DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HANDEL HANDEL
and telling accompaniment. Kach phrase seems
suggested by tiie words that are sung ; while,
in fact, the voices move, in strict canonic imita-
tion, on a ground-bass whicli, itself one bar in
length, recurs, at the outset, sixteen times without
intermission. As sijecimens of descriptive
choral writing, the grand chains of choruses
in ' Israel '
and
in ' ' Solomon are unmatched.
Handel's songs, though conventional in form,
are so varied in idea, so melodious, and so vocally
expressive, that it is hard to believe Mattheson's
statement, that in his early years, though un-
rivalled as a contrapuntist, he was deficient in
melody. The vein must always have been
present in him ; but it is not unlikely that the
influence of Keiser and, subsequently, of Steffani,
gave a powerful and a happy impetus to his
genius in this direction. It is nearly certain,
too, that his experience of Italian music and
singers, and his long career as an operatic
composer, had the efl'eot of influencing his subsequent
treatment of sacred subjects, leading
him to give to the words their natural dramatic
expression, and to overstep the bounds of stiS'
conventional formality.
We have remarked that he often drew themes
for his choruses from his instrumental pieces ;
besides this, he used portions of his earlier vocal
compositions in writing his later works. Thus,
four choruses in the ' Messiah ' were taken from
the ' Chamber Duets ;
' and so was the second
part of the chorus ' Wretched lovers !
' in ' Acis.'
It is, however, an undeniable fact that, besides
repjcating himself, he drew largely and unhesi-
tatingly on the resources of his predecessors
and contemporaries. And yet his own powers
of invention were such as must preclude the
supposition that he was driven by lack of ideas
to steal those of other people. In those days
there were many
were not regarded
forms of borrowing which
as thefts. When we find,
for instance, that the chorus just mentioned,
' Wretched lovers, ' has for its first theme the
subject of a fugue of Bach's, that one of the
most charming of the Chamber Duets was
taken from a similar duet by Steffani, that the
subject of theclavier-fugue in Bb(afterwardsused
for the third movement of the second Hautboisconcerto)
was borrowed note for note from a
canon by Turini, that, among the subjects which
form the groundwork of many of his choruses,
themes are to be found, taken from the works
of Leo, Carissimi, Pergolesi, Graun, Muflat,
Caldara, and others,'— it can only be urged
that in an age of conventionality, when musical
training consisted solely of exercise in the contrapuntal
treatment of given themes, originality
of idea did not hold the place it holds now.
Such themes became common property ; some
of them might even have been given to Handel
by Zaohau, in the days when his weekly exercise
consisted of a sacred motet, and he would have
' See Dr. Crotch's Lectures, p. 122.
regarded them as a preacher would regard a
text,—merely as a peg on which he or any other
man might hang a homily. But Handel did
not stop here. He seems to have looked ujjon
his own work as the embodiment, as well as the
culmination, of all existing music, and therefore
to have employed without scruple all such
existing material as he thought worthy to serve
his purpose. ' It is certain ' (to quote a distinguished
writer of our ' own day) that many
of the musical forms of expression which the
untechnical man hears and admires in a performance
of one of the works of Handel, the
technical man may see in the written scores of
his predecessors ; and that innumerable subjects,
harmonic progi-essions, points of imitation,
sequences, etc. , which the unlearned are accustomed
to admire (and with reason) in Handel,
are no more the invention of that master than
they are of Auber or Rossini.' In some cases,
passages of considerable length, and even entire
movements, were appropriated more or less unaltered
by Handel. Two compositions we may
quote especially, as having been largely laid
under contribution for some of his best-known
works. One is the Te Deum by Francesco Antonio
Uria or Urio. No less than nine movements in
six in the oratorio
the ' Dettingen Te Deum ' and
' Saul ' are founded wholly or in part on themes,
and contain long passages, taken from this work.
The other is a very curious piece by Alessandro
Stradella, [now published as No. 3 of the Siipplemente
to Chrysander's edition of Handel].
It is a serenade, in the dramatic form, for three
voices and a double orchestra (of strings). This
has been largely used by Handel for more than
one of his works, but chiefly for ' Israel in
Egypt, ' in which instances occur of large portions
(in one instance as much as twenty-seven bars)
being transferred bodily to his score. ' Israel
in Egypt ' contains another still more flagrant
appropriation, the transfer of an Organ Canzona
by Johann Caspar Kerl to the Chorus ' Egypt
was glad,' the only change being due to the
adaptation of the syllables to the notes. The
Canzona is printed by Sir John Hawkins (chap.
124), so that any reader may judge for himself.
[Among the Handel MSS. preserved in the Royal
Library at Buckingliam Palace is a 'Magnificat,'
in the great composer's own handwriting, for
eight voices, disposed in a double choir, with
accompaniments for t\vo violins, viola, basso,
two hautboys, and organ. The work is divided
into twelve movements, disposed in the following
order :
. 'Magnificat .iDima mea.' (Chorus.)
'
. Bt exultavit.' (Duet for two Treble*.
'
. Quia respexit.' (Chorus.)
'
. Quia fecit mihi magna.' (Duet for two Basses.)
'
. Fecit potentiam.' (Chorus.)
, 'Deposuit potentes.' (Alto Solo.)
'
. Eaurientes.' (Duet. Aito and Tenor.)
'
. SuBcepit Israel.' (Chorus.) ,
'
. Sicut locutus est.' (Chorus.)
. 'Gloria P.atri.' (Tenor Solo.)
. A
Ritornello, for Stringed Instruments only,
'
. Sicut erat.' (Chorus.)