Judas Maccabaeus--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and
his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality.
The new oratorio met with surprising success. In the first place, Handel
had given up the subscription system, and opened the theatre to all comers.
The relief produced by the victory of Culloden had no doubt encouraged
the general public to spend more money on entertainments; the Duke of
Cumberland was a popular hero, and, through the _Occasional Oratorio_,
Handel's name had come to be associated with him. _Judas_ was naturally
patronised by the court and by the Duke himself, who had made a handsome
present to Morell in recognition of his literary laurels. And a new class
of enthusiasts appeared in the shape of the Jews, we are told, who were
attracted by the glorification of a national hero of their own. We do not
hear much of the Jewish community in London in the days of Handel, and
it cannot have been a very large one, but they appear to have been worth
Handel's consideration. It may be mentioned that Handel's early librettist
in London, Nicolo Haym, must have been a Jew, to judge from his name.
Handel, at any rate, was sufficiently impressed to ask Morell to find
another Jewish subject for his next oratorio; this was _Alexander Balus_,
produced the following year.
The Italian opera party had this year engaged Gluck as a composer, and he
too celebrated the Duke of Cumberland's achievements with an opera, _La
Caduta dei Giganti_ (January 5), which was a complete failure. It must
have been put together in a hurry, for all of the "favourite songs" in it,
published by Walsh (and no other record of the music remains), were taken
from earlier operas of Gluck's; in any case they are poor stuff, and from
Burney's description of the singers it is no wonder that the opera had no
success. Gluck called on Handel, who told someone that he knew no more of
counterpoint than his cook. Gluck was just under thirty, Handel just over
sixty, and one can understand Handel's attitude; in any case he gave him
some plain and practical advice as to how to please an English audience,
which was not much use to Gluck, as he never visited this country again.
Handel was quite right in his criticism, for Gluck was always very clumsy
in his technique; and, at any rate, Gluck found him friendly enough and
spoke of him forty years later with the profoundest respect. It is probable
that Gluck heard _Judas_, as he was still in London in April.
A significant indication of the new popularity which Handel had acquired
was the production of a _pasticcio_, at the Italian Opera in November 1747,
made up chiefly from the operas of Handel; but the experiment was not
repeated. In the autumn of 1748 a company of Italian comic-opera singers
came over to London; they brought an entirely new type of entertainment,
and after their success Handelian opera was buried for ever.
_Alexander Balus_ was not one of Handel's popular works; _Joshua_ (March
23, 1748) is now pretty well forgotten, but was a great attraction when
new, mainly because it contained "See the Conquering Hero," which was
afterwards transferred to _Judas Maccabaeus_. "What the English like is
something that they can beat time to," said Handel to Gluck. He agreed with
Hawkins in not caring very much for it himself, but added, "you will live
to see it a greater favourite with the people than my other fine things."
_Joshua_ contains two "borrowings," one from Handel's own opera _Riccardo_,
and another from Gottlieb Muffat.
The productions of the next year (1749) were _Susanna_ (February 10) and
_Solomon_ (March 17); it is not known who wrote their libretti, though
_Solomon_ has been tentatively ascribed to Morell. _Susanna_ was remarkably
successful, perhaps on account of its story, which has always been a
favourite with the painters of the later Renaissance. One can understand
Lady Shaftesbury's saying, "I believe it will not insinuate itself so much
into my approbation as most of Handel's performances do, as it is in
the light operatic style." _Solomon_ was a complete contrast, with its
magnificent scenes of oriental pageantry.
The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 1748) had no doubt contributed, as
the victory of Culloden did, to make people more inclined to enjoy the
pleasures of life, with beneficial results to the organisers of music and
drama. The King ordered a grand celebration of the event to take place
on April 27, 1749, and preparations for it were begun as early as the
preceding November. The famous theatrical architect Servandoni was
commissioned to design an elaborate entertainment of fireworks on a
colossal scale to be let off in the Green Park, accompanied by the music of
Handel. The Fireworks Music was scored for fifty-six wind instruments. A
rehearsal of it (without fireworks) was held at Vauxhall Gardens a week
before, at half a crown admission, and it is said to have been attended by
a crowd of twelve thousand persons. At the actual performance the fireworks
were a disastrous failure, owing to various accidents, but Handel's music,
accompanied by the firing of ordnance, was the real event of the evening. A
month later Handel repeated the music at the Foundling Hospital, along with
selections from Solomon, and a new work, composed for the occasion, known
as the Foundling Anthem. His next act of generosity was to present the
hospital with an organ, which he inaugurated on May 1, 1750, with a
performance of Messiah. Henceforth the performance of Messiah at the
Foundling Hospital for the benefit of the institution became an annual
event, and it was this charitable association which really secured the work
its subsequent popularity.
Handel's next oratorio, Theodora (March 16, 1750), came out at a bad
moment, for a series of earthquakes were being felt in London, with the
result that many people took refuge in the country, and those who stayed
behind were reluctant to go to the theatre. The blame for the neglect which
has always overtaken Theodora has been very unjustly laid on Morell. Handel
himself, remembering the successes of Judas and Susanna, observed to the
poet, "The Jews will not come to it, because it is a Christian story; and
the ladies will not come, because it is a virtuous one." Theodora was
always Handel's favourite among his oratorios, and he considered the
chorus, "He saw the Lovely Youth," to be far beyond anything in Messiah.
None the less, the theatre was half empty when Theodora was given. "Never
mind," said Handel, with grim humour, "the music will sound all the
better."
An old acquaintance reappeared this year in London in the shape of Cuzzoni,
who had continued her quarrelsome career at Venice, Vienna, and Stuttgart.
An unsuccessful benefit concert was given for her, at which Giardini the
violinist made his first appearance in London. Handel engaged her to sing
in Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, but her voice was gone. She was
arrested for debt and bailed out by the Prince of Wales; after a few years
in Holland, where she was again in prison, she died in destitution at
Bologna.
In the summer Handel went to Germany for the last time. Nothing is known of
his movements there beyond the fact that on the journey out he met with a
carriage accident between the Hague and Haarlem. He was seriously injured,
but was stated in a London paper of August 21 to be out of danger. Nor is
it known when he returned; we have no further news of him until in January
he began work on Jephtha. Morell says that he himself wrote Jephtha in
1751, but, as Handel had completed the first act on February 2, it is
probable that Morell, like Jennens, supplied him with the words in
instalments.
The composition of the music suffered various interruptions owing to the
failure of Handel's eyesight, and possibly to a return of mental disorder
(Streatfeild). He was able to play the organ at the Foundling Hospital
in May, and directly afterwards went for a short visit to Cheltenham,
returning to London on June 13. He resumed work on Jephtha, and finished it
on August 30. It was some time this year (the precise date is unknown) that
he consulted Samuel Sharp, a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, who told him that
he was suffering from gutta serena, and that freedom from pain in the
visual organs was all that he had to hope for during the remainder of his
days. It was a severe shock, especially to a man whose general physical and
mental health was already undermined, and it is no wonder that Handel began
to give way to periods of profound depression. The condition of Handel's
eyes, and of his hand as well, may be clearly observed in the autograph of
Jephtha, and it may be noted that here he again reverted to the process of
"borrowing"--this time from five Masses by Habermann, a composer twenty
years his junior, published in 1747.
It may well be asked how Handel acquired the original copies of all the
works which he utilised in his later years, since it is obvious that they
could not have been well known or easily available to musicians in England.
A guess may be hazarded that he obtained them through his old friend
Telemann at Hamburg. Telemann, it will be remembered, had been a close
friend of Handel's during their student days at Halle; whether they met
again in Germany after Handel had taken up his residence in London is
not known, but it is quite probable. The fact remains that Handel was
undoubtedly in friendly correspondence with Telemann in 1750, for in
December of that year he wrote a long letter to him (in French) thanking
him for a theoretical work. Telemann appears to have been a keen gardener,
and had evidently asked Handel to send him some rare plants. Handel's reply
suggests that he was not much interested in gardening himself, but was most
anxious to do all he could to give Telemann pleasure.
Another letter (again in French) to Telemann, dated September 20, 1754,
explains that Handel had set about procuring the plants when Captain
Carsten of Hamburg, by whose ship he intended to send them, told him that
Telemann was dead; but, after another voyage to Hamburg and back, Carsten
brought the news that Telemann was alive and in good health. He also
brought a list of the rare plants desired, and Handel writes to say that he
has obtained almost all of them, and will send them by Captain Carsten when
he sails for Hamburg again in December.
It is true that there is no mention of any parcel of music in these
letters, beyond Telemann's "System of Intervals," but they suggest that
they were part of a longer correspondence. Telemann was keenly interested
in contemporary music, as his correspondence with Graun shows; he also
seems to have asked Graun to send him plants from Berlin. He is the most
likely person to have sent musical works of interest to Handel; possibly
they were sent on loan, and returned after Handel had made the extracts
which are to be seen in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.
Jephtha was produced on February 26, 1752. Handel's oratorios had by now
become a lucrative undertaking, and it was characteristic of English
audiences that they came in crowds to see Handel playing the organ in his
blindness, and enjoy the luxury of tears when Beard sang "Total Eclipse!"
Sharp, the oculist, recommended Handel to employ as his assistant John
Stanley, who had been blind from early childhood and was a singularly
accomplished organist. Handel burst out laughing. "Mr. Sharp, have you
never read' the Scriptures? Do you not remember? If the blind lead the
blind, they both fall into the ditch."
He underwent various operations, but derived only partial benefit from
them. During these last years he led a very retired life, but he continued
to play the organ at his oratorios, at first from memory, and later
extemporising the solos in his concertos, which were always an integral
feature of his concerts. The profits of these were enormous, and when he
died in 1759 he left investments to the extent of 20,000. Composition
naturally became a more difficult matter after blindness set in, but new
songs were added to many of the oratorios, and in 1758 he made a complete
revision of his old Italian cantata, Il Trionfo del Tempo. Morell
translated it into English, and seventeen new numbers were added. Some of
these were new, but many were adapted from other works of Handel's, chiefly
from Parnasso in Festa, and there are also borrowings from Lotti and Graun.
Two choruses by Graun had already been utilised in the revision of the
Italian version which Handel brought out in 1737.
All this time John Christopher Schmidt, now known as Smith, had been his
indispensable factotum. Smith made fair copies of his music, and managed
his affairs for him, though Handel, almost up to the end, seems to have
discussed his investments in person with his financial adviser, Mr. Gael
Morris, in the City. Smith's son, who had come with his father to London as
a child, had been educated under Handel's direction, and in 1754 became the
first organist of the Foundling Hospital. In Handel's later years it was
the son who assisted him at the performances of the oratorios and acted as
his musical amanuensis. There is a curious story of a quarrel which took
place at Tunbridge Wells, about four years before Handel's death, between
the two old men. The cause of it is not known, but it is stated to have
been quite trivial; old Smith left Handel abruptly, and Handel vowed he
would never see him again. The son attempted to heal the breach and even
went so far as to say that he would refuse to assist Handel at his concerts
any more unless Handel restored to his father the legacy which after the
quarrel he had intended to leave to the son; young Smith foresaw that he
himself would be accused of having deliberately alienated the affections of
Handel from his father in order to secure the money for himself.
Handel apparently yielded to some extent, but it is clear that he was not
reconciled to old Smith for a long time. "About three weeks before his
death," we are told, in Coxe's Anecdotes of Handel and Smith, published
soon after young Smith's death, "Handel desired Smith junior to receive the
sacrament with him. Smith asked him how he could communicate, when he was
not at peace with the world and especially when he was at enmity with
his former friend, who, though he might have offended him once, had been
faithful and affectionate to him for thirty years." Handel was much
affected by Smith's words, and the reconciliation took place. Religion had
gained a strong hold upon Handel in his years of suffering; he spoke much
to Hawkins and others of his delight in setting the Scriptures to music,
and he was a regular worshipper at St. George's, Hanover Square.
His last appearance in public was at the performance of Messiah on April 6,
1759, but at the end of it he was seized with a fainting attack, took to
his bed, and died during the night between the 13th and 14th of April. He
was buried in Westminster Abbey on the evening of the 10th; the choirs
of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's joined the Abbey choir in singing the
burial music of Dr. Croft, and it is said that three thousand people were
present.
Handel's will, executed June 1, 1750, left the bulk of his fortune to his
niece and goddaughter Johanna Friderica Floerken (nee Michaelsen) of Gotha;
other relatives were also left legacies. To Christopher Smith (junior) he
left 500, besides his large harpsichord, his chamber organ, his portrait
by Denner, and his manuscripts. He had at one time thought of leaving the
manuscripts to the University of Oxford, and, having already promised them
to Smith, offered him a legacy of £3,000 if he would resign all claim to
them. Smith refused, and also refused an offer of £2,000 made for them,
after Handel's death, by Frederick the Great. He kept them until 1772, when
he presented them to George III in return for a pension of £200 a year. But
he did not hand over the whole of the manuscripts to the King, and a
large collection of rough sketches and fragments was acquired by Lord
Fitzwilliam, who bequeathed them to the University of Cambridge.
The foregoing pages will have shown how singularly few are the definite
facts about Handel's life which can be ascertained with any degree of
certainty. There are a number of portraits which give some idea of his
outward appearance, but most of them represent him as a man of middle age,
and the anecdotes of his life and habits recorded by various contemporaries
belong mostly to the same period. It is almost impossible to form any idea
of his private character and his inward personality. Biographers of
musicians often attempt to deduce their characters from their musical
works, but it need hardly be said that such a procedure is thoroughly
unreliable.
Portraits are notoriously unsafe as guides to the interpretation of
character, but if the miniature reproduced by Mr. Flower as having been
painted in Rome is an authentic likeness of Handel as a young man and it
certainly bears some resemblance to the portrait by Denner painted about
1736 or 1737--he must have been singularly attractive in those days. It
cannot have been his musical abilities alone that won him the immediate
friendship of Telemann at Halle and Mattheson at Hamburg; and, although he
seems from his earliest days to have been ambitious and determined to make
a career for himself, his contemporaries give the impression that he was
retiring rather than self-assertive. In later life he was often described
as bearish and rough-mannered, but this cannot have been the case in his
youth, or he would never have achieved the position which he held in the
most cultured and distinguished society of Rome and Naples. His visit to
Italy must inevitably have been a wonderful education in the humanities,
otherwise he could never have been received as he was on his first visit
to London by the society which most nearly resembled that of his Italian
friends and patrons.
Professional musicians, and especially those connected with the theatre,
were regarded in England as being more or less disreputable, unless they
held university degrees and posts of distinction. Handel moved among them
in his professional life, as was only natural, but his more intimate
friendships seem, throughout his career, to have been confined mainly
to the innermost circle of the well-bred amateurs; we must not forget,
however, that it was only persons of that class whose letters and memoirs
have come down to us. Burney and Hawkins at any rate were well acquainted
with the professional world, and their testimony tends to confirm that
Handel stood more or less aloof from it. It was only in later life that he
associated on terms of friendship with such a person as Mrs. Cibber, the
singer. In an age when all opera-houses were, with some truth, regarded as
centres of sexual promiscuity, it is indeed remarkable that not the least
evidence exists, with one solitary exception, that Handel was ever even
alleged to have had an illicit love-affair. Mr. Flower discovered a copy of
Mainwaring's biography, with marginal notes said to be in the handwriting
of George III, and there we read: "G. F. Handel was ever honest, nay
excessively polite, but like all Men of Sense would talk all, and hear
none, and scorned the advice of any but the Woman he loved, but his
Amours were rather of short duration, always within the pale of his own
profession." The _Anecdotes of Handel and Smith_ mention two occasions on
which he was said to have become engaged to be married, or nearly so, but
the writer is so reticent that little faith can be placed in his statement,
and in any case the _Anecdotes_, published in 1799, are not very reliable
as far as Handel is concerned.
It is not difficult to understand that there were two Handels, one
"excessively polite" (which, in the language of the eighteenth century,
does not mean that he was servile and cringing, but simply that he behaved
like a man of good breeding), as he appeared to such people as Mrs. Delany
and the Harris family, and the other as he showed himself at rehearsals,
or in the society of men friends of more or less his own standing--bluntly
outspoken and perhaps at times inconsiderate. The hostility of a large
number of social leaders may well have been aroused in the first instance
by some careless harsh word.
"The figure of Handel was large," says Burney, "and he was somewhat
corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I
remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of
fire and dignity; and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius. He
was impetuous, rough, and peremptory in his manners and conversation, but
totally devoid of ill-nature or malevolence; indeed there was an original
humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or impatience,
which, with his broken English, were extremely risible. His natural
propensity to wit and humour, and happy manner of relating common
occurrences in an uncommon way, enabled him to throw persons and things
into very ridiculous attitudes. Handel's general look was somewhat heavy
and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of
a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good
humour, beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other."
Both Burney and Hawkins record that outside his profession he was said to
be ignorant and dull, and the fact that they are at pains to defend him on
this charge shows that there was apparent ground for it. Pepusch said of
him that he was "a good practical musician," which is what one might well
expect of Pepusch, whose devotion to antiquarian learning aroused the
amusement rather than the admiration of his contemporaries. Handel was at
any rate keenly interested in painting, like Corelli, and the third codicil
to his will, dated August 4, 1757, mentions two landscapes by Rembrandt,
one a view of the Rhine, which he bequeathed to one of the Granvilles from
whom he had received both as a gift.
Another characteristic of Handel's for which his early biographers are
hard put to find an excuse was his enormous appetite for food and drink,
satirised by his once intimate friend the painter Goupy in a well-known
print called "The Charming Brute," in which Handel is represented with the
head of a pig, seated at an organ, with various comestibles disposed at his
feet. In this connexion it may be noted that for all his gluttony Handel
was never accused of drunkenness; if he exceeded in the pleasures of the
table, it was as a gourmet and a connoisseur. Yet it is recorded that he
never led an extravagant life, and apart from this particular weakness
he lived as simply in the days of his wealth as in those of his poverty.
Generosity to those in distress was at all times characteristic of him.
Although Handel became a naturalised British subject, none of his
contemporaries would ever have dreamed of regarding him as an Englishman,
or as a composer of English music. Burney's account of the commemoration
festival of 1784 may be regarded as an official panegyric, but even in
that he goes no further than to say that Handel, "though not a native
of England, spent the greatest part of his life in the service of its
inhabitants, improving our taste, and introducing among us so many species
of musical excellence, that, during more than half a century, while
sentiment, not fashion, guided our applause, we neither wanted nor wished
for any other standard. Indeed, his works were so long the models of
perfection in this country, that they may be said to have formed our
national taste." In the pages which deal with the character of Handel as a
composer, he says that he united "the depth and elaborate contrivance of
his own country with Italian elegance and facility." Handel's music, he
holds, was from the first congenial to the English temperament, but he
never regards it as being at all English in style, though in other writings
he naturally recognises the occasional indebtedness of Handel to the
influence of Purcell. It was only in the nineteenth century that Handel
came to be regarded as a national institution. His own country for the most
part neglected his works; his operas were thought impossible to revive, and
the oratorios were considered by most Germans as being "too English"--an
opinion which the writer of this book frequently heard expressed in Germany
some fifty years ago. Since 1920 there has been an astonishing revival
of Handel in Germany, beginning with the restoration to the stage of his
operas--the last works of his which most people would have thought suitable
for presentation to modern audiences--and much energy has been expended
by German critics on an attempt to demonstrate the essentially Germanic
character both of Handel's music and of his personality.
The more closely we study Handel in relation to his own times, and in
relation to the general history of music, the clearer it becomes that Goupy
the caricaturist was only right when he put into Handel's mouth the words,
"I am myself alone."
The foundation of Handel's musical style was Italian, and it was only
natural that this should be the case, for, in his days, Italy dominated
European music as she did European architecture. All music in the grand
manner, except in France, was Italian in its tradition, and if ever there
was a composer who illustrated the grand manner throughout his life, it was
Handel. France had produced a grand manner of her own, though not without
an initial impulse from Italy; in all other countries north of the Alps
native music was only for the humbler classes of society. When Handel
condescended to it, as he did in the political excitement of 1745, he
deliberately adopted the musical style of a tavern song.
Handel's serious music was never written for popular audiences; in his
later oratorios he sometimes admittedly wrote down to the taste of the
middle classes, but we have the records of his conversations with Gluck,
Hawkins, and others to prove how little respect he had for that taste. He
composed for the needs of the moment, and not with a view to immortality,
but he composed for a society which was cultured enough to desire, even in
its entertainments, grace, dignity, and serenity.
If Handel's works have for later generations become a source of joy and
delight to a very different social class, it is because they are the
musical equivalents of those palaces and gardens of Handel's day which
are now national monuments and open to all comers. We walk beneath their
colonnades, peopling them in imagination with the gracious and stately
figures of the past; and from the museum of memory there arise the unheard
strains of Handel's music:
_Hark! the heavenly sphere turns round,
And silence now is drown'd,
In ecstasy of sound!
How on a sudden the still air is charm'd,
As if all harmony were just alarm'd
And every soul with transport fill'd!_
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mainwaring, J.: _Memoirs of the Life of the Late G. F. Handel_. London.
1760.
Burney, Charles: _A General History of Music_. London. 1776-89.
Burney, Charles: _An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster
Abbey, etc._ London. 1785.
Hawkins, Sir John: _A General History of the Science and Practice of
Music_. London. 1776.
Coxe, W.: _Anecdotes of G. F. Handel and Y. C. Smith_. London. 1799.
Schoelcher, Victor: _The Life of Handel_. London. 1857. The first attempt
at a complete and documented biography.
Chrysander, Friedrich: _G. F. Händel_. Leipzig. 1858-67. This biography
does not go beyond 1740, but it is the most valuable source for carefully
documented facts.
Delany, Mary: _Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs.
Delany_. Edited by Lady Llanover. London. 1861-62.
Taylor, Sedley: _The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by Other Composers_.
Cambridge. 1906.
Robinson, Percy: _Handel and His Orbit_. London. 1908.
Streatfeild, R.A.: _Handel_. London. 1909. The best biography of Handel and
critical study of his works in English.
Squire, W. Barclay: _Handel in 1745_ (Riemann-Festschrift). Leipzig. 1909.
Rolland, Romain: _Haendel_. Paris. 1910.
Flower, Newman: _George Friederic Handel: His Personality and His Times_.
London. 1923.
This book contains much new biographical matter. I have to thank Mr. Flower
for kind permission to make use of his valuable discoveries.
Leichtentritt, Hugo: _Händel._ Stuttgart. 1924. Biography based mainly on
Streatfeild; gives a detailed analysis of all Handel's works.
Young, Percy M.: _Handel._ London. 1947.
HANDEL'S WORKS
OPERAS
_Almira_ (Hamburg, 1705).
_Nero_ (Hamburg, 1705, music lost).
_Florindo_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
_Dafne_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
_Rodrigo_ (Florence, 1707?).
_Agrippina_ (Venice, 1709).
The following operas were all produced in London:
_Rinaldo_ (1711).
_Il Pastor Fido_ (first version, 1712).
_Teseo_ (1712).
_Silla_ (1714).
_Amadigi_ (1715).
_Radamisto_ (1720).
_Muzio Scevola_ (1721, only Act III by Handel).
_Floridante_ (1721).
_Ottone_ (1723).
_Flavio_ (1723).
_Giulio Cesare_ (1724).
_Tamerlano_ (1724).
_Rodelinda_ (1725).
_Scipione_ (1726).
_Alessandro_ (1726).
_Admeto_ (1727).
_Riccardo I_ (1727).
_Siroe_ (1728).
_Tolomeo_ (1728).
_Lotario_ (1729).
_Partenope_ (1730).
_Poro_ (1731).
_Ezio_ (1732).
_Sosarme_ (1732).
_Orlando_ (1733).
_Arianna_ (1734).
_Parnasso in Festa_ (1734).
_Il Pastor Fido_ (second version, 1734).
_Terpsichore_ (1734).
_Ariodante_ (1735).
_Alcina_ (1735).
_Atalanta_ (1736).
_Arminio_ (1737).
_Giustino_ (1737).
_Berenice_ (1737).
_Faramondo_ (1738).
_Serse_ (1738).
_Jupiter in Argos_ (1739, announced but never performed).
_Imeneo_ (1740).
_Deidamia_ (1741).
ORATORIOS:
_St. John Passion_ (German, Hamburg, 1704).
_La Risurrezione_ (Italian, Rome, 1708).
_Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno_ (Italian, Rome, 1708).
_Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_ (Italian, Naples, 1709).
_Brockes Passion_ (German, Hanover, 1716).
All the following oratorios are in English:
_Esther_ (first version, London, 1720).
_Acis and Galatea_ (London, 1720).
_Esther_ (second version, London, 1732).
_Debora_ (London, 1733).
_Athalia_ (Oxford, 1733).
_Alexander's Feast_ (London, 1736).
_Saul_ (London, 1739).
_Israel in Egypt_ (London, 1739).
_Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_ (London, 1739).
_L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato_ (London, 1740).
_Messiah_ (Dublin, 1742).
HANDEL 139
The following oratorios were all produced in London:
_Samson_ (1743).
_Semele_ (1743).
_Joseph_ (1743).
_Belshazzar_ (1744).
_Hercules_ (1744).
_Occasional Oratorio_ (1746).
_Judas Maccabaeus_ (1747).
_Alexander Balus_ (1747).
_Joshua_ (1747).
_Solomon_ (1748).
_Susanna_ (1748).
_Theodora_ (1749).
_The Choice of Hercules_ (1749).
_Jephtha_ (1752).
_The Triumph of Time and Truth_ (1757).
SACRED WORKS:
_Laudate Pueri_ (Rome, 1707).
_Dixit Dominus_ (Rome, 1707).
_Nisi Dominus_ (Rome, 1707).
_Gloria Patri_ (Rome, 1707).
_Salve Regina_ (1707?).
_Silete Venti_ (1707?).
_Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate_ (London, 1713).
_Te Deum_ in D (1714?).
_Te Deum_ in B flat (Chandos) (1718-20).
_Te Deum_ in A (1727?).
_Twelve Chandos Anthems_ (1716-19).
_Four Coronation Anthems_ (1727).
_Wedding Anthem for Princess Anne_ (1734).
_Wedding Anthem for the Prince of Wales_ (1736).
_Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline_ (1737).
_Dettingen Te Deum_ (1743).
_Dettingen Anthem_ (1743).
_Foundling Hospital Anthem_ (1749).
SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC:
_Birthday Ode for Queen Anne_ (1713).
_Italian Cantatas, Duets and Trios_.
_German Songs_.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC:
_Six Concertos_ (so-called "Oboe Concertos"), published 1734.
_Three Concertos_ ("Select Harmony"), published 1741.
_Twelve Grand Concertos_, op. 6 (published 1740).
_Three Concertos a due cori_.
_Overtures, Marches, Dances, etc_.
_Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra_.
_Concerto for Violin and Orchestra_.
_Water Music_ (1715-17).
_Forest Music_ (1742, probably spurious).
_Music for the Royal Fireworks_ (1749).
_Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 4 (1738).
_Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_ (1740).
_Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 7 (1760).
Many of these are arrangements of other works.
_Sonatas for Flute, Oboe or Violin and Bass_ (19).
_Six Sonatas for two Oboes and Bass_.
_Six Sonatas for two Violins (Oboes or Flutes) and Bass_, op. 2 (1733).
_Seven Sonatas for two Violins (Flutes) and Bass_, op. 5 (1739).
_Sonata for Viola de Gamba_.
_Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1720).
_Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1733).
_Miscellaneous Harpsichord Music_.