see in this the first blow struck at the
+triumphant Italianism. Nationality awoke. In 1729 the _Passion according
+to St. Matthew_ was given. Some years later Handel's earlier oratorios
+were performed, and also the first operas of Rameau. In 1728 to 1729
+Martin Heinrich Fuhrmann entered the campaign against Italian Opera with
+his famous pamphlets. After him, Mattheson re-entered the ring: _The
+Goths and their Hippogriffs to be purified in the crater of Etna_. But
+nowhere was this national reaction so widely spread as in England, where
+it roused itself with such robust humour, as with Swift and with Pope,
+those famous layers of ghosts[205] and dreams.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handel felt this. After 1727 he sought steadily to establish himself on
+the national English soil. He had become a naturalized Englishman on
+February 13, 1726. He wrote for the Coronation of the new King, George
+II, his Coronation Anthems,[206] September 11, 1727.[207] He returned to
+his plans for the English oratorios.
+
+But he was not yet sufficiently sure of his ground, nor of the public
+taste, to justify him in completely throwing over the Italian Opera, for
+he realized more than before the resources of the people and what he
+could do with them. Besides, the collapse of the London Academy of Opera
+had not touched his personal prestige. He was regarded, not only in
+England, but also in France, as the greatest man of the Lyric
+Theatre.[208] His London Italian operas became known all over Europe.
+
+    _Flavius, Tamerlan, Othon, Renaud, Cesar,_
+    _Admete, Siroe, Rodelinde, et Richard,_
+    _Eternels monumens dresses a sa memoire,_
+    _Des operas Romains surpasserent la gloire,_
+    _Venise lui peut-elle opposer un rival?_[209]
+
+One can well understand, then, that Handel was tempted by the desire of
+taking on his own shoulders, without the control which hampered him, the
+complete enterprise of the Italian Opera. At the end of the summer of
+1728 he went to Italy in search of new arms for the strife. In the
+course of this tour, which lasted nearly a year,[210] he recruited his
+singers, renewed his collection of _libretti_ and Italian scores. Above
+all, he refreshed his Italianism at the source of the new School of
+Opera, founded by Leonardo Vinci,[211] which reacted against the concert
+style in the theatre, and sought to give back to Opera a more dramatic
+character, even at the risk of impoverishing the music.
+
+Without sacrificing the richness of his style, Handel did not neglect to
+profit by these examples in his new operas: _Lotario_ (December, 1729),
+_Partenope_ (February, 1730), _Poro_ (February, 1731), _Ezio_ (January,
+1732), which are notable (particularly the last two) by the beauty of
+the melodic writing, and the dramatic power of certain pages. The
+masterpiece of this period is _Orlando_ (January 27, 1733), of which the
+richness and musical perfection are on a level with the insight into the
+characters, and the spirited and passionate life of the piece. If the
+_Tamerlano_ of 1724 awakens ideas of Gluck's tragedies, it is the
+beautiful operas of Mozart which come to mind in _Orlando_.
+
+In continuation of the strife for the Italian Opera, Handel profited by
+the unexpected success with which the English people had met the
+reproduction of his _Acis and Galatea_ and his _Esther_,[212] written to
+English words, and he attempted again, in a more conscientious fashion
+than ten years before at Chandos', to found a form of musical theatre,
+freer and richer, where the lyricism of the choruses had free play. For
+the reproduction of _Esther_ in 1732 he introduced into the work of 1720
+the most beautiful choruses from the Coronation Anthems. In the
+following year he wrote _Deborah_ (March 17, 1733), and _Athaliah_ (July
+10, 1733), where the chorus took first place. These grand Biblical
+dramas would have been able to have awakened in the English nation an
+enthusiastic response, were it not that this attempt was damaged by a
+violent quarrel inspired by personal reasons, where art counted for
+nothing. A dead set was made against _Deborah_,[213] and though
+_Athaliah_ succeeded at Oxford,[214] Handel did not present it in London
+until two years later.
+
+Once again Handel returned to Italian Opera. The public hatred pursued
+him here also. The royal family of Hanover was detested. It added to its
+own discredit by the scandalous disputes which took place between the
+King and his son. The Prince of Wales, in a spirit of petty spite
+against his father, who showed his affection for Handel, amused himself
+by attempting to ruin the composer. Encouraged by the opposition, and
+enchanted by the idea of making sport against the King, he founded a
+rival opera house, and as he could no longer set Bononcini up against
+Handel, as the former had been discredited by a case of flagrant
+plagiarism, which had an European circulation,[215] he approached
+Porpora, with a view to directing his theatre. "Then," says Lord Hervey,
+"the struggle became as serious as that of the Greens against the Blues
+at Constantinople under Justinian. An anti-Handelian was regarded as an
+anti-Royalist, and in Parliament, to vote against the Court was hardly
+more dangerous than to speak against Handel." On the other hand, the
+immense unpopularity of the King redounded on Handel, and the
+aristocracy combined to secure his downfall.
+
+He accepted the challenge, and after a third tour in Italy during the
+summer of 1733, again to recruit more singers, he bravely took up the
+fight with Porpora, to whom was added Hasse in 1734. They were the
+greatest rivals against which he had yet measured himself. But Hasse and
+Porpora had strong dramatic feeling, and especially were they the most
+perfect masters of the beautiful art of Italian melody and singing.[216]
+Nicolo Porpora, who came from Naples, was forty-seven years old. He had
+a cold but vigorous spirit, intelligent and possessing more than anyone
+else, except Hasse, all the resources of the Italian singing. His style
+was very beautiful, and it was not less broad than that of Handel. No
+other Italian musician of his time had such ample breadth of
+phrasing.[217] His writings seem of a later age than Handel's, and
+approximate to the time of Gluck and Mozart. Whilst Handel, despite his
+marvellous feeling for plastic beauty, often treated the voices as an
+instrument, and in his development the beautiful Italian lines
+occasionally became weighed down by German complexity, Porpora's music
+always kept within the bounds of classic purity, though the form was a
+little uninteresting in design. History has never done him sufficient
+justice.[218] He was quite worthy of measuring himself against Handel,
+and the comparison between Handel's _Arianna_ and that of Porpora,
+played at an interval of a few weeks,[219] did not prove to the
+advantage of the former. Handel's music is elegant, but one does not
+find the breadth of certain airs in Porpora's _Arianna a Naxos_. The
+form of these airs is perhaps of too classic a correctness, but the
+right Grecian breezes blow across his Roman temples.[220] He has been
+claimed as an Italian disciple of Gluck--a curious criticism which is
+bestowed occasionally on precursors. It was so with Jacopo della
+Quercia, who inspired Michael Angelo, and to whom the latter seems to
+owe something.
+
+Hasse was even superior to Porpora in the charm of his melody, which
+Mozart alone has equalled, and in his symphonic gifts, which showed
+themselves in his rich instrumental accompaniments no less melodious
+than his songs.[221] Handel was not slow to discover the folly of
+striving with Hasse on Italian ground. His superiority was with the
+choruses; he sought to introduce them into the Opera after the French
+model. The situation was even less promising for him on the departure of
+his best protectrix, the Princess Anne, sister of the Prince of
+Wales.[222] After having compromised Handel by the strong feeling which
+she had shown in defending him, she left him to the tender cares of the
+enemies which she had made for him. She left England in April, 1734, to
+join her husband the Prince of Orange[223] in Holland.
+
+Handel came to be abandoned by his old friends. His associate,
+Heidegger, the proprietor of the Haymarket Theatre, took the hall for a
+rival opera, and Handel, driven from the house in which he had worked
+for fourteen years, had to emigrate with his troupe to John Rich's place
+at Covent Garden[224]--a sort of music-hall where Opera took its turn
+with all kinds of other spectacles: ballets, pantomimes, and
+harlequinades. In Rich's troupe some French dancers were to be found,
+amongst whom was "_la Salle_,"[225] who was shortly to arouse great
+enthusiasm amongst the English public with two tragic dances:
+_Pygmalion_ and _Bacchus and Ariadne_.[226] Handel, who had known the
+French art[227] for a long time, saw how far he could draw on these new
+resources, and he opened the season of 1734 at Covent Garden with a
+first attempt in the field of the French ballet opera: _Terpsichore_
+(November 9, 1734), in which "_la Salle_" took the principal _role_. A
+month later a _Pasticcio_ followed, _Orestes_, where Handel gave a
+similar important part to "_la Salle_," and to her expressive dances.
+Finally, he intermingled the dance and the choruses closely with the
+dramatic action in two masterpieces of poetry and beautiful musical
+construction--_Ariodante_ (January 8, 1735), and especially _Alcina_
+(April 16, 1735).
+
+Bad luck still pursued him. Some gross national manifestations compelled
+"_la Salle_" and her French dancers to leave London.[228] Handel gave up
+the ballet opera. To leave at this moment, if he was to continue the
+struggle with the theatre, went badly against the grain, and was
+tantamount to declaring himself vanquished. At the opening of his
+theatrical enterprise he had saved, so it is said, L10,000. All this was
+absorbed, and already he was L10,000 more to the bad. His friends did
+not understand his obstinacy, which seemed about to involve him in
+complete ruin. "But," says Hawkins, "he was a man of intrepid spirit,
+and in no ways a slave to mere interest. He raised himself again for the
+battle rather than bow down to those whom he regarded as infinitely
+beneath him." If he could no longer be conqueror, still less would he
+hand the reins to his adversaries. He overcame them--but a little more
+would have vanquished himself in the same stroke.
+
+He persisted then in writing his operas,[229] of which the series spread
+out until 1741, marking work after work with a growing tendency towards
+the _opera-comique_ and the style of romances[230] so dear to the
+people at the second half of the eighteenth century. But since 1735 he
+felt more than ever that the true musical drama for him was the
+oratorio. He returned victoriously with _Alexander's Feast_, which was
+composed on the _Ode to St. Cecilia_, by Dryden,[231] and given for the
+first time on February 19, 1736, at the Covent Garden Theatre.
+
+Who would have believed that this work, robust and sane throughout, was
+written in twenty days, that it was performed in the midst of his
+business worries, within an ace of ruin, and when he was threatened with
+that grave malady which was to throw the mind of Handel for evermore
+into gloom?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For several years trouble pursued him. Work and excessive worry had
+undermined an iron constitution. He tried the baths at Tunbridge Wells
+during the summer of 1735, and probably also in 1736, but with no
+success. He could not sleep. His theatre was always on his mind. He made
+superhuman efforts to keep it going. From January, 1736, to April, 1737,
+he directed two seasons of Opera, two seasons of oratorio, and composed
+a song, an oratorio, a Psalm, and four operas.[232] On April 12, or 13,
+1737, the machine broke down. He was smitten with paralysis, his right
+side was attacked, his hand refused all service, and even his mind was
+affected. In his absence his theatre closed its doors, bankrupt.[233]
+During the whole of the summer Handel remained in a pitiful state of
+depression. He refused to care for anything; all hope was lost. Finally,
+his friends succeeded in inducing him, towards the end of August, to try
+the baths at Aix-la-Chapelle. The cure had a miraculous effect. In a few
+days he was restored. In October he returned to London, and immediately
+the refreshed giant resumed the struggle, writing in three months two
+operas, and the magnificent _Funeral Anthem_ on the death of the
+Queen.[234]
+
+Sad days were in store, however. His creditors seized him, and he was
+threatened with imprisonment. Happily a sympathetic movement was
+inaugurated in favour of the artist so harassed by his kind. A benefit
+concert, to which his pride reluctantly submitted,[235] at the end of
+March, 1738, had an unexpected success. It freed him from the most
+pressing of his debts. In the following month a token of public
+admiration was given him. His statue was erected in the Vauxhall
+Gardens.[236] In the springtime of 1738 he began to feel, with returning
+strength, confidence in the future. The horizon cleared. He was
+encouraged by such faithful sympathy. He returned to life, and made his
+presence felt again.
+
+On July 23 he commenced _Saul_; on August 8 he had written two acts of
+it; by September 27 the work was finished. On October 7 he began _Israel
+in Egypt_; by October 28 the work was achieved. Still pushing
+strenuously forward, on October 4 he launched the first volume of his
+organ concertos with the publisher Walsh, and on the 7th he took to him
+his _Seven Trios or Sonatas in two parts, with bass_, Opus 5. For those
+who know these joyful works, which dominate like two Colossi the two
+oratorios of victory, this superhuman effort had the effect of a force
+of Nature, like a field which breaks into flower in a single night of
+springtime.
+
+_Saul_ is a great epic drama, flowing and powerful, where the humorous
+and the tragic intermingle. _Israel_ is one immense chorale, the most
+gigantic effort which has ever been made in oratorio, not only with a
+single but with combined choirs.[237] The audacious originality of the
+conception and its austere grandeur almost stunned the public of his
+day. The living Handel breathes throughout the work.
+
+The hopes which Handel had founded on England caused him fresh
+uneasiness. Times were hard. Since the winter of 1739, theatrical
+performances, and even concerts, were suspended for several months on
+account of the war, and the extreme cold. Handel, to keep himself warm,
+wrote in eight days the little _Ode to St. Cecilia_ (November 29, 1739);
+in sixteen days _L'Allegro_, _Il Penseroso_, _ed Il Moderato_ of Milton
+(January-February, 1740); in a month the _Concerti Grossi_, Opus 6.[238]
+But the success of these charming works, graven out with loving care,
+into which Handel had perhaps put more than into any other his own
+personal feelings, his poetic and humorous reproductions of nature,[239]
+was hardly sufficient yet to establish his affairs, at one time so
+embarrassed. Once more, as in the time of _Deborah_ and _Arianna_, he
+was attacked by a coalition of fashionable people. One does not know
+how Handel had wounded them,[240] but they were resolved on his
+downfall. They avoided his concerts. They even paid men to pull down his
+placards in the streets. Handel, tired and disheartened, suddenly threw
+up the combat.[241] He decided to leave England, where he had lived for
+nearly thirty years, and where he had increased his fame so much. He
+announced his last concert for April 8, 1741.[242]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a remarkable thing that often in the lives of the great men, just
+at the moment when all seems lost, or things are at their lowest ebb,
+they are nearest to the fulfilment of their destiny. Handel appeared
+vanquished. Just at that very hour he wrote a work which was destined to
+establish permanently his immortality.
+
+He left London.[243] The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland invited him to
+Dublin to direct some concerts. Thus it was, so he said, "in order to
+offer this generous and polished nation something new" that he composed
+_The Messiah_ on a poem by his friend Jennens.[244] They had already
+given many of his religious works in Dublin for charitable
+concerts.[245] Handel was received enthusiastically. The letter which he
+wrote on December 29 to Jennens bubbles over with joy. The time which he
+passed in Dublin was, together with his early years in Italy, the
+happiest in his life. From December 23, 1741, to April 7, 1742, he gave
+two series of six concerts, and always with the same success. Finally,
+on April 12, the first hearing of _The Messiah_ took place in Dublin.
+The proceeds of the concert were devoted to charitable objects, and the
+success was very considerable.[246]
+
+Eight days after having finished The _Messiah_ (that is to say, before
+he had yet arrived in Ireland) Handel had commenced _Samson_, which was
+finished in five weeks, from the end of September to the end of October,
+1741. However, he did not give it in Dublin. Doubtless he could not find
+the interpreters which he desired for this colossal drama, rich in
+choral scenes and in difficult _roles_.[247] Perhaps also he reserved
+the work for the following season in Dublin, when he hoped to return,
+but the expected invitation which he awaited in London did not come, and
+it was in London that _Samson_ reached its first hearing on February 18,
+1743.
+
+To this heroic oratorio, based on the sublime _Samson Agonistes_ of
+Milton,[248] succeeded a light opera, which bore, nevertheless, the name
+of oratorio, the libretto of which was based on a poem by Congreve:
+_Semele_ (June 3 to July 4, 1743). It afforded a relief for him between
+these two Herculean works. In the same month in which he finished
+_Semele_, Handel wrote his monumental _Dettingen Te Deum_, to celebrate
+the victory of the Duke of Cumberland over the French.[249] _Joseph_,
+written in August and September of the same year, on a very touching
+poem by James Miller, reveals a sweet yet melancholy fancy, a little
+insipid, on which, however, the strong portrait of Simeon projects
+itself forcibly.
+
+1744 was one of Handel's most glorious years from the creative point of
+view, but one of the most miserable in outward success. He wrote nearly
+simultaneously his two most tragic oratorios, the great Shakespearian
+drama of _Belshazzar_ (July-October, 1744), the rich poem of which was
+furnished for him by his friend Jennens;[250] and the sublime tragedy of
+the ancient _Hercules_, a musical drama,[251] which marks the
+culmination of the Handelian musical drama, and indeed one might say of
+the whole musical theatre before Gluck.
+
+Never was the hostility of the English public more roused against him.
+The same hateful cabal which had already thrice threatened to bring
+about his downfall again rose against him. They invited the fashionable
+world in London to their _fetes_, specially organised on the days when
+the performances of his oratorios were to have taken place, with the
+object of robbing him of his audience. Bolingbroke and Smollett both
+speak of the plots of certain ladies to ruin Handel. Horace Walpole says
+that it was the fashion to go to the Italian Opera when Handel directed
+his oratorio concerts. Handel, whose force of energy and genius had
+weakened since his first failure of 1735, was involved afresh in
+bankruptcy at the beginning of 1745. His griefs and troubles, and the
+prodigious expenditure of force which he made, seemed again on the point
+of turning his brain. He fell into extreme bodily prostration and
+lowness of spirit, similar to that of 1737, and this lasted for the
+space of eight months, from March to October, 1745.[252] By a miracle he
+was able to rise out of this abyss, and by unforeseen events, where
+music was his only aid, he became more popular than he ever was before.
+
+The Pretender, Charles Edward, landed in Scotland; the country rose up.
+An army of Highlanders marched on London. The city was in consternation.
+A great national movement arose in England, Handel associated himself
+with it. On November 14, 1745, he brought to light at Drury Lane his
+_Song made for the Gentlemen Volunteers of the City of London_,[253]
+and he wrote two oratorios, which were, so to speak, immense national
+hymns: the _Occasional Oratorio_,[254] where Handel called the English
+to rise up against invasion, and _Judas Maccabaeus_[255] (July 9 to
+August 11, 1746), the Hymn of Victory, written after the rout of the
+rebels at Culloden Moor, and for the _fete_ on the return of the
+conqueror, the ferocious Duke of Cumberland, to whom the poem was
+dedicated.
+
+These two patriotic oratorios, where Handel's heart beat with that of
+England, and of which the second, _Judas Maccabaeus_, has retained even
+to our own day its great popularity, thanks to its broad style and the
+spirit which animates it,[256] brought more fortune to Handel than all
+the rest of his works together. After thirty-five years of continuous
+struggle, plot and counterplot, he had at last obtained a decisive
+victory. He became by the force of events _the national musician of
+England_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Freed from material cares, which had embittered his life,[257] Handel
+took up the work of his composition again, with more tranquillity, and
+in the following years came many of his happiest works. _Alexander
+Balus_ (June 1 to July 4, 1747)[258] is, like _Semele_, a concert opera,
+well developed; the orchestration being exceptionally rich and subtle.
+_Joshua_ (July 30 to August 18, 1747)[259] is a somewhat pale _replica_
+of _Judas Maccabaeus_. A gentle love idyll blossoms amidst the pompous
+choruses. _Solomon_ (June, 1748)[260] is a musical festival, radiating
+poetry and gladness. _Susanna_ (July 11, 1724, to August, 1748), grave
+and gay by turns, realistic yet lyric, is a hybrid kind of work, but
+very original.
+
+Finally, in the spring of 1749, which marks, so it seems, the end of
+Handel's good fortune, he wrote his brilliant Firework Music--a model
+for popular open-air _fetes_--produced on April 27, 1749, by a monster
+orchestra of trumpets, horns, oboes, and bassoons, without stringed
+instruments, on the occasion of the Firework display given in Green Park
+to celebrate the Peace of Aix la Chapelle.[261]
+
+More solemn works followed these gay pieces. At this moment of his life
+the spirit of melancholy raised its grey head before the robust old man,
+who seemed to be obsessed by the presentiment of some coming ill
+fortune.
+
+On May 27, 1749, he conducted at the Foundling Hospital[262] for the
+benefit of waifs and strays, his beautiful _Anthem for the Foundling
+Hospital_,[263] which was inspired by his great pity for these little
+unfortunates. From June 28 to July 31 he wrote a pure masterpiece,
+_Theodora_, his most intimate musical tragedy, his only Christian
+tragedy besides _The Messiah_[264]. From the end of that same year dates
+also his music for a scene from Tobias Smollett's Alceste, which was
+never played, and from which Handel took the essential parts for his
+_Choice of Hercules_.[265] A little time after he made his last voyage
+to Halle. He arrived on German soil at the moment when Bach died, July
+28, 1750. Indeed he nearly ended his life there himself in the same week
+by a carriage accident.[266]
+
+He recovered quickly, and on January 21, 1751, when he commenced the
+score of _Jephtha_, he appeared to be in robust health, despite his
+sixty-six years. He wrote the first act at a stretch in thirteen days.
+In eleven days more he had arrived at the last scene but one of Act II.
+Here he had to break off. Already in the preceding pages he only
+progressed with difficulty; his writing, so clear and firm at the
+commencement, became sticky, confused, and trembling.[267] He had
+started on the final chorus of Act II: "How dark, O Lord, are Thy Ways."
+Hardly had he written the opening _Largo_ than he had to stop working.
+He wrote:
+
+"_I reached here on Wednesday, February 13, had to discontinue on
+account of the sight of my left eye._"[268]
+
+The work was broken off for ten days. On February 23 (which was his
+birthday) he wrote in:
+
+"_Feel a little better. Resumed work_";
+
+and he wrote the music to those foreboding words:
+
+"_Grief follows joy as night the day._"
+
+He took hardly five days to finish this chorus, which is really sublime.
+He stopped then for four months.[269] On June 18 he resumed the third
+act. He was again interrupted in the middle.[270] The last four airs and
+the final chorus took more time than a whole oratorio usually occupied.
+He did not finish it until August 30, 1751. His sight was then gone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After that, all was ended. Handel's eyes were closed for ever.[271] The
+sun was blotted out, "_Total eclipse_...." The world was effaced.
+
+He had never suffered so much as in the first year of his illness, when
+he was not yet completely blind. In 1752 he was unable to play the organ
+at the productions of his oratorios, and the public, moved by sympathy,
+saw him tremble and blanch in listening to the admirable complaint of
+his blind Samson. But in 1753, when the evil was incurable, Handel
+regained his self-possession. He played the organ again at the twelve
+performances of oratorios which he gave each year in Lent, and he kept
+up this custom until his death.
+
+But with his vanished sight he had lost the best source of his
+inspiration. This man, who was neither an intellectual nor a mystic, one
+who loved above all things light and nature, beautiful pictures, and the
+spectacular view of things, who lived more through his eyes than most of
+the German musicians, was engulfed in deepest night. From 1752 to 1759
+he was overtaken by the semi-consciousness which precedes death. He only
+wrote in 1758 a duet and chorus for _Judas Maccabaeus_, "Zion now her
+head shall raise," and reviving in that the happy times of other days he
+took up a work of his youth, the _Trionfo del Tempo_,[272] which he now
+gave in a new version in March, 1757: _The Triumph of Time and
+Truth_.[273]
+
+[Illustration: HANDEL'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
+
+(_In the "Poets' Corner."_)]
+
+On April 6, 1759, he again took the organ at a production of _The
+Messiah_. His powers failed him in the middle of a movement. He soon
+recovered himself and improvised (it is said) with his habitual
+grandeur. Returned home he took to bed. On April 11 he added a last
+codicil to his will,[274] bequeathing munificently L1000 sterling to
+the Society for the Maintenance of Poor Musicians, and expressing, with
+tranquillity, his desire of being buried in Westminster Abbey. He said:
+"I want to die on Good Friday in the hope of rejoining the good God, my
+sweet Lord and Saviour, on the day of his Resurrection." His wish was
+accomplished. On Holy Saturday, April 14, at eight in the morning, the
+sweet singer of _The Messiah_ slept with his Lord.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His glory spread after his death. On April 20 he was interred in
+Westminster Abbey, as he had requested.[275] The annual performances of
+his oratorios continued in Lent under the direction of his friend,
+Christopher Smith. Popular performances of them were soon given. The
+great festival of his Commemoration celebrated at Westminster Abbey and
+in the Pantheon, from May 26 to June 5, 1784, for the centenary of his
+birth,[276] was observed all over Europe. New festivals took place in
+London in 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790, and 1791. On the last occasion more
+than a thousand executants[277] took part. Haydn was present, and he
+said, through his tears, "He is master of us all."
+
+The English performances attracted the attention of Germany. Two years
+after the Commemoration, Johann Adam Hiller produced _The Messiah_ in
+the Cathedral Church at Berlin, then at Leipzig, and then at Breslau.
+Three years later, in 1789, Mozart made his arrangements of _The
+Messiah_, of _Acis and Galatea_, of the _Ode to St. Cecilia_, and of
+_Alexander's Feast_.[278] The first complete edition of Handel was
+commenced in 1786. A strong feeling of emulation made itself felt in
+Germany to imitate the English festivals, and to restore choral singing,
+and to found the _Singakademien_ for the preservation of the national
+glories.[279] The rendering of Handel's oratorios inspired Haydn to
+write _The Creation_. Beethoven at the end of his life said of Handel:
+"See there is the truth."[280] Poets also vied equally in rendering him
+homage. Goethe admired him, and Herder devoted a chapter to him in his
+_Adrastea_ of 1802. The wars of Independence gave an access of favour to
+the oratorio of freedom, to _Judas Maccabaeus_.
+
+With romanticism the feeling for the genius of Handel was lost. Berlioz,
+who, if he had but known him truly, and had found a model for that grand
+popular style which he sought, never understood him. Of all other
+musicians, those who approached to the spirit of Handel nearest were
+Schumann and Liszt,[281] but they were exceptional in the lucidity of
+their perception, and their generous sympathies. It might be said that
+Handel's art, distorted by the editions and false renderings--quite as
+much those in Germany as the ridiculously colossal representations in
+England--would have been completely lost except for the foundation in
+1856 of the Handel Society, which devoted itself to the object of
+publishing an exact and complete edition of the works of the master.
+Gervinus was the promoter and Friedrich Chrysander alone accomplished
+the task. It did not aim at being a critical edition of his works. His
+ardent apostle sought simply to revive them in their pristine
+force.[282] He was seconded by the choral societies of north Germany,
+particularly by the Berlin _Singakademien_, which from 1830 to 1860
+never ceased to perform all the oratorios of Handel. On the contrary,
+Austria remained a long way behind. In 1873, Brahms conducted the first
+production of _Saul_ in Vienna, but the veritable awakening of Handel's
+art in Germany only dates back about half a score years. One recognized
+his grandeur, and did not doubt that he had lived. It was chiefly (so it
+seems) at the first Handel Festival of Mayence in 1895, where _Hercules
+and Deborah_ were given, that his astounding dramatic genius was first
+truly felt there.
+
+To us in France we still await the full revelation of the living scenes
+of this great and luminous tragic art, so akin to the aims of Ancient
+Greece.[283]
+
+
+
+
+HIS TECHNIQUE AND WORKS
+
+
+No great musician is more impossible to include in the limits of one
+definition, or even of several, than Handel. It is a fact that he
+reached the complete mastery of his style very early (much earlier than
+J. S. Bach), although it was never really fixed, and he never devoted
+himself to any one form of art. It is even difficult to see a conscious
+and a logical evolution in him. His genius is not of the kind which
+follows a single path, and forges right ahead until it reaches its
+object. For his aim is none other than to do well whatever he undertook.
+All ways are good to him--from his early steps at the crossing of the
+ways, he dominated the country, and shed his light on all sides, without
+laying siege to any particular part. He is not one of those who impose
+on life and art a voluntary idealism, either violent or patient; nor is
+he one of those who inscribe in the book of life the formula of their
+campaign. He is of the kind who drink in the life universal,
+assimilating it to themselves. His artistic will is mainly objective.
+His genius adapts itself to a thousand images of passing events, to the
+nation, to the times in which he lived, even to the fashions of his day.
+It accommodates itself to the various influences, ignoring all
+obstacles. It weighs other styles and other thoughts, but such is the
+power of assimilation and the prevailing equilibrium of his nature that
+he never feels submerged and overweighted by the mass of these strange
+elements. Everything is duly absorbed, controlled, and classified. This
+immense soul is like the sea itself, into which all the rivers of the
+world pour themselves without troubling its serenity.
+
+The German geniuses have often had this power of absorbing thoughts and
+strange forms,[284] but it is excessively rare to find amongst them the
+grand objectivism, and this superior impersonality, which is, so to
+speak, the hall-mark of Handel. Their sentimental lyricism is better
+fitted to sing songs, to voice the thoughts of the universe in song,
+than to paint the universe in living forms and vital rhythms. Handel is
+very different, and approaches much more nearly than any other in
+Germany the genius of the South, the Homeric genius of which Goethe
+received the sudden revelation on his arrival at Naples.[285] This
+capacious mind looks out on the whole universe, and on the way the
+universe depicts itself, as a picture is reflected in calm and clear
+water. He owes much of this objectivism to Italy, where he spent many
+years, and the fascination of which never effaced itself from his mind,
+and he owes even more to that, sturdy England, which guards its emotions
+with so tight a rein, and which eschews those sentimental and
+effervescing effusions, so often displayed in the pious German art; but
+that he had all the germs of his art in himself, is already shown in his
+early works at Hamburg.
+
+From his infancy at Halle, Zachau had trained him not in one style, but
+in all the styles of the different nations, leading him to understand
+not only the spirit of each great composer, but to assimilate the styles
+by writing in various manners. This education, essentially cosmopolitan,
+was completed by his three tours in Italy, and his sojourn of half a
+century in England. Above all he never ceased to follow up the lessons
+learnt at Halle, always appropriating to himself the best from all
+artists and their works. If he was never in France (it is not absolutely
+proved), he knew her nevertheless. He was anxious to master their
+language and musical style. We have proofs of that in his
+manuscripts,[286] and in the accusations made against him by certain
+French critics.[287] Wherever he passed, he gathered some musical
+souvenir, buying and collecting foreign works, copying them, or rather
+(for he had not the careful patience of J. S. Bach, who scrupulously
+wrote out in his own hand the entire scores of the French organists and
+the Italian violinists) copying down in hasty and often inexact
+expressions any idea which struck him in the course of his reading. This
+vast collection of European thoughts, which only remains in remnants at
+the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, was the reservoir, so to speak,
+from which his creative genius continually fed itself. Profoundly German
+in race and character, he had become a world citizen, like his
+compatriot Leibnitz, whom he had known at Hanover, a European with a
+tendency for the Latin culture. The great Germans at the end of that
+century, Goethe and Herder, were never more free, or more universal,
+than this great Saxon in music, saturated as he was with all the
+artistic thoughts of the West.
+
+He drew not only from the sources of learned and refined music--the
+music of musicians; but also drank deeply from the founts of popular
+music--that of the most simple and rustic folk.[288] He loved the
+latter. One finds noted down in his manuscripts the street cries of
+London, and he once told a friend that he received many inspirations for
+his best airs from them.[289] Certain of his oratorios, like _L'Allegro
+ed Il Penseroso_, are threaded with remembrances of his walks in the
+English country, and who can ignore the _Pifferari_ (Italian peasant's
+pipe) in _The Messiah_, the Flemish carillon in _Saul_, the joyous
+popular Italian songs in _Hercules_, and in _Alexander Balus_? Handel
+was not an artist lost in introspection. He watched all around him, he
+listened, and observed. Sight was for him a source of inspiration,
+hardly of less importance than hearing. I do not know any great German
+musician who has been as much a visual as Handel. Like Hasse and
+Corelli, he had a veritable passion for beautiful pictures. He hardly
+ever went out without going to a theatre or to a picture sale. He was a
+connoisseur, and he made a collection, in which some Rembrandts[290]
+were found after his death. It has been remarked that his blindness
+(which should have rendered his hearing still more sensitive, his
+creative powers translating everything into sonorous dreams) soon
+paralysed his hearing when its principal source of renewal was
+withdrawn.
+
+Thus, saturated in all the European music of his time, impregnated with
+the music of musicians, and the still richer music which flows in all
+Nature herself, which is specially diffused in the vibrations of light
+and shade, that song of the rivers, of the forest, of the birds, in
+which all his works abound, and which have inspired some of his most
+picturesque pages with a semi-romantic colour,[291] he wrote as one
+speaks, he composed as one breathes. He never sketched out on paper in
+order to prepare his definite work. He wrote straight off as he
+improvised, and in truth he seems to have been the greatest improviser
+that ever was. Whether extemporising on the organ at the midday services
+in St. Paul's Cathedral, or playing the _capriccios_ during the
+_entr'actes_ of his oratorios at Covent Garden--or improvising on the
+clavier in the orchestra at the opera, at Hamburg or in London, or "when
+he accompanied the singers in a most marvellous fashion, adapting
+himself to their temperament and virtuosity, without having any written
+notes," he astounded the connoisseurs of his time; and Mattheson, who
+may hardly be suspected of any indulgence towards him, proclaimed that
+he had no equal in this. One can truly say that "he improvised every
+minute of his life." He wrote his music with such an impetuosity of
+feeling, and such a wealth of ideas, that his hand was constantly
+lagging behind his thoughts, and in order to keep pace with them at all
+he had to note them down in an abbreviated manner.[292] But (and this
+seems contradictory) he had at the same time an exquisite sense of form.
+No German surpassed him in the art of writing beautiful, melodic lines.
+Mozart and Hasse alone were his equals in this. It was to this love of
+perfection that we attribute that habit which, despite his fertility of
+invention, causes him to use time after time, the same phrases (those
+most important, and dearest to him) each time introducing an
+imperceptible change, a light stroke of the pencil, which renders them
+more perfect. The examination of these kinds of musical _eaux-fortes_ in
+their successive states is very instructive for the musician who is
+interested in plastic beauty.[293] It shows also how certain melodies,
+once written down, continued to slumber in Handel's mind for many years,
+until they had penetrated his subconscious nature, were applied at
+first, by following the chances of his inspiration, to a certain
+situation, which suited them moderately well. They are, so to speak, in
+search of a body where they can reincarnate themselves, seeking the true
+situation, the real sentiment of which they are but the latent
+expression; and once having found it, they expand themselves with
+ease.[294]
+
+Handel worked no less with the music of other composers than with his
+own. If one had the time to study here what superficial readers have
+called his plagiarisms, particularly taking, for example, _Israel in
+Egypt_, where the most barefaced of these cases occur, one would see
+with what genius and insight Handel has evoked from the very depths of
+these musical phrases, their secret soul, of which the first creators
+had not even a presentiment. It needed his eye, or his ear, to discover
+in the serenade of Stradella its Biblical cataclysms. Each read and
+heard a work of art as it is, and yet not as it is; and one may conclude
+that it is not always the creator himself who has the most fertile idea
+of it. The example of Handel well proves this. Not only did he create
+music, but very often he created that of others for them. Stradella and
+Erba were only for him (however humiliating the comparison) the flames
+of fire, and the cracks in the wall, through which Leonardo saw the
+living figures. Handel heard great storms passing through the gentle
+quivering of Stradella's guitar.[295]
+
+This evocatory character of Handel's genius should never be forgotten.
+He who is satisfied with listening to this music without _seeing_ what
+it expresses--who judges this art as a purely formal art, who does not
+feel his expressive and suggestive power, occasionally so far as
+hallucination, will never understand it. It is a music which paints
+emotions, souls, and situations, to see the epochs and the places, which
+are the framework of the emotions, and which tint them with their own
+peculiar moral tone. In a word, his is an art essentially picturesque
+and dramatic. It is scarcely twenty to thirty years since the key to it
+was found in Germany, thanks to the Handel Musical Festivals. As Heuss
+says, concerning a recent performance at Leipzig, "For a proper
+comprehension no master more than Handel has greater need of being
+performed, and _well_ performed. One can study J. S. Bach at home, and
+enjoy it even more than at a good concert, but he who has never heard
+Handel well performed can with difficulty imagine what he really is, for
+really good performances of Handel are excessively rare." The intimate
+sense of his works was falsified in the century which followed his death
+by the English interpretations, strengthened further still in Germany by
+those of Mendelssohn, and his numerous following. By the exclusion of
+and systematic contempt for all the operas of Handel, by an elimination
+of nearly all the dramatic oratorios, the most powerful and the
+freshest, by a narrow choice more and more restrained to the four or
+five oratorios, and even here, by giving an exaggerated supremacy to
+_The Messiah_, by the interpretation finally of these works, and notably
+of _The Messiah_ in a pompous, rigid, and stolid manner, with an
+orchestra and choir far too numerous and badly balanced, with singers
+frightfully correct and pious, without any feeling or intimacy, there
+has been established that tradition which makes Handel a church
+musician after the style of Louis XIV, all decoration--pompous columns,
+noble and cold statues, and pictures by Le Brun. It is not surprising
+that this has reduced works executed on such principles, and degraded
+them to a monumental tiresomeness similar to that which emanates from
+the bewigged Alexanders, and the very conventional Christs of Le Brun.
+
+It is necessary to turn back. Handel was never a church musician, and he
+hardly ever wrote for the church. Apart from his _Psalms_ and his _Te
+Deum_, composed for the private chapels, and for exceptional events, he
+only wrote instrumental music for concerts and for open-air _fetes_, for
+operas, and for those so-called oratorios, which were really written for
+the theatre. The first oratorios he composed were really acted: _Acis
+and Galatea_ in May, 1732, at the Haymarket Theatre, with scenery,
+decoration, and costumes, under the title of _English Pastoral
+Opera--Esther_, in February, 1732, at the Academy of Ancient Music after
+the manner of the Grecian tragedy, the chorus being placed behind the
+stage and the orchestra. And if Handel resolutely abstained from
+theatrical representation[296]--which alone gives the full value to
+certain scenes, such as the orgie and the dream of Belshazzar, expressly
+conceived for acting--on the other hand he stood out firmly for having
+his oratorios at the theatre and not in the church. There were not
+wanting churches any less than dissenting chapels in which he could give
+his works, and by not doing so he turned against him the opinion of
+religious people who considered it sacrilegious to carry pious subjects
+on to the stage,[297] but he continued to affirm that he did not write
+compositions for the church, but worked for the theatre--a free
+theatre.[298]
+
+This briefly dramatic character of Handel's works has been well
+comprehended by the German historians who have studied him during recent
+times. Chrysander compares him to Shakespeare,[299] Kretzschmar calls
+him the reformer of musical drama, Volbach and A. Heuss see in him a
+dramatic musician, and claim for the performance of his oratorios
+dramatic singers. Richard Strauss, in his introduction to Berlioz's
+_Treatise of Orchestration_, opposes the great polyphonic and symphonic
+stream issuing from J. S. Bach with that homophonic and dramatic one
+which comes from Handel. We hope that the readers of this little book
+have found here in nearly all these pages a confirmation of these ideas.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It remains for us, after having attempted to indicate the general
+characteristics of Handel's art, to sketch the technique of the
+different styles in which he worked.
+
+To speak truly, it is difficult to speak of the opera or of the oratorio
+of Handel. It is necessary to say: _of the operas or of the oratorios_,
+for we do not find that they point back to any single type. We can
+verify here what we said at the commencement of this chapter, about the
+magnificent vitality of Handel in choosing amongst his art forms the
+different directions of the music of his times.
+
+All the European tendencies at that time are reflected in his operas:
+the model of Keiser in his early works, the Venetian model in his
+_Agrippina_, the model of Scarlatti and Steffani in his first early
+operas; in the London works he soon introduces English influences,
+particularly in the rhythms. Then it was Bononcini whom he rivalled.
+Again, those great attempts of genius to create a new musical drama,
+_Giulio Cesare_, _Tamerlano_, _Orlando_; later on, those charming
+ballet-operas inspired by France, _Ariodante_, _Alcina_; later still,
+those operas which point towards the _opera comique_ and the light style
+of the second half of the century, _Serse Deidamia_.... Handel continued
+to try every other style, without making any permanent choice as did
+Gluck, with whom alone he can be compared.
+
+Without doubt (and it is his greatest fault in the theatre) he was
+constrained by the conventions of the Italian Opera at tunes and by the
+composition of his troupe of singers to overlook his choruses, and to
+write operas for solo voices, of which the principal _roles_ were cast
+for the Prima Donna and for the contralto,[300] but whenever he could,
+he wrote his operas with choruses, like _Ariodante_, _Alcina_, and he
+only owed it to himself that he did not give to the tenor or to the bass
+their place in the concert of voices.[301] If it was not possible to
+break the uniformity of the solo voices by the addition of choruses,
+still he enlivened these solos by the flexibility and the variety of his
+instrumental accompaniments. Such of his most celebrated airs, as the
+Garden scene in _Rinaldo_, "_Augelletti che cantate_," are only in truth
+an orchestral tone picture. The voice mingles itself only as an
+instrument,[302] and with what art Handel always decides his melodies in
+disengaging the beautiful lines, drawing all the parts possible in pure
+tone colours from single instruments, and from the voice isolated,--then
+united,--and what of his silences!
+
+The appeal of his melodies is much more varied than one usually
+believes. If the _Da Capo_ form abounds in his works,[303] it is
+necessary to admit that it was practically the only one of that period.
+In _Almira_, Handel uses the form of a little strophic song, very
+happily. For this, Keiser supplied him with models, and he never
+renounces the use of these little melodies, so simple and touching,
+almost bare, which speak direct to the soul. He seems to return to them
+even with special predilection in his last operas, _Atalanta_,
+_Giustina_, _Serse_, _Deidamia_.[304] He gives also to Hasse and to
+Graun the model of his six cavatinas, airs in two parts,[305] which they
+later on brought into prominence. We find his dramatic airs also have
+the second part and the repeat.[306]
+
+Even in the _Da Capo_, however, he gives us a variety of forms! Not only
+does Handel use all styles, but how well does he blend the voices with
+the instruments in those airs of great brilliance and free
+virtuosity![307] With what predilection does he ply all these beautiful
+and learned contrapuntal tissues, as in the _Cara sposa_ from _Rinaldo_
+or the _Ombra cara_ from _Radamisto_; but he ever seeks new combinations
+for the old form. He was one of the first to adopt the little Airs _da
+capo_, which with Bononcini seems to have been so much the fashion at
+the commencement of the eighteenth century, and of which _Agrippina_ and
+_Ottone_ furnish such delightful examples.[308] To the second part of
+the air he gave a different character and movement from that of the
+first part.[309] Still further, in either of the parts several
+movements were combined.[310] Sometimes the second part was
+recitative,[311] or it was extremely condensed.[312] When Handel had
+choruses at his disposal in his oratorios, he often entrusted the _Da
+Capo_ to the Chorus.[313] He went further: in _Samson_, after Micah has
+sung in the second act the first two parts of the air "Return, O God of
+Hosts," the chorus takes up the second part at the same time as Micah
+returns to the first part. Finally he attempts to divide the _Da Capo_
+between two characters, thus in the second act of _Saul_, Jonathan's
+solo "Sin not, O King, against the youth," is followed by Saul's solo,
+then appearing note for note.
+
+But the most glorious feat of Handel in vocal solos is the "recitative
+scene."
+
+It was Keiser who taught him the art of those moving _recitative-ariosi_
+with orchestra, which he had already used in _Almira_, and of which,
+later on, J. S. Bach was to take from him the style. He never ceased to
+employ it in his London operas, and he gave the form a superb amplitude.
+They are not merely isolated recitatives or preambles to an extended
+solo.[314] The story of Caesar in the third act of _Giulio Cesare,
+Dall'ondoso periglio_ is one large musical picture, which expresses in
+its frame a symphonic prelude, a recitative, the two first parts of an
+air over the symphonic accompaniment of the opening, a second
+recitative, then the _Da Capo_. The scene of Bajazet's death in the last
+act of _Tamerlano_ is composed of a series of recitatives with
+orchestra, and of airs joined together, and passes through all the
+nuances of feeling, forming from one stage to the other a veritable
+ladder of life. The scene of Admetes' agony at the opening of the opera
+of the same name equals in profundity, emotion, and dramatic liberty,
+the finest recitative scenes of Gluck. The "mad scene" in
+_Orlando_,[315] and that of Dejanira's despair in the third act of
+_Hercules_, surpasses them in boldness of realism, and frenetic passion.
+In the first, burlesque and tragic elements commingle with a truly
+Shakespearean art. The second is a mighty foaming river, raging with
+fury and grief. Neither of these two scenes have any analogy in the
+whole of the musical theatre of the eighteenth century. And _Teseo_,
+_Rodelinda_, _Alessandro_, _Alcina_, _Semele_, _Joseph_, _Alexander
+Balus_, _Jephtha_, all present recitative scenes, or combinations in the
+same scene of recitatives and very free airs, with instrumental
+interludes, no less original. Finally a sort of presentiment of the
+_leit-motiv_, and its psychological employment in _Belshazzar_, should
+be noticed, where certain instrumental phrases and recitatives seem
+attached to the character of Nitocris.[316]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The study of Handel's recitatives and airs raises perhaps the greatest
+problem of artistic interpretation--that of vocal ornamentation.
+
+We know that Handelian singers used to decorate his melodies with graces
+and melismatic figures, and cadenzas (often very considerable) which
+have disappeared for the greater part. Chrysander, in editing Handel's
+works, found them given as alternatives, and either suppressed them
+(those which were false to the historic sense of the text) or else
+rewrote them himself. It was in this last point that he stopped short of
+all possible guarantees of exactness, or at least of true resemblance.
+But his revisions found few supporters, and a discussion on his
+treatment of this subject has been recently raised amongst German
+musical writers.[317] This debate, the examination of which cannot be
+entered into in this volume, authorised, it seems, the following
+conclusions:
+
+     (1) The vocal ornaments were not improvised and left to the fancy
+     of the singer, as is often asserted, but they were marked with
+     precise indications in the singer's parts, and also in the score of
+     the accompanying clavecinist:[318]
+
+     (2) They were not mere caprices of empty virtuosity but the result
+     of a reflective virtuosity, and subject to the general style of the
+     piece. They served to accentuate more deeply the expression of the
+     principal melodic lines.[319]
+
+Yet what would be the advantage of restoring these ornaments? Our taste
+has changed since then, and a stricter reverence forbids us to risk
+tampering with works of the past by following slavishly such details of
+tradition and habit which have become meaningless and old-fashioned. Is
+it better to impose on the public of to-day the older works with all
+their marks of age improved away by the learning of later
+generations--or to adapt them soberly in the manner of true feeling, so
+as to enable them to continue to exercise on us their elevating power?
+Both sides have been well supported.[320] For myself I consider the
+first proposition bears on the publication of the scores, and the second
+on the musical renderings. The mind ought to seek and find out exactly
+what used to be the case, but when this is done the living are justified
+in claiming their rights, and by being allowed to reject ancient usages,
+only preserving such as render these works of genius truly vital.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The vocal ensemble pieces hold a much humbler place in Italian Opera,
+and Handel has made fewer innovations on this ground than in the vocal
+solo. However, one finds some very interesting experiments here. His
+duets are often written in an imitative style, serious and rather sad,
+in the old Italian school of Provenzale and Steffani,[321] or in the
+Lully style, where the two voices mingle together note by note with
+exactitude.[322] But _Atalanta_ and _Poro_ furnish us also with duets of
+an alluring freedom and uncommon artistry. And in the duet in the third
+act of _Orlando_, Handel attempts to differentiate the characters of the
+weeping Angelica and the furious Roland.--Similarly with the trios
+written in the strict style of imitation, like that in _Alcina_, Act
+III, the trio in _Acis and Galatea_ carefully defines the couple of
+lovers from the colossal figure of Polyphemus, the trio in _Tamerlano_
+contrasts the exasperated Tamerlano with Bajazet and with Asteria, who
+aggravated him, and the trio in the judgment of Solomon distinguishes
+the three diverse characters: the calm power of Solomon, the aggressive
+cries of the wicked mother, and the sorrowful supplications of the good
+mother. The trio from _Susanna_ is no less free, but in the humorous
+style: one of the two old men madrigalises whilst the other menaces. The
+_ensemble_ forms altogether a most vivid little scene which Mozart
+himself would not have disowned.[323] Quartets are rare. There are two
+little ones in the _Triumph of Time_, written in Rome. In _Radamisto_
+Handel made the attempt at a dramatic quartet, but rather clumsily, and
+with repeated _Da Capo_.[324] The most moving quartet is found in the
+second act of _Jephtha_. It is in _Jephtha_ also, Act III, where the
+only quintet which he wrote is to be found.
+
+The choruses in the Italian opera of the eighteenth century[325] were
+reduced to a rudimentary stage, and they consist merely of the union of
+the voices of soloists at the end of a piece, with certain banal and
+brilliant acclamations during the course of the action. Notwithstanding
+this, Handel wrote some stronger ones in _Alcina_; those of _Giulio
+Cesare_, _Ariodante_, and _Atalanta_, were also exceptional in the
+operas of his time. So with the final choruses Handel arranged after a
+fashion to escape from the current banality: that of _Tamerlano_ is
+written in a melancholy dramatic vein; that of _Orlando_ strives to
+preserve the individual character of their personality; that of _Giulio
+Cesare_ is tacked on to a duet. There are also choruses of people; the
+Matelots in _Giustino_; that of the hunters in _Deidamia_, where the
+choruses take up the refrain from the air announced by the solo voice.
+It is the same in _Alessandro_, where the soldiers' chorus repeats
+Alessandro's hymn, slightly curtailed.
+
+Finally, Handel frequently attempted to build up great musical
+architecture, raising it by successive stages from solos to ensemble
+pieces, and then to choruses. At the end of the first act of
+_Ariodante_, a duet (gavotte style) is taken up by the chorus, then
+danced without voices; finally sung and danced. The close of Act III
+from the same opera gives us a chain of processions, dances, and
+choruses. The final scenes of _Alessandro_ constitute a veritable opera
+_finale_, 2 duets and a trio running into a chorus.
+
+But it is in his oratorios that Handel attempted these ensemble vocal
+combinations on the larger scale, and principally that mixture of
+movements where the powerful contrasts of soli and chorus are grouped
+together in the same picture.
+
+One sees what a variety of forms and styles he used. Handel was too
+universal and too objective to believe that one kind of art only was the
+true one. He believed in two kinds of music only, the good and the bad.
+Apart from that he appreciated all styles. Thus he has left masterpieces
+in every style, but he did not open any new way in opera for the simple
+reason that he went a long way in nearly all paths already opened up.
+Constantly he experimented, invented, and always with his singularly
+sure touch. He seemed to have an extraordinary penetrating knowledge in
+invention, and consequently few artistic regions remained for him to
+conquer. He made as masterly a use of the recitative as Gluck, or of the
+_arioso_ as Mozart, writing the acts of _Tamerlano_, which are the
+closest and most heartrending dramas, in the manner of _Iphigenie en
+Tauride_, the most moving and passionate scenes in music such as certain
+pages of _Admeto_ and _Orlando_, where the humorous and tragic are
+intermingled in the manner of _Don Giovanni_. He has experimented very
+happily here in new rhythms.[326] There were new forms, the dramatic
+duet or quartet, the descriptive symphony opening the opera,[327]
+refined orchestration,[328] choruses and dances.[329] Nothing seems to
+have obsessed him. In the following opera we find him returning to the
+ordinary forms of the Italian or German opera of his time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Still less can we say that he held to a rigid form with his operas,
+which were continually adapted to the changing tastes of the theatre
+public of his age, and of the singers which he had at his disposal, but
+when he left the opera for the oratorio he varied no less. It was a
+perpetual experiment of new forms in the vast framework of the free
+theatre (_theatre en liberte_) of the concert drama; and the sort of
+instinctive ebb and flow in creation seems to have caused his works to
+succeed one another in groups of analogous or related compositions, each
+work in a nearly opposite style of feeling and form. In each one Handel
+indulged momentarily in a certain side of his feelings, and when that
+was finished he found himself in the possession of other feelings which
+had been accumulating whilst he was drawing on his first. He thus kept
+up a perpetual balance, which is like the pulsation of life itself.
+After the realistic _Saul_ comes the impersonal epic of _Israel in
+Egypt_. After this colossal monument appear the two little _genre_
+pictures, _The Ode to Cecilia_ and _L'Allegro ed Penseroso_. After the
+Herculean _Samson_, an heroic and popular tragic comedy sprang forth,
+the charming flower of _Semele_, an opera of romanticism and gallantry.
+
+But if the oratorios are so wonderfully varied they have one
+characteristic in common even more than the operas, they are musical
+dramas. It was not that religious thought turned Handel to this choice
+of Biblical subjects, but as Kretzschmar has well shown, it was on
+account of the stories of the Bible heroes being a part of the very
+life-blood of the people whom he addressed. They were known to all,
+whilst the ancient romantic stories could only interest a society of
+refined and spoilt _dilettanti_. Without doubt, these oratorios were not
+made for representation, did not seek scenic effects, with rare
+exceptions, as for instance the scene of the orgy of _Belshazzar_, where
+one feels that Handel had drawn on the direct vision of theatrical
+representation, but passions, spirits, and personalities were
+represented always in a dramatic fashion. Handel is a great painter of
+characters, and the Delilah in _Samson_, the Nitocris in _Belshazzar_,
+the Cleopatra in _Alexander Balus_, the mother in _Solomon_, the
+Dejanira in _Hercules_, the beautiful Theodora, all bear witness to the
+suppleness and the profundity of his psychological genius. If in the
+course of the action, and the depicting of the ordinary sentiments, he
+abandoned himself freely to the flow of pure music, in the moments of
+passionate crises he is the equal of the greatest masters in musical
+drama. Is it necessary to mention the terrible scenes in the third act
+of _Hercules_, the beautiful scenes of _Alexander Balus_, the Dream of
+_Belshazzar_, the scenes of _Juno_ and the death of _Semele_, the
+recognition of Joseph and his brothers, the destruction of the temple in
+Samson, the second act of _Jephtha_, the prison scenes in _Theodora_, or
+in the first act of _Saul_, and dominating all, like great pictures,
+certain of the choruses in _Israel in Egypt_, in _Esther_, and in
+_Joshua_, and in the _Chandos Anthems_, which seem veritable tempests of
+passion, great upheavals of overpowering effect? It is by these choruses
+that the oratorio is essentially distinguished from the opera. It is in
+the first place a choral tragedy. These choruses, which are nearly
+eliminated in Italian Opera during the time of the Barberini, held a
+very important place in French Opera, but their _role_ was limited to
+that of commentator or else merely decorative. In the oratorio of Handel
+they became the very life and soul of the work. Sometimes they took the
+part of the ancient classical chorus, which exposed the thought of the
+drama when the hidden fates led on the heroes to their destinies--as in
+_Saul_, _Hercules_, _Alexander Balus_, _Susanna_. Sometimes they added
+to the shock of human passions the powerful appeal of religion, and
+crowned the human drama with a supernatural aureole, as in _Theodora_
+and _Jephtha_. Or finally they became the actual actors themselves, or
+the enemy-people and the God who guided them. It is remarkable that in
+his very first oratorio _Esther_, Handel had this stroke of genius. In
+the choruses there we see the drama of an oppressed people and their God
+who led them by his voice superbly depicted. In _Deborah_ and _Athaliah_
+also, two nations are in evidence. In _Belshazzar_ there are three, but
+in his chief work of this kind, _Israel in Egypt_, the greatest choral
+epic which exists, is entirely occupied by Jehovah and His people.
+
+The choruses are in the most diverse styles. Some are in the church
+style, and a little antiquated;[330] others tend towards the opera--even
+the _opera bouffe_;[331] some exhale the perfume of the madrigals at the
+end of the sixteenth century,[332] and the Academy of Ancient Music in
+London sought to sustain this art in honour. On the other hand, Handel
+has frequently used them in the form of a chorale, simple or
+varied,[333] above all, he employs the choral double fugue in a most
+astounding manner,[334] and he carries everything on with that
+impetuosity of genius which drew to him the admiration of the sternest
+critics of his time, such as Mattheson. His instinct as a great
+constructor loved to alternate homophonic music with fugal
+choruses,[335] the massive columns of musical harmony with the moving
+contrapuntal in superimposed strata, very cleverly framing his dramatic
+choruses in a most imposing architecture of decorative and impersonal
+character. His choruses are sometimes tragic scenes,[336] or comedy (see
+the _Vaudeville_),[337] sometimes _genre_ pictures.[338] Handel knew
+most admirably how to weave in popular motives,[339] or to mingle the
+dance with the song.[340]
+
+But what belongs chiefly to him--not that he invented it, but made the
+happiest use of it--is the musical architecture of solo and chorus
+alternating and intermingled. Purcell and the French composers had given
+him this idea. He attempted it in his earliest religious works,
+especially in his _Birthday Ode for Queen Anne_, 1713, where nearly
+every solo air is taken up again by the following chorus.[341] He had a
+great feeling for light and pleased himself by introducing in the middle
+of his choral masses, solo songs which soared up into the air like
+birds.[342] His dramatic genius knew, when required, how to draw from
+this combination the most astounding effects. Thus in the _Passion after
+Brockes_, 1716, where the dialogue of the Daughter of Sion and the
+chorus _Eilt ihr angefochten Seelen_, with its questions, its responses,
+its AEschylian interjections, served as Bach's model for his St. Matthew
+Passion. At the end of _Israel in Egypt_, after those great choral
+mountains of sounds, by an ingenious contrast a female voice is heard
+alone without accompaniment, and then a hymn alternating with the chorus
+which repeats it. It is the same again at the end of the little short
+_Ode to St. Cecilia_.
+
+In the _Occasional Oratorio_ a duet for Soprano and Alto alternates with
+the choruses, but it is in _Judas Maccabaeus_ where he best achieves this
+combination of solos and the chorus. In this victorious epic of an
+invaded people, who rose up and overcame their oppressors, the
+individualities are scarcely distinguished from the heroic soul of the
+nation, and the chiefs of the people are only the choralists, whose
+songs set dancing the enormous ensembles which unfold themselves in
+powerful and irresistible progressions, like a giant's procession up a
+triumphal staircase.
+
+It follows then that when the orchestra is added to the dialogue of
+solos and of choruses, the third element enters into the psychological
+drama, sometimes in apparent opposition to the two others. Thus in the
+second act of _Judas Maccabaeus_ the orchestra which sounds the battle
+calls makes a vivid contrast to the somewhat funereal choruses on which
+they are interposed: _We hear the pleasing dreadful call_, or to put it
+better, they complete them, and fill in the picture. After Death--Glory.
+
+The oratorio being a "free theatre," it becomes necessary for the music
+to supply the place of the scenery. Thus its picturesque and descriptive
+_role_ is strongly developed and it is by this above all that Handel's
+genius so struck the English public. Camille Saint-Saens wrote in an
+interesting letter to C. Bellaigue,[343] "I have come to the conclusion
+that it is the picturesque and descriptive side, until then novel and
+unreached, whereby Handel achieved the astonishing favour which he
+enjoyed. This masterly way of writing choruses, of treating the fugue,
+had been done by others. What really counts with him is the colour--that
+modern element which we no longer hear in him.... He knew nothing of
+exotism. But look at _Alexander's Feast_, _Israel in Egypt_, and
+especially _L'Allegro ed Penseroso_, and try to forget all that has been
+done since. You find at every turn a striving for the picturesque, for
+an effect of imitation. It is real and very intense for the medium in
+which it is produced, and it seems to have been unknown hitherto."
+
+Perhaps Saint-Saens lays too much weight on the "masterly way of writing
+his choruses," which was not so common in England, even with Purcell.
+Perhaps he accentuates too much also the real influence of the French in
+matters of picturesque and descriptive music and the influence which it
+exerted on Handel.[344] Finally, it is not necessary to represent these
+descriptive tendencies of Handel as exceptional in his time. A great
+breath of nature passed over German music, and pushed it towards
+tone-painting. Telemann was, even more than Handel, a painter in music,
+and was more celebrated than Handel for his realistic effects. But the
+England of the eighteenth century had remained very conservative in
+music, and had devoted itself to cultivating the masters of the past.
+Handel's art was then more striking to them on account of "its colour"
+and "its imitative effects." I will not say with Saint-Saens that "there
+was no question of exotism with him," for Handel seems to have sought
+this very thing more than once; notably in the orchestration of certain
+scenes for the two Cleopatras, of _Giulio Cesare_, and of _Alexander
+Balus_. But that which was constantly with him was tone-painting, the
+reproduction through passages of music of natural impressions, a
+painting very characterised, and, as Beethoven put it, "more an
+expression of feelings than of painting," a poetic evocation of the
+raging tempests, of the tranquillity of the sea, of the dark shades of
+night, of the twilight which envelops the English country, of the parks
+by moonlight, of the sunrise in springtime, and of the awakening of
+birds. _Acis and Galatea_, _Israel in Egypt_, _Allegro_, _The Messiah_,
+_Semele_, _Joseph_, _Solomon_, _Susanna_, all offer a wondrous picture
+gallery of nature, carefully noted by Handel with the sure stroke of a
+Flemish painter, and of a romantic poet at the same time. This
+romanticism struck powerfully on his time with a strength which would
+not be denied. It drew upon him both admiration and violent criticism. A
+letter of 1751 depicts him as a Berlioz or Wagner, raising storms by
+his orchestra and chorus.
+
+"He cannot give people pleasure after the proper fashion," writes this
+anonymous author in his letter, "and his evil genius will not allow him
+to do this. He imagines a new _grandioso_ kind of music, and in order to
+make more noise he has it executed by the greatest number of voices and
+instruments which one has ever heard before in a theatre. He thinks thus
+to rival not only the god of musicians, but even all the other gods,
+like Ioele, Neptune, and Jupiter: for either I expected that the house
+would be brought down by his tempest, or that the sea would engulf the
+whole. But more unbearable still was his thunder. Never have such
+terrible rumblings fallen on my head."[345]
+
+Similarly Goethe, irritated and upset, said, after having heard the
+first movement of the Beethoven C Minor symphony, "It is meaningless.
+One expected the house to fall about one's ears."
+
+It is not by chance that I couple the names of Handel and Beethoven.
+Handel is a kind of Beethoven in chains. He had the unapproachable
+manner like the great Italian artists who surrounded him: the Porporas,
+the Hasses, and between him and them there was a whole world.[346]
+Under the classic ideal with which he covered himself burned a romantic
+genius, precursor of the _Sturm und Drang_ period; and sometimes this
+hidden demon broke out in brusque fits of passion--perhaps despite
+himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handel's instrumental music deserves very close notice: for it is nearly
+always wrongly assessed by historians, and badly understood by artists,
+who treat it for the most part as a merely formal art.
+
+Its chief characteristic is that of a perpetual improvisation. If it was
+published, it was more in spite of Handel than at his instigation.[347]
+It was not made to be played and judged coldly, but to be produced at
+white heat to the public. They were free sketches, in which the form was
+never completely tightened up, but remained always moving and living,
+modifying itself at the concert, as the two sensibilities--the artist
+and the public--came into touch with one another.[348] It is necessary
+then to preserve in this music a certain measure of the character of
+living improvisation. What we too often do, on the contrary, is to
+petrify them. One cannot say that they are a caricature of the work of
+Handel. They are rather a negation of it. When one studies with a minute
+care every detail of the work, when one has attained from the orchestra
+a precision of attack, an ensemble, a justness, an irreproachable
+finish, we have yet done nothing more than raise up the mere figure of
+this genial improvisator.
+
+Further, there is with his instrumental music, as with his vocal music,
+nearly always an intimate and picturesque expression. For Handel, as
+with his friend Geminiani, "the aim of instrumental music is not only to
+please the ear, but to express the sentiments, the emotions, to paint
+the feelings."[349] It reflects not only the interior world, but it also
+turns to the actual spectacle of things.[350] It is a precise poetry,
+and if one cannot define the sources of his inspiration, one can often
+find in certain of his instrumental works the souvenir of days and
+journeys, and of scenes visited and experienced by Handel. It was here
+that he was visibly inspired by Nature.[351]
+
+Others have a relationship with vocal and dramatic works. Certain of the
+heroic fugues in the fourth book of the Clavier pieces published in 1735
+were taken up again by Handel in his _Israel in Egypt_ and clothed with
+words which agreed precisely with their hidden feeling. The first
+_Allegro_ from the Fourth Organ Concerto (the first book appeared in
+1738) soon became shortly afterwards one of the prettiest of the
+choruses in _Alcina_. The second and monumental concerto for two horns
+in F Major[352] is a reincarnation of some of the finest pages from
+_Esther_. It was quite evident to the public of his time that the
+instrumental works had an expressive meaning, or that as Geminiani
+wrote, "all good music ought to be an imitation of a fine discourse."
+Thus the publisher Walsh was justified in issuing his six volumes of
+Favourite Airs from Handel's operas and oratorios, arranged as _Sonatas
+for the flute, violin, and harpsichord_, and Handel himself, or his
+pupil, W. Babell, arranged excellently for the clavier, some suites of
+airs from the operas, binding them together with preludes, interludes,
+and variations.--It is necessary always to keep in view this intimate
+relation of the instrumental works of Handel with the rest of his music.
+It ought to draw our attention more and more to the expressive contents
+of these works.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The instrumental music of Handel divides itself into three classes:
+firstly--music for the clavier (the clavecin and organ);
+secondly--chamber music (sonatas and trios); thirdly--orchestral music.
+The compositions for clavier are the most popular works of any that
+Handel wrote, and these have achieved the greatest number of European
+editions. Although they comprise three volumes, yet there is only one,
+the first, which represents him properly, for it is the only one which
+he prepared himself, and supervised. The others, more or less
+fraudulently published, misrepresent him.
+
+This First Volume, published in November, 1720, under the French title
+_Suites_, etc., affords us the means of appreciating the two most
+striking of Handel's traits: his precocious maturity, which hardly
+developed at all in the course of time; and the European universality of
+character which distinguished his art even at an epoch when the great
+artists were less national than they are to-day. For the first trait one
+would remark in fine that these Clavier Pieces published in 1720 had
+already been written some time, certainly before 1700. One discovers a
+part of them in the _Jugendbuch_ of the Lennard Collection.[353] Others
+come from _Almira_, 1705. Naturally Handel enlarged and revised, and
+carefully grouped all these pieces in his edition of 1720. The interest
+of the _Jugendbuch_ is chiefly that it shows us the first sketches of
+the pieces, and how Handel perfected them. Side by side with the oldest
+pieces there are others more recent, composed, it may be, in Italy or in
+England.[354] One can trace in these pages the course of the different
+influences. Seiffert and Fleischer have noted some of them,[355] German
+influences, French, and Italian.[356] In England even, sometimes
+Italian elements, sometimes German, predominated with him.[357] The
+order of the dances varies in each Suite, and also the central point,
+the kernel of the work. The introductory pieces are sometimes preludes,
+sometimes fugues, overtures, etc. The dances and the airs are sometimes
+related to one another, and sometimes independent, and nevertheless the
+prevailing impression of the work, so varied in its texture, is its
+complete unity. The personality of Handel holds it all together and
+welds the most diverse elements--polyphony and richness of German
+harmony, Italian homophony, and Scarlattian technique, the French rhythm
+and ornamentation[358] with English directness and practicability. Thus
+the work made its impression on the times. Before this time, there had
+perhaps been more original volumes of pieces for the clavier, but their
+inspiration was nearly always very much circumscribed by the limits of
+their national art. Handel was the first of the great German classics of
+the eighteenth century. He did for music what the French writers and
+philosophers of the eighteenth century did for literature. He wrote for
+all and sundry, and his volume took the place on the day of its
+publication which it has held since, that of a European classic.
+
+The following volumes are less interesting for the reasons I have given.
+The Second Volume published in 1733 by Walsh, _unknown_ to Handel, and
+in a very faulty manner, gives us little pieces which we find in the
+_Jugendbuch_, and which date from the time of Hamburg and Halle.[359]
+They lack the setting which Handel had certainly planned for them:
+preludes and fugues.
+
+This arrangement was ready; and Handel, frustrated by this publisher,
+resigned himself to publishing them later on, as an Appendix to the
+preceding work: _Six Fugues or Voluntaries for the Organ or Harpsichord,
+1735, Opus 3._ These fugues date from the time when Handel was at Canons
+before 1720, the second in G Major was from the period of his first
+sojourn in England. They became celebrated at once, and were much
+circulated in manuscript even in Germany.[360] Handel had trained
+himself in fugue in the school of Kuhnau, and specially with Johann
+Krieger.[361] Like them he gave his Fugues an essentially melodic
+character. They are so suited for singing that two of them, as we have
+said, afterwards served for two choruses in the first part of
+_Israel_,[362] but Handel's compositions possess a far different
+vitality from that of his German forerunners. They have a charming
+intrepidity, a fury, a passion, a fire which belongs only to him. In
+other words they live. "All the notes talk," says Mattheson. These
+fugues have the character of happy improvisations, and in truth they
+were improvised. Handel calls them Voluntaries, that is fanciful and
+learned caprices. He made frequent use of double fugues with a masterly
+development. "Such an art rejoices the hearer and warms the heart
+towards the composer and towards the executant," says Mattheson again,
+who, after having heard J. S. Bach, found Handel the greater in the
+composition of the double fugue and in improvisation. This habit of
+Handel--one might say almost a craving--for improvising, was the origin
+of the grand Organ Concertos. After the fashion of his time, Handel
+conducted his operas and oratorios from the clavier. He accompanied the
+singers with a marvellous art, blending himself to their fancy, and when
+the singer had done, he delivered his version.[363] From the interludes
+on the clavier in his operas, he passed to the fantasies or caprices on
+the organ in the _entr'actes_ of his oratorios, and his success was so
+great that he never again abandoned this custom. One might say that the
+public were drawn to his oratorios more by his improvisations on the
+organ than by the oratorios themselves. Two volumes of the Organ
+Concertos were published during the lifetime of Handel, in 1738 and in
+1740; the third a little after his death, in 1760.[364] To judge them
+properly it is necessary to bear in mind that they were destined for
+the theatre. It would be absurd to expect works in the strict, vigorous,
+and involved style of J. S. Bach. They were brilliant _divertissements_,
+of which the style, somewhat commonplace yet luminous and pompous,
+preserves the character of oratorio improvisations, finding their
+immediate effect on the great audience. "_When he gave a concerto_,"
+says Hawkins, "_his method in general was to introduce it with a
+voluntary movement on the diapasons, which stole on the ear in a slow
+and solemn progression; the harmony close wrought, and as full as could
+possibly be expressed; the passages concatenated with stupendous art,
+the whole at the same time being perfectly intelligible, and carrying
+the appearance of great simplicity. This kind of prelude was succeeded
+by the concerto itself, which he executed with a degree of spirit and
+firmness that no one can ever pretend to equal_." Even at the height of
+the cabal which was organised against Handel, the Grub Street Journal
+published an enthusiastic poem on Handel's Organ Concertos.[365]
+
+  "_Oh winds, softly, softly raise your golden wings among the branches!_
+   _That all may be silent, make even the whisperings of Zephyrs to cease._
+   _Sources of life, suspend your course...._
+   _Listen, listen, Handel the incomparable plays!..._
+   _Oh look, when he, the powerful man, makes the forces of the
+      organ resound,_
+   _Joy assembles its cohorts, malice is appeased, ..._
+   _His hand, like that of the Creator, conducts his noble work with
+      order, with grandeur and reason...._
+   _Silence, bunglers in art! It is nothing here to have the favour of
+      great lords. Here, Handel is king._"
+
+It is necessary then to view these Organ Concertos in the proper sense
+of magnificent concerts for a huge public.[366] Great shadows, great
+lights, strong and joyous contrasts, all are conceived in view of a
+colossal effect. The orchestra usually consists of two oboes, two
+violins, viola, and basses (violoncellos, bassoons, and cembalo),
+occasionally two flutes, some contrabassos and a harp.[367] The
+concertos are in three or four movements, which are generally connected
+in pairs. Usually they open with a _pomposo_, or a _staccato_, in the
+style of the French overture,[368] often an _allegro_ in the same style
+follows. For the conclusion, an _allegro moderato_, or an _andante_,
+somewhat animated, sometimes some dances. The _adagio_ in the middle is
+often missing, and is left to be improvised on the organ. The form has a
+certain relation with that of the sonata in three movements,
+_allegro-adagio-allegro_, preceded by an introduction. The first pieces
+of these two first concertos published in Volume XLVIII of the Complete
+Edition (second volume) are in a picturesque and descriptive style. The
+long Concerto in F Major in the same volume has the swing of festival
+music, very closely allied to the open-air style. Finally, one must
+notice the beautiful experiment, unfortunately not continued, of the
+Concerto for two organs,[369] and that, more astonishing still, of a
+Concerto for Organ terminated by a Chorus,[370] thus opening the way for
+Beethoven's fine Symphony, and to his successors, Berlioz, Liszt, and
+Mahler.[371]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The chamber music of Handel proves to be of the same precocious maturity
+as his clavier music.
+
+Six Sonatas in Trio for two oboes and harpsichord[372] appear to date
+from about 1696, when he was eleven years old, and while he was still at
+Halle, where he wrote as he said, "like the devil," above all for the
+oboe, his favourite instrument. They are in four movements: _adagio_,
+_allegro_, _adagio_, _allegro_. The slow movements are often very short,
+and the second between them is sometimes a mere transition. The Sonata
+for _Viola da Gamba_, and _Cembalo Concertato_ in C Major[373] probably
+belongs to 1705, when Handel was at Hamburg. It is the only one of its
+kind in the works of Handel, which shows him as a forerunner of Bach.
+The sonata is in trio form. The clavier plays a second _obbligato_
+besides the bass part, as Seiffert notes: "Ten years before Bach worked
+at his Sonatas with accompaniment for _cembalo obbligato_, Handel had
+already a clear perception of their value."
+
+Three Sonatas for Flute and Bass,[374] of an elegiac grace, also perhaps
+date from the Halle period, and according to Chrysander seem to have
+been continued up to 1710 at Hanover.
+
+But the chief instrumental chamber works written by Handel were
+published in London between 1732 and 1740, and they comprise three
+volumes:[375]
+
+     (1) Fifteen sonatas or solos for a German flute, oboe or violin,
+     with a thorough bass for the harpsichord, or bass violin, Op. 1.
+
+     (2) Nine sonatas or trios for two violins, flutes, or oboes, with a
+     thorough bass for the harpsichord, or violoncello, Op. 2.
+
+     (3) Seven sonatas or trios for two violins, or German flutes, with
+     a thorough bass for the harpsichord, or violoncello, Op. 5.
+
+The first volume contains very old pieces, of which some date from the
+time when Handel was at Burlington and Chandos. Others might have been
+intended for the Prince of Wales, whose violin teacher, John Dubourg,
+was a friend of Handel, as they date from about 1730. The second volume
+appeared at first in Amsterdam, afterwards in London with Walsh, under a
+French title[376] in 1733.
+
+The third volume was composed in 1738, and published about the beginning
+of 1739.[377]
+
+The first feature to notice in general is the want of definition in the
+choice of instruments for which this music was written. Following the
+same abstract aesthetic of his time, the composer left it to the players
+to choose the instruments. However, there was no doubt that in the first
+conception of Handel certain of these pieces were made for the flute,
+others for the violin, and others for the oboe.
+
+In the volume Op. 1 of the solo sonatas (for the flute or oboe, or
+violin) with bass (harpsichord or violoncello), the usual form is
+generally in four movements:[378] _adagio_, _allegro_, _adagio_,
+_allegro_. The slow pieces are very short. Several are inspired by the
+airs of Italian cantatas and operas. Some of the pieces are joined
+together.[379] The harmony is often thin, and requires to be filled in.
+
+The second and third volumes have a much greater value, containing trios
+or sonatas in two parts (for two violins, or two oboes, or two
+_flauti-traversi_) with Bass (harpsichord or violoncello). All the
+sonatas in the second volume, with only one exception,[380] have four
+movements, two slow and two fast alternatively, as in the Opus 1.
+Sometimes they are inspired by the airs of the operas, or of the
+oratorios; at other times they have furnished a brief sketch for them.
+The elegiac _Largo_ which opens the First Sonata is found again in
+_Alessandro_, the _allegro_ which finishes the Third Sonata forms one of
+the movements in the overture of _Athaliah_, the larghetto of the Fourth
+serves for the second movement of the _Esther_ overture. Other pieces
+have been transferred to the clavier or other instrumental works, where
+they are joined to other movements. The finest of these Trios are the
+First and the Ninth, both of enchanting poetry. In the second movement
+of the Ninth Trio, Handel has utilised very happily a popular English
+theme.
+
+The Seven Trios from the third volume afford a much greater variety in
+the style and in the number[381] of the pieces. Dances occupy a great
+part.[382] They are indeed veritable Suites. They were composed in the
+years when Handel was attracted by the form of ballet-opera. The
+Musette and the _Allegro_ of the Second Sonata come from _Ariodante_.
+Some of the other slow and pompous movements are borrowed from his
+oratorios. The two _Allegri_ which open the Fourth Sonata are taken from
+the Overture of _Athaliah_. On the other hand, Handel inserts in the
+final movement of _Belshazzar_ the beautiful _Andante_ which opens his
+First Sonata.
+
+Whoever wishes to judge these works historically or from the
+intellectual point of view, will find, like Chrysander, that Handel has
+not invented here any new forms, and, as he advanced, he returned to the
+form of the Suite, which already belonged to the past, instead of
+continuing on his way towards the future Sonata. But those who will
+judge them artistically, for their own personal charm, will find in them
+some of the purest creations of Handel, and those which best retain
+their freshness. Their beautiful Italian lines, their delicate
+expression, their aristocratic simplicity, are refreshing alike to the
+mind and to the heart. Our own epoch, tired of the post-Beethoven and
+post-Wagnerian art, can find here, as in the chamber music of Mozart, a
+safe haven, where it can escape the sterile agitation of the present and
+find again quiet peace and sanity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The orchestral music of Handel comprises twelve _Concerti Grossi_
+(1740), the six Oboe Concertos (1734), the Symphonies from his operas,
+oratorios, and his open-air music--Water-Music (1715 or 1717), Firework
+Music (1749),--and _Concerti_ for two horns.
+
+Although Handel was in art a visualist, and though his music had a
+highly descriptive and evocatory power, he only made a very restrained
+use of instrumental tone-colour.[383] However, he showed on occasion a
+refined intelligence in its use. The two oratorios written at Rome when
+he found himself in the society of the Cardinal Ottoboni, and his great
+_virtuoso_ works, _The Triumph of Time_ and _The Resurrection_ of 1708,
+have a fine and well-varied orchestration.[384] In London he was one of
+the first to introduce the use of the horn into the orchestra of the
+opera.[385] "He was the first," says Volbach, "to assert the expressive
+personality of the violoncello."[386] From the viola he knew how to
+secure many curious effects of indefinite and disquieting
+half-tones,[387] he gave to the bassoons a lugubrious and fantastic
+character,[388] he experimented with new instruments, small[389] and
+great,[390] he used the drum (_tambour_) solo in a dramatic fashion for
+Jupiter's oath in _Semele_. For special situations, by instrumental
+tone-colours, he secures effects not only of dramatic expression, but
+also of exotism and local colour. It is so in the two scenes from the
+two Cleopatras, _Giulio Cesare_ (1724)[391] and _Alexander Balus_
+(1748).
+
+But great painter as Handel was he did not work so much through the
+brilliancy, variety, and novelty of his tone-colours as by the beauty of
+his designs, and his effects of light and shade. With a voluntarily
+restrained palette, and by satisfying himself with the sober colours of
+the strings, he yet was able to produce surprising and thrilling
+effects. Volbach has shown[392] that he had less recourse to the
+contrast and mixing of instruments than to the division of the same
+family of instruments into different groups. In the introductory piece
+movement to his second _Esther_ (1732) the violins are divided into five
+groups;[393] in _The Resurrection_ (1708), into four divisions;[394] the
+violas are sometimes divided into two, the second being reinforced by
+the third violin, or by the violoncellos.[395] On the other hand,
+Handel, when he considered it advisable, reduced his instrumental forces
+by suppressing the viola and the second violin, whose places were taken
+by the clavecin. All his orchestral art is in the true instinct of
+balance and economy, which, with the most restricted means in managing a
+few colours, yet knows how to obtain as powerful impressions as our
+musicians of to-day, with their crowded palette.[396] Nothing, then, is
+more important, if we wish to render this music truly, than the
+avoidance of upsetting the equilibrium of the various sections of the
+orchestra under the pretext of enriching it and bringing it up to date.
+The worse fault is to deprive it, by a useless surplus of tone-colours,
+of that suppleness and subtlety of nuance which is its principal charm.
+
+One is prone to accept too readily the idea, that expressive nuance is a
+privilege of the modern musical art, and that Handel's orchestra knew
+only the great theatrical contrasts between force and sweetness, or
+loudness and softness. It is nothing of the kind. The range of Handel's
+nuances is extremely varied. One finds with him the _pianissimo_, the
+piano, the _mezzo piano_, the _mezzo forte_, _un poco piu F_, _un poco
+F_, _forte_, _fortissimo_. We never find the orchestral _crescendo_ and
+_decrescendo_, which hardly appears marked expressly until the time of
+Jommelli,[397] and the school of Mannheim; but there is no doubt that it
+was practised long before it was marked in the music.[398] The President
+of Brosses wrote in 1739 from Rome: "The voices, like the violins, used
+with light and shade, with unconscious swelling of sound, which augments
+the force from note to note, even to a very high degree, since its use
+as a nuance is extremely sweet and touching." And endless examples occur
+in Handel of long _crescendi_ and _diminuendi_ without its expression
+being marked in the scores.[399] Another kind of _crescendo_ and
+_diminuendo_ on the same note was very common in the time of Handel, and
+his friend, Geminiani, helped to set the fashion. Volbach, and with him
+Hugo Riemann,[400] has shown that Geminiani used in the later editions
+of his first Violin Sonatas in 1739, and in his Violin School in 1751,
+the two following signs:
+
+Swelling the sound [=\=]
+
+Diminishing (falling) the sound [=/=]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As Geminiani explains it, "The sound ought to commence softly, and
+should swell out in a gradual fashion to about half its value, then it
+should diminish to the end. The movement of the bow should continue
+without interruption."
+
+It happens thus, that by a refinement of expression, which became a
+mannerism of the Mannheim school, but which also became a source of
+powerful contrast with the Beethovenians, the swelling stopped short of
+its aim, and was followed instead by a sudden piano, as in the following
+example from the Trio Sonatas of Geminiani.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is more than probable that the virtuoso players of Handel's orchestra
+also used this means of expression,[401] though we need not assume that
+Handel used them as abundantly as Geminiani or as the Mannheim players,
+whose taste had become doubtless a little affected and exaggerated. But
+what is certain is that with him, as with Geminiani, and indeed with all
+the great artists of his time, especially with the Italians and their
+followers, music was a real discourse, and ought to be rendered with
+inflections as free and as varied as natural speech.[402]
+
+[Illustration: HANDEL DIRECTING AN ORATORIO.
+
+Handel is seen (on the left) seated at a cembalo with two keyboards in
+the midst of his musicians. At his right hand he has the "concertino"
+group (consisting of the 'cellist, two violinists and two flautists). On
+his near left (quite close to the cembalo) are the vocal soloists. The
+rest of the instrumentalists are out of his sight.]
+
+How was it possible to realise all the suppleness and subtleties of
+elocution on the orchestra? To understand this it is necessary to
+examine the disposition and placing of the orchestra of that time. It
+was not, as with us, centralised under the control of a single
+conductor. Thus, as Seiffert tells us,[403] in Handel's time it was the
+principle of decentralisation which ruled. The choruses had their
+leaders, who listened to the organ, from which they took their cue, and
+so sustained the voices. The orchestra was divided into three sections,
+after the Italian method. Firstly, the _Concertino_, comprising a first
+and a second violin, and a solo violoncello; secondly, the _Concerto
+Grosso_, comprising the instrumental choir; thirdly, the _Ripienists_
+strengthening the _Grosso_.[404]
+
+A picture in the British Museum, representing Handel in the midst of his
+musicians, depicts the composer seated at the clavier (a cembalo with
+two keyboards, of which the lid is raised). He is surrounded by the
+violoncellist (placed at his right-hand side), two violins and two
+flutes, which are placed just before him, under his eye. The solo
+singers are also near him, on his left, quite close to the clavecin. The
+rest of the instrumentalists are behind him, out of his sight. Thus his
+directions and his glances would control the _Concertino_, who would
+transmit in their turn the chief conductor's wishes to the _Concerto
+Grosso_, and they in their turn to the _Ripienists_. In place of the
+quasi-military discipline of modern orchestras, controlled under the
+baton of a chief conductor, the different bodies of the Handelian
+orchestra governed one another with elasticity, and it was the incisive
+rhythm of the little _Cembalo_ which put the whole mass into motion.
+Such a method avoided the mechanical stiffness of our performances. The
+danger was rather a certain wobbling without the powerful and infectious
+will-power of a chief such as Handel, and without the close sympathy of
+thought which was established between him and his capable sub-conductors
+of the _Concertino_ and of the _Grosso_.
+
+It is this elasticity which should be aimed at in the instrumental works
+of Handel when they are executed nowadays.[405]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will first take his _Concerti Grossi_.[406] None of his works are
+more celebrated and less understood. Handel attached to them a
+particular value, for he published them himself by subscription, a means
+which was usual in his day, but which he himself never adopted except
+under exceptional circumstances.
+
+One knows that the kind of _Concerti Grossi_, which consists chiefly in
+a dialogue between a group of solo instrumentalists (the _Concertino_)
+and the full body of instruments (_Concerto Grosso_), to which is added
+the cembalo,[407] was, if not invented, at least carried to its
+perfection and rendered classical by Corelli.[408] The works of Corelli,
+aided by the efforts of his followers, had become widely known in
+Europe. Geminiani introduced them into England,[409] and without doubt
+Handel did not hesitate to profit by the example of Geminiani, who was
+his friend;[410] but it is much more natural to think that he learnt the
+_Concerto Grosso_, at its source at Rome, from Corelli himself during
+his sojourn there in 1708. Several of his Concertos in his Opus 3[411]
+date from 1710, 1716, 1722. The same feature shows itself right up to
+the time of his apprenticeship at Hamburg: in any case he might have
+already known the Corellian style, thanks to the propaganda of George
+Muffat, who spread this style very early in Germany.[412] After Corelli,
+Locatelli,[413] and especially Vivaldi,[414] have singularly transformed
+the _Concerto Grosso_ by giving it the free character of programme
+music[415] and by turning it resolutely towards the form of the Sonata
+in three parts. But when the works of Vivaldi were played in London in
+1723, and the works which aroused such a general enthusiasm became
+thoroughly known to Handel, it was always to Corelli that he gave the
+preference, and he was very conservative in certain ways even about him.
+The form of his Concerto, of which the principal movements varied from
+four to six, oscillated between the Suite and the Sonata, and even
+glanced towards the symphonic overture. It is this for which the
+theorists blame him, and it is this for which I praise him. For he does
+not seek to impose a uniform cast on his thoughts, but leaves it open to
+himself to fashion the form as he requires, and the framework varies
+accordingly, following his inclinations from day to day. The spontaneity
+of his thought, which has already been shown by the extreme rapidity
+with which the _Concerti_ were composed--each in a single day at a
+single sitting, and many each week[416]--constitutes the great charm of
+these works. They are, in the words of Kretzschmar, grand impression
+pictures, translated into a form, at the same time precise and supple,
+in which the least change of emotion can make itself easily felt. Truly
+they are not all of equal value. Their conception itself, which depended
+in a way on mere momentary inspiration, is the explanation of this
+extreme inequality. One ought to acknowledge here that the Seventh
+Concerto, for example (the one in B flat major), and the last three have
+but a moderate interest.[417] They are amongst those least played; but
+to be quite just we must pay homage to these masterpieces, and
+especially to the Second Concerto in F major, which is like a
+Beethovenian concerto: for we find there some of the spirit of the Bonn
+master. For Kretzschmar the ensemble calls to mind a beautiful autumn
+day--the morning, where the rising sun pierces its way through the
+clouds--the afternoon, the joyful walk, the rest in the forest, and
+finally the happy and belated return. It is difficult in fact not to
+have natural scenes brought before one's eyes in hearing these works.
+The first _Andante Larghetto_, which predicts, at times, the Pastoral
+Symphony of Beethoven, is a reverie on a beautiful summer's day. The
+spirit lulls itself with nature's murmur, becomes intoxicated with it,
+and goes to rest. The tonality rocks between F major to B flat major and
+G minor. To render this piece well it is necessary to give the time
+plenty of play, often retarding it, and following the composer's reverie
+in a spirit of soft leisurely abandon.
+
+[Illustration: _Andante larghetto_]
+
+The _Allegro_ in D minor which follows is a spirited and delicate little
+play, a dialogue leaping from the two solo violins of the _Concerto_,
+then on to the _Concertino_ and the _Grosso_ in turn. There, also,
+certain passages in the Bass, robust, rollicking, and rustic, again
+bring to mind the Pastoral Symphony.
+
+[Illustration: _Allegro_]
+
+[Illustration: _Largo_]
+
+The third movement, a _Largo_ in B flat major, is one of the most
+intimate of Handel's instrumental pages. After seven bars of _Largo_, in
+which the _Concertino_ alternates dreamily with the _Tutti_, two bars
+_adagio_, languorously drawn out, cause the reverie to glide into a sort
+of ecstasy,
+
+[Illustration: _Adagio_]
+
+then a _larghetto andante e piano_ breathes out a tender and melancholy
+song.
+
+[Illustration: _Larghetto andante_]
+
+The _Largo_ is resumed. There is in this little poem a melancholy which
+seems to revive Handel's personal remembrances.--The _allegro ma non
+troppo_ with which it finishes is, on the contrary, of a jovial feeling,
+entirely Beethovenish; it sings joyfully as it bounds along in
+well-marked three-four time, with a _pizzicato_-like rhythm.
+
+[Illustration: _Allegro ma non troppo_]
+
+In the middle of this march a phrase occurs on the two violins of the
+_Concertino_ which is like a hymn of reverent and tender gratitude.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The Fourth Concerto in A minor is not less intimate with its _Larghetto
+affettuoso_, which ought to be played with the _rubato_, _rallentando_
+and short pauses--its _allegro_ fugue, which spreads out and
+over-shadows all by its powerful tread--and after a _Largo_ of antique
+graveness the _allegro_ three-four which finishes is the veritable last
+movement of the Beethoven sonata, romantic, capricious, passionate, and
+more and more unrestrained as it approaches the end, _accelerando_
+nearly _prestissimo_,--inebriated.[418]
+
+[Illustration: _Allegro_]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But one ought to know especially the Sixth Concerto in G minor, the most
+celebrated of all on account of its magnificent Musette. It opens with a
+beautiful _Larghetto_, full of that melancholy which is one of the
+dominant sentiments with Handel, and one of the least observed by most
+people: melancholy that is, in the sense of the _Malinconia_ of Duerer,
+or of Beethoven--less agitated, but still profound. We have already
+encountered it in the Second, in the Third, and in the Fourth
+Concerto.[419] Here it is found in an elegiac monologue, punctuated by
+pedal points;
+
+[Illustration: _Largo affettuoso_]
+
+then in the dialogues of the _Concertino_ and of the _Tutti_ responding,
+like the groups of the ancient classical chorus. The _allegro ma non
+troppo_ fugue which follows it, on a twisting chromatic theme, is of the
+same sombre colour. But it is the lusty march of the disciplined fugue
+which dispels the fantastic shadows.
+
+[Illustration: _Allegro ma non troppo_]
+
+Then comes the _Larghetto_, three-four time in E flat major, which
+Handel calls a Musette, and which is one of the most delightful dreams
+of pastoral happiness.[420] A whole day of poetic and capricious events
+gradually unrolls itself over the beautiful echoing refrain,
+
+[Illustration: _Larghetto_]
+
+then the movement slackens, nearly going to sleep, then presses forward
+again, acquiring a strong, joyous rhythm, a pulsating dance of robust
+youths, full of bounding life.
+
+In the midst of this picture an episode, rustic and frolicsome, is
+introduced.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: _Un poco piu allegro_]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then the broad subject of the Introduction recurs with its refrain of
+quiet joy, nature's own smile.[421]
+
+Such works are truly pictures in music. To understand them it does not
+suffice to have quick ears; it is necessary to have the eyes to see, and
+the heart to feel.[422]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Symphonies of the operas and oratorios of Handel are extremely
+varied. Still, the Lully form predominates.[423] This form consists, as
+is well known, of a first slow movement, grave, pompous, and majestic,
+followed by a second (quick) movement, full of life, and usually in
+fugal style, with a return to the slow movement for conclusion. It
+appears in the _Almira_ of 1705, and Handel uses it with variations in
+all the most celebrated works of his maturity, such as in the _Messiah_,
+and _Judas Maccabaeus_, and even has recourse to it again in his last
+work of all, _The Triumph of Time_ (1757), but he does not confine
+himself entirely to this form alone. The _Symphonia of Roderigo_ (1707)
+adds to the Lully-like overture a _Balletto_ in the Italian style, a
+veritable Suite of Dances: Jig, Sarabande, Matelot, Minuet, Bourree,
+Minuet, Grand Passacaille. The Overture to _The Triumph of Time_ of 1708
+is a brilliant Concerto, where the _Concertino_ and the _Grosso_
+converse in a most entertaining and graceful fashion. The Overture to
+_Il Pastor Fido_, 1712, is a Suite in eight movements. That of _Teseo_,
+1713, contains two Largos, each followed by a playful movement of
+imitation. That of the _Passion after Brockes_, 1716, consists of a
+single fugued allegro,[424] which is joined to the first chorus by the
+link of a declamatory solo on the oboe.[425] The Overture to _Acis and
+Galatea_, 1720, is also a single movement. The Overture to _Giulio
+Cesare_, 1724, is joined on to the first chorus, which is in the form of
+the third movement, the Minuet. The Overture to _Atalanta_, 1736, has a
+charming sprightliness, similar to an instrumental suite for a _fete_,
+like the Firework Music, of which we shall speak later. The Overture to
+_Saul_, 1738, is a veritable Concerto for organ and orchestra, and the
+sonata form is adopted in the first movement.--We see then a very marked
+effort on the part of Handel, particularly in his youth, to vary the
+form of his Overture from one work to another.
+
+Even when he uses the Lully type of Overture (and he seems to turn
+towards it more and more in his maturity) he transforms it by the spirit
+which animates it. He never allows its character to be purely
+decorative. He introduces therein always expressive and dramatic
+ideas.[426] If one cannot exactly call the splendid Overture to
+_Agrippina_, 1709, a Concert Overture of programme music, one cannot
+deny its dramatic power. The second movement bubbles with life. It is no
+longer an erudite _divertissement_, a movement foreign to the action,
+but it has a tragic character, and the response of the fugue is apparent
+in the severe and slightly restless subject of the first piece. For
+conclusion the slow movement is recalled by a solo on the oboe, which
+announces it out in the pathetic manner made so well known in certain
+_recitatives_ of J. S. Bach.
+
+[Illustration: _Adagio_]
+
+Many people have seen in the three movements[427] of the Overture to
+_Esther_, 1720, a complete programme, which Chrysander gives thus in
+detail: firstly, the wickedness of Haman; secondly, the complaints of
+Israel; thirdly, the deliverance. I will content myself by saying that
+the ensemble of this symphony is thoroughly in the colour and spirit of
+the tragedy itself--but it is not possible to doubt that, with the
+Overture of _Deborah_ and with that of _Belshazzar_ that Handel wished
+to work to a complete programme; for of the four movements of the
+_Deborah_ Overture, the second is repeated later on as the Chorus of the
+Israelites, and the fourth as the Chorus of Baal's priests. Thus in his
+very first pages he places in miniature in the Overture the duality of
+the nations, whose antagonism forms the subject of the drama.[428] It
+seems also true that the Overture to _Belshazzar_ aims at painting the
+orgy of the feast of Sesach, and the apparition of the Divine Hand which
+wrote the mystic words of fire on the wall. In every case dramatic
+intentions are very evident; by the three repeats; the interrupted flow
+of the orchestra is intersected by three short chords, _piano_; and,
+then after the sudden silence, three bars of solemn and soft music are
+heard like a religious song.[429]
+
+[Illustration: _Allegro_]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We now come to our last class of Handel's instrumental music, to which
+historians have given far too little attention, and in which Handel
+shows himself a precursor, and at the same time a model. I refer to the
+open-air music.
+
+This took a prominent place in the English life. The environs of London
+were full of gardens, where, Pepys tells us, "vocal and instrumental
+concerts vied with the voices of the birds." Concerts were given at
+Vauxhall; at South Lambeth Palace on the Thames; at Ranelagh, near
+Chelsea, about two miles from the city; at Marylebone Garden; and Handel
+was always welcome there. From 1738 the proprietor of Vauxhall, Jonathan
+Tyer, erected in its gardens a statue of Handel, and this was hardly
+done when the _Concerti Grossi_ became the favourite pieces at the
+concerts of Marylebone, Vauxhall, and Ranelagh. Burney tells us that he
+often heard them played by numerous orchestras. Handel wrote pieces
+especially intended for these garden concerts. Generally speaking, he
+attached little importance to them. They were little symphonies or
+unpretentious dances, like the Hornpipe, composed for the concert at
+Vauxhall in 1740.[430] An anecdote related by Pohl and also by
+Chrysander, shows Handel pleasantly engaged on this music, which gave
+him no trouble at all.
+
+But he composed on these lines some works tending towards a much vaster
+scale: from 1715 or 1717 the famous Water Music, written for the royal
+procession of barges on the Thames,[431] and the Firework Music made to
+illustrate the firework display given in Green Park on April 27, 1749,
+in celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.[432]
+
+The Water Music has a grand Serenade in the form of a suite comprising
+more than twenty movements. It opens with a pompous Opera-overture;
+then come some dialogues, with echoes of horns and drums, where the
+brass and the rest of the orchestra, which are arranged in two sections,
+respond. Then follow happy and soothing songs, dances, a Bourree, a
+Hornpipe, Minuets, popular songs, which alternate and contrast with the
+joyful and powerful fanfares. The orchestra is very nearly the same as
+in his usual symphonies, except that considerable importance is given to
+the brass. One even finds in this work certain pieces written in the
+chamber-music style, or in the theatrical manner.
+
+With the Firework Music the character of open-air music is even more
+definitely asserted, quite as much by the broad style of the piece as by
+the orchestration, which is confined entirely to the wind
+instruments.[433] The composition is divided into two parts: an Overture
+which was to be played before the grand firework display, and a number
+of little pieces to be played during the display, and which corresponded
+to certain allegorical set pieces. The Overture is a sort of stately
+march in D major, and has some resemblance to the Overture of the
+_Ritterballet_ (Huntsman's Dance) of Beethoven, and which is, like it,
+joyful, equestrian, and very sonorous. The shorter movements comprise a
+Bourree, a _Largo a la Siciliana_, entitled _Peace_,[434] of a beautiful
+heroic grace, which lulls itself to sleep; a very sprightly _Allegro_
+entitled _The Rejoicing_, and two Minuets for conclusion. It is an
+interesting work for the organisers of our popular _fetes_ and open-air
+spectacles to study.[435] If we have said that after 1740 Handel wrote
+hardly any other instrumental music than the Firework Music, and the two
+monumental concertos, _a due cori_ (for two horns) we have the feeling
+that the last evolution of his thought and instrumental style led him in
+the direction of music conceived for great masses, wide spaces, and huge
+audiences. He had always in him a popular vein of thought. I immediately
+call to mind the many popular inspirations with which his memory was
+stored, and which vivify the pages of his oratorios. His art, which
+renewed itself perpetually at this rustic source, had in his time an
+astonishing popularity. Certain airs from _Ottone_, _Scipione_,
+_Arianna_, _Berenice_, and such other of his operas, were circulated and
+vulgarised not only in England,[436] but abroad, and even in France
+(generally so unyielding to outside influences).[437]
+
+It is not only of this popularity, a little banal, of which I wish to
+speak, which one could not ignore--for it is only a stupid pride and a
+small heart which denies great value to the art which pleases humble
+people;--what I wish to notice chiefly in the popular character of
+Handel's music is that it is always truly conceived for the people, and
+not for an _elite dilettanti_ as was the French Opera between Lully and
+Gluck. Without ever departing from his sovereign ideas of beautiful
+form, in which he gave no concession to the crowd, he reproduced in a
+language immediately "understanded of the people" those feelings in
+which all could share. This genial improvisor, compelled during the
+whole of his life (a half-century of creative power) to address from the
+stage a mixed public, for whom it was necessary to understand
+immediately, was like the orators of old, who had the cult of style and
+instinct for immediate and vital effect. Our epoch has lost the feeling
+of this type of art and men: pure artists who speak _to_ the people and
+_for_ the people, not for themselves or for their confreres. To-day the
+pure artists lock themselves within themselves, and those who speak to
+the people are most often mountebanks. The free England of the
+nineteenth century was in a certain measure related to the Roman
+republic, and indeed Handel's eloquence was not without relation to that
+of the epic orators, who sustained in the form their highly finished and
+passionate discourses, who left their mark on the shuddering crowd of
+loiterers. This eloquence did on occasion actually thrust itself into
+the soul of the nation as in the days of the Jacobite invasion, where
+_Judas Maccabaeus_ incarnated the public feeling. In the first
+performances of _Israel in Egypt_ some of the auditors praised the
+heroic virtues of this music, which could raise up the populace and lead
+armies to victory.
+
+By this power of popular appeal, as by all the other aspects of his
+genius, Handel was in the robust line of Cavalli and of Gluck, but he
+surpassed them. Alone, Beethoven has walked in these broader paths, and
+followed along the road which Handel had opened.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF HANDEL'S WORKS
+
+
+I. OPERAS
+
+In chronological order, with the dates and places of the first
+performance.
+
+(The figures in brackets refer to the number of the Volume in the
+Complete Edition of Handel's Works.)
+
+ 1.  _Almira_ (55)                        Hamburg,   1705.
+ 2.  _Nero_ (lost)                          "        1705.
+ 3.  _Florinda_ (lost)                      "  about 1706.
+ 4.  _Daphne_ (lost)                        "  about 1706.
+ 5.  _Roderigo_ (56)                      Florence,  1707.
+ 6.  _Agrippina_ (57)                     Venice,    1708.
+ 7.  _Rinaldo_ (58)                       London,    1711.
+ 8.  _Il Pastor Fido_ (59)                   "       1712.
+ 9.  _Teseo_ (60)                            "       1713.
+10.  _Silla_ (61).   Never performed in
+       public (probably privately performed
+       at Canons).
+11.  _Amadigi_ (62)                       London,    1715.
+12.  _Radamisto_ (63)                        "       1720.
+       (There are three versions.)
+13.  _Muzio Scaevola_ (64)                    "       1721.
+14.  _Floridante_ (65)                       "       1721.
+15.  _Ottone_ (66)                           "       1723.
+16.  _Flavio_ (67)                           "       1723.
+17.  _Giulio Cesare_ (68)                    "       1724.
+18.  _Tamerlano_ (69)                        "       1724.
+19.  _Rodelinda_ (70)                     London,    1725.
+20.  _Scipione_ (71)                         "       1726.
+21.  _Alessandro_ (72)                       "       1726.
+22.  _Admeto_ (73)                           "       1727.
+23.  _Riccardo Primo, Re d'Inghilterra_      "       1727.
+24.  _Siroe_ (75)                            "       1728.
+25.  _Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto_ (76)             "       1728.
+26.  _Lotario_ (77)                          "       1729.
+27.  _Partenope_ (78)                        "       1730.
+28.  _Rinaldo_ (new version) (58)            "       1731.
+29.  _Poro_ (79)                             "       1731.
+30.  _Ezio_ (80)                             "       1732.
+31.  _Sosarme_ (81)                          "       1732.
+32.  _Orlando_ (82)                          "       1733.
+33.  _Arianna_ (83)                          "       1734.
+34.  _Terpsichore_ (84)
+35.  _Ariodante_ (85)                        "       1735.
+36.  _Alcina_ (86)                           "       1735.
+37.  _Atalanta_ (87)                         "       1736.
+38.  _Giustino_ (88)                         "       1737.
+39.  _Arminio_ (89)                          "       1737.
+40.  _Berenice_ (90)                         "       1737.
+41.  _Faramondo_ (91)                        "       1738.
+42.  _Serse_ (92)                            "       1738.
+43.  _Imeneo_ (93)                           "       1740.
+44.  _Deidamia_ (94)                         "       1741.
+45.  _Jupiter in Argos_ (MS. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
+       Advertised but never performed), 1739.
+46.  _Tito._ Unperformed and unpublished.
+47.  _Alfonso Imo._ Unperformed and unpublished.
+48.  _Flavio Olibrio._ Unperformed and unpublished.
+49.  _Honorius._ Unperformed and unpublished.
+50.  An unnamed opera (MS. Fitzwilliam Museum).
+51.  Eleven Pasticcios, arranged at various times between
+       1730 and 1747.
+
+
+II. ORATORIOS
+
+ 1.  _Passion according to St. John_ (9)      Hamburg, 1704.
+ 2.  _Resurrezione_ (32)                         Rome, 1708.
+ 3.  _Il Trionfo del Tempo_ (24)                  "    1708.
+ 4.  _The Passion of Christ_ (15)             Hamburg, 1717.
+ 5.  _Esther_ (First Version)                  Canons, 1720.
+ 6.  _Esther_ (Second Version) King's Theatre, London, 1733.
+ 7.  _Deborah_ (29)            King's Theatre, London, 1733.
+ 8.  _Athaliah_ (5)                            Oxford, 1733.
+ 9.  _Saul_ (13)               King's Theatre, London, 1739.
+10.  _Israel in Egypt_ (16)              "      "      1739.
+11.  _Messiah_                                 Dublin, 1742.
+12.  _Samson_ (10)                      Covent Garden, 1743.
+13.  _Joseph_ (42)                         "    "      1744.
+14.  _Belshazzar_ (19)                 King's Theatre, 1745.
+15.  _Occasional Oratorio_ (43)         Covent Garden, 1746.
+16.  _Judas Maccabaeus_ (22)                "     "     1747.
+17.  _Joshua_ (17)                         "     "     1748.
+18.  _Alexander Balus_ (33)                "     "     1748.
+19.  _Solomon_ (26)                        "     "     1749.
+20.  _Susanna_ (1)                         "     "     1749.
+21.  _Theodora_ (8)                        "     "     1750.
+22.  _Jephtha_ (44)                        "     "     1752.
+23.  _Triumph of Time and Truth_ (20)      "     "     1757.
+
+
+III. ODES, SERENATAS, AND OCCASIONAL PIECES
+
+ 1. _Acis, Galatea e Polifemo_ (53)                Naples, 1708.
+ 2. _Birthday Ode for Queen Anne_ (46a) St. James' Palace, 1713.
+ 3. _Acis and Galatea_ (3)                         Canons, 1720.
+ 4. _The Alchemist_                               Covent Garden, 1732.
+ 5. _Il Parnasso in Festa_ (54)                  King's Theatre, 1734.
+ 6. _Alexander's Feast_ (12)                      Covent Garden, 1736.
+ 7. _Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_ (23)       Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1739.
+ 8. _Praise of Harmony_                       "       "    about 1739.
+ 9. _L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il
+    Moderato_ (6)                          Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1740.
+10. _Hymen_                                              Dublin, 1742.
+11. _Semele_ (7)                                  Covent Garden, 1744.
+12. _Hercules_ (4)                               King's Theatre, 1745.
+13. _Alceste_ (46b). Incidental music to play.
+    (Never performed)                                    1749 or 1750.
+14. _Choice of Hercules_ (18). An Interlude       Covent Garden, 1751.
+
+
+IV. CHURCH MUSIC
+
+ 1. _Laudate Pueri in F_                                  Halle, 1702.
+ 2. _Dixit Dominus_ (38)                                   Rome, 1707.
+ 3. _Nisi Dominus_ (38)                                 Rome or Halle.
+ 4. _Laudate Pueri in D_ (38)                              Rome, 1707.
+ 5. _Silete venti_ (38)                                     "    1708.
+ 6. _Six Alleluias_ (38). For voice and  harpsichord.
+ 7. _Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate_ (31)    St. Paul's Cathedral, 1713.
+ 8. _Te Deum in D_ (37)                                    About 1714.
+ 9. _Fifteen Chandos Anthems_ (34). For chorus, organ
+    and orchestra                                     Canons, 1716-18.
+10. _Te Deum in B flat_ (37)                                  1716-18.
+11. _Four Coronation Anthems_ (14).
+      For seven-part chorus and large
+      orchestra                               Westminster Abbey, 1727.
+12. _Te Deum in A_ (37)                                    About 1727.
+13. _O Praise the Lord, Ps. CIII._, etc.
+      (36). Anthem for chorus and
+      orchestra.
+14. _Wedding Anthem, Ps. XLV._, etc.
+      (36). Eight-part chorus, solos,
+      orchestra, and organ             Wedding of Princess Anne, 1734.
+15. _Wedding Anthem, Ps. LXVIII._, etc.
+      Chorus, solos, and orchestra
+                                  Wedding of the Prince of Wales, 1736.
+16. _Funeral Anthem_ (II)                Death of Queen Caroline, 1737.
+17. _Dettingen Te Deum_ (25)                                      1743.
+18. _Dettingen Anthem, Ps. X. and XI._,
+      etc. (36)                                                   1743.
+19. _Foundling Hospital Anthem, Ps.
+      XLI._, etc. (36)                                            1749.
+20. Three Hymns. MS. in Fitzwilliam Museum. Words
+      by the Rev. C. Wesley. "Sinners, obey the
+      Gospel word," "O Love divine, how sweet thou
+      art," "Rejoice, the Lord is King."
+
+
+V. VOCAL CHAMBER MUSIC
+
+1. Seventy-two Solo Cantatas for one or two voices
+     with instruments (52 a, b, c). Italian. No. 8 is
+     English; No. 18 is Spanish with guitar accompaniment.
+
+2. Twenty-two Italian Duets and two Trios with
+     harpsichord and violoncello (32).
+
+3. Seven Italian Sonatas. Unpublished. MSS. in
+     Fitzwilliam Museum.
+
+
+VI. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
+
+ 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.
+
+[130] Created Duke in 1680, he left the same year for Venice. He
+returned there at the end of 1684, and remained there until about
+August, 1685. He returned three months later, in December, and only left
+it in September, 1686. He lived at the palace Foscarini, with a numerous
+following, his ministers, his poets, his musicians, his chapel. He spent
+enormous sums. He gave _fetes_ to the Venetians, and took boxes by the
+year in five theatres in Venice. In return he lent his subjects as
+soldiers to Venice; and his son, Maximilian, was a General in the
+Republic. When the Grand Marshal of the Court of Hanover wrote to the
+Prince of the discontent of his people, Ernest Augustus answered: "I
+very much wish that Monsieur the Grand Marshal would come here, then he
+would no longer write so often to me about coming home. M. the Grand
+Marshal can have no idea how amusing it is here, and if he only came
+once he would never want to return to Germany."
+
+[131] Barthold Feind says in 1708: "Of all the German opera houses, the
+Leipzig one is the poorest, that of Hamburg the largest, the Brunswick
+the most perfect, and that of Hanover the most beautiful." The Opera of
+Hanover had four tiers of boxes, and was capable of accommodating 1300
+people.
+
+[132] The orchestra was composed chiefly of French musicians, and they
+were conducted by a Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Farinel, son-in-law of
+Cambert.
+
+[133] A. Einstein and Ad. Sanberger have just republished in the
+_Denkmaeler der Tonkunst in Bayern_ a selection of Steffani's works.
+Arthur Neisser has devoted a little book to Steffani. Apropos of one of
+his operas _Servio Tullio_, Leipzig, 1902. See also the studies of
+Robert Eitner in the _Allg. Deutsche Biographie_; of Chrysander in his
+_Haendel_ (Volume I), and also Fischer in his _Musik in Hannover_.
+
+[134] Munich had become the centre of Italian music in Germany since the
+Prince-Elector Ferdinand had married in 1652 an Italian princess,
+Adelaide of Savoy. See Ludwig Schiedermair: _Die Anfange der Muenchener
+Oper_ (_Sammelb. der I.M.G._, 1904).
+
+[135] In 1680.
+
+[136] One finds the list of Steffani's operas, together with an analysis
+of the _Servio Tullio_, in the book of Arthur Neisser.
+
+[137] This opera was played for the fifth centenary of the Siege of
+Bardwick by Henry Lion-heart in 1089. The Elector of Brandenburg was at
+the first representation. Steffani treated other German subjects, such
+as the _Tassilone_ of 1709.
+
+[138] The manuscripts of most of these operas are preserved in the
+libraries of Berlin, Munich, London, Vienna, and Schwerin. It is
+astonishing that they have never been published, notwithstanding their
+importance in the history of German opera. Chrysander has given some
+specimens of the _libretti_. The music has only been slightly studied by
+Neisser, who makes the mistake of not knowing the music of the
+contemporaries of Steffani, and in consequence is frequently at fault in
+his appreciation of him.
+
+[139] Leibnitz neither, although he had certain intuition of what was
+possible in this style of theatre-piece, which united all the means of
+expression: beauty of words, of rhymes, of music, of paintings and
+harmonious gestures (letter of 1681). In general he regarded music from
+the attitude of our Encyclopaedists at the time of Rameau. His musical
+ideal was simple melody. "I have often remarked," says he, "that men of
+note have little esteem for things which are touching. Simplicity often
+makes more effect than elaborate ornaments" (letter to Henfling).
+
+[140] The testimony of his contemporaries agrees in depicting him as a
+man of agreeable physique, small, of a debilious constitution, which the
+excess of study had aggravated, of a superior nature, but altogether
+lovable in his manners, full of wit and of gentleness, clear and calm in
+speech, possessing exquisite tact and perfect politeness, from which he
+never departed, an accomplished man of the court, and further very well
+informed, passionately interested in philosophy and mathematics.
+Leibnitz taught him German political law. We find in Fischer's _Musik in
+Hannover_ a reproduction of a very rare portrait of Steffani in an
+episcopal costume.
+
+[141] Bishop _in partibus_. Spiga was a district in the Spanish West
+Indies.
+
+[142] He ended by abdicating his post as Vicar, which cost him more
+annoyance than pleasure. He travelled afresh in Italy in 1722. In 1724
+he was nominated President for life of the Academy of Ancient Music,
+founded in London by his pupil, Galliard. He dedicated to the Academy
+several of his compositions, but since he was made Bishop he no longer
+signed them; they appeared under the name of his secretary, Lagorio
+Piva. He returned to Hanover in 1725, after having lived on a grander
+scale than his revenues sufficed to maintain. He became embarrassed, and
+had to sell his beautiful collection of pictures and statuary, among
+which were found, it is said, some of Michael Angelo's. The English king
+settled some of his debts. Steffani died of apoplexy in the middle of a
+journey to Frankfort on February 12, 1728.
+
+[143] A little work by him in the form of a letter is known. It is
+entitled _Quanta certezza habbia de suoi Principii la Musica et in qual
+pregio fosse percio presso gli Antichi_, and was published in 1695 at
+Amsterdam. Again in 1700 in German. He therefore advanced the value of
+music not only as an art, but also as a science.
+
+[144] His singing was celebrated. If his voice was feeble, the purity
+and finish of his style, his delicate and chaste expression, were
+incomparable, if we are to believe Handel.
+
+[145] They caused in truth a grand gathering of singers. _Servius
+Stallius_ alone required twenty-five, of which six were sopranos
+(Nicer). _Op. cit._
+
+[146] On the other hand, the symphonic pieces, and particularly the
+overtures, are in the Lully style, and afforded the models for Handel.
+The French style reigned in the orchestra at Hanover. Telemann says, "at
+Hanover is the art of French science."
+
+[147] Steffani seems to have written these duets as music master of the
+Court ladies, and several were composed for the Electress of
+Brandenburg, Sophia Dorothea. The poems were the work of the great
+lords, or the Italian Abbes. These duets were regarded in their time as
+masterpieces, and numerous copies were made of them. One finds the
+bibliography in the first volume of choice works of Steffani published
+by Breitkopf by A. Einstein and A. Zanberger. The Paris Conservatoire
+alone possesses six volumes of manuscript duets by Steffani.
+
+[148] See the airs _Lungi dall'idol_, _Occhi perche piangete_, and
+particularly _Forma un mare_, which offer a striking analogy to one of
+the more beautiful _lieder_ of Philip Heinrich Erlebach: _Meine Seufzer_
+(published by Max Friedlander in his History of the Song of the
+Eighteenth Century). There is every reason to believe that Steffani
+afforded one of the models for Erlebach.
+
+One should notice the predilection of Steffani (like the great Italians
+of his time) for chromaticism and his contrapuntal taste. Steffani was
+one of the artists of the time nearest to the spirit of the ancient
+music, yet opening the way to the new, and it was characteristic that he
+was chosen as President of the Academy of Ancient Music of London, which
+took for its models the art of Palestrina and the Madrigalians of the
+end of the sixteenth century. I do not doubt that Handel learnt much,
+even in this, from Steffani.
+
+[149] Henry Purcell was born about 1658, and died in 1695.
+
+[150] See the Prelude or the Dance in _Dioclesian_ and the overture to
+_Bonduca_.
+
+[151] English art has never produced anything more worthy of being
+placed side by side with the masterpieces of the Italian art than the
+scene of Dido's death.
+
+[152] _King Arthur_: Grand Dance, or final Chaconne; _Dioclesian_: trio
+with final chorus.
+
+[153] Particularly the famous song of St. George in _King Arthur_--"St.
+George, the patron of our isle, a soldier and a saint."
+
+[154] It was no longer French influence, which, very powerful at the
+time of the Stuarts, had very nearly disappeared during the Revolution
+of 1688; but the Italian.
+
+[155] The celebrated pamphlet of the priest Jeremias Collier appeared in
+1688: "A short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English
+stage with the sense of Antiquity," had made an epoch because it
+expressed with an ardent conviction the hidden feelings of the nation.
+Dryden, the first, did humble penitence.
+
+[156] See the Preface to his _Amphion Britannicus_ in 1700. Blow died in
+1708.
+
+[157] There had been several efforts on the part of Italian opera
+companies in London under the Restoration of 1660 and 1674. None had
+succeeded, but certain Italians were installed in London, and had some
+success: about 1667 G. B. Draghi, about 1677 the violinist Niccolo
+Matteis, who spread the knowledge in English of the instrumental works
+of Vitali and of Bassani; the family of Italian singers, Pietro Reggio
+de Genes, and the famous Siface (Francesco Grossi), who in 1687 was the
+first to give Scarlatti in London; Marguerita de l'Espine, who during
+1692 gave Italian concerts; but it was in 1702 that the infatuation for
+the Italians commenced.
+
+[158] He was the brother of the celebrated Bononcini (Giovanni).
+
+[159] This was _Rosamunde_, played in 1707, which had only three
+representations. Addison, very little of a musician, had taken as his
+collaborator the insipid Clayton. His satires against the Italian opera
+appeared in March and April, 1710, in the _Spectator_.
+
+[160] The struggle was put into evidence in 1708, three years before the
+Haymarket Theatre was founded under the patronage of the Queen, by the
+poet Congreve, who gave there the old English plays. In 1708 the English
+drama left the place and opera installed itself.
+
+[161] Two German musicians established in England, and naturalized, Dr.
+Christoph Pepusch and Nichilo Francesco Haym, pushed certain of their
+compositions on to the Italian opera stage in London. They were found
+there later. Pepusch, founder of the Academy of Ancient Music in 1710,
+was badly disposed against Handel, whose operas he ridiculed in the
+famous _Beggars' Opera_ of 1728. Haym, who wished to publish in 1730 a
+great history of music, was one of Handel's librettists.
+
+The Library of the Paris Conservatoire possessed a volume of airs from
+the principal Italian operas displayed in London from 1706 to 1710
+(London, Walsh).
+
+[162] When the poet Barthold Feind gave in 1715 the translation of
+_Rinaldo_ at Hamburg, he did not neglect to call him the universally
+celebrated Mr. Handel, known to the Italians as "_l'Orfeo del nostro
+secolo_" and "_un ingegno sublime_."
+
+[163] He did not hurry. He stayed at Duesseldorf with the Elector
+Palatine (A. Einstein, etc., April, 1907), then in the later months of
+the year he went to see his family at Halle.
+
+[164] To speak truly, they were more like little cantatas than _lieder_.
+The Collection Schoelcher in the Library of the Paris Conservatoire
+possesses these copies.
+
+[165] Volumes XXVII and XLVIII of the Complete Handel Edition.
+
+[166] One sees by the letters of 1711 that Handel applied himself, even
+in Germany, to perfecting his knowledge of English.
+
+[167] The House of Hanover was, as one knows, an aspirant for the
+succession to the throne of England, and it behoved it to keep on good
+terms with Queen Anne, who was partial to Handel.
+
+[168] For his second version of this work in 1734 he then added some
+choruses.
+
+[169] It is the only opera of Handel's which is in five acts. The poem
+was by Haym.
+
+[170] Purcell had written in 1694 a _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate_.
+
+[171] He wrote, it is said, for the little amateur theatre of Burlington
+an opera _Silla_, 1714, of which he reproduced the best parts in
+_Amadigi_. One can also date from this time a certain number of clavier
+pieces, which appeared in a volume in 1720.
+
+[172] The legend records that Handel composed in August, 1715, the
+famous Water Music to regain the favour of the King. Installed on a
+boat, with a small "wind" orchestra, he had this work performed during
+one of the King's state processions on the Thames. The King was
+delighted, and renewed his friendship with Handel. Unfortunately, the
+Water Music appears to have been written two years later than the return
+to Court of Handel, and the scene placed by Chrysander on August 22,
+1715, in his first volume--in October, 1715, by Fischer, _Musik in
+Hannover_--is changed by Chrysander in his third volume to July 17,
+1717, with a cutting from one of the newspapers of that time, which does
+not seem, however, convincing to the others. Be that as it may, the work
+is from this period, and the first publication of it appeared about
+1720.
+
+[173] Keiser in 1712, _Der fuer die Suenden der Welt gemarterte und
+sterbende Jesus_ (Jesus Crucified and Dying for the Sins of the World).
+Then Telemann in 1716, some months after Handel's arrival; a little
+later, Mattheson. Handel's _Passion_ was executed for the first time at
+Hamburg during Lent 1717, when Handel had already returned to England.
+The four Passions of Keiser, Telemann, Mattheson, and Handel, were given
+in 1719 at the Hamburg Cathedral, Mattheson being choirmaster.
+
+[174] Handel and Mattheson exchanged some correspondence. Mattheson was
+about to engage in a musical polemic with the organist and theorist,
+Buttstedt. He proved the need of building on the sound foundations of
+the German music. He proposed a suggestion for an enquiry on the Greek
+modes of Solmisation. Handel, pressed on these questions, responded
+tardily in 1719; he sided with Mattheson, a declared modernist against
+the old modal period. Mattheson also asked for details of his life for
+the purpose of including him in his biographical dictionary which he had
+in view. Handel excused himself on account of the concentration
+necessary. He merely promised in a vague manner to relate later on the
+principal stages which he had taken in the course of his profession, but
+Mattheson drew nothing more from this source.
+
+[175] At the end of 1716. In the course of this sojourn in Germany,
+where he had assisted the widow of his former master, Zachau, then
+fallen into great poverty, he also succoured at Anspach an old
+University friend, Johann Christoph Schmidt, who carried on a woollen
+business, and who left all--fortune, wife, and child--to follow him to
+London. Schmidt remained attached to Handel all his life, conducting his
+business affairs for him, recopying his manuscripts, taking care of his
+music, and afterwards his son, Schmidt (or Smith) Junior, took on the
+same good offices with equal devotion, a striking instance of the
+attractive powers which Handel excited on others.
+
+[176] The Duke of Chandos was a Croesus, enriched in his office of
+Paymaster-General to the army in the reign of Queen Anne, and by his
+vast speculations in the South Sea Company. He built a magnificent
+castle at Cannons, a few miles from London. He had the _entourage_ of a
+prince, and was surrounded by a guard of a hundred Swiss soldiers. His
+ostentation, indeed, was a little ridiculous. Pope made fun of it.
+
+[177] The Anthems occupied three volumes of the Complete Handel edition.
+The third is reserved for the later works of this epoch, with which we
+are concerned here. The two first volumes contained eleven Chandos
+anthems, of which two have a couple of versions and one has three.
+Handel wrote at the same time three _Te Deums_.
+
+[178] Masques were secular compositions very much in the fashion in
+England at the time of the Stuarts. They were part played and part
+danced, as theatre plays, and partly sung as concert pieces (see Paul
+Reyher: _Les_, etc., Paris, 1909).
+
+Handel took up his _Esther_ in 1732 and recast it. The first _Esther_
+had a single part, it comprised six scenes. The second _Esther_ had
+three acts, each preceded and terminated by a full chorus in the ancient
+manner. Some have asserted that the poem was by Pope.
+
+[179] Later on, when he took up this work again in 1733, he called it an
+English opera.
+
+[180] The pretty poem is by Gay.
+
+[181] This was a society with a capital of L50,000 by shares of L100
+subscribed for fourteen years, each share giving the use of one seat in
+the theatre. At the head of it, as President, was the Lord Chamberlain,
+Duke of Newcastle. (Until 1723, when he entered the Ministry, and was
+replaced by the Duke of Grafton.) The second President, the real
+director, was Lord Bingley. He was assisted on the Council of
+Administration by twenty-four directors re-elected yearly. The whole
+scheme was under the protection of the King, who paid L1000 a year for
+his box. The dividends paid to the shareholders reached in 1724 7%, but
+speculation endangered the work, and indeed led to its ruin.
+
+Handel was charged with the complete musical direction until 1728, when
+he took on his shoulders the whole direction of the opera, financial and
+musical.
+
+[182] This voyage took place from February, 1719, to the end of the same
+year. When Handel was staying at Halle, J. S. Bach, who was then at
+Cothen, about four miles away, was informed of it, and went there to see
+him, but he only arrived at Halle the very day when Handel was about to
+leave. Such at least is the story of Forkel.
+
+[183] The poem was by Haym. From 1722 the work was given at Hamburg with
+a translation of Mattheson.
+
+[184] Before him Domenico Scarlatti had already visited London, where he
+had given unsuccessfully an opera, _Narcissus_, 1720.
+
+[185] He was born in 1671 or 1672, for his first opus appeared in 1684
+or 1685, when he was little more than thirteen years old.
+
+Giovanni Bononcini was far from being well known. He was not a
+celebrated musician, on which account there are many disagreements.
+Bononcini was the name of a long string of musicians, and one has been
+frequently confounded with the other. Such mistakes are found even in
+the critical work of Eitner (where they rest on a great error in
+reading) and in the most recent Italian works, as that of Luigi Torchi,
+who in his instrumental music in Italy, 1901, confounds all the
+Bononcini together. Luigi Francesco Valdreghi's monograph _I Bononcini
+in Modena_, 1882, is more reliable, although very incomplete.
+
+[186] Gianmaria Bononcini was Chapel-Master of the Cathedral of Modena,
+and attached to the service of Duke Francis II. A fine violinist, author
+of instrumental sonatas in suites, to which Mr. Torchi and Sir Hubert
+Parry attribute great historical importance. He had a reflective spirit,
+and dedicated in 1673 to the Emperor Leopold I a treatise on Harmony and
+Counterpoint, entitled _Musico Practico_, which was afterwards
+reprinted. He died in 1678, less than forty years old.
+
+[187] Several of his early works are dedicated to Francis II of Modena,
+and his 8th opus, _Duetti da Camera_, 1691, is dedicated to the Emperor
+Leopold I, who caused him to be engaged for the Court Chapel.
+
+[188] He was a celebrated violoncellist.
+
+[189] Alfred Ebert: _Attilo Ariosto in Berlin_, 1905, Leipzig.
+
+[190] See Lecerf de la Vieville: _Eclaircissement sur Bononcini_,
+published in the 3rd part of his _Comparaison de la musique francaise
+avec la musique italienne_ (1706).
+
+[191] "Like Corelli," says Lecerf, "he had a few fugues, contra fugues,
+based on conceits, frequently in other Italian works, and he made many
+delicious things from all the lesser used intervals, the most valiant
+and the most strange. His dissonances struck fear."
+
+[192] See the gentle suspension of notes in the Cantata _Dori e Aminta_
+(manuscript in the Library of the Conservatoire of Paris), or the
+_Cantata Care luci (ibid.)_.
+
+[193] "What is necessary in music," said _The London Journal_ of
+February 24, 1722, "is that it should chase away _ennui_, and relieve
+clever men from the trouble of thinking."
+
+[194] It is the eternal struggle between the art of knowledge and the
+pseudo-popular art. It recurred again a little later with Rousseau. The
+principal difference between the two phases of the strife is that in the
+epoch with which we are occupied the champion of the anti-learned art
+was a well-instructed musician who did not uphold his cause by
+ignorance, but by laziness and by profligacy.
+
+[195] "To study this more closely," says Hugo Goldschmidt (_Vocal
+Ornamentation_, 1908), "Bononcini's songs are really _lieder_, to which
+is applied, for good or evil, the old form of the Aria Da Capo, or the
+Cavatina: the taste for little airs in the form of a song spread itself
+widely during the end of the seventeenth century in Germany and in
+England." Bononcini, who was always led naturally by fashion, and by his
+indolent facility, abandoned himself to it still more in England, and
+suited it to the English taste.
+
+[196] The work had already been given in Italy about 1714. It was then
+that Lord Burlington heard it, and became the champion of Bononcini when
+he decided to come to England.
+
+[197] Handel wrote the third act, Bononcini the second, the first had
+been already set by a certain Signor Pippo (Phillipo Matti?).
+
+[198] The victory of Handel began for the most part with the engagement
+of his new interpreter, Francesca Cuzzoni, of Parma, a great and
+vigorous artist, violent and passionate, whose excellent soprano voice
+excelled particularly in pathetic _cantabile_ music. She was twenty-two
+years old, and came to London, where she made her debut in _Ottone_. Her
+quarrels with Handel, and how he treated her by threatening to throw her
+out of the window, are well known.
+
+Handel gave again in May another opera, _Flavio_, of little importance.
+On his side Bononcini produced _Erminia and Attilio_, _Aristosi_,
+_Coreolanus_, in which the prison scene reduced the ladies to tears, and
+inspired numerous analogous scenes in the following operas of Handel.
+
+[199] Bononcini gave his last piece, _Kalfernia_, on April 18, 1724.
+Ariosti says possibly in 1725. On the other hand, in 1725 there
+commenced to be played in London the works of Leonardo Vinci, and
+Porpora, patronized by Handel himself.
+
+[200] Faustina Bordoni was born in 1700 at Venice. She had been educated
+in the school of Marcello. In 1730 she married Hasse. Her singing had an
+incredible agility. No one could repeat the same note with such
+rapidity, and she seemed able to hold on sounds to any extent. Less
+concentrated and less profound than Cuzzoni, she had an art more moving
+and brilliant.
+
+[201] Two months before Handel had given the opera _Scipione_ (March 12,
+1726).
+
+[202] The Director of the Drury Lane Theatre, Colley Cibber, produced, a
+month later, a farce called _The Contretemps, or The Rival Queens_,
+where the two singers were depicted tearing their chignons, and Handel
+saying in anger to them, whom he wished to separate, "Leave them alone,
+when they are tired their fury will spend itself out," and, in order
+that the strife might be definitely finished, he wound it up with great
+strokes on the drum. Handel's friend, Dr. Arbuthnot, also published on
+this subject one of his best pamphlets, "The Devil let loose at St.
+James's" (see Chrysander, Volume II).
+
+[203] The last representation at the Academy took place on June 1, 1728,
+with _Almeto_.
+
+[204] Amongst others, the accompanied recitative, the air _Da Capo_, the
+opera duets, the farewell scenes, the great prison scenes, the
+inconsequent ballads. Pepusch even took an air of Handel and parodied
+it. In the second act a band of robbers came together in the tavern, and
+solemnly defiled before their chiefs to the sound of the March of the
+Crusaders' Army in _Rinaldo_--_The Beggar's Opera_, given for the first
+time on January 29, 1728, was played all over England, and aroused
+violent polemics. Swift became a passionate champion for it. After the
+success appeared in the following years a number of operas with
+songs--Georgy Kalmas has dedicated a very complete article to _The
+Beggar's Opera_ in his _Sammelbaende der I.M.G._ (January to March,
+1907).
+
+[205] The first three books of the _Dunciad_ of Pope appeared in 1728;
+_The Voyages of Gulliver_ in 1726. Swift did not forget the musical
+folly in his satire on the kingdom of Lilliputia.
+
+[206] The Coronation Anthems comprised four hymns, of which we do not
+know the exact order. Handel arranged for their presentation at
+Westminster by forty-seven singers, and a very considerable orchestra.
+
+[207] _Riccardo I_, played in November of the same year (see p. 81), was
+also a national opera, dedicated to King George II, and celebrating,
+_apropos_ of Richard Coeur de Lion, the annals of Old England.
+
+[208] See page 48, note 4, the opinions held by Sere de Rieux.
+
+[209] Sere de Rieux: _les Dons les infants de Latone; la Musique et la
+Chasse du cerf_, poems dedicated to the King, 1734, Paris, p. 102-3.
+
+[210] During this voyage, where he sojourned a considerable time at
+Venice, he learned that his mother was stricken with paralysis. He
+hastened to Halle, so that he might see her again, but she could no
+longer see him. For several years she had been blind. She died the
+following year, December 27, 1730. Whilst Handel was at Halle watching
+over his mother, he received a visit from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who
+came on behalf of his father, to invite him to come to Leipzig. One can
+well understand that Handel declined the invitation under his sad
+circumstances.
+
+[211] Born in 1690 at Strongoli in Calabria, he died in 1730. He was the
+master of the Chapel Royal at Naples, where he preceded Pergolesi and
+Hasse. I have spoken of Vinci in another volume.
+
+[212] _Acis and Galatea_ was reproduced in 1731, then given again in
+1732, at the Haymarket Theatre, with the scenery and costumes, under the
+title of _An English Pastoral Opera_. The representation had taken place
+without the consent of Handel, who in response to the event, gave the
+work himself a little later. As for _Esther_, a member of the Academy of
+Ancient Music, Bernard Gates who had formerly sung in the piece at the
+Duke of Chandos' and who possessed a copy of it, produced it at the
+Hostelry of the Crown and Anchor, on February 23, 1732. In his turn
+Handel directed the work on May 2, 1732, at the Haymarket Theatre, under
+the title of English _Oratorio_. These presentations did not appease the
+interest of the public.
+
+[213] In the "first place there were in all," said a pamphlet, "260
+persons, of whom many had free tickets, and others were even paid to
+come." Handel tried to give the work again at reduced prices. This
+brought him no advantage. The English patrons repeated already their
+exultation over the Saxon, and caused him to return to Germany.
+
+[214] _Athaliah_ was written for the University feasts at Oxford, to
+which Handel had been invited. They wished to confer on him there the
+title of Doctor of Music. One does not know exactly what happened to
+Handel, having always refused the honour. It is certain, however, that
+Handel did not receive the title.
+
+[215] Bononcini had been received into the Academy of Ancient Music at
+London. To secure his footing he offered the Academy in 1728 a Madrigal
+in five voices. Unfortunately for him, three years after, a member of
+the Academy found this Madrigal in a book of duets, trios, madrigals of
+Antonio Lotti, published in 1705 at Venice. Bononcini persisted in
+claiming the authorship of the work. A long enquiry was instituted, in
+which Lotti himself and a great number of witnesses were examined. The
+result was disastrous for Bononcini, who threw up all and disappeared
+from London towards the end of 1732--the whole of the correspondence
+relating to this affair was published by the Academy in Latin, Italian,
+French and English, under the title "Letters from the Academy of Ancient
+Music at London to Signor Antonio Lotti of Venice, with answers and
+testimonies, London, 1732."
+
+[216] Porpora was the most famous Italian teacher of singing of the
+eighteenth century. Hasse was himself a great singer, and married one of
+the most celebrated Prima Donnas who ever lived, Faustina.
+
+[217] Contrast with the short and restricted phrases of Benedetto
+Marcello in his _Arianna_, the amplitude of Porpora's treatment of the
+same subject.
+
+[218] Chrysander, who did not know him well, speaks with a disdain
+absolutely unjustifiable.
+
+[219] Handel's _Arianna_, January 26, 1734. Porpora's _Arianna a Naxos_,
+a little later.
+
+[220] Thus the Invocation of Theseus to Neptune: _Nume che reggi'l
+mare_, and the air: _Spetto d'orrore_.
+
+[221] Johann Adolf Hasse was born March 23, 1699, at Bergedorf, near
+Hamburg, and died on December 16, 1783, at Venice. He came to London in
+October, 1734, where he gave his _Artaserse_, which was played until
+about 1737. He also gave in England his Siroe, 1736, and two comic
+_intermezzi_. I do not attach much importance to him, for his life and
+his art are a little outside the scope of this work. Despite the efforts
+of Handel's enemies, Hasse always avoided posing as the rival of his
+great countryman, and their art remains independent of each other. I
+will hold over (till some time later on) the study of the work of this
+admirable artist, for posterity has been even more unjust to him than to
+Porpora, for no one had his wonderful sense of melodic beauty in such a
+degree, and in his best pages he is the equal of the very greatest.
+
+[222] She was Handel's pupil and friend. An excellent musician, she
+conducted the orchestra at public concerts given by her every evening in
+Holland.
+
+[223] Handel composed for the marriage of the Princess Anne _The Wedding
+Anthem_ (March 14, 1734), which is a _pasticcio_ of old works,
+especially _Athaliah_. He gave also for the marriage _fetes_ the
+serenata, _Parnasso in festa_, and a revised form of _Pastor Fido_, with
+choruses.
+
+[224] It was John Rich who had produced here the _Beggar's Opera_ of Gay
+and Pepusch in 1728--that parody of Handel's operas.
+
+[225] She was the pupil of Mlle Prevost, and made her debut in 1725 with
+Rich. See the study of M. Emile Dacier: _Une danseuse francaise a
+Londres, au debut du XVIII siecle_ (French number of the S.I.M. May and
+July, 1907).
+
+[226] It is interesting to notice that it was with the same subjects of
+_Pygmalion_ and of _Ariadne_ that J. J. Rousseau and Georg Benda
+inaugurated in 1770-1775 the Melodrama or "opera without singing."
+
+[227] He has been accused of knowing it too well. The Abbe Prevost wrote
+exactly at this same period in _Le Pour et le Contre_ (1733): "...Certain
+critics accuse him of having taken for his basis an infinite number of
+beautiful things from Lully, and especially from our French cantatas,
+and of having the effrontery of disguising them in the Italian manner...."
+
+[228] "_La Salle_" returned to Paris, where she made her reappearance at
+the Academie de Musique in August, 1735, in _les Indes galantes_ of
+Rameau. It is quite remarkable that some pages of this work, such as the
+superb chaconne at the end, have a character quite Handelian.
+
+[229] _Atalanta_ (May 12, 1736), _Arminio_ (January 12, 1737),
+_Giustino_ (February 16, 1737), _Berenice_ (May 18, 1737), _Faramondo_
+(January 7, 1738), _Serse_ (April 15, 1738), _Imeneo_ (November 22,
+1740), _Deidamia_ (January 10, 1741).
+
+[230] Especially in _Serse_ and _Deidamia_.
+
+[231] Dryden the poet wrote this brilliant poem in 1697 in a night of
+inspiration. Clayton had set it to music in 1711; and again about 1720
+Benedetto Marcello wrote a cantata in the ancient manner on an Italian
+adaptation of the English ode by the Abbe Conti. A friend of Handel,
+Newburgh Hamilton, arranged Dryden's poem with great discretion for
+Handel's oratorio.
+
+Handel had already written several times in honour of St. Cecilia. Some
+fragments of four cantatas to St. Cecilia are to be found in Vol. LII of
+the great Breitkopf edition (_Cantate italiane con stromenti_). They
+were all written in London, the first about 1713.
+
+[232] _Alexander's Feast_ (January, 1736), _Atalanta_ (April), _Wedding
+Anthem_ (April), _Giustino_ (August), _Arminio_ (September), _Berenice_
+(December).
+
+[233] June 1, 1737. But on June 11 the rival opera also closed its
+doors, ruined. Handel, like Samson, dragged down in his own fall the
+enemy whom he wished to annihilate.
+
+[234] On November 15, 1737, Handel commenced _Faramondo_; from December
+7 to 17 he wrote the _Funeral Anthem_. On December 24 he finished
+_Faramondo_. On December 25 he commenced _Serse_.
+
+[235] He said that these kinds of concerts were but a way of begging.
+
+[236] Vauxhall was a beautiful garden on the Thames, the meeting place
+of London Society. Every evening except Sunday from the end of April to
+the beginning of August, vocal, orchestral, and organ concerts were
+given. The manager of these entertainments, Tyers, caused a white marble
+statue of Handel by the sculptor Roubiliac to be placed in a niche of a
+large grotto. The same sculptor later on executed Handel's statue for
+his monument in Westminster Abbey.
+
+[237] In the first part of _Israel in Egypt_ there is not a single solo
+air to be found. In the whole work there are nineteen choruses against
+four solos and three duets. The poem of _Saul_ which Chrysander at first
+attributed to Jennens appears to have been, as he discovered later on,
+the work of Newburgh Hamilton. For _Israel_, Handel entirely dispensed
+with a librettist, taking the pure Bible text.
+
+[238] Written between September 29 and October 30, 1739. Handel further
+prepared in November, 1740, the Second Volume of Organ Concertos (six).
+The same month he opened his last season of opera, giving on November 22
+_Imeneo_, which was only played twice, and on January 14, 1741,
+_Deidamia_, which was only given three times.
+
+[239] Especially in the _Allegro_ and in certain _Concerti Grossi_.
+
+[240] An anonymous letter published in the _London Daily Post_ of April
+4, 1741, alludes to a single false step made without premeditation.
+
+[241] In the midst of his misery he still thought of those more
+miserable than himself. In April, 1738, he founded with other well-known
+English musicians, Arne, Greene, Pepusch, Carey, etc., the Society of
+Musicians for the succour of aged and poor musicians. Tormented as he
+was himself, he was more generous than all the others. On March 20,
+1739, he gave _Alexander's Feast_ with a new Organ Concerto for the
+benefit of the Society. On March 28, 1740, he conducted his _Acis and
+Galatea_ and his little _Ode on Cecilia's day_. On March 14, 1741, in
+his worst days he gave the _Parnasso in festa_, a gala spectacle very
+onerous for him with five Solo Concertos by the most celebrated
+instrumentalists. Later on he bequeathed L1000 to the Society.
+
+[242] A clumsy friend tried to raise a public charity in an anonymous
+letter to the _London Daily Post_ (see above). He made excuses for
+Handel, and thus gave the composer the most cruel blow of all. (The
+clumsiness of a bear!) This letter is found at the end of Chrysander's
+third volume.
+
+[243] On November 4, 1741, he still had time to see, before his
+departure, the reopening of the Italian Opera, under the direction of
+Galuppi, supported by the English nobility.
+
+[244] Handel wrote the _Messiah_ between August 22 and September 14,
+1741. Certain historians have attributed the composition of the
+_libretto_ to him. There is no reason for robbing Jennens, a man of
+intelligence, author of the excellent poem of _Belshazzar_, of this
+honour, and of that shown by the fact that Handel changed none of the
+text which Jennens gave him. A letter of March 31, 1745, to a friend
+(quoted by Schoelcher) shows that Jennens found the music of the
+_Messiah_ hardly worthy of his poem.
+
+[245] The great Musical Society of Dublin, the Philharmonic, gave only
+benevolent concerts. For Handel they made a special arrangement. It
+suited them that Handel reserved one concert for charity. Handel was
+engaged there with gratefulness by promising "some better music." This
+"better music" was the _Messiah_. See an article on _Music in Dublin_
+from 1730 to 1754 by Dr. W. H. Gratten-Flood, I.M.G. (April-June, 1910).
+
+[246] But not at London, where Handel gave the _Messiah_ only three
+times in 1743, twice in 1745, and not again until 1749. The cabals of
+the pious tried to stifle it. He was not allowed to put the title of the
+oratorio on the bills. It was called A Sacred Oratorio. It was only at
+the close of 1750 that the victory of the _Messiah_ was complete. Handel
+all his life preserved his connection with charitable objects. He
+conducted it once a year for the benefit of the Foundling Hospital. Even
+when he was blind he remained faithful to this noble practice, and in
+order to better preserve the monopoly of the work for the Hospital he
+forbade anyone to publish anything from it before his death.
+
+Since then one knows what a number of editions of the _Messiah_ have
+appeared. The Schoelcher collection in the Paris Conservatoire has
+brought together sixty-six published between 1763-1869.
+
+[247] The character of Delilah is one of the most complex which Handel
+has created, and the parts of Samson and Harapha require exceptional
+voices.
+
+[248] Milton's poem had been adapted by Newburgh Hamilton.
+
+[249] The Battle of Dettingen took place on June 27, 1743. Handel had
+already finished on July 17 his _Te Deum_, which was solemnly performed
+on the following November 27 in Westminster Abbey.
+
+[250] Too slowly for the liking of Handel, who composed it bit by bit as
+the acts were sent him. There are five letters from him to Jennens dated
+June 9, July 19, August 21, September 13 and October 2, 1744, where he
+presses him to send at once the rest of the poem, expressing his own
+admiration for the second act, which he said provides new means of
+expression and furnishes the opportunity of giving some special ideas,
+"finally asking him to cut down the work a little, as it was too long"
+(see Schoelcher).
+
+[251] Handel wrote it during the forced pauses in the composition of
+_Belshazzar_, and produced it at the commencement of 1745.
+
+[252] The letters quite recently published throw much light on this
+troublous period in Handel's life (William Barclay-Squire: Handel in
+1745, in the H. Riemann Festschrift, 1909, Leipzig).
+
+[253] Two examples of the song appear in the Schoelcher Collection at
+the Paris Conservatoire.
+
+Handel also wrote in July, 1746, for the return of the Duke of
+Cumberland, a song on the victory over the rebels by His Royal Highness
+the Duke of Cumberland, which was given at Vauxhall (a copy of this song
+also appears in the Schoelcher Collection).
+
+[254] Finished in the early days of December, 1745, and given in
+February, 1746. The text was founded partly on the Psalms of Milton and
+partly on the Bible. Handel inserted in the third part several of the
+finest pages from _Israel in Egypt_. In one of the solos the principal
+theme of Rule Britannia which was later to be composed by Arne appears.
+
+[255] The poem, very mediocre, was by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Morell, who
+was the librettist for the last oratorios of Handel.
+
+[256] It was not one of Handel's oratorios, of which the style was in
+the popular vein, and where one finds further grand ensembles and solos
+closely connected with the Chorus.
+
+Gluck journeyed to London at the end of 1745. He was then thirty-one
+years old. He gave two operas in London, _La Caduta de'Giganti_ and
+_Artamene_. (Certain solos from them are to be found in the very rare
+collection of _Delizie dell'opere_, Vol. II, London, Walsh, possessed by
+the library of the Paris Conservatoire.) This journey of Gluck in
+England has no importance in the story of Handel, who showed himself
+somewhat scornful in his regard for Gluck's music. But it was not so for
+Gluck, who all his life professed the most profound respect for Handel.
+He regarded him as his master; he even imagined that he imitated him
+(see Michael Kelly: _Reminiscences_, I, 255), and certainly one is
+struck by the analogies between certain pages in Handel's oratorios
+written from 1744 to 1746 (notably _Hercules_ and _Judas Maccabaeus_) and
+the grand operas of Gluck. We find in the two funeral scenes from the
+first and second acts of _Judas Maccabaeus_ the pathetic accents and
+harmonies of Gluck's _Orpheus_.
+
+[257] After 1747 Handel, abandoning his system of subscriptions, turned
+his back on his aristocratic clientele, which had treated him so
+shamefully, and opened his theatre to all. It paid him. The middle
+classes of London responded to his appeal. After 1748 Handel had full
+houses at nearly all his concerts.
+
+[258] Poem founded on the book of Maccabees by Thomas Morell. The first
+performance March 23, 1748.
+
+[259] Poem by Thomas Morell, first performances March 9, 1748.
+
+[260] The poem, apparently, by Thomas Morell, notwithstanding its want
+of mention in his notes. First performance March 17, 1749.
+
+[261] The Firework Music has been published in Volume XLVII of the
+Complete Handel Edition. For the performance on April 27, 1749, the
+orchestra numbered one hundred. Schoelcher has published a
+correspondence on the subject of this work between Lord Montague,
+General-in-chief of the Artillery, and Charles Frederick, Controller of
+the King's fireworks. One sees there that very serious differences arose
+between Handel and Lord Montague.
+
+[262] The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1739 by an old mariner,
+Thomas Coram, "for the maintainance and education of abandoned
+children." Handel devoted himself to this institution, and gave
+performances of the _Messiah_ annually for its funds. In 1750 he was
+elected a Governor of the Hospital, after he had made it a gift of an
+organ.
+
+[263] Vol. XXXVI of the Complete Handel Edition. The Foundling Anthem,
+of which more than one page is taken from the Funeral Anthem, finishes
+with the Hallelujah from the _Messiah_ in its original form.
+
+[264] The libretto was inspired by the _Theodore vierge et martyre_ of
+Corneille.
+
+[265] Written between June 28 and July 5, and produced on March 1, to
+follow Alexander's feast as "a new act added."
+
+[266] A paragraph in the _General Advertiser_ of August 21, 1750, tells
+us that Handel was very seriously hurt between La Haye and Amsterdam,
+but that he was already out of danger.
+
+[267] The facsimile of the autograph manuscript was published by
+Chrysander, for the second centenary of Handel in 1885.
+
+[268] Page 182 of MS.
+
+[269] To occupy himself he directed two performances of the _Messiah_
+for the funds of the Foundling Hospital--on April 18 and May 16, "with
+an improvisation on the organ." He also tried the cure at Cheltenham.
+
+[270] Page 244 of MS.
+
+[271] He underwent an operation for cataract, the last time on November
+3, 1752. A newspaper stated in January, 1753: "Handel has become
+completely blind."
+
+[272] Written in 1708 at Rome.
+
+[273] Handel had already regiven the Italian work with some
+rearrangements and editions in 1737. Thomas Morell adapted the poem to
+English, and extended the two acts into three.
+
+[274] This will was written since 1750. Handel added codicils to it in
+August, 1756, March and August, 1757, April, 1759. He nominated his
+niece, Johanna Friderica Floerchen, of Gotha, _nee_ Michaelsen, his
+sole executor. He made several gifts to his friends--to Christopher
+Smith, to John Rich, to Jennens, to Newburgh Hamilton, to Thomas Morell,
+and others. He did not forget any of his numerous servants. He left a
+fortune of about twenty-five thousand pounds, which he had made entirely
+in his last ten years; he possessed also a fine collection of musical
+instruments and a picture gallery in which were two Rembrandts.
+
+[275] A monument, somewhat mediocre, was erected to him. It was the work
+of Roubiliac, who had already done the statue of Handel for the Vauxhall
+Gardens.
+
+[276] They were celebrated in reality a year too soon. Burney devoted a
+whole book to describing these festivals.
+
+[277] The number of performers never ceased to increase after the
+festivals of 1784, when there were 530 or 540, right up to the famous
+festivals in the Sydenham Crystal Palace, when the number reached 1035
+in 1854, 2500 in 1857, and 4000 in 1859. Remember that during the
+lifetime of Handel the _Messiah_ was performed by thirty-three players
+and twenty-three singers. They manufactured for these gigantic
+performances some monster instruments; a double bassoon (already
+invented in 1727), a special contrabass, some bass trumpets, drums tuned
+an octave lower, etc
+
+[278] These arrangements, executed for the Baron van Swieten, are far
+from being irreproachable, and show that Mozart, despite the assertions
+of Rochlitz, had not a deep understanding of Handel's works. However, he
+wrote an "Overture in the style of Handel," and suddenly remembered him
+when he composed his _Requiem_.
+
+[279] The first was the Singakademie of Berlin, founded in 1790 by
+Fasch.
+
+[280] In the _Harmonicon_ of January, 1824, one finds Beethoven's
+opinion (quoted by Percy Robinson): "Handel is the greatest composer who
+has ever lived. I should like to kneel at his tomb." And in a letter
+from Beethoven to an English lady (published in the _Harmonicon_ of
+December, 1825): "I adore Handel." We know that after the 9th Symphony
+he had the plan of writing some grand oratorios in the style of Handel.
+
+[281] Schumann wrote to Pohl in 1855, that _Israel in Egypt_ was his
+"ideal of a choral work," and, wishing to write a work called _Luther_,
+he defined this music thus, of which he found the ideal realized by
+Handel: "A popular oratorio that both country and town-people can
+understand.... A work of simple inspiration, in which the effect depends
+entirely on the melody and the rhythm, without contrapuntal artifice."
+
+Liszt, _apropos_ of the Anthem _Zadock the Priest_, goes into ecstasies
+over "the genius of Handel, great as the world itself," and very rightly
+perceives in the author of the _Allegro_ and of _Israel_, a precursor of
+descriptive music.
+
+[282] See, in Chrysander's work, an article by Emil Krause, in the
+_Monatshefte fuer Musikwissenschaft_, 1904.
+
+[283] A Societe G. F. Handel was founded in Paris in 1909, under the
+direction of two conductors full of zeal and intelligence, MM. F. Borrel
+and F. Raugal. It has already done much to awaken the love of Handel in
+France by giving the large works hitherto unknown in France, such as
+_Hercules_, the _Foundling Anthem_, and the model performances of the
+_Messiah_ at the Trocadero.
+
+[284] Lessing, in the Preface to his _Beitraege zur Historie und Aufnahme
+des Theaters_ (1750), gives as the principal characteristic of the
+German, "that he appreciates whatever is good, particularly where he
+finds it, and when he can turn it to his profit."
+
+[285] See the _Voyage en Italie_, May 18, 1787, letter to Herder.
+
+[286] French Songs (MSS. in Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge): copies in
+the Schoelcher Collection, in the library of the Paris Conservatoire.
+
+[287] See the Abbe Prevost: _Le Pour et le Contre_, 1733.
+
+[288] These are not traits special to Handel alone. The double
+stream--encyclopaedic and learned on the one hand, popular or
+pseudo-popular on the other--was found in an even greater degree in
+London amongst the musicians of Handel's time. In the circle of the
+_Academy of Antient Musick_ there was quite a mania of archaic
+eclectism. One of these members, the composer Roseingrave, even went to
+the length of having the walls of his rooms and all his furniture
+covered with bars of music, extracted from the works of Palestrina. At
+the same period there was felt all over Europe a reaction of popular
+taste against that of the savants. It was the day of the little _lieder_
+by Bononcini or by Keiser. Handel took sides with neither extravagances,
+but chose whatever was alive in both movements.
+
+[289] Letter from Lady Luxborough to the poet Shenstone in 1748--quoted
+by Chrysander.
+
+[290] His passion of collecting increased with age and fortune. A letter
+of 1750 reveals him buying some beautiful pictures, including a fine
+Rembrandt. It was the year before he was smitten with blindness.
+
+[291] From the "_Hauts tilleuls_" of _Almira_ up to the Night Chorus in
+_Solomon_.
+
+[292] A study of the MS. of _Jephtha_ (published in _facsimile_ by
+Chrysander) affords an opportunity of noticing Handel's speed of working
+at composition. On these very pages one reads various annotations in
+Handel's own handwriting. At the end of the first act, for instance, he
+writes: "_Geendiget_ (finished) 2 February." Again, on the same page one
+reads: "_Voellig_ (complete) 13th August, 1751." There were then two
+different workings; one the work of invention, the other a work of
+completion. It is easy to distinguish them here on account of the
+illness which changed the handwriting of Handel after February 13, 1751.
+Thanks to this circumstance, one sees that with the Choruses he wrote
+the entire subjects in all the voices at the opening; then he let first
+one fall, then another, in proceeding; he finished hastily with a single
+voice filled in or even the bass only.
+
+[293] It was so with the melody: _Dolce amor che mi consola_ in
+_Roderigo_, which became the air: _Ingannata una sol volta_ in
+_Agrippina_--and also with the air: _L'alma mia_ from _Agrippina_, which
+was used again for the _Resurrection_, for _Rinaldo_ and for _Joshua_.
+
+[294] The Eastern Dance in _Almira_ became the celebrated _Lascia ch'io
+pianga_ in _Rinaldo_; and a joyful but ordinary melody from _Pastor
+Fido_ was transformed to the touching phrase in the _Funeral Ode_:
+"Whose ear she heard."
+
+[295] One can examine here in detail the two very characteristic
+instrumental interludes from Stradella's _Serenata a 3 con stromenti_
+which had the fortune of blossoming out into the formidable choruses of
+the Hailstones and the Plague of Flies in _Israel_. I have made a study
+of this in an article for the S.I.M. review (May and July, 1910), under
+the title of _Les plagiats de Handel_.
+
+[296] There is reason to believe that he was not absolutely free in the
+matter. In 1732, when the Princess Anne wished to have _Esther_
+represented at the opera the Archbishop (Dr. Gibson) opposed it, and it
+was necessary to fall back to giving the work at a concert.
+
+[297] An anonymous letter published in the _London Daily Post_ in April,
+1739, dealing with _Israel in Egypt_, defends Handel against the
+opposition of the bigots, who were then very bitter. The writer protests
+"that the performance at which he was present was the noblest manner of
+honouring God ... it is not the house which sanctifies the prayer, but
+the prayer which sanctifies the house."
+
+[298] Is not even _Joseph_ entitled "a sacred Drama," and _Hercules_ "a
+musical Drama"?
+
+[299] At the end of his second volume of the Life of Handel.
+
+[300] See the vocal distribution of some of the London Operas:
+
+_Radamisto_ (1720): 4 Sopranos (of which 3 parts are male characters), 1
+Alto, 1 Tenor, 1 Bass.
+
+_Floridante_ (1722): 2 Sopranos, 2 Contraltos, 2 Basses.
+
+_Giulio Cesare_ (1724): 2 Sopranos, 2 Altos, 1 Contralto (Caesar's role),
+2 Basses.
+
+_Tamerlano_ (1724): 2 Sopranos, 1 Contralto (male _role_), 1 Alto
+(Tamerlano), 1 Tenor, 1 Bass.
+
+_Admeto_ (1727): 2 Sopranos, 2 Altos, 1 Contralto (Admeto), 2 Basses.
+
+_Orlando_ (1732): 2 Sopranos, 1 Alto (Medora), 1 Contralto (Orlando), 1
+Bass.
+
+_Deidamia_ (1747): 3 Sopranos (one is Achilles' _role_), 1 Contralto
+(Ulysses), 2 Basses.
+
+It is the same in the Oratorios, where one finds such a work as _Joseph_
+(1744) written for 2 Sopranos, 2 Altos, l Contralto (Joseph), 2 Tenors,
+and 2 Basses.
+
+Thus, without speaking of the shocking inconsistencies of the parts thus
+travestied, the balance of voices tends to fall off as we go from high
+to low.
+
+[301] In 1729 he went to Italy to find an heroic tenor, Pio Fabri;
+unfortunately he could not secure him for two years.--_Acis and Galatea_
+(1720) is written for 2 Tenors, 1 Soprano, and 1 Bass.--The most tragic
+_role_ in _Tamerlano_ (1724) (that of Bajazet) was written for the
+Tenor, Borosini.--_Rodelinda_, _Scipione_, _Alessandro_, all contain
+Tenor _roles_.--On the other hand, Handel was not satisfied with having
+in his theatre the most celebrated basses of the century, the famous
+Boschi and Montagnana, for whom he wrote such fine _roles_, such as that
+of Zoroaster in _Orlando_, and Polyphemus in _Acis and Galatea_; but he
+aimed at having several important _roles_ all taken by Basses in the
+same Opera. In his first version of _Athaliah_ (1733) he had written a
+duet for Basses for Joad and Mathan. But the defection of Montagnana
+obliged him to give up this idea, which he could only realise in _Israel
+in Egypt_.
+
+[302] See also _Giulio Cesare_, _Atalanta_, or _Orlando_.
+
+[303] Especially in certain concert operas, such as _Alcina_ (1735), and
+also in the last work of Handel, in which one feels his final torpor,
+_The Triumph of Time_.
+
+[304] See those Oratorios in which he is not afraid, when necessary, of
+introducing little popular songs, as that of the little waiting-maid in
+_Susanna_ (1749).
+
+[305] See the air of Medea at the beginning of the second act of
+_Teseo_; _Dolce riposo_. See also _Ariodante_ and _Hercules_.
+
+[306] Such as the air at the opening of _Radamisto_; _Sommi Dei_.--I
+will mention also the airs written over a Ground-Bass accompaniment
+without _Da Capo_, of which the most beautiful type is the _Spirito
+amato_ of Cleofide, in _Poro_.
+
+[307] For example the air, _Per dar pregio_, in _Roderigo_. The oboe
+plays a great part in these musical jousts. Such an air as that in
+_Teseo_ is like a little Concerto for Oboe.
+
+[308] They are extremely short. Some are popular songs. Others in
+_Agrippina_ have just a phrase. Many of these _arietti da capo_, in
+_Teseo_, in _Ottone_; make one think of those in Gluck's _Iphigenie en
+Aulide_.
+
+[309] In _Rinaldo_, the air, _Ah crudel il pianto mio_, the first part
+is a sorrowful _largo_, the second a furious _presto_.--The finest
+example of this freedom is the air of Timotheus at the beginning of the
+second act of _Alexander's Feast_. The two parts in this air differ not
+only by the movements but by the instrumental colouring, by the harmonic
+character, and by the very essence of the thought; they are two
+different poems which are joined together, but each being complete in
+itself.
+
+[310] Examples; _Teseo_, Medea's _Moriro, ma vendicata_; _Amadigi_ air,
+_T'amai quant'il mio cor_.
+
+[311] _Riccardo I_, air, _Morte, vieni_.
+
+[312] In the airs _da capo_ of _Ariodante_, the second part is
+restricted to five bars.
+
+[313] _L'Allegro ed Penseroso_, 1st air, Part 3, _Come with native
+lustre shine_; after the 2nd part comes a recitative, then the chorus
+sings the _Da Capo_.--In _Alexander's Feast_ the air, _He sung Darius,
+great and good_; after the 2nd part comes a recitative, then the _Da
+Capo_ with Chorus, but altogether free; to speak truly, the _Da Capo_ is
+only in the instrumental accompaniment.
+
+[314] Handel has found a musical language passing by imperceptible steps
+from _recitativo secco_, almost spoken, to _recitativo accompagnato_,
+then to the air. In _Scipione_ (1726) the phrases of the accompanied
+_recitative_ are enshrined in small frameworks of spoken _recitative_
+(see p. 23 of the Complete Handel Edition, the air, _Oh sventurati_).
+The final air in the first act is a compromise between speech and song.
+The accompanied _recitative_ runs naturally into the air.
+
+[315] In the chain of Recitatives and Airs of all kinds which succeed or
+mingle themselves with it, with an astonishing freedom reflecting one
+after another, or even at the same time the contradictory ideas which
+course through Roland's mind, Handel does not hesitate to use unusual
+rhythms, as the 5-8 here which gives a stronger impression of the hero's
+madness.
+
+[316] It is necessary to consider to some extent the _Arias buffi_. Some
+have denied Handel the gift of humour. They cannot know him well. He is
+full of humour, and often expresses it in his works. In his first opera,
+_Almira_, the _role_ of Tabarco is in the comic style of Keiser and of
+Telemann. It is the same feeling which gives certain traits a little
+_caricaturesque_ to the _role_ of St. Peter in the _Passion after
+Brockes_. The Polyphemus in _Acis and Galatea_ has a fine amplitude of
+rough buffoonery. But in _Agrippina_ Handel derived his subtle irony
+from Italy; and the light style with its minute touches and its jerky
+rhythms from Vinci and Pergolesi (to the letter) appear with Handel in
+_Teseo_ (1713). _Radamisto_, _Rodelinda_, _Alessandro_, _Tolomeo_,
+_Partenope_, _Orlando_, _Atalanta_ afford numerous examples. The scene
+where Alexander and Roxane are asleep (or pretend to be) is a little
+scene of musical comedy. _Serse_ and _Deidamia_ are like tragi-comedies,
+the action of which points to _opera comique_. But his gift of humour
+takes another turn in his oratorios, where Handel not only creates
+complex and colossal types, such as _Delilah_ or _Haraphah_ in _Samson_,
+or as the two old men in _Susanna_, but where his Olympian laugh breaks
+out in the choruses of _L'Allegro_, shaking the sides of the audience
+with irresistible laughter.
+
+[317] See especially Hugo Goldschmidt: _Treatise on Vocal Ornaments_,
+Volume I, 1907; Max Seiffert: _Die Verzierung der Sologesaenge in
+Haendels Messias_ (I.M.G., July-September, 1907, and Monthly Bulletin of
+I.M.G., February, 1908); Rudolf Wustmann: _Zwei Messias-probleme_
+(Monthly Bulletin I.M.G., January, February, 1908).
+
+[318] M. Seiffert has given a description of the whole series of copies
+of Handel Operas and Oratorios in the Lennard collection of the
+Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. There are to be found there (in pencil)
+the indication of the ornaments and vocalises executed by the singers.
+According to M. Seiffert these indications were by Christopher Smith,
+the friend and factotum of Handel. According to Mr. Goldschmidt they
+were put in at the end of the eighteenth century. In any case they show
+a vocal tradition which affords a good opportunity of preserving for us
+the physiognomy of the musical ornaments of Handel's time.
+
+[319] This is especially true of the oratorios. In the operas, the
+ornamentation was much more elaborate and more irrelevant to the
+expression.
+
+[320] The first, by Mr. Seiffert; the second, by Mr. Goldschmidt.
+
+[321] _Teseo_, duet, _Addio, mio caro bene_; _Esther_, duet by Esther
+and Ahasuerus: "Who calls my parting soul?"
+
+[322] _Arminio_ (1737), duet from Act III. It is to be noticed that
+_Arminio_ opens also with a duet, a very exceptional thing.
+
+Other duets are in the Sicilian style, as, for instance, that in _Giulio
+Cesare_, or in the popular English style of the hornpipe, as that of
+Teofane and Otho in _Ottone_; _A'teneri affetti_.
+
+[323] There are to be found also some fine trios in a serious yet virile
+style in the _Passion according to Brockes_ (trio of the believing
+souls: _O Donnerwort_!) and in the _Chandos Anthems_.
+
+[324] See also the quartet in Act I of _Semele_.
+
+[325] With the exception of the Italian operas played at Venice, in
+which (thanks to Fux) the tradition of vocal polyphony is maintained--a
+tradition to be put to such good use later by Hasse and especially
+Jommelli.
+
+[326] The 5-8 time in _Orlando_; the 9-8 in _Berenice_.
+
+[327] The Introduction to _Riccardo I_ represents a vessel wrecked in a
+tempestuous sea.
+
+[328] _Giulio Cesare_: Scene on Parnassus.
+
+[329] _Ariodante_, _Alcina_.
+
+[330] See _Israel in Egypt_.
+
+[331] _Belshazzar_, _Susanna_, _L'Allegro_, _Samson_.
+
+[332] _Saul_, _Theodora_, _Athalia_.
+
+[333] _Passion according to Brockes_, _Chandos Anthems_, _Funeral
+Anthem_, _Foundling Anthem_.
+
+[334] _Anthems_, _Jubilate_, _Israel in Egypt_.
+
+[335] _Israel in Egypt_, _Messiah_, _Belshazzar_, _Chandos Anthems_.
+
+[336] _Samson_, _Saul_, _Israel in Egypt_.
+
+[337] _L'Allegro_, _Susanna_, _Belshazzar_, _Alexander Balus_.
+
+[338] _Solomon_, _L'Allegro_.
+
+[339] _Hercules_, _Saul_, _Semele_, _Alexander Balus_, _Solomon_.
+
+[340] I have noticed above the Chorus-Dances in _Giulio Cesare_,
+_Orlando_, _Ariodante_, _Alcina._ There are also veritable choral dances
+in _Hercules_, _Belshazzar_, _Solomon_, _Saul_ (the Bell scene),
+_Joshua_ (Sacred dance in Act II over a Ground-Bass).
+
+[341] So in _Athalia_, _Alexander's Feast_, _L'Allegro_, _Samson_
+(Michel's role).
+
+[342] _Jubilate_, _Funeral Anthem_.
+
+[343] Quoted by M. Bellaigue in _Les Epoques de la Musique_, Vol. I,
+page 109.
+
+[344] In the time of Lully and his school, the French were the leaders
+in musical painting, especially for the storms. Addison made fun of it,
+and the parodies of the _Theatre de la Foire_ often amused people by
+reproducing in caricature the storms of the _Opera_.
+
+[345] Extract from a pamphlet published in London (1751) on _The art of
+composing music in a completely new manner adapted even to the feeblest
+intellects_.
+
+Already Pope in 1742 compared Handel with Briareus.
+
+"Strong in new arms, lo! Giant HANDEL stands,
+Like bold Briareus with his _hundred hands_."
+
+At the time of _Rinaldo_ (1711) Addison accused Handel of delighting in
+noise.
+
+[346] ".... You refuse to submit to rules; you refuse to let your genius
+be hampered by them.... O thou Goth and Vandal!... You also allow
+nightingales and canaries on the stage and let them execute their
+untrained natural operas, in order that you may be considered a
+composer. A carpenter with his rule and square can go as far in
+composition as you, O perfect irregularity!" (_Harmony in Revolt: a
+letter to Frederic Handel esquire, ... by Hurlothrumbo-Johnson_,
+February, 1734).
+
+[347] Soon Handel was obliged to publish these works, because fraudulent
+and faulty copies were being sold. It was so with the first volume of
+_Suites de pieces pour le clavecin_, published in 1720, and the first
+volume of Organ Concertos published in 1738. Some of these publications
+had been made in a bare-faced manner without Handel's permission by
+publishers who had pilfered them. So it was with the second volume of
+_Suites de pieces pour le clavecin_, which Walsh had appropriated and
+published in 1733 without giving Handel an opportunity of correcting the
+proofs. It is very remarkable that, notwithstanding the great European
+success achieved by the first volume for the Clavecin, Handel did not
+trouble to publish the others.
+
+[348] All his contemporaries agree in praising the wonderful genius with
+which Handel adapted himself instinctively in his improvisations to the
+spirit of his audience. Like all the greatest Virtuosos he soon placed
+himself in the closest spiritual communion with his public; and, so to
+speak, they collaborated together.
+
+[349] Geminiani's Preface to his _Ecole de violon_, or _The Art of
+Playing on the Violin, Containing all the Rules necessary to attain to
+Perfection on that Instrument, with great variety of Compositions, which
+will also be very useful to those who study the violoncello,
+harpsichord, etc._ Composed by F. Geminiani, Opera IX, London, MDCCLI.
+
+[350] Geminiani himself had attempted to represent in music the pictures
+of Raphael and the poems of Tasso.
+
+[351] For example, the _Allegro_ of the First Organ Concerto (second
+volume published in 1740), with its charming dialogue between the cuckoo
+and the nightingale, or the first of the Second Organ Concerto (in the
+same volume), or several of the _Concerti Grossi_ (referred to later).
+
+[352] Vol. XLVII of the Complete Handel Edition.
+
+[353] It is a manuscript of 21 pages, the writing appearing to date from
+about 1710. It is certainly a copy from some older works. Chrysander
+published it in Volume XLVIII of the Complete Edition. It is probable
+that Handel had given to an English friend a selection from the
+compositions of his early youth. They were passed from hand to hand, and
+were even fraudulently published, as Handel tells us himself in the
+Edition of 1720: "I have been led to publish some of the following
+pieces, because some faulty copies of them have been surreptitiously
+circulated abroad." In this number appear, for example, the Third Suite,
+the Sarabande of the Seventh Suite, etc.
+
+[354] It is said that Handel wrote these for the Princess Anne, whom he
+taught the clavecin; but Chrysander had observed that the princess was
+only eleven years old at the time. It is more probable that these pieces
+were written for the Duke of Chandos or for the Duke of Burlington.--It
+is in the second book of Clavier Pieces that we find the much easier
+pieces written for the princesses.
+
+[355] In their republication of the _Geschichte der Klaviermusik_ by
+Weitzmann (1899), in which the chapter devoted to Handel contains the
+fullest information of any description of the Clavier works.
+
+[356] Influences of Krieger and of Kuhnau, particularly in the Halle
+period (see Vol. XLVIII, pp. 146, 149); French influences in the Hamburg
+Period (pp. 166, 170); influences of Pasquini (p. 162); and of Scarlatti
+(pp. 148, 152), about the time of his Italian visits. The influence of
+Kuhnau is very marked, and Handel had all his life a well-stocked memory
+of this music, and particularly of Kuhnau's _Klavier-Uebung_
+(1689-1692), and the _Frischen Klavier-Fruechte_ (1696), which were then
+widely known and published in numerous editions. Here is the same limpid
+style, the same neat soberness of line. Kuhnau's Sarabandes especially
+are already completely Handelian. It is the same with certain Preludes,
+certain Gigues, and some of the airs (a trifle popular).
+
+[357] For the German influence, see the Suites 1, 4, 5, 8 (four dance
+movements preceded by an introduction). For the Italian, see the Suites
+2, 3, 6, 7, of which the form approximates to the _Sonata da camera_.
+
+[358] M. Seiffert adds that none of these elements predominate. I would
+rather follow the opinion of Chrysander, who notices in this fusion of
+three national styles a predominant tendency to the Italian, just as
+Bach inclines most to the French style.
+
+[359] One finds there, cycles of variations on Minuets, on Gavottes,
+especially on Chaconnes and many other Italian forms. The Gigue of the
+Sixth Suite (in G minor) comes from an air in _Almira_ (1705). One
+notices also that the Eighth Suite in G major is in the French style
+(particularly the Gavotte in rondo with five variations).
+
+It is necessary to follow this second volume by the third, which
+contains works of widely different periods: _Fantasia_, _Capriccio_,
+_Preludio e Allegro_, _Sonata_, published at Amsterdam in 1732, and
+dating from his youthful period (the Second Suite was inspired by an
+_Allemande_ of Mattheson): _Lessons composed for the Princess Louisa_
+(when aged twelve or thirteen years) about 1736; _Capriccio in G minor_
+(about the same date); and _Sonata in C major_ in 1750.
+
+Finally, there should be added to these volumes, various clavier works
+published in Vol. XLVIII of the Complete Edition under the title:
+_Klaviermusik und Cembalo Bearbeitungen_. There is also a selection of
+the best arrangements of symphonies and airs from the operas of Handel
+by Babell (about 1713 or 1714).
+
+[360] Mattheson in 1722 quoted the Fugue in E minor as quite a recent
+work.
+
+[361] Handel himself told his friend Bernard Granville so, when he made
+him a present of Krieger's work: _Anmuthige Clavier-Uebung_, published
+in 1699.
+
+[362] The Fugue in A minor was used for the Chorus, _He smote all the
+firstborn in Egypt_, in _Israel in Egypt_, and the Fugue in G minor. The
+Chorus, _They loathed to drink at the river_. Another (the 4th) served
+for the Overture to the _Passion after Brockes_.
+
+[363] The indications: _ad libitum_, or _cembalo_, found time after time
+in his scores, marked the places reserved for the improvisation.
+
+Despite Handel's great physical power, his touch was extraordinarily
+smooth and equal. Burney tells us that when he played, his fingers were
+"so curved and compact, that no motion, and scarcely the fingers
+themselves, could be discovered" (_Commemoration of Handel_, p. 35). M.
+Seiffert believes that "his technique, which realised all Rameau's
+principles, certainly necessitated the use of the thumb in the modern
+style," and that "one can trace a relationship between Handel's arrival
+in England and the adoption of the Italian fingering which soon became
+fully established there."
+
+[364] A fourth was published by Arnold in 1797; but part of the works
+which it contains are not original. Handel had nothing to do with the
+publication of the Second Set.
+
+Vol. XXVIII of the Complete Edition contains the Six Concertos of the
+First Set, Op. 4 (1738) and the Six of the Third Set, Op. 7 (1760). Vol.
+XLVIII comprises the concertos of the Second Set (1740), an experiment
+at a Concerto for two organs and orchestra, and two Concertos from the
+Fourth Set (1797).
+
+Many of the Concertos are dated. Most of them were written between 1735
+and 1751; and several for special occasions; the sixth of the First Set
+for an _entr'acte_ to _Alexander's Feast_; the fourth of the First Set,
+a little before _Alcina_; the third of the Third Set for the Foundling
+Hospital. The Concerto in B minor (No. 3) was always associated in the
+mind of the English public with _Esther_; for the minuet was called the
+"Minuet from Esther."
+
+[365] May 8, 1735. It was the year when Handel wrote and performed his
+first Concertos of the First Set.
+
+[366] Hawkins wrote further: "Music was less fashionable than it is now,
+many of both sexes were ingenuous enough to confess that they wanted
+this sense, by saying, 'I have no ear for music.' Persons such as these,
+who, had they been left to themselves, would have interrupted the
+hearing of others by their talking, were by the performance of Handel
+not only charmed into silence, but were generally the loudest in their
+acclamations. This, though it could not be said to be genuine applause,
+was a much stronger proof of the power of harmony, than the like effect
+on an audience composed only of judges and rational admirers of his art"
+(_General History of Music_, p. 912).
+
+[367] In the Tenth Concerto there are two violoncellos and two bassoons.
+The same in the Concerto for two Organs. In the long Concerto in F major
+(Vol. XLVIII) we find two horns.
+
+[368] Sometimes the name is found marked there. See the Eighth Concerto
+in Vol. XXVIII and the Concerto in F major in Vol. XLVIII.
+
+[369] Vol. XLVIII, page 51.
+
+[370] Mr. Streatfeild was, I believe, the first to notice an autograph
+MS. of the Fourth Organ Concerto to which is attached a Hallelujah
+Chorus built on a theme from the concerto itself. This MS., which is
+found at the British Museum, dates from 1735, and appears to have been
+used for the revival in 1737 of the _Trionfo del Tempo_ to which the
+Concerto serves for conclusion.
+
+[371] Scriabin also.--_Translator._
+
+[372] _Six Sonatas or Trios for two Hoboys with a thorough bass for the
+Harpsichord._ Published in Vol. XXVII.
+
+[373] Volume XLVIII, page 112.
+
+[374] Volume XLVIII, page 130.
+
+[375] Volume XXVII.
+
+[376] _VII Sonatas a 2 violons, 2 hautbois, ou 2 flutes traversieres et
+basse continue, composees par G. F. Handel, Second ouvrage._
+
+[377] Later on, Walsh made arrangements of favourite airs from Handel's
+Operas and Oratorios as "Sonatas" for flute, violin and harpsichord. Six
+Vols.
+
+[378] In eleven sonatas out of sixteen. One sonata (the third) is in
+three movements. Three are in five movements (the first, the fifth and
+the seventh). One is in seven movements (the ninth).
+
+[379] In the first Sonata, the final _Presto_ in common time uses the
+theme of the _Andante_ in 3-4, which forms the second movement. In the
+second Sonata, the final _Presto_ in common time is built on the subject
+of the _Andante_ in 3-4, slightly modified.
+
+[380] The fifth Sonata is in five movements--_larghetto_, _allegro_
+(3-8), _adagio_, _allegro_ (4-4), _allegro_ (12-8).
+
+[381] From five to seven movements.
+
+[382] A Gavotte concludes the first, second, and third trios. A Minuet
+ends the fourth, sixth, and seventh. A Bourree finishes the fifth. There
+are also found two Musettes and a March in the second Trio, a Sarabande,
+an Allemande and a Rondo in the third; a Passacaille and a Gigue in the
+fourth.
+
+[383] It was the aesthetic of the period. Thus M. Mennicke writes:
+"Neutrality of orchestral colour characterises the time of Bach and
+Handel. The instrumentation corresponds to the registration of an
+Organ." The Symphonic orchestra is essentially built up on the strings.
+The wind instruments serve principally as _ripieno_. When they used the
+wood-wind _obbligato_, it went on throughout the movement and did not
+merely add a touch of colour here and there.
+
+[384] One finds in the middle of the _Trionfo del Tempo_ an instrumental
+Sonata for 2 Oboes, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Basso, and Organ. In the
+Solo of the Magdalene in the _Resurrection_, Handel uses two flutes, two
+violins (muted), _viola da gamba_ and cello; the cello is occupied with
+a pedal-note of thirty-nine bars at the opening, and then joins the
+clavecin. In the middle of the air, the _viola da gamba_ and the flutes
+play by themselves.
+
+[385] In _Radamisto_ (1720) Tiridate's air: _Alzo al colo_, and final
+chorus. In _Giulio Cesare_, 4 horns.
+
+I do not suppose that Handel was the first to use the clarionets in an
+orchestra, as this appears very doubtful. One sees on a copy of
+_Tamerlano_ by Schmidt: _clar. e clarini_ (in place of the _cornetti_ in
+the autograph manuscript). But it is feasible that just as with the
+"_clarinettes_" used by Rameau in the _Acanthe et Cephise_, the high
+trumpets are intended. Mr. Streatfeild mentions also a concerto for two
+"clarinets" and _corno di caccia_, the MS. being in the Fitzwilliam
+Museum at Cambridge.
+
+[386] _Alcina_, _Semele_, _L'Allegro_, _Alexander's Feast_, the little
+_Ode to St. Cecilia_, etc. Usually Handel imparts to the cello either an
+amorous desire or an elegiac consolation.
+
+[387] Thus, in the famous scene which opens the second Act of
+_Alexander's Feast_ (second part of the air in G minor), evoking the
+host of the dead who have wandered at night from their graves, there are
+no violins, no brass; just 3 bassoons, 2 violas, cello, bassi and organ.
+
+[388] In Saul, the scene of the Sorcerer, apparition of the spirit of
+Samuel.
+
+[389] The _violette marine_ (little violas very soft) in _Orlando_
+(1733).
+
+[390] The monster instruments used for the colossal performances at
+Westminster. The double bassoon by Stainsby made in 1727 for the
+coronation celebrations. Handel borrowed from the Captain of Artillery
+some huge drums preserved at the Tower of London, for _Saul_ and for the
+_Dettingen Te Deum_. Moreover, like Berlioz, he was not afraid of using
+firearms in the orchestra. Mrs. Elizabeth Carter wrote: "Handel has
+literally introduced firearms into _Judas Maccabaeus_; and they have a
+good effect" (_Carter Correspondence_, p. 134), and Sheridan, in a
+humorous sketch (Jupiter) represents an author who directs a pistol-shot
+to be fired behind the scenes, as saying, "See, I borrowed this from
+Handel."
+
+[391] For the scene of Cleopatra's apparition on the Parnassus, at the
+opening of Act II of _Giulio Cesare_, Handel has two orchestras, one on
+the stage; Oboe, 2 Violins, Viola, Harp, Viola da gamba, Theorbo,
+Bassoons, Cellos; the other, in front. The first air of Cleopatra in
+_Alexander Balus_ is accompanied by 2 Flutes, 2 Violins, Viola, 2
+Cellos, Harp, Mandoline, Basses, Bassoon and Organ.
+
+[392] Fritz Volbach: _Die Praxis der Haendel-Auffuehrung_, 1899.
+
+[393] In addition to two parts for Flutes, two for Oboes, two for
+Bassoons, Violas, Cellos and Basses, Cembalo, Theorbo, Harp and Organ;
+in all, fifteen orchestral parts to accompany a single voice of
+_Esther_.
+
+[394] For the Angel's Song.
+
+[395] In _Saul_, "_viola II per duoi violoncelli ripieni_." (See
+Volbach, _ibid._)
+
+[396] Study from this point of view the progress from the very simple
+instrumentation of _Alexander's Feast_, where at first two Oboes are
+used with the strings, then appear successively two Bassoons (air No.
+6), two Horns (air No. 9), two Trumpets and Drums (Part II), and, for
+conclusion, with the heavenly apparition of St. Cecilia, two Flutes.
+
+[397] Dr. Hermann Abert has found the first indication: _crescendo il
+forte_ in Jommelli's _Artaserse_, performed at Rome in 1749. In the
+eighteenth century the Abbe Vogler and Schubart already had attributed
+the invention of the _Crescendo_ to Jommelli.
+
+[398] See Lucien Kamiensky: _Mannheim und Italien_ (_Sammelbaende der
+I.M.G._, January-March, 1909).
+
+[399] M. Volbach has noticed in the overture to the _Choice of
+Hercules_, second movement: _piano_, _mezzo forte_, _un poco piu forte_,
+_forte_, _mezzo piano_, all in fourteen bars. In the chorus in _Acis and
+Galatea_, "Mourn, all ye muses," one reads _forte_, _piano_, _pp._--The
+introduction of _Zadock the Priest_ shows a colossal _crescendo_; the
+introductory movement to the final chorus in _Deborah_, a very broad
+_diminuendo_.
+
+[400] H. Riemann: _Zur Herkunft der dynamischen Schwellzeichen_ (I.M.G.,
+February, 1909).
+
+[401] Carle Mennicke notices the same sign for _decrescendo_ ((>) on a
+long note in the Overture to Rameau's _Acanthe et Cephise_ (1751).
+
+[402] Geminiani says of the _forte_ and the _piano_: "They are
+absolutely necessary to give expression to the melody; for all good
+music being the imitation of a fine discourse, these two ornaments have
+for their aim the varied inflections of the speaking voice." Telemann
+writes: "Song is the foundation of music, in every way. What the
+instruments play ought to be exactly after the principles of expression
+in singing."
+
+And M. Volbach shows that these principles governed music then in
+Germany with all kinds of musicians, even with the trompettist
+Altenburg, whose _School for the Trumpet_ was based on the principle
+that instrumental performance ought to be similar to vocal rendering.
+
+[403] Max Seiffert: _Die Verzierung der Sologesaenge in Haendels Messias_
+(_Sammelbaende der I.M.G._, July-September, 1907).
+
+[404] Fritz Volbach reckons for the _Concerto Grosso_, 8 first violins,
+8 seconds, 6 violas, 4 to 6 cellos, 4 basses--and for the _Ripienists_,
+6 first violins, 6 seconds, 4 violas, 3 or 4 celli, and 3 basses.
+
+These numbers are much greater than that of Handel's own performances.
+The programmes of a performance of the _Messiah_ at the Foundling
+Hospital, May 3, 1759, a little after Handel's death, give only 56
+executants, of which 33 were instrumentalists and 23 singers. The
+orchestra was divided into 12 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 4 oboes, 4
+bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 horns and drums (see _Musical Times_, May,
+1902).
+
+[405] "_Leichtigkeit der Bewegung und Beweglichkeit des Ausdrucks_," as
+Volbach tells us (suppleness of time and fluidity of expression); these
+are the essential qualities which alone will revive the true rendering
+of Handel's works.
+
+[406] _12 Grand Concertos_ for stringed instruments and clavier (Vol.
+XXX of the Complete Edition), written from September 29 to October 20,
+1739, between the little _Ode to St. Cecilia_ and _L'Allegro_. They
+appeared in April, 1740. Another volume, of which we will speak later,
+is known under the name of _Oboe Concertos_, and contains six _Concerti
+Grossi_ (Vol. XXI of the Complete Edition). Max Seiffert has published a
+well-edited practical edition of these concertos (Breitkopf).
+
+[407] The _Concertino_ consists of a trio for two violins and bass
+_soli_, with _Cembalo Obbligato_. The Germans introduced wood-wind into
+the _concertino_, combining thus a violin, an oboe, a bassoon. The
+Italians remained faithful, generally speaking, to the stringed
+instruments alone.
+
+[408] The _Concerti Grossi_, Op. 6, of Corelli, published in 1712,
+represent his lifelong practice. About 1682, George Muffat, visiting
+Rome, sought to make acquaintance there with the _Concerti Grossi_ of
+Corelli, who already wrote them for instrumental masses of considerable
+size. Burney speaks of a concert of 150 string instruments conducted by
+Corelli at the Palace of Christine of Sweden in 1680 (see Arnold
+Schering's excellent little book: _Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts_,
+1905, Breitkopf).
+
+[409] Geminiani caused three volumes of Corelli's Concertos to be
+published: Op. 2 (1732), Op. 3 (1735), Op. 7 (1748).
+
+[410] Arnold Schering has noted the relationship between a subject of
+Geminiani and one in Handel's _Concerto Grosso_, No. 4.
+
+[411] Volume XXI of the Complete Edition.
+
+[412] About 1682, Muffat published at Salzburg his _Armonico tributo_,
+Chamber Sonatas, where he mingled the style of the Lullian Trio with the
+style of the Italian _Concertino_. And in 1701, at Passau, he published
+some _Concerti Grossi_ in the Italian manner after the example of
+Corelli.
+
+[413] _Concerti Grossi_, Amsterdam, 1721.
+
+[414] Antonio Vivaldi of Venice (1680-1743), choirmaster of the Ospedale
+della Pieta from 1714, began to be known in Germany between 1710 and
+1720. The arrangements of his _Concerti Grossi_, which J. S. Bach made,
+date from the time when Bach was at Weimar, that is between 1708 and
+1714.
+
+[415] Locatelli and Vivaldi came under the influence of the Italian
+Opera. Vivaldi himself wrote thirty-eight operas. One of the _Concerti_
+of Locatalli (Op. 7, 1741) was named _Il pianto d'Arianna_. In the
+_Cimento dell'Armonia_ of Vivaldi four Concertos describe the four
+seasons, a fifth paints _La Tempesta_, a sixth _Il Piacere_ (Pleasure).
+In Vivaldi's Op. 10 a Concerto represents _La Notte_ (Night), another
+_Il Cardellino_ (The Goldfinch). And Arnold Schering notices Vivaldi's
+influence in Germany on a Granpuer at Darmstadt, and on Jos. Gregorius
+Werner in Bohemia.
+
+[416] See the following dates: September 29, 1739, Concerto I in G
+major; October 4, Concerto II in F major; October 6, Concerto III in E
+minor; October 8, Concerto IV in A minor; October 12, Concerto VII in B
+flat major; October 15, Concerto VI in G minor; October 18, Concerto
+VIII in C minor; October 20, Concerto XII in B minor; October 22,
+Concerto X in D minor; October 30, Concerto XI in A major (Vol. XXX of
+Complete Edition).
+
+[417] One sees French influences particularly in the Tenth Concerto (in
+D minor), which has an Overture (_Grave_ in 4-4 time and Fugue in 6-8).
+The whole movement preserves an abstract and irregular character. The
+last of the six movements--an _Allegro Moderato_, with Variations (very
+pretty)--resembles a tune for a musical box.
+
+[418] See even the Third Concerto in E minor, so vivacious, with its
+_Larghetto_ 3-2, melancholy and serene, its _Andante_ 12-8 Fugue with an
+elaborate theme of twirling designs which gives the impression of the
+fancies of a capricious and gloomy soul, its _Allegro_ in 4-4, with a
+humour a little grotesque--its picturesque Polonaise on a pedal-bass,
+and its final _allegro ma non troppo_ of which the rhythm and unexpected
+modulations make one think of certain dances in the later quartets of
+Beethoven.
+
+[419] The Fifth Concerto in D major may be styled the Concerto to St.
+Cecilia; for three out of the six movements (the two first and the
+beautiful final minuet) are found again in the Overture to the little
+_Ode to St. Cecilia_.
+
+[420] Arnold Schering believes that the idea of this Musette was given
+to Handel by a _ritournelle_ from Leonardo Leo's _S. Elena il Calvaroa_.
+
+[421] The two last _allegri_ conclude the work a trifle brusquely. The
+order of the movements with Handel is often very surprising. It is as
+though he followed the caprice of the moment.
+
+[422] We cannot continue here the analysis of the other volumes of
+Orchestral Concertos. I satisfy myself with merely enumerating them: The
+_6 Concerti grossi con due violini e violoncello di concertino obligati
+e due altri violini viola e basso di concerto grosso, op. 3_, known
+under the name of Oboe Concertos (notwithstanding that the oboe does not
+play a very prominent _role_), were published in 1734, and seemed to
+have been performed at the Wedding of the Prince of Orange with the
+Princess Anne in 1733. But, as we are told, their composition was
+previous to this; for not only do we find in the third and the fifth the
+reproduction of fugues from the Clavier Pieces, but the fourth served in
+1716 as the second overture to _Amadigi_, and the first movement of the
+fifth was played in 1722 in the opera _Ottone_. The form of these
+Concertos, even less set than with the preceding _Concerti Grossi_,
+varies from two to five movements, and their orchestration comprises,
+besides the strings, two oboes, to which are occasionally added two
+flutes, two bassoons, the organ and the clavecin. It is only exceptional
+that the oboe plays a solo part; more often it has to satisfy itself by
+reinforcing the violins.
+
+To this volume we must add a number of other concertos, which appeared
+at different times, and are brought together in Volume XXI of the
+Complete Works; especially the celebrated Concerto of _Alexander's
+Feast_, written in January, 1736, of which the style has the same
+massive breadth as the oratorio itself. And four little concertos, two
+of which are interesting by being youthful works, from 1703 to 1710,
+according to Chrysander.
+
+[423] Handel's Overtures were so much appreciated that the publisher
+Walsh issued a volume of them for the clavier(65 Overtures). A good
+specimen of these transcriptions is found in Volume XLVIII of the
+Complete Edition.
+
+[424] Both movements are rudimentary.
+
+[425] This device is often used by Handel to make the transition between
+the orchestra and the voice.
+
+[426] Scheibe, who was, with Mattheson, the greatest of German musical
+critics in Handel's time, states that the overture ought in its two
+first movements "to mark the chief character of the work"; and in the
+third movement "to prepare for the first scene of the piece" (_Krit.
+Musikus_, 1745). Scheibe himself composed in 1738 some _Sinfonie_ "which
+expressed to some extent the contents of the works" (_Polyeuctes,
+Mithridates_).
+
+[427] _Andante_, _larghetto_, _allegro_ (fugue).
+
+[428] Only whereas a modern composer would not have omitted the
+opportunity of exposing his programme in an organic manner (by
+presenting turn by turn the two rival themes, then by bringing them into
+conflict, and finally terminating with the triumph of Israel's theme),
+Handel contents himself in exposing the two subjects without seeking to
+establish any further sequence. If he finishes his overture with the
+theme of Baal, it is because it is a gigue movement, and because the
+gigue serves well there for concluding; and because Israel's song being
+an _adagio_ is better placed as the second movement. It is such
+architectural considerations which guide him rather than dramatic ones.
+It is the same with nearly all the symphonies of the eighteenth century.
+In the same manner even Beethoven in his _Eroica_ symphony allows his
+hero to die and be buried in the second movement, and then celebrates
+his acts and his triumphs in the third and fourth movements.
+
+[429] Amongst the other overtures, which have the character of
+introduction to the work proper, I will mention the Overture to
+_Athalie_, which is in perfect accordance with the tragedy;--that of
+_Acis and Galatea_, which is a Pastoral Symphony evoking the Pagan life
+of nature;--that of the _Occasional Oratorio_, a warlike overture with
+two marches, trumpet calls, and a Prayer of distress. There is also the
+outline of a programme in the Overture to _Judas Maccabaeus_, of which
+the first movement is related to the Funeral Scene which opens the first
+act, and of which the second movement (Fugue) is connected with one of
+the warlike choruses of Act I.
+
+The Overture of _Riccardo I_ (1727), in two movements, contains a
+tempest in music painted in a powerful and poetic manner, which opens
+the first act after the manner of the Tempest in _Iphigenie en Tauride_,
+and on the last rumblings of which the dialogue between the heroes
+commences.
+
+Finally one finds occasionally in the course of the works some other
+_Sinfonie_ which have a dramatic character. The most striking is that
+which opens the third act of the _Choice of Hercules_. It depicts turn
+by turn the fury of Hercules and the sad force of Destiny which weighs
+down on his soul.
+
+[430] Volume XLVIII of the Complete Works.
+
+[431] The work was an immediate success. A first Edition very incorrect
+and incomplete was published in London about 1720, by Walsh.
+Arrangements for harpsichord with variations by Geminiani were also
+published. Both the Water Music and the Firework Music are published in
+Volume XLVII of the Complete Edition.
+
+[432] One may add to these monumental pieces the _Sinfonie diverse_ (pp.
+140-143 of Vol. XLVIII) and the Concerto in F major in the form of an
+Overture and Suite (pp. 68-100, _ibid._), but particularly the _3
+Concerti fuer grosses Orchester_ and the _2 Concerti a due cori_ of Vol.
+XLVII. The _Concerti fuer grosses Orchester_ have been, so to speak, the
+sketch books for the Water Music and for the Firework Music. The first
+Concerto dates from about 1715, and furnished two movements for the
+Water Music. It is written for two horns, two oboes, bassoon, two
+violins, violas and bass. The second Concerto in F major (for four
+horns, two oboes, bassoons, two violins, violas, cellos, basses and
+organ); and the third Concerto in D major (for two trumpets, four horns,
+drums, two oboes, bassoons, two violins, violas, cellos, organ) contains
+already nearly all the Firework Music with a less important orchestra,
+but with the Organ in addition.
+
+The two Concertos for two horns (_Concerti a due cori_) were made from
+the important choruses of the Oratorios transcribed for double
+orchestra--ten orchestral parts for the first group, twelve for the
+second (four horns, eight oboes, bassoons, etc.). Thus the appearance of
+God in _Esther_: "Jehovah crowned in glory bright," and the connected
+chorus: "He comes to end our woes." There are there colossal dialogues
+between the two orchestras.
+
+[433] The autograph MS., published in XLVII of the Complete Edition,
+contains: 2 parts for trumpets with 3 trumpets to a part (_i.e._ 6
+trumpets); 3 _Prinzipali_ (low trumpets); 3 drums; 3 parts for horns
+with 3 to a part (_i.e._ 9 Horns); 3 parts for oboes with 12 for the
+first part, 8 for the second and 4 for the third (_i.e._ 24 oboes); 2
+parts for bassoons with 8 for the first and 4 for the second (_i.e._ 12
+bassoons). Total, 70 wind instruments. There were about 100 players for
+the performance on April 27, 1749.
+
+Later on, Handel reproduced the work for concert use by adding the
+string orchestra to it.
+
+[434] Written for 9 horns in three sections, 24 oboes in two sections,
+and 12 bassoons.
+
+[435] It would not be difficult to add other analogous works by Handel
+and Beethoven. There exists a fine repertoire of popular classical music
+for open-air _fetes_. But, nevertheless, it is completely disregarded.
+
+[436] The Gavotte theme from the Overture to _Ottone_ was played all
+over England and on all kinds of instruments, "even on the pan's-pipes
+of the perambulating jugglers." It was found even at the end of the
+eighteenth century as a French vaudeville air. (see the _Anthologie
+francoise ou Chansons choisies_, published by Monnet, in 1765, Vol. I,
+p. 286). The March from _Scipio_, as also that from _Rinaldo_, served
+during half a century for the Parade of the Life Guards. The minuets and
+overtures from _Arianna_ and Berenice had a long popularity. One sees in
+the English novels of the time (especially in Fielding's _Tom Jones_) to
+what an extent Handel's music had permeated English country life, even
+from the small country squires to the county magnates, so absolutely cut
+off as they were from _all_ artistic influences.
+
+[437] Paul Marie Masson has noticed that about the date of 1716, in a
+volume of _Recueil d'airs serieux et a boire_. (Bibl. Nat. Vm. 549), an
+_Aria del Signor Inden_ (sic), "_air ajoute au ballet de l'Europe
+Galante_." The _Meslanges de musique latine, francoise et italienne_ of
+Ballard (in 1728), contains amongst the Italian airs _Arie de Signor
+Endel_ (p. 61). All the airs of the _Chasse du cerf_ by Sere de Rieux
+(1734) are Handel airs adapted to French words. An article by Michel
+Brenet, _La librairie musicale en France de 1653 a 1790, d'apres les
+registres de privileges_ (_Sammelbaende I.M.G._, 1907) gives a series of
+French Editions of Handel from 1736, 1739, 1749, 1751, 1765. In 1736 and
+in 1743 in _Concerts Spirituels_ some of his airs and his _Concerti
+Grossi_ were given (Brenet: _Les Concerts en France sous l'ancien
+regime_, 1900). A number of his airs were arranged for the flute by
+Blavet in his three _Receuils de pieces, petits airs, brunettes,
+minuets, etc., accommodes pour les flutes traversieres, violins, etc._,
+which appeared between 1740 and 1750. Handel was so well known in Paris
+that they sold his portrait there in 1739. (See a tradesman's
+advertisement in the _Mercure de France_, June, 1739, Vol. II, page
+1384.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Romain Rolland
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