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_.