do handel's cantatas matter? - BOLbusiness

222 ELLEN T. HARRIS
[10
sonification, into a cantata, however, does not establish that its
sole meaning, or even as one of its meanings 23 . As Robert
Hume has written, «The inclination to construct elaborate parallels
and personification readings should be resisted where
there is no extrinsic evidence with which to validate them.
However ingenious or textually plausible they may seem, they
are not a sound form of historical scholarship» 24 .
Because of its early date, Il delirio amoroso offers the best
example of Handel’s musical style at the outset of his Roman
sojourn. The overall movement plan is extensive, including
four arias, an instrumental introduction and interior instrumental
movements with the final aria a vocal minuet. Following
the opening sonata, the vocal section of the cantata begins
and ends in recitative, and the individual movements are
generous in length and style. In contrast, Handel’s cantatas
that can be dated to 1708 demonstrate a newfound restraint
and formal regularity, typically falling into the pattern of two
recitative-aria pairs with the arias consistently in da capo form.
The very use of instrumental accompaniment for a solo cantata
seems to be a trait associated primarily with early works.
The instrumental cantatas of 1708 and later typically are constructed
dramatically with two or more characters, not as solo
scenas, and the individual arias are less impassioned than
23 I did not propose this interpretation in Handel as Orpheus, but it
certainly exists within the circle of possible, multiple readings.
24 ROBERT D. HUME, The Politics of Opera in Late Seventeenth-Century
London, in «Cambridge Opera Journal» 10 (1998), pp. 15-43 (42-43).
KIRKENDALE, Handel with Ruspoli, attacks my association of homoeroticism
with the cantatas without addressing either the classical models of pastoralism
or the contemporary context, arguing that my general interpretations
are «implausible» (p. 306 n34) while providing specific, personification
readings that not only are unsupported by documentary evidence but
are more redolent of homoeroticism than anything I suggest. I have responded
to Kirkendale’s critique in Homosexual Context and Identity: Reflections
on the Reception of «Handel as Orpheus», forthcoming in the proceedings
of a conference in Queer Studies (Cambridge University, July,
2002).