Sarah McCleave
All Handelians are aware of the composer’s connection with Dublin; both Dublin and Cork have entries in the Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia. But the composer’s work was also a significant musical presence in the north of Ireland – specifically in Armagh, an inland settlement some 80 miles north of Dublin and 40 miles south-west of Belfast. As the seat for both the Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishops of Armagh, this small city (current population c. 15,000) boasts two cathedrals, each named for St Patrick. The cathedral for the Church of Ireland cultivated Handel’s music for over a century, as is attested by a substantial collection of music now housed in the historic Armagh Robinson library (est. 1771).
In 2002, Theodore Saunders, organist at St Patrick’s (Church of Ireland), discovered the collection. He contacted me to determine if the School of Music at Queen’s University Belfast could catalogue it. Anne Dempsey (now Anne Campbell) took on this substantial task for her Master’s dissertation (1). The full catalogue is found at the McClay library, Queen’s University Belfast and the Armagh Robinson Library. Some records are already available on the RISM Ireland website , thanks to the efforts of another BMus student from Queen’s, Cherith Conn.
What does this collection of vocal and instrumental music represent? Ink, pencil, and stamped markings establish performance documents in use from the 1840s through to the 1950s – serving the cathedral, the Armagh Musical Society, the Armagh Philharmonic Society, the Armagh Amateur Harmonic Society, and the Orchestral Society. Volume 1 of Dempsey is an 87-page tabular record of the manuscript material (mostly part-books); Volume 2 records printed sources in descriptive catalogue format (421 pages); Volume 3 is a listed record of manuscript and printed music bound in compiled anthologies—these are normally part-books for particular voices or instruments. In chronological scope, the music ranges from Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) to Herbert Howells (1892-1983).
By the mid-1840s the Cathedral Orchestral Society (founded by Precentor Richard Allott Junior) and the Armagh Musical Society were established (Dempsey 1: xxv). The Armagh Guardian for 13 October 1846 identifies what may be the first public performance involving members of the latter:
The Banbridge Choral Society, under the direction of Mr. Lee, of the Armagh Cathedral, gave their second dress concert in the Town-hall, on Wednesday evening, the 7th instant, on which occasion they were assisted [by] Monsieur Potionier, the celebrated pianist, from Paris, several of the gentlemen of the Armagh Musical Society, and others. The audience was very large and most respectable. (2)
Within the Armagh collection, Handel is the most popular instrumental and vocal composer; his works constitute one tenth of it (Dempsey 1: xix). In Volume 2 of Dempsey he is represented particularly by the following genres: oratorios (58 imprints), theatre overtures (30), concertos (14) and anthems (11). The earliest known performance document of Handel’s music is a manuscript full score and parts for Handel’s Concerto 6th Trio in G, Op. 3 (HWV 324), arranged by one Richard Cherry and dated 01/12/1843 (Vol.365). As late as 1920, a Vicar Choral possessed a 72-item anthology of ‘Anthem-folios’ including ‘Oh God, who in thy heav’nly hand’ from Joseph (Vol.404 No.64).
Handel’s overtures are the most numerous of his works across the collection. They are found in manuscript part-books for individual works: ‘the dates provided by the copyist indicate that the overtures [in manuscript] … were copied and presumably performed between 1859 and 1868’ (Dempsey 1: xxii). Further research would establish whether these parts were taken from Handel’s overtures, arranged for two violins, flute, tenor, violoncello, contra basso & pianoforte, as issued by R. Cocks & Co. of 20 Princes Street Hanover Square, ‘Music Sellers in Ordinary to her most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria’ (Vol.100) (3).
Handel’s oratorios are represented by printed scores and part-books, as well as by individual pieces. Of particular interest are publisher Novello’s vocal and orchestral parts for Judas Maccabaeus, with ‘additional wind parts … added by Vincent Novello’ (title-page, Vol.163). The clarinet part includes an ‘inserted [manuscript leaf] of a clarinet arrangement of no. 50’ (Dempsey 2: 169). Novello’s The Orchestral and Vocal Parts to Acis & Galatea … The additional accompaniments by W.A. Mozart is inscribed ‘Armagh Cathedral / Orchestral Society, by R. W. Rolston Esq. / March 1919’ (Vols.156-161). By then Acis had been in Armagh’s experienced concert repertory for at least forty years, as this review from the Ulster Gazette (20 December 1879) confirms:
ARMAGH MUSICAL SOCIETY. This society gave its first concert of the second season Monday evening last in the Tontine, under the leadership Dr. Marks. The hall was well filled by a large and appreciative audience. The principal vocalists were Mrs. Mease, Mr. Wentworth, of Christ’s Church Cathedral, Dublin, and Mr. Price [of the] Armagh Choir. The chorus was composed of … ladies and gentlemen of Armagh. … The first part of the programme consisted of a selection from Acis and Galatea …
Acis and Galatea is also represented in the collection by manuscript parts (Vol.349) and by individual pieces (in manuscript) in part-books for bass voice (Vol.415) and violoncello (Vol.374). The Messiah was also in repertory; performance annotations can be seen in the collection’s copy of H. Wright’s circa 1785 edition of Messiah an oratorio in score … to which are added … additional alterations (Dempsey 2: 171). This particular exemplar had wandered as far as Canada, but was returned to the collection after the son of Frederick George Carter (former organist of St Patrick’s 1951-66) discovered it. An anonymous correspondent for the Ulster Gazette (5 April 1879) describes the first public performance of the work in Armagh:
ARMAGH MUSICAL SOCIETY CONCERT. This very successful society, under the conductorship of Dr Marks, organist of Armagh Cathedral, gave the closing concert … on Monday evening last, in the Tontine, before a large, fashionable, and highly appreciative audience. The performance [was] Handel’s great work, the ‘Messiah’, … the first time it has ever been publicly given in Armagh. Anyone at all cognisant with the difficulties attending the production of such a grand Oratorio … will be surprised to find it attempted by such a young society (4); yet it been tried and done effectually to the admiration of the most fastidious critics…
Further oratorios with particularly full representation include Esther (vocal and instrumental parts at Vol.356); Hercules (vocal and instrumental parts at Vol.356); also Israel in Egypt (vocal parts, Vols.340-346). Additional Handel repertory includes the Dettingen Te Deum, Coronation Anthem, Funeral Anthem (‘The Ways of Zion do Mourn’), individual Chandos Anthems, the Concerti Grossi (including the J. Walsh part-books), and an unknown publisher’s Handel’s Water Piece, for the Harpsichord or Pianoforte (Vol.201).
Amongst the collection are many substantial, anthologised, part-books for a particular voice type or instrument. These suggest potential companions in performance, with juxtapositions both expected and intriguing. The bass part-book found at Vol.209 has 52 manuscript and printed items within; a front cover stamp, ‘Armagh Cathedral / 1893’ suggests it served as a working performance document at that time. Handel’s anthem, ‘O Come let us sing unto the Lord’ (No.44 in the volume), is presented alongside anthems by such as John Weldon (1676-1736), William Boyce (1711-79), John Stafford Smith (1750-1836), John Clarke-Whitfield (1770-1836) and Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816-75). In Volume 229 – a compilation of 76 songs of largely popular or theatrical origin – Handel’s ‘My heart is inditing’ (No.67; from the fourth Coronation Anthem) sits alongside Thomas Moore’s 1805 ‘A Canadian Boat Song’ (No.73) and Orlando Gibbons’s ‘Oh whistle and I’ll come to thee my lad’ (No.20).
The collection is also a valuable historical document regarding publishing and book-trade history. Smaller publishing houses represented include Mary McCalley of 33 Moore Street, Dublin, who produced a vocal score for ‘What tho’ I trace’ from Handel’s Solomon (Vol.201, No.37); this aria is also represented by a manuscript part-book for violoncello (Vol.374, No.34). Local booksellers include ‘J. Lee’ of Armagh, whose stamp is found on the first violin part (Vol.169) for Handel’s overtures in parts … containing no. 2 … Ariadne as published by Coventry & Hottier ‘late Preston’ of 71 Dean Street, Soho. There are also some interesting stories regarding provenance: Vol.227 is an organ score of 33 anthems originally used at Down Cathedral.
This important collection warrants further study.
Notes
(1) Dempsey, A. (2003). A Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the Armagh Cathedral Collection. Belfast. The catalogue also includes printed music (Vols. 2 and 3). For printed music by Handel see Vol. 2, pp.161-195.
(2) All newspapers cited in this article were accessed on 10 April 2018 through www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/.
(3) Due to time constraints, Dempsey did not attempt to date any of the printed material.
(4) Although an ‘Armagh Musical Society’ flourished in the 1840s, this reviewer speaks of a recent renewal of that society (1878?) after some years in abeyance.
Dr Sarah McCleave is Senior Lecturer in Musicology and Composition at Queen’s University Belfast.