Life of Mozart

;ARRANGEMENT OF HANDEL'S ORATORIOS. 221ments. Mozart's autograph scores of " Acis and Galatea"(566 K.),^^ of " The Ode for St. Cecüia's Day " (592 K.)/^ andof the "Feast of Alexander" (591 K.),^^ preserved in the RoyalLibrary in Berlin, show how he set about his task. Thevoice parts and stringed instruments have been transferredto his score, and left as Handel wrote them, with the exceptionthat where Handel has provided a violin part, Mozartemploys the second violin and viola to fill in the harmonies.The wind instruments have been altogether omitted by thecopyist in order to leave Mozart free play.Wherever Handelhas employed them characteristically, they are so preserved,but when, as often happens, the oboes are the sole representativesof the wind instruments, Mozart has proceededindependently, sometimes replacing them by other singleinstruments, frequently clarinets—flutes only very occasionally,sometimes introducing the whole body of windinstruments. This he does also in some places whereHandel has not even employed oboes, if it is needed to giveforce or fulness to the whole.The frequent introduction of the clarinets replaced thefull and powerful organ tones, but without any expressimitation of that particular sound-effect by Mozart. Thewhole character of the instrumentation was necessarilymodified, and even the portions which were literally tran-15 The pastoral, " Acis and Galatea," was composed by Handel at Cannonsin 1720 (Chrysander, Handel, I., p. 479).1^ In pursuance of an old custom of celebrating St. Cecilia's Day by music,a musical society had been founded in London, which instituted a grand performanceon that day ; the music and words were expressly written for theoccasion, and the praise of music formed the subject. A long list of celebratedpoems and compositions by the first masters was the result. W. H. Husk (AnAccount of the Musical Celebrations on St. Cecilia's Day, London, 1857.Chrysander, Händel, II., p. 412. Pohl. Mozart u. Haydn in London, p. 12).Dryden's Song for St. Cecilia's Day, "From harmony, from heavenly harmony,this universal frame began," was written in 1687, and set to music by Draghi(Chrysander, Händel,Handel composed the same poem in the autumn of 1739.IL, p. 430.)^' Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" was written in 1697, and performed withJer. Clark's music. Handel composed it in 1736; at the second performancein 1737, a duet and chorus, the words by Newburgh Hamilton, were added, butare not included in Mozart's arrangement. (Chrysander, Händel, IL, p. 413).