Theatre Music, English Songs (Full Score, hardback)

Handel Theatre Music, English Songs (Full Score, hardback)

From the sixteenth century onwards, music played an important role in theatrical performances throughout the British Isles. Many of G.F. Handel’s most popular works found their way into English dramas and ballad operas, often adapted and parodied. Handel himself, however, only occasionally composed for the theatrical stage.

This volume contains Handel’s secular vocal works in English, which may be described, in the broadest sense, as “theatre music” or incidental music.  It includes four numbers (“There in blissful shades and bow’rs” HWV 44) for John Milton’s “Masque”, later known as “Comus”; the incidental music for Tobias Smollett’s drama “Alceste” HWV 45, which was to be performed at the Covent Garden Theatre in London in 1750, and fifteen English songs, which were often first performed on the stages of London’s theatres and pleasure gardens before becoming widely known through printed song sheets.

The music for “Alceste”, which survives independently of Smollett’s play, is accompanied by research into possible literary and dramatic models for the tragedy.  In the case of the English songs, the main task was to distinguish the authentic compositions from the numerous arrangements and contrafacts of popular arias and dances from Handel’s works.  For the first time, as part of the “Halle Handel Edition”, criteria for the authenticity of Handel’s English songs have been established.  These include the autograph manuscripts which have come down to us, documented contacts with the lyricists and performers associated with the songs, the attribution of songs during the composer's lifetime, and the borrowing of musical material from or into other works by Handel.  The volume thus offers insights into a hitherto little-known but fascinating genre within Handel’s oeuvre, reflecting the distinctive aesthetic of the English theatre of his time.

- Halle Handel Edition Series II/Supplement 4

- Format 26,5 x 33,0 cm