_Autograph Music by Handel_ (Vol. v., p. 247.).--I have the pleasure to
inform the Rev. W. SPARROW SIMPSON, that the duet mentioned by him:
"Và, và, speme infida pur va non ti credo,"
forms the Fifth Number of Handel's celebrated _Chamber Duets_, and was
first printed, I believe, by the late Dr. Samuel Arnold, in his noble
edition of the _Works of Handel_.
The circumstances attending the composition of these chamber duets are
thus alluded to in the anonymous _Memoirs of Handel_, 8vo., 1759, p.
85.:
"Soon after his [Handel's] return to Hanover [in the year 1711],
he made twelve Chamber Duettos, for the practice of the late
Queen, then Electoral Princess. The character of these is well
known to the judges in music. The words for them were written by
the Abbate Mauro Hortensio, who had not disdained on other
occasions to minister to the masters of harmony."
I must, however, beg leave to express my opinion that MR. SPARROW's MS.
is _not_ an _autograph_ of the great composer, on the ground that the
_original_ MSS. of the _Chamber Duets_ are preserved in the Queen's
library at Buckingham Palace. Handel used not to make more than one copy
of his various pieces, unless (as was seldom the case) he made additions
or alterations.
I should mention that a new edition of the _Chamber Duets_ is now in the
course of publication by the Handel Society.