Tag: Author: Graham Pont

Posted on

Which of Handel’s overtures had the ‘x’ factor?

Comparing two editions of the collection of Handel’s Keyboard Overtures annotated by Charles Burney

By Graham Pont

In April 2011 I purchased from Colin Coleman a copy of Handel’s Celebrated Overtures Complete from his Oratorios and Operas Arranged by the Author for the Organ or Piano Forte (London: Preston, c.1811). The volume was rebound in London and, on arriving in Sydney, it soon disappeared into a large and badly organised collection of Handel publications. During a recent move of that collection into retirement accommodation, my eye was caught by the early hand-written label on the front.

The original handwritten label of Burney's second collection of Handel's Overtures
The original handwritten label of Burney’s second collection of Handel’s Overtures

I immediately recognised it as the handwriting of Charles Burney.

The British Library holds a similar collection of Handel’s Celebrated Overtures in an earlier printing of Preston’s edition on paper, water-marked 1807 (K. 5.c.2). This volume has extensive manuscript annotations attributed to Charles Burney, Samuel Butler and Henry Festing-Jones. In both volumes Burney has added comments on individual overtures, many of them copied or adapted from his General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Volume the Fourth (London, 1789). The annotations are less extensive in the later Preston edition: what prompted Burney to produce this second version of his notes on the keyboard overtures is not at all obvious.

Following the title page, the later Preston edition has a separate Index to Handel’s Overtures to which Burney has added in ink, or occasionally pencil, what he takes to be the dates of the first productions of many but not all the works listed. There is no comment on No. I, the Overture in Parthenope which Burney described in his earlier volume as “less captivating than any of Handel.” He also omits his earlier comments on the Overtures to Lotharius, Ptolomy and Siroe (wrongly dated in pencil 1713).

In the later Preston edition, Burney judges the Overture in Richard the Ist to be “one of [Handel’s]finest introductory movements – Heroic music.” The second movement, an Allegro, he further notes is ‘Firm and spirited’. In view of these opinions, it is odd to find that Burney has no comments on this overture in his earlier copy of Preston’s collection.

In the earlier Preston edition, Burney has detailed comments on the Overture in Admetus –“the fugue, though spirited and masterly, has been more injured by time than most of his productions of that kind.” On the Second Overture in Admetus, in the later edition, he notes that the fugal subject of the second movement has its ‘answer inverted’.

Burney has no notes on the later Preston edition of the Overture in Alexander which he describes as “excellent” in his earlier copy. This also has warm praise for the Overture in Scipio as “spirited and pleasing” with the fugue ‘upon two pleasing and marked subjects’ and the final minuet “of an agreeable and uncommon cast.” In the later Preston edition the first movement is simply described as “Firm, spirited” and the minuet as “Agreeable, uncommon.” On the last page of this overture there appears for the first time in this volume Burney’s pencilled ‘x’ which appears to be his mark indicating special interest or quality. In a collection of Corelli from Burney’s library (also in the possession of the present writer) movements are marked with one, two or three ‘x’s in what appears to be a Michelin-style star-rating of quality.

In his earlier Preston edition, Burney notes that the Overture in Rodelinda “long remained in favour” that was “considerably lengthened by the natural and pleasing minuet.”. In his later Preston edition, Burney describes the fast movement of the overture as “Very pleasing” and the minuet as “very beautiful.”

In the later Preston edition Burney has no comment on the Overture in Tamerlane which is described in the earlier collection as “Remarkably majestic.” He also passes over the Second Overture in Amadis and the Overtures in Julius Caesar, Flavius and Acis and Galatea without comment.

The Overture in Radamistus was a particular favourite of Burney’s. In his earlier Preston edition he describes the first movement as “grand and Majestic” and the fugue as “Superior to any that can be found in the overtures of other composers.” In the later edition he hails Radamistus as “One of the most remarkable Operas Handel ever produced.” This remark appears in double quotation marks, which suggest that Burney was citing some publication, but his praise of Radamistus in the General History (Vol. IV, pp. 259-262) does not include those words.

In his later edition, Burney describes the Overture in the Water Musick (No. XVIII) as “Spirited, jubilant.” There are no comments on the following overtures until Rinaldo (No. XXIV): this is described as Handel’s “first Work for the London stage” and its overture as “Majestic.” In Burney’s General History the first movement is declared to be “grand and majestic” (Vol. 4, p.233.)

In the later edition of the overtures, the next is the Overture in Ariadne, noted as “a great favourite.” The third movement, an untitled minuet, is marked with an ‘x’ and a recollection added that this was “Played in the streets in Handel’s time.”

The next movement annotated in Burney’s later edition is the Overture in Sosarmes, with all three movements marked with an ‘x’. So also is the first movement of the Overtures in Etius and Esther. The latter is headed with a note: “See my copy arr. by Greatorex, given to me by Rev’d E. Young, Clifton.” The last movement of this admired overture is marked with an ‘x’.

In Burney’s later edition, the Overture in Justin is pronounced “Dignified and spirited,” with the observation that the fast movement is in “3 pt. Counterpoint.” The fast movement in the overture to Arminius is noted as “One of the severest Fugues in Handel’s Overtures.” The Overture in Atalanta is marked with an ‘x’ and the second movementnoted as exhibiting an “unusual mixture of Rhythms.” Burney’s ‘x’ also appears over the Musette in the Overture to Alcina and the first two movements of the 2d Overture in Pastor Fido. The concluding A tempo di Bouree is noted as a “Masterpiece of
brilliancy and delicacy.”

The Overture in Xerxes in Burney’s later collection is headed “Handel’s only comic Opera.” The concluding Gigue is noted for its “Liveliness, humour” and the “imitation
between highest and lowest part(s).”

The first two movements of the Overture in Alexander’s Feast receive a not -unexpected ‘x’ in Burney’s second collection, with a note that the work was “composed in 20 days, Opera completed.” All three movements of the Overture in Faramondo receive an ‘x’. The Overture in Berenice is noted as “Majestic,” echoing the description “peculiarly majestic and masterly” in the General History (Vol. IV, p.408). The fugue is praised for its “almost continuous stretto, masterly” and the concluding Andante Larghetto for its “Exquisite beauty and purity.” After the Gigue Burney notes that “This opera marks the failure of [Handel’s] Opera ventures. He became bankrupt” (a popular misconception for which there is no firm evidence.)

The opening of the Overture in Alexander Severus (the pasticcio HWV A15) is noted in Burney’s later edition as “Impressive and solid;” the following Allegro is adjudged “One of his most powerful orchestral Fugues” and the final movement “Highly dramatic.”

Burney’s ‘x’ of quality or particular interest is awarded in his second collection to both movements of the Overture in Athalia and the first two movements of the Overture in Samson but none to the Overture in Messiah. The first and last movements of the Overture in Saul also receive an ‘x’.

The Overture in Hymen is correctly dated in Burney’s second collection as having been “First performed in 1740” and the fugue is noted as being “Unusually florid.” The Overture in Parnasso in Festa receives an ‘x’ and its concluding Allegro noted as “Graceful.” All four movements of the Overture to the Occasional Oratorio receive an ‘x’. Several overtures are now passed over without comment until the 2nd Overture in Saul, both movements of which receive an ‘x’. So do the first movements of the Overtures in Solomon and Joshua and the 2nd Overture in Solomon.

Burney’s annotations to his second collection of Handel’s keyboard overtures end, appropriately, with the Overture in Jephtha which he notes was the composer’s “last great Work’.” Reviewing these second annotations as a whole, it is difficult to think of any reason to explain why Burney should have undertaken the task of compiling a much-abbreviated version of his notes on Handel’s keyboard overtures. There is no evidence of any substantial change from the opinions and observations recorded in his earlier copy of the Preston edition. All we can confidently conclude is that Burney’s second set of notes and comments leaves no doubt that, near the end of his life, the great historian remained firm in his judgement of Handel’s keyboard overtures. That judgement, which was informed by a personal acquaintance with the composer and a prolonged consideration of his achievements, has unquestionably stood the test of time: modern critical opinion would not significantly differ from Burney on the overtures he actually discusses and evaluates.

Posted on

Handel and the Bells of Keynsham

Graham Pont

During 2014 the town of Keynsham in Somerset south-east of Bristol was rocked by a disagreement among residents that received coverage in the national press. The dispute arose out of an anonymous complaint by a resident that the bells of the local church, St John the Baptist, were too noisy for one living 300 metres away and should be silenced. In response, local residents raised a petition urging the Church not to take any action: the bells, they argued, were an important part of the town’s daily life and had been that way since Handel, who admired the ‘mellow tone’ of the Church organ, offered a new peal of bells in exchange for the organ.

The coverage of this episode in the Daily Mail (5 August 2014) revealed the existence of a local tradition at least two centuries old, the roots of which had eluded all biographies of the composer and histories of his musical activities. Without looking into the facts of the matter, the reporter Wills Robinson simply printed what the outraged locals had told him, leaving no doubt that this tradition with its curious roots is still alive and well in Keynsham.

Though no specific date has been claimed for the supposed exchange of the organ and bells, Handel was certainly associated with Keynsham. According to the Bath Chronicle and Herald (13 July 1935), Handel visited Bath three times, in 1730 (possibly as the guest of the Duke of Chandos who owned property in the area), in August 1749 and again in May 1751. It was possibly during his second visit that the composer presented the Church with a brass offertory plate inscribed with his name and the date 1750. There is also a Handel Road in Keynsham, not far from the High Street.

Brass plate in church with Handel's name, 1750, Keynsham

The Keynsham tradition was more critically examined by an article in the Bath Weekly, Chronicle and Herald (30 May 1936). This did not question the exchange of the organ and bells but pointed out that Handel could not have donated a complete peal of bells as some of those still extant in the 1930s had inscriptions dating from the 17th century (this evidence no longer exists, as the bells of St John the Baptist were all recast in 1987). In view of this, the anonymous author in the Bath Weekly concluded that Handel’s gift must have extended to only the two smaller bells that were recast in 1731 by the Bilbie family of Chew Stoke. That this recasting took place the year following Handel’s first visit to Bath suggests a plausible date for the legendary exchange. Another consideration overlooked in all accounts of the exchange is that, since Handel was a connoisseur of both organs and bells, this unusual exchange might have seemed a fair deal, at least as far as he was concerned.

Of this strange story one important question remains unanswered: what happened to the organ?

Source
Allen, F.A. (1969): The History of the Parish Church of St John the Baptist Keynsham. Keynsham Parish Church Council.

Posted on

A Handel Anecdote

Graham Pont

‘During the latter part of Handel’s life, when a boy, I used to perform on the German flute in London, at his oratorios. About the year 1753, in the Lent season, a minor canon, from the cathedral of Gloucester, offered his service to Mr Handel to sing. His offer was accepted, and he was employed in the choruses. Not satisfied with this department, he requested leave to sing a solo air, that his voice might appear to more advantage. This request was also granted; but he executed his solo so little to the satisfaction of the audience, that he was, to his great mortification. violently hissed. When the performance was over, by way of consolation, Handel made him the following speech: “I am sorry, very sorry for you indeed, my dear sir! but go you back to your church in de country! God will forgive you for your bad singing; dese wicked people in London dey will not forgive you.”’

This anecdote comes from The History and Antiquities of Doncaster and its Vicinity, with Anecdotes of Eminent Men (1) which was published by the author, Edward Miller, at Doncaster in 1804. Miller was overlooked by O.E. Deutsch in Handel: a Documentary Biography (London, 1955) but has an interesting biography in Wikipedia. Of working-class origins, he took up the study of music with Dr Charles Burney and became the organist of St George’s Minster in Doncaster, a post he held for fifty years. In 1771 he published The Institutes of Music, or Easy Instructions for the Harpsichord which Wikipedia claims went through sixteen editions (2). In 1786 he was awarded a Doctorate in Music by Cambridge University. In 1787 Miller published his Treatise of Thorough Bass and Composition and in 1801 The Psalms of Watts and Wesley. One of his pupils was the blind organist Frances Linley (c.1770-1800).

Notes
(1) I thank Dr Jennifer Nevile for supplying photocopies from The History and Antiquities of Doncaster and for drawing my attention to Miller’s recollections of the Staniforth brother and sister.
(2) The figure of sixteen editions is not confirmed by COPAC or WORLDCAT.

Posted on

Liszt’s Performances and Arrangements of Handel

Graham Pont

Arrangements of Bach’s music by the great pianist Franz Liszt are well-known but most Handelians would be surprised to learn that Liszt also took inspiration from their favourite composer. In an article published in Göttinger Händel-Beiträge (1), Christiane Wiesenfeldt notes that Liszt performed works by Handel at Vienna in April-May 1838 and again in March-April 1846. He also conducted performances of Messiah at Weimar and Aachen in 1850 and of Judas Maccabaeus at Weimar in May of the Handel centenary year 1859.

In June 1879 Handel’s first opera Almira was performed at Leipzig: it is not known if Liszt attended the performance but he did acquire a copy of the vocal score of Almira that was arranged by the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Fuchs and published at Leipzig in the summer of 1879. In Act I of Almira there are two dance movements, a Chaconne and a Sarabande (HWV 1: 3& 4). By September 1879 Liszt had produced ‘un morceau de concert pour piano’: an elaborate paraphrase which was published later that year under the title ‘Sarabande und Chaconne aus dem “Almira” von G.F. Händel, für Pianoforte zum Konzertvortrg bearbeitet’ (Kistner, Leipzig, 1879). The work was dedicated to Liszt’s English pupil Walter Bache. It received its premiere public performance by Alfred Reisenauer at Leipzig in May 1883 and a few months later was performed at London by Walter Bache.

G.F. Handel's Almira score of Sarabande und Chaconne

The original publication is now very rare: the only recorded copies are held by the Liszt Foundation in Budapest and the Library of the University of Berne, which has kindly supplied the copy reproduced here. Note that in his introduction to the Sarabande (bars 1-4) Liszt has indicated signs of articulation in both hands and the pianoforte pedalling that are inconsistent with Handel’s opening bars (5ff.) and with the staccato chords of bars 13ff. The contrast of three forms of articulation for thematically related passages is very Handelian.

Although Handelians (including me) have been generally unaware of this work, it is well-known to Lisztians: there are several performances available (about 11 minutes long) on YouTube. While the dances are blown up with characteristic virtuoso fireworks, Liszt’s treatment of Handel strikes me as quite sympathetic, at least when he stays close to Handel’s original text. I just wonder what Handel himself would have made of it.
The Sarabande and Chaconne from Almira was not the end of Liszt’s involvement with Handel. The Australian Liszt authority Dr Leslie Howard is editing an unpublished medley for the pianoforte which includes melodies from Handel’s Messiah, as well as ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘God save the Queen’.

Note
(1) ‘Eine Laune des “anbetundswürdigen Fingerhelden”? Liszts Variationen über Sarabande und Chaconne aus Händels Almira’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, XIII (2010), pp.63-78. The article includes copies of Liszt’s much-corrected autograph of the Sarabande and Chaconne.

Posted on

Liszt’s Performances and Arrangements of Handel

Graham Pont

Arrangements of Bach’s music by the great pianist Franz Liszt are well-known but most Handelians would be surprised to learn that Liszt also took inspiration from their favourite composer. In an article published in Göttinger Händel-Beiträge (1), Christiane Wiesenfeldt notes that Liszt performed works by Handel at Vienna in April-May 1838 and again in March-April 1846. He also conducted performances of Messiah at Weimar and Aachen in 1850 and of Judas Maccabaeus at Weimar in May of the Handel centenary year 1859.

In June 1879 Handel’s first opera Almira was performed at Leipzig: it is not known if Liszt attended the performance but he did acquire a copy of the vocal score of Almira that was arranged by the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Fuchs and published at Leipzig in the summer of 1879. In Act I of Almira there are two dance movements, a Chaconne and a Sarabande (HWV 1: 3& 4). By September 1879 Liszt had produced ‘un morceau de concert pour piano’: an elaborate paraphrase which was published later that year under the title ‘Sarabande und Chaconne aus dem “Almira” von G.F. Händel, für Pianoforte zum Konzertvortrg bearbeitet’ (Kistner, Leipzig, 1879). The work was dedicated to Liszt’s English pupil Walter Bache. It received its premiere public performance by Alfred Reisenauer at Leipzig in May 1883 and a few months later was performed at London by Walter Bache.

Liszt arrangement of a piece from Handel's Almira.

The original publication is now very rare: the only recorded copies are held by the Liszt Foundation in Budapest and the Library of the University of Berne, which has kindly supplied the copy reproduced here. Note that in his introduction to the Sarabande (bars 1-4) Liszt has indicated signs of articulation in both hands and the pianoforte pedalling that are inconsistent with Handel’s opening bars (5ff.) and with the staccato chords of bars 13ff. The contrast of three forms of articulation for thematically related passages is very Handelian.

Although Handelians (including me) have been generally unaware of this work, it is well-known to Lisztians: there are several performances available (about 11 minutes long) on YouTube. While the dances are blown up with characteristic virtuoso fireworks, Liszt’s treatment of Handel strikes me as quite sympathetic, at least when he stays close to Handel’s original text. I just wonder what Handel himself would have made of it.

The Sarabande and Chaconne from Almira was not the end of Liszt’s involvement with Handel. The Australian Liszt authority Dr Leslie Howard is editing an unpublished medley for the pianoforte which includes melodies from Handel’s Messiah, as well as ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘God save the Queen’.

Note
(1) ‘Eine Laune des “anbetundswürdigen Fingerhelden”? Liszts Variationen über Sarabande und Chaconne aus Händels Almira’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, XIII (2010), pp.63-78. The article includes copies of Liszt’s much-corrected autograph of the Sarabande and Chaconne.

Posted on

Handel on YouTube

Graham Pont

YouTube (www.youtube.com) is a unique and extraordinary website devoted to publishing videos on almost any subject. While music-making is only one of thousands of activities presented on-line, YouTube is easily the most important electronic resource currently available for practical musicians of all levels of accomplishment and for music-lovers ranging from casual amateurs to serious musicologists.

A simple exercise immediately reveals the extent of the musical resources available at a click or two. If you google ‘YouTube J S Bach’ you are quickly confronted with the choice of an estimated 1,340,000 websites relating to Bach. If you google ‘YouTube G F Handel’, you get only 270,000 hits, but this is only part of the story: googling ‘Messiah’ gets 14,200,000 hits; ‘YouTube Handel’ a whopping 20,600,000. On other composers, ‘YouTube Beethoven’ gets 28,100,000; ‘YouTube Mozart’, 24,300,000; ‘YouTube Wagner’, 24,700,000; ‘YouTube Verdi’, only 14,700,000. Surprisingly, ‘YouTube Vivaldi’ gets a measly 5,530, but ‘YouTube Vivaldi Seasons’ a less surprising 2,750,000.

You can explore the holdings on YouTube for Handel, or any other composer, by googling the titles of specific works. ‘YouTube Fireworks Music’ gets 1,650,000 hits, confirming the high regard which this perennial classic has enjoyed since its first performance in 1749. The first website that popped up for ‘Fireworks Music’ was ‘The Best of Handel’ and this recording correctly observes the single-dotted rhythms of the first movement of the overture. Nearly all the other recordings of this movement that I have heard on YouTube introduce the double-dotted rhythms that have become fashionable during the last fifty years or so (1). These sharpened rhythms are simply a wrong-headed musicological speculation promoted by Thurston Dart, Robert Donington and others which is accepted as Gospel by their uncritical followers. There is not the slightest historical justification for the consistent over-dotting of this movement.

Within the limits of a brief article it is impossible to do justice to the huge number of Handel websites available on YouTube. I can do no more than draw attention to a few sites that suggest possible lines of inquiry. An obvious starting-point is ‘Handel’s Largo’ (179,000 hits) or ‘Ombra mai fu’ (154,000 hits). The Italians have not always been great admirers of Handel, even though he was the leading composer of Italian opera in his day. But Italian singers have left some superb renditions of ‘Ombra mai fu’. One of my favourites is by Tito Schipa (1888-1965), perhaps the finest lyric tenor (tenore di grazia) of the twentieth century. In his undated recording of ‘Ombra mai fu’, Schipa begins the aria with a beautiful messa di voce on the first syllable – an appropriate refinement that Handel would certainly have expected from his soloist, the great Caffarelli. However, like nearly all the male singers of his period, Schipa lacked the shake (or trill). But, when I played Enrico Caruso’s recordings of the aria (1904, 1920, etc), I was astonished to hear his shake on the first beat (C#) of bar 32 – an ornament I had never noticed in Caruso’s recordings. These great Italian singers both take the aria at a very slow tempo – almost at an adagio.

With an aria composed for a mezzo-soprano castrato, producers of Serse have long had to be content with travesty soloists, but the role of Xerxes can now be performed by the nearest possible equivalent to the original vocalist – the German countertenor (falsettist) Andreas Scholl (born in 1967). Scholl has an exceptionally beautiful voice, even throughout its register. Though he lacks a good shake, his interpretation of ‘Ombra mai fu’ is very impressive.

When we come to the female vocalists who have recorded ‘Ombra mai fu’, it is sometimes a different story. In her 1917 recording of ‘Ombra mai fu’ Clara Butt (1872-1936) takes the aria more quickly than usual – at a true larghetto – and she also introduces the shake at bar 32. The leading interpreter of ‘Ombra mai fu’ on the recent British stage has been Janet Baker (born in 1933). A prominent performer of Handel – and influenced no doubt by the early music movement – she revived something of the traditional ad libitum ornamentation that was generally unknown to her predecessors and older contemporaries: in her much-admired interpretation of ‘Ombra mai fu’ she introduces the shake in bars 36 and 40. Although the unrivalled contralto Kathleen Ferrier (1912-53) showed little interest in vocal ornamentation, her recordings of ‘Ombra mai fu’ are among the finest specimens of classic British cantabile singing.

There could hardly be a greater contrast to the dignified and restrained Ferrier than the brilliant and playful Italian contralto Cecilia Bartoli (born 1966). ‘YouTube Cecilia Bartoli’ gets 1,260,000 hits and her recordings of ‘Ombra mai fu’ 61,600. One of her videos features a fetching image of her as a muscular but rather worn classical marble statue. I have greatly enjoyed Bartoli’s several recordings of ‘Ombra mai fu’: despite her notorious sense of humour and uninhibited spontaneity, her interpretation of the Handel aria is refined, chaste and embellished with her own voluntary ornamentation in fine period taste.

I was surprised, however, to discover that the figure of 61,000 YouTube hits was not confined to Bartoli’s recordings of Handel’s ‘Ombra mai fu’: it also included her recordings of another setting of the same words by the Italian composer Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747). In January 1694 Bononcini produced at Rome his opera Xerse to a libretto revised by Silvio Stampiglia, which included an aria ‘Ombra mai fu’. Another version of this libretto was set in 1738 by Handel who, it now appears, was not only familiar with Bononcini’s opera but also based his setting of ‘Ombra mai fu’ on Bononcini’s aria, with the same words and even some of the same music! In her video presentation of this aria (2010) Simone Kermes affirms that Handel used Bononcini’s aria as a ‘model’ (Vorlage) for ‘Ombra mai fu’. I would say that the relationship between the two arias is much stronger than this – that Handel, in his inspired reworking of Bononcini’s aria, produced a magnificent diamond from a fine but less valuable stone.

Handel’s transformation of Bononcini’s air is magical. Whereas Bononcini begins his introduction with an unremarkable phrase in crotchets F-D-A-Bflat, Handel begins his symphony an octave lower, prolonging the F to four beats (bars 1 and 2) and then moving down to A, just like Bononcini. But Handel grandly continues the downward trajectory with E-D-C-C (bars 2-3) thus creating a superb cantabile entry for the instruments. At the vocal entry (bars 15-18), he enriches this unforgettable phrase by lengthening the first note (C) to six beats, naturally inviting the full messa di voce with the ideally symmetrical crescendo and diminuendo to which Schipa only approximates.

In bars 21ff Handel then develops his aria with new materials previously anticipated in the instrumental introduction: on the last beat of bar 26, he introduces a variation of Bononcini’s second vocal phrase (bars 7ff), tying together the Fs, the equivalents of Bononcini’s first two E flats, but otherwise following the Italian’s pitch profile. Handel repeats this borrowed phrase in bars 39-40 with the first two notes now detached and the additional appoggiatura made by repeating the equivalent of Bononcini’s third note (D).This beautiful variation, first heard in bar 11 of the introduction, is repeated in Handel’s concluding symphony (bars 47-48). The persistent crotchet notes in the accompaniment, which give ‘Handel’s Largo’ such a majestic tread, were also derived from Bononcini – from his opening bar and concluding symphony.

This ingenious borrowing by Handel has eluded nearly all the musical reference works (2). Yet the borrowing was (?first) identified and briefly discussed by Harvard Professor Harold S. Powers (1928-2007) in the second part of an article ‘Il SerseTrasformato’ (3): this fine study leaves no doubt that several of Handel’s movements in Serse were similarly created by adapting motifs from an opera composed by his rival Giovanni Bononcini more than forty years previously (4). So there was little chance of Handel’s borrowing being recognised by his London audiences! But how could Handel have known about an opera that was produced in faraway Rome when he was a child aged only nine living in Halle? The answer is probably to be found in an early-18th-century manuscript of Xerse held by the British Library, Add. Ms. 22102, which is the only early full score of Bononcini’s opera I have been able to find. It will be interesting to look into the provenance of this manuscript, which was possibly known to Handel.

The fact that YouTube was able to reveal such an important but generally unknown borrowing from Bononcini by Handel that is still almost entirely unnoticed by the scholarly reference literature is a striking example of how on-line resources are playing an increasingly significant role in modern musical culture.

Notes
(1) Curiously the recordings of the Fireworks Music overture conducted by Trevor Pinnock on YouTube all double-dot the first movement, except the one posted on 24 May 2008 under the title ‘Mix – Handel Royal Fireworks mvt 1’, which correctly follows Handel’s single-dotted rhythms.
(2) The only exception I am aware of is the facsimile of Giovanni Bononcini’s Il Xerse (Add. Ms. 22102) in John H. Roberts (ed.) (1986), Handel Sources: Materials for the Study of Handel’s Borrowing (New York: Garland), II – Xerse, pp.8-10.
(3) ‘Il Serse Trasformato – II’, The Musical Quarterly, 48(1), January 1962, pp.87-88. Despite its appearance in a leading musical journal, Powers’s publication was overlooked in both editions of Konrad Sasse’s Händel Bibliographie (Leipzig, 1963; 1967).
(4) I was interested to read in Handel News 70 (p.15) that three settings of ‘Ombra mai fu’, by Cavalli, Bononcini and Handel, were performed at the American Handel Society Conference in 2017.

Posted on

Rare Copy of Handel’s Suite in G Minor Turns Up in Sydney – Twice!

Graham Pont

Handel’s last royal pupil was the Princess Louisa (1724-51). For her studies at the harpsichord Handel composed his last two substantial works for the instrument, the Suites in D minor and G minor, HWV 447 and 452. Like her older sisters, Louisa became a regular supporter of her teacher: her presence at performances of Atalanta and Poro (1736) and Saul (1739) are recorded – there were doubtless many others – and she subscribed to the editions of Alexander’s Feast (1738) and the Twelve Grand Concertos (1740). In 1743 Louise married Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway and became Queen when in 1746 her husband was crowned King. She was popular with the Danish court and admired for her accomplishments: ‘She finds pleasure in reading and music, she plays the clavichord well and teaches her daughters to sing’ (1). In 1748 she arranged for an Italian opera company to perform at the court theatre: the company included Gluck and Sarti. Louisa died from complications of childbirth in December 1751.

When Handel composed the two Suites for Louisa is not known: the Händel Handbuch suggests 1739; Otto Erich Deutsch dates them to 1736. The composer’s autographs of both Suites have survived, as well as several authorised copies, but neither work was published during Handel’s lifetime: perhaps they were considered royal property. The first edition of the Suite in G minor appeared in a rare volume entitled A Favorite Lesson for the Harpsichord Composed for Young Practitioners by George Fred: Handel Never before Printed (London: C. and S. Thompson, n.d.) (2). This edition is usually dated c.1770 but the British Library, which holds one of the only two recorded copies, gives the date as 1772. The only other known copy, in the collection of the present writer, enjoys the rare distinction of having been transported twice around the globe to Sydney.

At the top of the title page is a note in ink ‘Found in Pitt Street, Sydney, 1936’! Eighteenth-century editions of Handel are exceptionally rare in early Australian collections: how and when this volume first reached Sydney and where it lay before being thrown out on the street in 1936 is a complete mystery. There may be some hint as to its provenance in the illegible signature on the top-left corner of the title-page.

The man who found the volume and wrote the notes on the title-page was the Sydney medico Joseph Coen (1880-1955). In his second note he records that in May 1946 he presented the volume to ‘Gilbert Inglefield, for his library and in memory of many hours of Handel’. Sir Gilbert Inglefield (1909-91) was a British architect who became Lord Mayor of London in 1967-68. After Inglefield’s death his music collection was dispersed: books of his were included in sales by Christie, Manson & Woods on 11 July 1968 and 6 August 1975. I purchased this volume from Colin Coleman in 2010 and thus it returned for the second time to Sydney.

Notes
(1) See the interesting and well-illustrated article ‘Louise of Great Britain’ in Wikipedia.
(2) The Suite in G minor has been edited by Terence Best in Händel Klavierwerke III… Erste Folge (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1970), pp.42-47. This version includes a final Gigue which Handel later added but which was omitted from the original edition.