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