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.