The beauty of one age often becomes the banality of the next. Is not the greater part of the work of Handel, for instance, as unbearable nowadays as the greater part of Wordsworth is unbearable; for where is the serious-minded musician to be found who could subject himself to a hearing of Messiah? And yet, undoubtedly at one time Messiah was a thing of beauty, and possibly also of intellectual complexity.
Handel remains as blandly impervious to such strange animadversions as does the Kreutzer Sonata to strictures of a Tolstoyan character.
The saddest fact is that the bicentennial in 1959 found him not so much deprecated as unknown, for even many of his admirers have no glimmering of what his oeuvre represents, what achievements it encompasses. The churchmen have had him long enough, the bees in their bonnets have buzzed to a standstill; it is high time for the musicians and the theatre to reclaim their heritage. The task of presenting the music of this most virile and vigorous of men must be seized by hands more virile and vigorous than those of present-day church musicians. We might apply what Joubert said about Chateaubriand’s excursions into theology: “Let him stick to his own business, let him entertain us.” This is still a difficult prescription. Ortega y Gasset’s argument that “the semi-religious character, cultivating pathos of a sublime type has now been completely extirpated” is true perhaps in literature, but certainly not in music. Old Handelians may be unwilling to abandon the churchly atmosphere without which Handel is unthinkable to Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, and will reject the new portrait, refusing to see the greater man and musician. But it seems inconceivable that Handel’s profound musical poetry, his sturdiness in composition, his richness in pictorial plasticity, his wondrous dramatic sense, and his refined stylization should have been an indiscretion of history.
The lesson is that the interpretation of Handel can never be ended and that every student may contribute something that even for those who reject it may throw a measure of light on the subject. But to understand how Handel succeeded in building a universal body of work on a national basis and to grasp the quality of the whole man, his music must be better known. A small portion of his enormous output has exclusive currency and obscures the totality, but we must awaken Handel’s real lovers from their idyll of religious grandiloquence. And when the truth washed free of bias shall come to pass, it will be as though a living voice, muffled for two centuries by some strange spell, were suddenly to speak to us.
“Perhaps,” says Dr. William Hayes in his Remarks on Avison’s Essay,
as I have been so particular in delivering my sentiments concerning the Hero of the Essay, You may expect me to give you a Detail of the various Excellencies, which still remain unmentioned in HANDEL; and to point out wherein he excells all others of his Profession ... I say, perhaps you may expect me to enter into Particulars, to defend and characterize this man:—but the first would be an endless Undertaking;—his Works being almost out of Number.—The second, a needless one, the Works themselves being his best Defense:—And the third, I must acknowledge is above my Capacity; and therefore once more refer you to his works, where only his true character is to be found ...
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THE HANDELIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY IS VAST AND UNWIELDY; TO reproduce it here in its entirety is patently impossible—and unnecessary. If the reader wants to see its full extent he can consult:
Sasse, Konrad, Handel Bibliographie. Leipzig, 1963. (This volume incorporates the earlier extensive bibliography of Kurt Taut.)
It will perhaps be useful to remind the reader that the three great modern dictionaries of music should be consulted when a name or subject must be run down:
Enciclopedia della Musica. Milan, 1964-1965.
Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Fifth edition, London, 1954.
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel, 1949-
All other compilations of this sort merely present history in shirt sleeves.
As we turn to the Handelian literature proper, it is astounding to see how slow it was in fulfilling its role. In the register of the vaults in Westminster Abbey this notice appears: “At the foot of Handel’s coffin, on the left and on the right, there remains place for good graves.” Well over a hundred years passed before one of them was assigned—to Dickens. It took much longer for worthy Handelian literature to fill the empty spaces around Handel’s artistic monument, and it was considerably after Dickens’s time that the vacuous rhapsodies, the ingenious and wayward trifles, and the gravely sanctimonious essays were thrown out with the intellectual pitchfork of unbiased scholarship. Before that time the reader must proceed warily.
The most important bibliographical reference concerns the musical sources. Of the great masters, Handel has been the least well served by editors, and we must still rely on the old Händelgesellschaft volumes edited by Friedrich Chrysander and published between 1859 and 1894. The edition, though an incomparable personal achievement, is antiquated, incomplete, and often incorrect, but it will be some time before the new Hallische Händelausgabe, now barely past its first offerings, gives us the whole body of Handel’s works in a modern critical edition. This will compel anyone seeking to do serious work to turn to the manuscripts and the many early printed editions. Fortunately, there exists an excellent summary of these sources, where information is given concerning the location of the manuscripts as well as of important copies and printed editions:
Abraham, Gerald (ed.), Handel, a Symposium. London, 1954. See the chapter entitled “Catalogue of Works,” by William C. Smith, pp. 275-310.
For Handel’s own writings and for contemporary statements, newspaper notices, extracts from memoirs, correspondence, and so on, nothing can approach the fullness and practical service afforded by: Deutsch, Otto Erich, Handel, a Documentary Biography. New York, 1955.
For general historical and cultural background the selected works listed below are recommended; they will also supply additional bibliographical references:
Gagey, M., Ballad Opera. New York, 1937.
George, M., London Life in the Eighteenth Century. London, igq,5.
McGiffert, A. C., Protestant Thought Before Kant. New York, 1915.
Nicoll, Allardyce, Eighteenth Century Drama, 1700-1750. Cambridge, 1925.
——A History of Restoration Drama. Cambridge, 1928.
Richardson, A. E., Georgian England. London, 1931.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, History of England in the Eighteenth Century. New York, 1927.
Of the 18th-century literature, the following books are of basic importance:
Avison, Charles, An Essay on Musical Expression. Second edition, London, 1753.
Brown, John, A Discussion on the Rise, Union, and Power, the Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions of Poetry and Music. London, 1763.
Burney, Charles, An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey.... London, 1785. Reprint, Amsterdam, 1964.
——A General History of Music. London, 1776-1789. Modem edition, London, 1935.
Delany, Mary, Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, edited by Lady Llanover. London, 1861.
Hawkins, Sir John, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music. London, 1776. Reprint of the 1853 edition, New York, 1963.
Hodgkin MSS (Historical Manuscript Commission). London, 1897.
Mainwaring, John, Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Haredel. London, 1760.
Mattheson, Johann, Der vollkommene Capellmeister. Hamburg, 1739. Reprint, Kassel, 1964.
——Crundlagen einer Ehren-Pforte. Hamburg, 1740. New edition, Berlin, 1910.
In the categories of biographies and essays, we shall omit the various writings published under the heading of “Berühmte Musiker” or “Lives of Great Musicians,” and once more remind the reader that works mentioned in this highly selective list will provide further ample bibliographies.
Chrysander, Friedrich, Georg Friedrich Handel. Leipzig, 1858-1867. Second ed., Leipzig, 1919.
Leichtentr
itt, Hugo, Georg Friedrich Händel. Stuttgart, 1924.
Rolland, Romain, Haendel. Paris (1910), 1951.
Schoelcher, Victor, The Life of Handel. London, 1857.
Streatfeild, Richard A., Handel. London, 1909. New York, 1964.
Young, Percy M., Handel. London, 1947.
Abraham, Gerald (ed.), Handel, a Symposium. London, 1954.
Blume, Friedrich, Die Evangelische Kirchenmusik. Potsdam, 1931.
Bredenförder, Elisabeth, Die Texte der Hdndel-Oratorien. Leipzig, 1934.
Bukofzer, Manfred F., Music in the Baroque Era. New York, 1947.
Cannon, Beekman, Johann Mattheson, Spectator in Music. New Haven, 1947.
Clercx, Suzanne, Le Baroque et la Musique. Brussels. 1948.
Dean, Winton, Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques. London, 1959.
Dent, Edward J., Alessandro Scarlatti. London, 1905.
——Foundations of English Opera. Cambridge, 1928.
Eisenschmidt, Joachim, Die szenische Darstellung der Opern G. F. Handed auf der Londoner Bühne seiner Zeit. Wolfenbüttel, 1940.
Florimo, F., La scuola musicale di Napoli e i suoi Conservatori. Naples, 1880.
Handel Jahrbuch. Leipzig, 1928-1933. New series, 1955-
Langley, H., Dr. Arne. Cambridge, 1938.
Larsen, Jens Peter, Handel’s Messiah, Origins, Composition, Sources. New York, 1957.
Myers, Robert Manson, Handel’s Messiah, a Touchstone of Taste. New York, 1948.
——Early Moral Criticism of Harulelian Oratorio. Williamsburg, Va., 1947.
Pasquetti, G., L’Oratorio musicale in Italia. Florence, 1912.
Pincherle, Marc, Corelli. New York, 1956.
Reinecke, H., Hamburg, ein Abriss der Stadtgeschichte.... Bremen. 1926.
Salvioli, G., I. Teatri musicali di Venezia del secolo XVII. Milan, 1879.
Seiffert, Max, Preface to Volumes 21, 22 of Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst (Zachow). Leipzig, 1905.
Serauky, Walter, Musikgeschichte der Stadt Halle. Halle, 1935-1943.
Smith, William C., Concerning Handel. London, 1948.
Schering, Arnold, Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts. Leipzig (1905) 1927. Reprint, 1965.
——Ceschichte des Oratoriums. Leipzig, 1911.
Taylor, Sedley, The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by Other Composers. Cambridge, 1906.
Westrup, Sir Jack A., Purcell. London, 1947.
Wolff, Hellmuth Christian, Die Barockoper in Hamburg. Wolfenbüttel, 1957.
——Die venezianisehe Oper. Berlin, 1957.
INDEX OF HANDEL’S WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS BOOK
1. Vocal Music
CANTATAS AND SERENATAS
Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo
Ah! Che troppo ineguali
Apollo e Dafne
Arresta il passo
Clori, degl’occhi miei
Dalla guerra amorosa
Hendel, non può mia musa
Lucretia
Lungi dal mio bel Nume
Nel dolce dell’oblio
Nelle Afrieane selve
O numi eterni, see Lucretia
Parnasso in Festa
Partenza
Parti l’idolo meo
Sarai contenta un di,
Spanish cantata
Trionfo del tempo e della verità (e del disinganno)
Udite il mio consiglio
Venne voglia ad Amore
CHAMBER MUSIC
Ahi nelle sorti umane (duet)
Chamber duets (Hanover)
French chansons
Fronda leggiera e mobile (duet)
German songs
Nò di voi non vuò fidarmi (duet)
Quel fior che all’alba ride (trio, 1708)
Quel fior ch‘all’alba ride (duet, 1741)
Se tu non lasci amore (trio)
ENGLISH PASTORALS, ODES,
AND MUSIC DRAMAS
Acis and Galatea
Alceste
Alexander’s Feast
Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato, L‘
Choice of Hercules, The
Hercules
Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne
Semele
Triumph of Time and Truth, The
OPERAS AND PASTICCIOS
Admeto
Agrippina
Alcina
Alessandro
Alessandro Severo
Almira
Amadigi
Arianna in Creta
Ariodante
Arminio
Atalanta
Berenice
Daphne
Deidamia
Ezio
Faramondo
Flavio
Floridante
Florinda
Giulio Cesare
Giustino
Imeneo
Lotario
Lucio Vero
Muzio Scevola
Nero
Orlando
Ottone
Partenope
Pastor fido, Il,
Poro
Radamisto
Riccardo I,
Rinaldo
Rodelinda
Rodrigo
Scipione
Serse
Silla
Siroe
Sosarme
Tamerlano
Teseo
Tolomeo
ORATORIOS
Alexander Balus
Athalia
Belshazzar
Deborah
Esther
Israel in Egypt
George Frideric Handel_Dover Books on Music Page 94
