IO WORKS BY OTHER COMPOSERS
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Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
ROBERT FINCH
THE INDEBTEDNESS
OF HANDEL
TO
OTHER COMPOSERS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER.
: FETTEK LANE, E.G.
: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
ALSO
ILontion: AUGENER AND CO.
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^efa gorfe: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
Bomhag anti Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
[All Eights reserved.]
INDEBTEDNESS
HAN 3E
TO WORKS BY OTHER COMPOSERS
A PRESENTATION OF EVIDENCE
BY
SEDLEY TAYLOR M.A.
FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge
at the University Press
1906
f-
Pages i — xiii and 189 — 196 have been printed by
JOHN CLAY, M.A., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE,
and pages 1 — 188 by
AIRD AND COGHILL, LTD., GLASGOW.
iCT •)>~ 1922
PREFACE.
IN the following pages I attempt to place before my readers sufficient
materials for forming an independent judgment on Handel's
indebtedness to the works of a number of composers who were his
predecessors or contemporaries.
The task of singling out the compositions on which he appears to
have drawn most largely, and the labour of publishing them, have been
already performed, principally by the late Dr Friedrich Chrysander,
ably followed by Dr Max Seiffert. But something, I thought, still
remained to be done in the presentation of this pioneer-work, before
its results could become effectively accessible to musicians in general.
The published editions of "Handel-sources" were, indeed, prefaced
by full references to the places in his works where he had used
specified passages from them, but the process of comparison still
necessitated the acquisition of half-a-dozen such volumes and of a
dozen works by Handel, followed by the hunting-up and confronting of
the corresponding passages, not unfrequently complicated by the need
of transposition.
Convinced that nothing would persuade the British musical public
to take all this trouble, I determined to present in a single volume
a study of the whole subject, based on a selection from the above-
mentioned materials, doing my best by suitable collocation of musical
extracts, aided, wherever requisite, by transposition, to render the
process of comparison as easy as possible.
vi PREFACE
After an Introduction which sketches the history of opinion as to
Handel's originality, five chapters are occupied in proving that he
borrowed as freely from the compositions of other masters as he worked
up into new shapes earlier productions of his own.
In chapters vi and vn a full presentation is made of the processes
by which older materials were transformed — sometimes really trans-
figured— into large portions of that choral masterpiece, Israel in Egypt.
The contents of these chapters will, I venture to hope, prove of
permanent value to students of composition, as they afford a close
view of Handel obtaining some of his mightiest effects by methods of
the most unexpected and wonderful character.
The concluding chapter contains a discussion of the question
whether Handel was morally justified in dealing as he did with
works by other composers.
My various personal obligations are acknowledged in the sequel
at the points where they are severally incurred, but I wish here to
thank the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum in this University, by
whose kindness I am enabled to publish extracts from the Handel
autographs preserved in their custody, which have a decisive bearing
on the subject treated in this volume.
My cordial thanks are due to my friend Dr Charles Wood, who
read the work in manuscript and afforded me valuable assistance
during its passage through the press.
SEDLEY TAYLOR.
TRINITY COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE,
July, 1906.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PREFACE (Pages v, vi).
INTRODUCTION.
Outline of history of opinion as to Handel's originality : Sir John Hawkins, Mainwaring,
William Horsley, Burney, Crotch, Chrysander, Max Sciffert. Evidence supplied by the
Fitzwilliam Handel autographs Pages ix— xiii
CHAPTER I.
Comparison of passages from works by Handel with extracts from compositions by
Gottlieb Muffat, and with manuscript copies made thence bj* Handel . . . 1 — 14
CHAPTER II.
Comparison of passages from Handel's Jephtha with extracts from masses by Franz
Johann Habermann, and with manuscript copies made thence by Handel . . 15 — 27
CHAPTER III.
Comparison of a chorus in Handel's Theodora with a vocal duet by Giovanni Carlo
Maria Clari 28—30
CHAPTER IV.
Comparison of two choruses in Handel's Trionfo del Tempo with two choruses in a work
by Karl Heinrich Graun, and with manuscript copies of them made by Handel. Miscellaneous
examples of Handel's use of this work 31 — 35
CHAPTER V.
Handel's use of earlier compositions of his own. Instances of this in the case of some
duets set to secular Italian words and afterwards developed into several choruses, and one
duet, in the Messiah ............. 36 — 46
CHAPTER VI.
Character of results attained by Handel when making use of pre-existing materials.
Israel in Egypt affords unique opportunities for studying these results. Comparison of
Part I of that oratorio with portions of a serenata by Stradella, an organ-piece by Kerl
and four earlier compositions of Handel's own ........ 47 — 89
b
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER VII.
Comparison of Part II of Israel in Egypt with a Latin Magnificat, the authorship of
which is disputed, and with a passage from a Latin Te Deum by Urio . . . 90 — 163
CHAPTER VIII.
Discussion of the question whether Handel's mode of dealing with compositions by other
Masters was morally justifiable 164 — 188
APPENDIX :
List of works by Handel quoted from in this volume ..... 191
List of Composers, instances of the use of whose works by Handel are quoted
in this volume ............. 192
List of Examples 193—194
INDEX 195—196
INTRODUCTION.
OUTLINE OF HISTORY OF OPINION AS TO HANDEL'S ORIGINALITY: SIR JOHN
ERRATA.
Page 31, line 1, for 'six' read 'sixteen'.
O * '
Page 76: the statement prefixed to Example 31 refers to Kerl's fugue, not
to Handel's chorus.
Page 84, line 12, for "1820" read "1720".
Page 179, note1, for "To dust his glory" read "Ere to dust".
Page 186, line 28, for " hoth " read "both".
versant with his works will be inclined to believe, viz. that his style was
original and self-formed : and were evidence of the fact wanting, it is capable
of proof by his own testimony, for in a conversation with a very intelligent
person now living, on the course of his studies, Mr Handel declared that,
after he became master of the rudiments of his art, he forbore to study
the works of others, and ever made it a rule to follow the suggestions of
his own fancy."2
I adduce this statement solely in order to show that during, and for some
years after, Handel's life-time no whisper of his being a plagiarist had reached
a man so well situated for hearing it as was Sir John Hawkins. That Handel,
after reaching maturity, forbore to study the works of other composers, admits,
as will be seen later, of such decisive refutation that I cannot believe him
to have asserted it, and prefer to attribute to Hawkins the acceptance of
incorrect information from his anonymous source.
1 Article 'Handel,' written by the late Mr F. Hueffer, 1880.
2 History of Music, vol. v. p. 412.
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER VII.
Comparison of Part II of Israel in Egypt with a Latin Magnificat, the authorship of
which is disputed, and with a passage from a Latin Te Deum by Urio . . . 90 — 163
CHAPTER VIII.
Discussion of the question whether Handel's mode of dealing with compositions by other
Masters was morally justifiable 164 — 188
APPENDIX :
List of works by Handel quoted from in this volume ..... 191
List of Composers, instances of the use of whose works hv TLmHpl m-o n^^^A
INTRODUCTION.
OUTLINE OF HISTORY OF OPINION AS TO HANDEL'S ORIGINALITY : SIR JOHN
HAWKINS, MAINWARING, WILLIAM HORSLEY, BURNEY, CROTCH, CHRYSANDER,
MAX SEIFFERT. EVIDENCE SUPPLIED BY THE FITZWILLIAM HANDEL AUTO-
GRAPHS.
HANDEL'S mode of turning to account the works of other composers is
characterised by a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the following
uncompromising terms :
" The system of wholesale plagiarism carried on by him is perhaps un-
precedented in the history of music. He pilfered not only single melodies but
frequently entire movements from the works of other masters, with few or no
alterations and without a word of acknowledgment."1
With this it is instructive to compare an equally sweeping, but diametrically
opposite, assertion on the same topic made by Sir John Hawkins about
seventeen years after Handel's death :
" Arid here it may not be impertinent to observe, what every person con-
versant with his works will be inclined to believe, viz. that his style was
original and self-formed : and were evidence of the fact wanting, it is capable
of proof by his own testimony, for in a conversation with a very intelligent
person now living, on the course of his studies, Mr Handel declared that,
after he became master of the rudiments of his art, he forbore to study
the works of others, and ever made it a rule to follow the suggestions of
his own fancy."2
I adduce this statement solely in order to show that during, and for some
years after, Handel's life-time no whisper of his being a plagiarist had reached
a man so well situated for hearing it as was Sir John Hawkins. That Handel,
after reaching maturity, forbore to study the works of other composers, admits,
as will be seen later, of such decisive refutation that I cannot believe him
to have asserted it, and prefer to attribute to Hawkins the acceptance of
incorrect information from his anonymous source.
1 Article ' Handel,' written by the late Mr F. Hueffer, 1880.
2 History of Music, vol. v. p. 412.
x INTRODUCTION
Handel's earliest biographer, Mainwaring, also lays stress on his originality
as a composer, describing " that grandeur of conception which predominates
in his choruses " as " coming purely from Nature," and saying that " in his
fugues and overtures he is quite original " and that " the style of them is
peculiar to himself and no way like that of any Master before him." 1
It is interesting to hear the distinguished composer of the beautiful glee
" By Celia's Arbour," William Horsley, taking, half-a-century later, the same
ground with even greater emphasis :
" If ever there existed a musician who could lay just claim to originality,
that man was Handel. He drew all his stores from Nature and from the
force of his own genius and was indebted to no one either for his style or
his thoughts. He could not bend his talents to think after anybody else ;
conscious of the strength of his own powers, he disdained imitation, and
trusted confidently to them alone. His music therefore is, properly speaking,
his own "2
This judgment fairly represents, I think, the practically axiomatic belief in
Handel's originality entertained by the bulk of English musicians until quite
recent times.
A very different opinion had meantime been gradually forming itself, the
progress of which shall next be traced.
Burney, in the preface to his " Account of the Musical Performances in
Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon in commemoration of Handel,"3 which
took place in 1784, says something which may imply that, a quarter of a
century after Handel's death, a tendency to question his absolute originality
had begun to make itself heard. Writing in the following year (1785), Burney
remarks :
"I know it has been said that Handel was not the original and immediate
inventor of several species of Music for which his name has been celebrated,
but with respect to originality it is a term to which proper limits should be
set before it is applied to the productions of any artist." He goes on to
explain that " The scale, harmony and cadence of Music being settled, it is
impossible for any composer to invent a genus of composition that is wholly
and rigorously new, any more than for a poet to form a language, idiom and
phraseology for himself."4 Whether the objections which Burney had in view
here were of such a kind as could be fairly met by these somewhat plati-
tudinous considerations we are left uninformed. Some twenty years later,
1 "Memoirs," London, 1760, pp. 192 and 202.
2 This passage is taken from an article in the Quarterly Musical Review for 1818, p. 282. The
article is unsigned, but in my copy of the volume containing it, which belonged to my grandfather,
Richard Mackenzie Bacon, who was then Editor of that periodical, it is headed in manuscript
"W. Horsley, Esq."
3 London, 1785. * preface, p. 39.
INTRODUCTION xi
however, the charge of plagiarism was formulated against Handel with the
utmost directness by no less a person than Samuel Wesley, one of the best
organ-players of his time, author of that admirable 8-part motet, "In exitu
Israel," and father of the still more celebrated composer, Samuel Sebastian
Wesley. In a letter to his friend Jacob, dated Oct. 19, 1808, he wrote as
follows :
"Salomon has said truly and shrewdly enough, that the P]nglish know very
little of the Works of the German Masters, Handel excepted, who (as he
observes) came over hither when there was a great dearth of good Musick,
and here he remained (these are his words) establishing a Reputation wholly
constituted upon the spoils of the Continent. This would nettle the Handelians
desperately, however it is the strict truth, for we all know how he has
pilfered from all manner of Authors whence he could filch anything like a
thought worth embodying."1
There can be no doubt that, if Handel had committed such depredations on
Continental compositions, the celebrated German violinist Salomon (1745-1815)
was exceptionally qualified, by varied experience on the Continent and long
residence in England, to detect and expose them. But, whatever was the source
whence Wesley derived his information, he evidently claims for himself, his
correspondent and their associates, a direct knowledge of the " pilferings " and
" filchings " here attributed to Handel.
In 1831 the names of twenty-nine composers, whose works he asserted to have
been laid under contribution by Handel, were published by Dr William Crotch,
then Professor of Music in the University of Oxford :
" Handel quoted or copied the works of Josquin de Prez, Palestrina, Turini,
Carissimi, Calvisius, Uria2 (sic), Corelli, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti,
Sebastian Bach, Purcell, Locke, Caldara, Colonna, Clari, Cesti, Kerl, Habermann,
Muffat, Kuhnau, Telemann, Graun, Mondeville, Porta, Pergolesi, Vinci, Astorga,
Bononcini, Hasse, etc." 3
Further, in his published adaptations of Handel's works for the organ or
pianoforte, and in some manuscript notes of his preserved in the Library of the
British Museum, Crotch proceeded to allege details by giving lists of passages in
Handel's works which he asserted to have been borrowed from, or modelled on,
specified compositions by other masters. To these I shall have occasion to recur
when we come directly to compare portions of Handel's works with the passages
from compositions by other masters from which they are asserted to have been
1 Letters of Samuel Wesley to Mr Jacob edited by his daughter. London : Partridge & Co.
1875. p. 9.
2 Should be Urio.
3 " Substance of several courses of Lectures on Music." London : Longman and others. 1831.
Note on p. 122.
xii INTRODUCTION
derived. To do this in Crotch's time was possible only to erudite and exceptionally
well situated musicians like himself, the works from which Handel was alleged to
have borrowed being then for the most part unpublished and practically inaccessible.
This state of things lasted for more than another half-century until Dr
Fried rich Chrysander, well known as the learned biographer of Handel and as the
Editor of the great German edition of his works, brought out, as "Supplements" to
that edition, between the years 1888 and 1892, a series of five volumes containing
compositions to which, in his opinion, Handel was principally indebted.
These compositions, arranged in the order of their publication, are : 1. Erba's
Magnificat. 2. Urio's Te Deum. 3. A Serenata by Stradella. 4. A collection of
duets by Clari. 5. Gottlieb Muffat's harpsichord pieces entitled " Componimenti
Musicali." To these must now be added an edition of Reiser's opera 'Octavia'
which was left in a complete state by Dr Chrysander at his death, in 1901,
and has since been published under the care of his literary executor, Dr Max
Sciffert, as No. 6 of the Handel "Supplements." Each of these volumes, with the
exception of No. 2, contains a preface enumerating the passages in Handel's works
where the composition in hand has been drawn upon. An edition of four oratorios
by Carissimi, from whom Handel also borrowed, had been published by Chrysander
at an earlier date, independently of the Handel Society and without any reference
to the use which Handel had made of them.
In 1903 Dr Seiffert effected an important advance in an article1 on Franz
Johann Habermann containing large extracts from masses by that composer,
together with precise indications of the places where, and the extent to which,
Handel had used them. Dr Seiffert is careful to explain that it was Chrysander's
intention, if his life were prolonged, to prepare an edition of Habermann's masses
to form the next number in his series of Handel "Supplements." Lastly, in 1905,
Dr Seiffert published'2 the collected works of Friedrich Wilhelrn Zachow3, organist
at Halle, and the only teacher in executive music and composition that Handel
ever had.
These works show very few traces of creative power, which perhaps explains
why Handel seems to have borrowed next to nothing from them. But they
constitute evidence that Zachow had an easy control over the forms of composition
with which a choirmaster in an important North German church at the end of
the seventeenth century had to deal, and that he was accordingly well fitted
to lay a durable foundation for his great pupil's future superstructure.
In enquiring what is actually proved by the valuable published matter
cursorily described above, we shall be materially assisted by evidence contained
in the collection of Handel autograph manuscripts preserved in the Fitzwilliam
Museum of the University of Cambridge.
1 Published in the Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch, Eegensburg : Pustel, 1903, pp. 81 — 04.
2 In the Denkmciler Deutscher Tonkunst.
3 Or, as his name has hitherto been spelt, Zacliau.
INTRODUCTION xiii
A number of its pages contain movements — some complete, some incomplete,
some consisting of mere fragmentary scraps a few bars long — which used to be
regarded as compositions, or sketches for compositions, of Handel's own, but have
now been in numerous cases identified as extracts made by him from works by
other composers, not a few of which have analogues in his published writings.
Where, in such instances, a question of priority arises, evidence that one of the
parties knew, and copied from, the work of the other is obviously of great weight.
We shall in the sequel come across several instances in which decisive evidence
of this kind is supplied by the Fitzwilliam autographs.
We will now proceed to a detailed comparison between portions of Handel's
works, and passages in those of other composers from which they are asserted
to have been — with greatly varying degrees of alteration, curtailment and
addition — directly taken. The number and extent of the instances where
this is alleged are so very considerable, that to apply such a comparison to
anything like all of them would entail a process of huge length and portentous
wearisomeness. Selected cases are, therefore, all that can be dealt with here,
and these will be grouped under the names of the several composers from whose
works the appropriations are alleged to have been made.
When the printing of this volume was already in its final stage, an accident
recalled my attention to certain arguments published, in a letter to the Musical
Times1, by Mr P. Robinson, of Manchester, supporting the view that Handel may
have composed not only the Magnificat attributed by Chrysander to Erba, but also
the Te Deum and the Serenata ascribed by him to Urio and Stradella respectively.
I read that letter at the time of its appearance, but afterwards, to my regret,
allowed its contents, which ought to have been noticed in the sequel, to escape my
memory while I was engaged on the present work. All, therefore, that I can now
do is to refer my readers to Mr Robinson's letter, leaving to further research the
task of investigating the issues which he has raised in it.
1 December, 1905.
CHAPTER I.
COMPABISON OF PASSAGES FROM WORKS BY HANDEL WITH EXTRACTS FROM
COMPOSITIONS BY GOTTLIEB MUFFAT, AND WITH MANUSCRIPT COPIES MADE
THENCE BY HANDEL.
MUFFAT (1690-1770), of Vienna, was one of the best composers
of his time for the harpsichord. His chief work, entitled " Componimenti
Musicali per il Cembalo" is a collection of overtures, fugues, fantasias etc., and
of movements in dance-forms, minuets, rigaudons, sarahandes, gigues and the like.
The resemblances between eighteen of these and passages in Handel's works which
have been specified by Chrysander are of such a kind as to make it manifest either
that Handel copied from Muffat or Muffat from Handel. We have, therefore, to
decide between these alternatives. Unfortunately the date at which Muffat's
' Componimenti ' were published is so uncertain that it cannot be relied on as an
element of comparison. The late Heir C. F. Pohl, in an article on Muffat in
Grove's Dictionary of Music,1 stated that the work in question was published at
Vienna in 1727, and he made a memorandum to that effect in a copy of the
' Componimenti ' in the Library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde at Vienna,
of which he was then Librarian.2 Oh the other hand Chrysander in his edition of
the ' Componim,enti ' reproduces the original title-page which states that the work
was printed at Augsburg, but bears no date. In the German8 preface Muftat
describes his good fortune in having met with his famous "engraver and publisher"
(" Kupferstecher und Verleger ") who had produced (" verfertiget ") the work to
his entire satisfaction. According to this evidence, therefore, the ' Componimenti '
were printed and published at Augsburg, not at Vienna as stated by Pohl. The
fact that the date is wanting on the original title-page affords, of course, no proof
that Pohl did not possess some independent evidence capable of establishing it.
For us, however, the date which he assigns, 1727, rests on his assertion only.
Chrysander, on conjectural grounds, considered the work to have been published
" about the year 1735," 4 but, as this view depends on the assumption that " Handel
had the ' Componimenti' in his hand in 1739 or perhaps a year earlier,"5 no weight
can, without circular reasoning, be assigned to it at the present stage of our
enquiry.
1 First edition.
2 This fact was kindly communicated to me by Dr. Mandyczewski, the present librarian of the
Gftsellxchaft, who added that he was unable to ascertain on what ground Pohl, who was generally very
accurate in statement, based his fixation of the date and place of publication of Muffat's work,
3 The preface appears also in Italian, but in the corresponding passage mentions the printer
("• Impressore") only. 4 Preface to his edition of Muffat's 'Componimenti.' * Ibidem.
B
HANDEL AUTOGRAPHS
So far, then, the external evidence is inconclusive, but an appeal to that
supplied by the Fitzwilliam Handel autographs will prove much more fruitful.
These contain certain disjointed musical scraps, of from 3 to 5 bars each, which so
experienced a Handelian scholar as Pr. A. H. Mann has not been able to recognize
as appearing anywhere in Handel's published works, but which he and I between
us have identified as agreeing in minute detail with passages in Muffat's
' Componimenti.' This renders it very improbable that Muff at took these passages
from any Handelian source, as he certainly had no access to Handel's private
note-books; and therefore establishes a strong probability that Handel copied
them from Muffat's published volume. A detailed comparison between the
forms in which these passages are presented in the note-books and in the
' Componimenti ' will, I think, make it clear that Handel was here the copyist.
To this comparison we now proceed.
Ex.1.
Handel.
F.W. Auto-
graphs.
(12, p. 62.)
Staves 8 & (I
Muff at.
Prelude.
p. 27.
bars 3 -7.
HANDEL AUTOGRAPHS
The occurrence in Handel's version of only one tie (bar 3) as against six in
Mulfat (bars 3 and 4«) is an indication that Handel is here copying, not composing.
The absence of a flat before E (H. bar 4, Bass, first note) shows that a tie should
have been inserted as in Muffat. In the same bar the second B ou^ht to have
O
a flat before it as in Muffat. The absence of a flat before E (H. bar 2, Treble)
and of a ! natural ' before the second F (H. bar 3, Bass) tells the same tale.
Ex.2.
Handel.
F.W. Auto-
graphs.
(12. p. 62.)
lines fi& 7.
(Upper stave
transcribed
from Sopr.
Mui'fat.
Allemandt
Part I.
bars 1 -7
p.O.
At the beginning of Handel's autograph here he has first written in the
Treble clef and then crossed it out and replaced it by the Soprano clef, which
was doubtless that used in Muffat's original edition. The upper stave in the
autograph opens thus
, which is equivalent to
4 HANDEL AUTOGRAPHS
and not consistent with the Bass. I conjecture that Handel made the change
of clef after he had written in the opening chord, and forgot to alter it
correspondingly when he replaced the Treble by the Soprano clef in which
therefore it reads as the chord of E minor instead of as that of G major.
Immediately after Handel's " etc." comes a further fragment corresponding to
a passage in Part II. of the same Allemande by Muffat, the Treble clef being this
time used by HandeL
Ex. 3.
H.Ib
HANDEL AUTOGRAPHS 5
Here the difference of barring makes Handel's version much the better of the
two. We cannot suppose that Muffat had it before him and deliberately worsened
its vigorous accentuation, and therefore must here see Handel copying from
Muffat and improving on him while doing go.
Ex.4.
Handel.
/ n
i 1 • j -j 1
1 1
P "W A 11 tn
~r — f
' — tr~iii ^
Jr \^ ^^
U 'V
V_/ \ 9. ^ m
ff IP— i^—
•? • ii«
graphs.
:l2.p.62.i
lines 1 &2.
Sopr. clef
U 2* »
*7 tf 7
* 4
O»
^ Nf
used in
fc)'(;
. 1 ! ; i
~^* — 9 — 7-
the MS.
' " ft* «
j* '
( '
! '
r ft '
IV M ^ ^
f?*5 « / A ' t
fzz3
9 it* ^ ^
B ff~ ^F ri A
2
• ff ~^f— ~^f—
HS^ f 5J
Muffat.
Ouverture.
p. 107.
, * ^.
+ + *
•0- •»• '
+ * * *
" f f i
* * *
fM £3,
{^i ,_
\j\ \ \% —
" t < ^
\ g
25
7* • £i A
^ ^ X
«?^
^ x * +
V» V
Handel's version here looks on the face of it anything but like a bit of
original composition. It begins with a chord in four parts followed by another
in three, both provided with Thorough-Bass figuring from which we learn nothing
but what the chords themselves tell us. Next come five notes of Treble and
Bass only, with incomplete figuring, then six unfigured chords in Sve parts and
one in four. Bars 3 and 4 show wrong notes, A and A fr appearing in one and
the same chord in Bar 3, and B and B ? in bar 4.
It is hardly possible to imagine Handel putting his own ideas on paper in
this fashion, but quite easy to suppose him jotting down the^e notes and scanty
figures if his object was to produce, not a copy of what Muffat had written, but
a rough memorandum sufficient to recover its salient features if he should
subsequently have occasion to make use of them. So far it has, I think, been
established that Handel copied out, or made memoranda of, passages from Muffat's
' Componimcnti.'
I place next an example showing Handel at work elaborating a fine accom-
panied recitative out of apparently unpromising materials taken from the same
quarry.
6 DEVELOPMENT FROM MUFFAT
Ex. 5.
Accompanied Recitative from the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day.
Tenor
Voice,
Accompt.
When Xa- ture
un - derneath. a
Adagio.
Muffat.
Adagio.
p. 124.
(Origin ill
Key- sig-
nature Gr.)
EEfcEJp
\
fjE
JJT1I
ffSJOr: — .g ^
E^
^
-*-±-*
1 J J
PT1
-:=4»t
DEVELOPMENT FROM MUFFAT
Na- ture
un- der-neath a heap
of jar -ring A - toms
11.
M.
DEVELOPMENT FROM MUFFAT
H.
The tune-ful voice washeardfromhigh
An argument already used above, is equally applicable to this case. Had
Muffat seen Handel's unaccompanied recitative he could not by any possibility
have reduced it to the dead level of his Adagio. Therefore it must have been
developed by Handel on the skeleton supplied by Muftat. It is immediately
followed in the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day by short unaccompanied recitatives,
alternating with two instrumental interludes identical, save for slight alterations,
with passages from a ' Fantaisie ' by Muffat, as is shown in the next example :
Handel.
Strings.
Muffat.
Fantaisie.
p. 76.
(Transposed
a Major
Third up.)
Ex.6.
MUFFVT COPIED FROM
Muffat.
Transposed
a Semi -Tone
M.
10
MUFFAT COPIED FROM
The superiority of Handel's part-writing in Ex. 6, bar 2, and of his distribution
of parts in the second part of that example suffice, as in previous instances, to show
that he must here, too, be regarded as copying from, and improving on, Muffat.
The comparisons made above suffice, I think, to establish the fact that Handel
borrowed from Muffat. I add three more, however, before passing away from this
composer, on account of their possessing special points of interest ; the first and
second as being, with the exception of judicious excisions, slight modifications of
key and filling in of harmonies, entire movements simply ' lifted off ' Muffat ; the
third as showing where Handel got the stirring subject of the allegro in his well-
known overture to
Ex. 7.
Muffat
Trio.
p. 40.
MUFFAT COPIED FROM
11
?
H.
-F— — *-
:H£E
1 I '_
=^
^r£rf^
*
^^
Xk P ~^h—
I!.
:
N
— I—
M.
i
-^-^
s
12
MUFFAT COPIED FROM
1 1.
II.
\\/L ^
i—
J —
i j ^
II Tl
/• —
J
2
•
— • —
S
j r *
~ \
J *
r
1. l|l 2. i
a^irr i"£
M.
feL4^^^
r
SB
In Muffat's original the key-signature is £A/ree flats. I have omitted his very
numerous ' graces ' here and in the next example.
Ex.8.
^ * -! _n«-^ '
:=f^
Handel.
March
in
Joshua.
r^
^
I i i
W
^
Muff at.
Rigaudon.
p. 14.
(Transposed
a Tone up.)
^E
H.
•«*• —
J.
S
S^
^
*ES
y
ff "trrr
Jl.
14
SUBJECT BORROWED FROM MUFFAT
Ex. 9.
Han del.
Allegro
in
Overture
to
Samson.
Muff at.
Fantaisie.
p. 122.
. /-_ I I "' r
CHAPTER II.
COMPARISON OP PASSAGES FROM HANDEL'S JKPETHA WITH EXTRACTS FROM MASSES BY
FRANZ JOHANN HABERMANN, AND WITH MANUSCRIPT COPIES MADE THENCE BY
HANDEL.
FRANZ JOHANN HABEKMANN (1700-17*3) was a composer of Bohemian
birth to whom, as Dr. Max Seiftert has shown in a most interesting article,1
Handel is under considerable obligations for material taken from five2 masses pub-
lished by him in 1747 and incorporated by Handel in his Jephiha which was
composed in 1751. The question of priority is thus decisively settled by external
evidence, confirmed, as will immediately be seen, by the Fitzwilliam autographs.
The extracts from Habermann's Masses, which will now be compared with the
corresponding passages in Handel's works, are all taken from Dr. Seiflert's article
Ex.10.
Handel.
Jephtha.
Violins.
Iht & 2nd
Habermann
Mass I.
Violins.
Organ.
1 Kirckenmusikalisckes Jahrbwh : Regensburg, 1903.
2 Ib. p. 83. A sixth mass followed in Habcrmann's volume, but in Dr Seiffert's opinion it was
not drawn upon by Handel.
Hun.
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
17
L , Js J J J /^^
: 1 1
No more to Ammon's god and
king,
fierce
!^t-!t-g-
Han.
"p^J Lj J-
^F^-SF
lei
A
J22L
son,
Hab.
18
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
£=^=£
±
Mo - loch, fierce Mo - loch,
fierce
Mo - loch, shall our
Han.
m
^" -0- i I i-»_h
P
±=st
^
tci - sun,
lei - son, Ky
Hab.
^=^^=f
Compare the passages thus marked.
19
E
cym
J
bals
ring,
I
m
Han.
A
m
^^
- lei
- son, e
le
-tv
^
Hub.
sew, e
urns.
TT
The whole of the extract from Habermann given in Ex. 10 appears, copied out
in full in Handel's handwriting, but without words or composer's name, in the
Fitzwilliam autographs.1 This fact supplies, of course, independent evidence, were
such wanted, of Handel's indebtedness to Habermann.
The comparisons made in the next six Examples will speak for themselves.
1 13, p. 82.
20 HANDEL AND HABERMANN
Ex. 11.
HANDEL. Symphony to the song "His mighty arm with sudden blow."
Strings.
HABERMANN. Mass I. Introduction toi'Jtex ccelest-is"
Violins.
Transposed
a Major
Third
down.
Handel.
F.W. Auto-
graphs.
01. 13. p. 75.)
Transposed
a Major
TJI i rd
down.
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
n
21
Handel.
Jephtha.
Habermann.
Miss /.
Handel
Autograph
Ex.12.
Habermann.
Mass V.
Handel.
Autographs.
(lO.p.51.)
Compressed
from open
score.
Handel. Jephtha.
^-rr- =^
=TT
0 God be
s
Jlfi - se
- J J 1
'
•M
•
t
ol - - Us pec -
- ca - - to,
•\ ~
ff
J
IE
.
ZZ ' j<
^~ r
xV V -
22
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
dis
tress
hold «yr sore
tress,
G.:d, be
A
^m
God
1
r r
=f
E*=
Gud
r=r
hold our sore dis
our sore dis
yj?
tress
eta.
i^fflg
33
Seiffert's
Extract ends.
T\
I
7J"
5
i^r=
4> *
p •
72
etc.
^f — i
Lf T !
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
Ex. 13.
23
Handel.
Jephtha.
y Q
=>d
j4J Ul.
(fc i?
— f3 — —
«
-+-
-^
— M
-*~^ — 4-±
^
••
Theme su -
^2> *"
blime
-j—
of
— i^^r" — •• y
i i hf
end - less
? r
praise, of
p-r r-r
end - less
11
«-
<> i. ,
[7 ^$ •
— ^ —
— •§ —
r — '
— * —
" 1
^^fc
^ —
Z b
^y
_^-
'^
^t K
P!'
i
5
jAlla breve.
- s<w - na
•Tlieme su - blime of end-less
f \
Z j
m
E
'
JR i.
II* ™
^
^.
rj
^*
QS '
Ip
€1
'-*
^ r>
^ r
^ >
<
5 x
f''
f^j
V ^
TT
0 -
s«w
t>
na
--^
in
M
|
ex-
eel
-
-
-
i1:
rrj
Seiffert's
Extract
ends.
CJC
-•-^
^
l*i
^
^
•
••
•
«»
2g
/ E
IP
-tf~^% -
^-™
Habermann.
Mass I.
Transposed
a Major
Third down.
Handel pw. i-Alla breve. "Theme sublime of endless Praise." (MS.
Autographs.
Q3. p. 90.)
Compressed
from open
score and
transposed
a Major
Third down.
y Q
Jr i
^ ,
"J
-r C
XL [j (j» •
52
^ O <y A
vT) " <»
***^
Hmt r*'
r—1, 9
TT
1 ^
-i r °
"**"
rw
i
etc.
*^"
•»-»». — . —
o
c>
^
X i? *P
-^ 1
Ex. 14.
Handel.
Jephtha .
Orchestral
Bass.
Che
mosh
^"g g g g g
more will we a-dore with tim-breird
1. 1 i n
Tlr^l
-» — s — J • J * *
= — fc
r{H ff P «
/ * * «
• »
^K P r P m
^. P r P A P r
•
^ i — r ^ •* ? k r
an - thems to Je - ho - vah
»y. jta f — p —
5 ' > > | f j |
'/
- thems
» 2
due, witli tim-brelld an
Che - - mosh
^ A
^^^ * ^ J
r
Habermann. Mass L
Cum san - cto spi - n - tu in
Cum san - - cto
d A
Handel. F. "W. Autographs.
O.S. p. 88.)
Compressed from open score.
24
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
^a
Han.
to Je - hc-vah due, with
norewil! we a - do re with timbrelid
o?
.
timbrelld an-thems to Je-ho-vah
an thems to Je-ho-vah
due
due
N— K
Che -
«
Hab.
tt m qlo -ri-a.De-i .
N N y S ^ fc N N
Jt A N
Seiffert's
men Extract ends.
£
CT
Han.
Anlo-
£raphs.
I
Ex. 15.
Instrumental Introduction to the Song "Hide thou thy hated beams." (Jephtha.)
^/fl u
Violins.
Basses.
^E&
HABERMANN. Miss IV. Introduction
Violins.
Basses.
to the Bass Solo "Domine
m^
^
&
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
25
Han.
Hab.
Han.
Hat.
By striking out Habermann's feeble and inconsequent third and fourth bars, and
similar matter in his seventh and eighth bars, Handel has greatly improved this
little prelude.
Ex. 16.
Symphony to the Song "Pour forth no more unheeded prayers."
HABERMANN. Mass I. Symphony to Chorus "Kyrie eleison'.'
Violins.
Transposed
a Major Third down.
Organ.
26
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
Han
Hab.
Han.
Hab.
^
£*\J^L^
Han.
Hab.
HANDEL AND HABERMANN
27
Bar 1H.
Han.
te£
£
^
Han.
to I-dolsdeaf and
to Idols
deaf
in J *
^
jjab. Chris-te e - lei
r
^
^s
^^
Saiffert's
Extract ends.
This song, which in Jephtha occupies 115 bars, is mainly built on these
materials, and the accompaniment is throughout made from Habermann's.
CHAPTER III.
COMPARISON OF A CHORUS IN HANDEL'S THEODORA WITH A VOCAL DUET BY
GIOVANNI CARLO MARIA CLARI.
GIOVANNI CAELO MAEIA CLARI (1669— about 1740) was a dis-
tinguished maestro di capella who wrote a large amount of sacred and
secular music. Among the latter were a number of vocal duets, passages in
which find more or less close homologies in Handel's Theodora. These passages
are contained in six of the duets produced, according to Chrysander, " about 1720 "
and published by him, with the exception of one duet, from a "contemporary
copy" in his own possession. The excepted duet he inserted from a Paris
edition published a century later, in 1823. The Fitzwilliam Museum possesses
manuscript copies of thirty-seven trios and duets by Clari, including the six which
concern us here : each of these is marked either ' 1740 ' or ' 1741 ' — dates which
Mr. Fuller-Maitland thinks probably refer to the first edition of the duets.1 This
would give a date some twenty years later than that assigned by Chrysander,
assuming — which I do not feel sure of — that by ' produced ' he meant ' published,'
and not merely ' composed.' In any case it may be safely inferred from the dates
affixed to the Fitzwilliam copies that these six duets were in existence by the
year 1741. This clears the question of priority, as Handel's Theodora was not
performed until 1749.
The method employed by Handel in dealing with the materials supplied by
Clari was quite uniform. It consisted in taking thence short themes fit, or
capable by slight alterations of being rendered fit, for contrapuntal treatment, and
then working them up by all sorts of fugal, canonic and imitative devices
applied with astonishing force and freedom, into elaborate polyphonic movements
of the well-known " Handelian " type. In this manner several entire choruses
and a long orchestral movement are, with more or less infusion of other matter,
developed out of passages of two or three bars each taken from Clari's unpre-
tentious but charming little compositions. As, later in the present work, we shall
see the same method applied with supreme skill and stupendous results in one
of the grandest of all Handel's oratorios, I shall content myself with but a single
illustration of its employment on Clari's duets, viz. the construction of the chorus
"While Grace and Truth " in Theodora.
1 'Catalogue of the Music in the Fitzwilliam Museum.' p. 152. The Fitzwilliam copies are
provided with figured hassea, which does not appear to have been the case with those edited by
Chrvsander.
HANDEL AND CLARI
Ex. 17.
Soprano.
29
Handel.
Theodora.
UUUL^—z ZJP r J JEEEE^
r * — * — r
cm * </ • j -V— * — J w
tJ «**^
Come, mig-h - ty Fa - ther,
migh - ty Lord
_* J m— — J_
This phrase is constructed by assigning to one voice what Clari divides between
two voices.
Ex. 17 (continued.)
rvy (. ==
X
^
Clari.
Trans-
a L'o - d<> Ge
J - sin - do,
v — F^-
X
a Fifth
down.
"^y —
*Y it. J ^ — R— «r-
: i _p •_
e pron
! J J —
?o a It'i sen vie- ne
>¥ <- J J 7
E =^-
.* — * — j j
This is followed by
Soprano.
Handel.
Instr!
Bass.
Second
Soprano.
Clari.
Ptt r^ ^
Ex. 17 (continued.) ^ — """
^f- --— -f5-
_I
_> ^ , —
mitrh ty Lord, come,
4\. ^ jjt _ :
^ =^ =*^ ~? IF
^ ft -V—
H " =^ ^--f=
I^P l^jt ^ — te= ^
^= -j^ J "^
St : f—
*^ a - wor
suo le pc.
_ — _ — _ —
?ie,
s
30
HANDEL AND CLABI
We next come on this theme in Canon:
Ex. 17 (continued.)
Handel.
Theodora.
Sopran'
Alto.
Instr!
Bas.s.
Clari.
Trans-
posed Soprano
a Fifth
down.
While grace and truth flow
-K
While grace and
gr^F-r
flr^ — J^J — frir-d.^ j
E — =£=
S
3
V-U fl* • 9 W
^1
</t' a Lnu-rin - daal
fj « fl I
/
&
n - te
y nutf t9
(^ &
S N
V
/I. n«
/^
i r*
S N
N
rM IT k«*
* «
r m
a
J
V'U ' * 1*
H •
* J
c J
«?J StJ
^^ -1-
^
e a La
w -rt'n. - da al
1 — ^^^
•
Jon - te
r^t- =t= =W=
— J —
-+-
0.
"9
The use of the scale-passage in Handel's Bass here appears to have been suggested
by the following bars of Olari •
y ^ (1 4 (Ex. 17 (continued.)
Soprano
I.
Soprano
II. ^_
T'aw - - re so - a - vi
This chorus of Handel, consisting of 60 bars, is entirely worked up out of the
above materials from Olari's duet.
CHAPTER IV.
COMPARISON OP TWO CHORUSES IN HANDEL'S TRIONFO DEL TEMPO WITH TWO CHORUSES
IN A WORK BY KARL HEINRICH GRAUN, AND WITH MANUSCRIPT COPIES MADE
OF THEM BY HANDEL. MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES OP HANDEJ/S USE OF
THIS WORK.
KAEL HEINEICH GRAUN (1701-1759), a six years younger contemporary
of Handel, was a German composer of the greatest distinction and public
repute, who held posts of Capellmeister at the Courts of Brunswick and Berlin,
and whose masterpiece, the oratorio Der Tod Jesu, occupies in Germany "in
some measure the position which is held by the Messiah in England."1 That
Handel should have transferred almost note for note to his own scores the bulk
of two choruses of considerable length taken from a work by one of his most
eminent contemporaries seems antecedently incredible. That he did this in the
case of a work of Graun's has nevertheless been incontrovertibly proved by
Professor Prout 2 who was enabled to discover the fact by a concatenation of
coincidences so extraordinary that my readers will, I feel sure, wish to be made
acquainted with it. I proceed therefore to give an abridged account of his
article, sometimes using his own words.
The late Rev. J. R Lunn, a Yorkshire clergyman and excellent musician,
formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, was asked by a neighbouring
Musical Society to recommend them a Handel chorus for performance. He chose
the chorus " Ere to dust is changed that beauty " from The Triumph of Time
and Truth (1757), but, while he was examining it, the idea struck him that it-
resembled a movement which he remembered having copied at Cambridge from
Latrobe's Collection of Sacred Music.3 Mr. Lunn hunted up his old manuscript
which contained (1) the chorus " Ere to dust " substantially complete but with
different words, (2) three bars of adagio, (3) another chorus (in F minor) also
with English words, which, shortened by nine bars, he found, set to Italian words,
in Handel's II Trionfo del Tempo, an earlier version of the same work, brought
out in 1737, which likewise contained the chorus "Ere to dust" set to Italian
words. Both these choruses and the connecting Adagio were described by
1 Grove's Dictionary of Music, 1st edition.
* In an article published in the Monthly Musical Record for May and June, 1894.
3 " Selection of Sacred Music from the works of some of the most eminent composers of Germany
and Italy." By C. I. Latrobe. Its six volumes appeared, according to an article in Grove's Dictionary
(1st edition), between 1806 and 1825.
32 PBOFESSOR PKOUT'S DISCOVERY
Latrobe as taken from an "Oratorio Passionate" composed by Graun. Mr.
Limn, puzzled by this ascription to another of what he had always regarded as
the property of Handel, communicated with Professor Prout, who at once took
the view that, considering Handel's known habits in such matters, the music was
more likely to be Graun 's than his, and so Latrobe probably in the right.
Soon after this correspondence with Mr. Lunn, Professor Prout spent a few days
at Cambridge with Dr. A. H, Mann, who promptly conducted him to the Library
of the Fitzwilliam Museum, to examine the Handel autographs. Dr. Mann took
down at random the first volume of the collection, the pages of which Professor
Prout began turning over. On pp. 21 and 22 he came upon two scores which had
till then been regarded as original drafts for the two choruses mentioned above as
having both appeared in the Trionfo del Tempo, while but one of them was
included in the long subsequent English version of that work. Prout, with the
facts to which Mr. Lunn had directed his attention fortunately still fresh in his
mind, at once perceived that these scores were not in the form which the Handel
choruses in question bear in his published works, but in that of the two movements
and intervening short adagio printed as Graun's in Latrobe's collection. This fact,
together with a remarkable absence of corrections in these autographs as compared
with other original scores of Handel, and with a further piece of evidence to be
described in the next paragraph, led Prout to the conclusion that these two choruses
were no compositions of Handel, but copies made by him from some, probably
unpublished, work by Graun.
The next three pages of the Fitzwilliam autographs contain ten detached move-
ments, or parts of movements, described in the printed catalogue as " at present
unidentified." Below, or in the margin of, several of these Handel has written
disjointed German words or pairs of words, and this is also the case in the short
adagio already mentioned. No one had yet discovered the significance of this
curious proceeding, but Professor Prout at once hit on the conjecture that these
movements, equally with the two choruses which preceded them in the autographs,
were extracts made by Handel from Graun, and that the German words were taken
from the text to which Graun's music was set, and jotted down by Handel as
clues to enable him to recover with ease the passages in Graun's work from which
he had been copying.
Prout soon found himself able to produce decisive confirmation of his theory.
He took with him from the Fitzwilliam Museum a German second-hand music-
seller's catalogue, as he had noticed a score of Cherubini's in it which he wished to
order, and the librarian had handed over the catalogue to him as of no further use
to the Museum. On looking through thivS catalogue he found that it announced
for sale an old manuscript score of a ' Passion ' by Graun.
Prout, after making some enquiries which convinced him that this would prove
to be the unpublished work from which Handel had borrowed, wrote for and
PROFESSOR PROUT'S DISCOVERY 33
obtained it On turning over its first page, which was occupied by a choral, he
came at once on the two choruses, and the intervening adagio, exactly as they stand
in Latrobe. This left but a single link wanting to complete the proof that Graun
was their author, viz. evidence of the priority of his ' Passion ' to Handel's Trionfo.
Such evidence was to hand on Prout's manuscript score which described the
work as the ' Brunswick Passion,' from the name of the place where it was
produced. Graun is known to have settled in Brunswick in 1725 and to have
quitted it in 1735. The latter is, therefore, the latest limit of time for the produc-
tion of his ' Passion,' whereas Handel's Trionfo was not performed till 1737. This
accordingly settles the question of priority and with it that of the authorship of the
two choruses.
On examining the rest of Graun's score Prout found in it, with one insignificant
exception, all the fragmentary movements which follow the two choruses in the
Fitzwilliam autographs. Moreover, in every case where Handel had appended
German words, as described above, he " found the same words at the same place in
Graun's score."
Finally Prout identified about half of these fragments as having been made use
of by Handel in Alexander's Feast, the Wedding Anthem1 and the operas
Atalanta and Giustino. These works having all been brought out in 1736,2 Graun
remains in a clear priority.
Professor Prout sums up as follows the truly "extraordinary chain of
circumstances " which led him to this discovery :
" Had Mr. Lunn selected any other chorus than " Ere to dust," and had he not
also, thirty or forty years before, copied the same chorus from Latrobe, he would
not have written to me on the subject. Had Dr. Mann happened to take down
from the shelves at the Fitzwilliam Library any other one of the fourteen3 volumes
of Handel's manuscripts than the one he took, I should never have seen the extracts
from Graun in Handel's writing — and that too at a time when the matter was fresh
in my memory, owing to Mr. Lunn's letter, and my having looked at Latrobe only
a few days before. Still more remarkable, if possible, was the incident of the
catalogue. Had not my eye been caught by the score of Cherubini's, I should not
have asked to copy it, and thus received the catalogue. But the most curious thing
of all is that this catalogue, which by the merest chance was lying on the table,
instead of having been thrown into the waste-paper basket, where I should never
have seen it, should -contain the very work needed to reveal the truth — a
manuscript score, which probably does not come into the market once in twenty
years."
Examples 18, 19 and 20 embody three of Prout's five identifications
mentioned above.
1 In the case of the Wedding Anthem Dr. Mann had already recognised the connexion with one of
the Handel fragments. a Grove's Dictionary. 9 Their number is fifteen.
D
34
HANDEL AND GRAUN
Ex.18.
Instrumental Introduction to the song "Nacque al bosco" in Giusti-no.
Handel.
Giustino.
£
s
>x
Introduction to the duet "Jesu wir'st Du zu mir\sprechen?"
'• — * _^« ff
'•J * ,1 11 .A. _ -*- -•- -*-
fife
:*ft
fc^_
*
-f-
»
•
|
—
3E ^E3
Grauri,and
Handel,
P. W. Auto-
graphs.
^
iJ
.
*.
*
9
'-
(l.p.23.)
^N
J
-4-1—
• 1
•
\
— j
9
P
^^ |
H.
J n '-
-t-
» i» U —
^^i
«
-
Li.
iJ
r
-
S
F^
2
'-
f
5
f r- r i
G.
&
H.
LU f
fc«
—
" "^
I
»_'
F ^
f
2E3E —
^j ^/n^
fljjEfyj.
Jj*"! IS pi , Prout's Ex-
— *W- J. -0- -0- \ rT*itractends.
/JL °fl J • *
•
111
rw — °^ 1 P r
rr — • — i ^
*« PP i*
5E3 — H 1
n Ll • | ^
f f
LJ7
f
4V fl C r r
r l
p
I* trilff
!•
A i'
f f
^? ff '
r ^ L J -
L ^r i
-^ * -*
N
-h**<l '
Graun.
Handel.
F.W. Auto-
graphs.
f
F • • m
r r r
•
1 ^
i^^ /
^r r
L m
•^
f" P*B '
m m J.I
\
^ J
-r±~.
t-j
f r f
±d — — > —
-f^-
•^j . r~~
f-
HANDEL AND GRAUN
Ex. 19.
35
Part of the Introduction to the song "£ *all " occaso in or-iente" in Giustino.
J
Handel.
Giustino.
al octava
Beginningiof the Introduction to the Bass song ^Mein Knecht der Gerechte."
Graun and \,
Handel, ..».. .... .
F.w.Auto- [r/"V H g
graphs. «v *•
(l.p.23.)
H.
Front's Ex-
tract ends.
Ex. 20.
Fugue-subject in the chorus "At last divine Cecilia came" in Alexander's Feast.
Handel. J ._ f
H t? I
Alexander's
Feast.
With na-ture's mo-ther v/it and arts un-known be - fore
Fugue-subject in a chorus from Graun's 'Passion.'
Graun. ff^-y. P i (° P T itf
Transposed |FV^-^{^=F= =p= =F~- ff^=^
a Fourth up. [b^-»- I | -^LJ-\ \
orz:
CHAPTER Y.
HANDEL'S USB OF EARLIER COMPOSITIONS OF HIS OWN. INSTANCES OF THIS m THE
CASE OF SOME DUETS SET TO SECULAR ITALIAN WORDS AND AFTERWARDS
DEVELOPED INTO SEVERAL CHORUSES AND A DUET IN THE MESSIAH.
IT has, I think, been adequately shown in the preceding chapters that Handel
made free and extensive use of compositions by other masters. But he also
treated in precisely the same manner older work of his own, sometimes merely
re-setting it, with insignificant modifications, to fresh words, sometimes excising,
amplifying or altering it with absolute freedom. We shall subsequently examine
instances in Israel in Egypt where he did this with magnificent results : here I
shall set out a very striking series of transferences and contrapuntal develop-
ments to be seen in his working up of some vocal duets, which he had already
composed to secular Italian words, into great choruses and a duet in the Messiah.
All but one of these Italian duets were written only a few months before the
composition of that oratorio.1
In the following comparisons I shall quote leading subjects from movements
in the Messiah together with their all but identical originals in the Italian duets.
The order followed will be that of the movements in the oratorio : the Italian
duets will be quoted from the German Handel Society's edition.
Messiah.
Italian ^
Ihiets.
No. XV.
p. 119.
Ex. 21.
Soprano.
>
zm
5
^
And He shall; pn - ri - fy, and
Sopran
^
shall pu- ri - fy
L'on-ca-soha nelV au.ro - ra, e per-deinun sol di la pri-ma-
m k
•* ' I *
ra, la pri - ma -
Chrysander, Life of Handel, vol. I., p. 371.
ITALIAN DUETS
37
The running passage in bar 4 of the duet seems suggested by the word
'primavera' (spring), but is hardly appropriate to the word 'purify' to which
it is set in an extended form in the chorus. Handel appears to have felt that
something more was wanted than an assemblage of rather mechanical passages and
been promptly moved to that stroke of genius the mighty episode :
Ex. 21 (continued.)
bar 21.
m
that they may of
J * f J.
fer
to the Lord
yp
h Is h N
It7 " " f 0 m
-f^— r
i .
- J
p
ox
£ g g P '
of - fer - ing in r
rtr-I — ^ +-+^
igh - teous -
fe_ £
DL
J
1_1
» |» —t
ss, in ri
H ± J
• :
gh - teous
1. A
0
ness
^3 — E — r
^ —
f
t
/ _
r '
-£.
which, repeated in a higher part of the scale and with somewhat modified harmonic
treatment, closes this chorus with such impressive grandeur.
Ex. 21 (continued.)
ness, in righ - teous
I
A.
of - fer - ing in righ - teous
The next two examples show the original destination of subjects which,
38
ITALIAN DUETS
contrapuntally treated, make up the bulk of the famous chorus " For unto us a
child is born."
Ex.22.
Soprano.
Messiah.
I
^
Italian ^
Duets.
No. XVI.
p. 122.
For un - to us a child is
Soprano I.
born,
f * .r E E E E
No, di voi non vo' fi - dar- mi,
i*
a son is : g:i - vcn,
I~TJ^
tui - to
etc- co ^4 -
'-f+
=3
\ f-
J ^ «M
! X \ > > hi
j J* * r J 1
un - to
^
I.D.
TO or,
J f\ i Soprano.
I.D.
M
— > — v — f4 — p —
-^ ^ =— —
1
r*
>—
Ht-
— * ^ L — *' ^ &
us a son is
Tenor.
• ...» f .
gi - ven,
V^«J
J/ f
^ —
Ht-
Soprano I.
1 \ — ~N —
For un - to
. ( _
[ffi
— P-
\
J $ i /--H" — P-
kJ ^ 1
i!
-1
f1- -
4-
r /
wior, crif - del bel -
Soprano IT.
ta!
i
EE
7 j
dft
s
For un - to
us a child is born,.
S
us a child is born,
un - to
VT ff — =; • N
rp p p p _ «P«* —
^r^ — p — P — P — P — P — ~^ —
^ — 7 — v — £ — ' L. r
rot no/i t/'o' yV - dar
^_ N
\
$ g. g g P P P. ? =
wz now ao' /» - dar- mi,
1 •* J
cie- co
A-
I.D.
ITALIAN DUETS
39
I.D.
- ta!
etc- co A -
I.D.
mor,
cru - del fee/
Ex. 22 (continued.)
M.
I.D.
0 it
4t-^ — | — — ^ — — _ —
V 1* •
Bar 24 un ' to
us a son is
£ — » —
^)*ff ^ t* r i
v ^ ^ T r p i
-^- 1 ^!
— ' — b — b~
un - to us
a son is gi - von,
& — —£ _£ . /. ,,.,{ —
F£- ^ v e ^ «N
cie - co A -
l| - u 1
wor, crw - rfe/ fee/ -
— K —
K^zMS-^ti ri
F^-^iE^ S^
cie - co A - mor,
- ta!
40
ITALIAN DUETS
And the go - vern- merit shall
be up- on His shoul -
I.I).
a^4^^
im
Trop- po sie, - ta men - zo - gm> - n>, hi - sin-ghie-re De - i -
fcrf- >— =^~^r- — P^^= 3^3
— • •
Pp=* .-U ££__£ g f - g"
k+
and the go vern- ment shall
f~i
*>:-$ — —
\
2
der
I.D.
-^Jv- -f^~
MT" ~^=
$ —
*r-
— P ^ —
Trap • po sie t
— i^ —
r men - zo
qne - re
etc.
J TT
^ff
\fl\ C ^ -.
v
NtJ — r"
^ — ==
=-— ^^
Into this chorus, also, Handel introduced a stroke of genius additional to the
material derived from his duet, the great choral shouts :
Ex. 22 (continued.)
^
&m
M.
Won -der- full
^^
Coun - sel- lor!
N S
TheMigh-ty God! Th
N S S
N N
J
Ev - er - last - ing Fa - ther!
S N S S
The
Prince of
J
Peace!
1
ITALIAN DUETS
41
The next example has a special interest as clearing up a difficulty which has
doubtless puzzled many admirers of Handel as it used to puzzle me. It occurs
in the leading subject of the chorus " His yoke is easy and His burthen is light,"
where the first syllable of the word ' easy ' is set to the following almost
grotesquely inappropriate passage:
Messiah.
Italian
Duets.
No. XV.
p. 116.
Ex. 23.
Soprano.
Quel fior che a IV al - ba ri
light, His burthen, His
de it so- le poi I'uc - ci - de, e tnm-ba ha net- la se
Why Handel should have perpetrated such a monstrosity was to me an
insoluble crux. A glance, however, at the text to which the passage was originally
composed suffices to explain the difficulty : " The flower which laughs at dawn
is killed by the sun and finds a grave in the evening." The passage with which
we are concerned is set to the word ' ride ' (laughs) and is therefore evidently a
piece of word-painting, quite appropriate in its original position, but grievously
out of place where it now stands.
The added stroke of genius, for which here too we do not look in vain, ends
the chorus with a passage in which beauty and dignity are wondrously mingled.
Ex. 23 (continued.)
£
^
^^
His bur - then is
I
light, His yo
* J
is ea - sy
^
?=*:
^^=
42
ITALIAN DUETS
/f)
i P
>
5TZ J_r-rj
~i: ~ J — j^
/TV
"
And His
b
15
1
ir
z ; • .
^ — p.. *
then is
k
— (5* 19 (^
light.
-^4
» ^- — f— r
5 1 -
— n^
1 ^* J
The allegro of the chorus " All we like sheep have gone astray " is wholly
built on subjects from a duet the earlier part of which had already been drawn
upon for the chorus " For unto us a child is bom." They are set out in Ex. 24.
Ex.24.
/ * Sonrano.
Messiah,
Italian ^ Bar 3
Duets. :
No. XVI. (>1
p. 127. L
ransposed |p
one Tone v
Tran
'lie
down.
All we, like sheep have gone a- stray
Soprano.
etc.
* — 3.^-+-^
So per pro - va i vos-tri in-gan
m
'&*m
etc,
- ni
Soprano.
Ex. 24. (continued.)
M
Bar 11
We have tur
Tenor.
ne<l
etc.
We have tur - nod
I.D.
dm- ti -
Alto
H
I.D.
^
ev' - ry
one to Jiis own way
iff-
/L \>
Soprano I.
•
igzgr-J' J ^=^
H" — h —
P
E E
ra;j. - n;', rf?/c /t* - - ran - ni
' 73 ^^*-^
^— J —
sie-te og -
- m \ \
nor. .
etc.
— I
A*J
-C — * —
— T —
~T — • —
-J
sie-te og - nor.
ITALIAN DUETS
43
ijj£-r 1
J c
3 — ^ — * —
gf — I* h J 1 1
we have
Bar 30
4==- T- f r
* ' ,
tur - ned ev'- ry
^ — f f r — K-
— b b ra F — ' — P
Ir |r ^ ^
one to his own way,
* 1. i i —
-> b b—
1 — ii T
f L i.
^ r r ! ff
^-
-^ s
J ft Soprano I.
vve liave tur - m:d
\ P •
— i — — N 1 — —}
fin \y p p
H^- ~^ ^-
-r — r — r — ^ — iE
SEE ix b
I J
?v/;i - ni, d'ie ti -
rnn - ni sie-te og - nor,
Jf I V
V
\ K v i
^Lfc [> A
— t F F F f—
— f— — J—
\>l/ *
I/ Ly
• J
A*J
^ -J-
H.
I.D.
- ran - m
sie-te og - nor,
The Italian text is a defiance of <{ blind love and cruel beauty " whose tyranny
and deceits are roundly denounced from personal experience. The music set to
this breathes, when transferred to the chorus, a certain heaven-defying reckless-
ness which a less dramatically-minded composer than Handel would hardly have
read into the English words. Arrived, however, at the point where he had
thoroughly worked out the material before him, we see this wonderful man
girding himself for a final stroke and making the very audacity with which he
had treated his text supply him with the means of producing a magnificent effect
of contrast Abruptly changing the time to adagio and passing into minor
harmony, he bids the voices enter in solemn canonic sequence, and his chorus
ends with a combination of grandeur and depth of feeling such as is at the
command of consummate genius only.
Soprano.
Alto.
Tenor.
Bass.
Adagio.
Ex. 24 ('continued.)
i " M
^ H
1 — — Fl 1
j j r I
5
:— =
And the
T~ f
Lord hath
laid on
'" qj- J
Him, and the
|
j— =
And the
Lord hath
4^
, J J
r /
And the
Lord hath
— 0
laid on
s
> — •• •
And the
Lord hath
laid on
Him,
44
ITALIAN DUETS
Lord hath
laid on
Him, hath
laid on
Him,
laid ori
Him, on
Him,
hath
laid on
Him, on
Him,
hath
^^
^ -•:
-o-
laid on
«r»^
The Lord hath laid on Him
thr. in - i - qui - ty
all.
Beside the Italian duets quoted from above there are others written by Handel
much earlier, according to Dr. Chrysander as far back as 1712-1720.1 The music
of one of these, set to an exhortation to abandon love, is used in the Messiah
in the duet " 0 death where is thy sting ? " and also occurs as a subject in the
succeeding chorus " But thanks be to God : "
1 Life of Handel, vol. L, p. 367.
ITALIAN DUETS
Ex.25.
45
Messiah.
Duet.
Messiah. 1
Chorus. 1
Italian
Duets.
No. XIV.
p. 108.
i^~
^ — — ^ — _-
A
Ito.
hi —
s — '
I
*
b i* f .
y —
0
— J ' *
death, 0
— *
death,
where,
i ra s
*
^
S '
1
— 3
,
:z_il L
it
But
. — m — — i ^ —
thanks, but
— •
thanks,
_^d 1
thanks,
^
Aito.
h* —
s _
^ ^J * *
•
_ 9
—* - —
- sot a - mo
Messiah.
Duet.
Messiah. 1
Chorus.
^
5
^_P
^~-
S hi
• ^ ~. J j^
g
-t
H
where is thy
y
sting? 0 death, where is thy
Tenor.
S
N*
fl
f\ — r
"H
-•)
-> \— V
0 grave, 0
^"— ^-= i E£ fe
te
-'' ^ • — ^
ZTj
I3' — F P^ H*-5 " —
thanks be to
God,
thanks be to
Soprano.
Italian
Duets.
L
— > c j^-
m. • —m
i^
f-
u4?- ™
^^^
=^TJ^ J N
~t h ^^
tu non
^* — f r h«~ :
p
> ^> J -
.^-V- - • J-
jj/i /^n^. /? nfii,- tr
-J J
rai. lo so
-f-5H^
ie?i i -
46
ITALIAN DUETS
Messiah.
Duet.
\-#- B5 • - — * —
ht —
8b-2J*-~f —
^ sting?
[I A p -p- -p~
e^e.
=5 — g=
^ ^r j
grave, where, where is
thy vie; - to - ry
wuo cor, ti pen -
Some instances, rendered especially interesting by their occurrence in the
Messiah, have now been produced of the freedom with which Handel utilized
compositions of his own which had already done duty in a different sphere.1 They
are the only ones which have been detected in that masterpiece, where, so far as
research has at present gone, not a single instance has been found of the intro-
duction of music not composed by Handel himself. One would fain hope that
this immunity is inherent in that sublime work by the deliberate will of the
composer, whose religious emotions are known, from his own statement, to have
been deeply stirred while he was engaged on it.
1 A few general remarks on such transferences will be found on pp. 164, 166.
CHAPTER VI.
CHARACTER OF RESULTS ATTAINED BY HANDEL WHEN MAKING USE OF PRE-EXISTING
MATERIALS. ISRAEL IN EGYPT AFFORDS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDYING
THESE RESULTS. DETAILED COMPARISON OF PART I. OF THAT ORATORIO WITH
PORTIONS OF A SERENATA BY STRADELLA, AN ORGAN-PIECE BY KERL AND
FOUR EARLIER COMPOSITIONS OF HANDEL'S OWN.
fact of Handel's borrowings from other composers' works, and rearrange-
1 ments of his own, may now, I think, be regarded as established, and we
have to consider what is a still more interesting and instructive subject, viz.
how he dealt with his sources, what kinds of effect he succeeded in working
them up into, and what is the result of comparisons instituted between the
merits of his completed work and those of the compositions utilized in their
construction.
It happens that Handel's choral masterpiece Israel in Egypt affords an
unique opportunity of seeing his mode of procedure carried out on a great scale,
and with results of stupendous grandeur which dwarf into insignificance the,
often very meritorious, compositions used in producing them. I propose,
therefore, in order to bring all this out, to make a full examination of that truly
astonishing work in reference to the various sources which are now known to
have been drawn upon during its construction.
No antecedent sources are known to exist for the first three numbers, viz.
the recitative " Now there arose," the double chorus " And the children of Israel
sighed" and the recitative "Then sent He Moses." No. 4, the chorus "They
loathed to drink of the river, He turned their waters into blood " is formed out
of an organ-fugue, No. 5 of a set of six which Handel wrote in 1720,1 but did
not publish until 1735, three years before he composed Israel in Egypt The
fugue, which stands in the key of A minor, consists of 74 bars. Handel cut out
32 of these and transposed the rest, extensively remodelled, into the key of
G minor. In the following Example I give the entire chorus together with all
the corresponding matter of the organ-fugue which, for convenience of comparison,
I have transposed into the key of the chorus.
1 Chrysander : Life of Handel, vol. IIL p. 201.
48
Chorus.
Fugue.
Transposed
one Tone
down.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Ex.26.
.yr-t-2— rr _ — _ —
^ L^ui
* N^
ffi* ^^
k)J bJ j ^^
They loa-thed to
drink of the ri
ver, He turn - ed their
|
rrr
fr V r i
They loa-thed to drink of the ri
]TT
e
r
g g
Tliey loa-thed to drink of the ri
P^
7
g —
j
^v —
**
tt* "i"
* — feri~ r r
c
"E^« — 1
r
— -•—
w
A
Hf U
»-hf f" , f: ,-
S \>
\
111 ^fcp: =4-
"f^
H^r-
^
_JLT ^
1
JL
N N
- ters in- to blood
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Ex.26 (continued.)
49
loa - thed to drink of the ri
ZA
JS S
it
^
m
j- j M
^
w
They loa-thedto -drink of the ri -
50
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Ex. 26 (continued.)
¥
25 bars
not used.
drink of the ri - - ver
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
51
Ex. 26 (continued.)
S^
*"* J
m
They loa-thedto
£
9 bars
not used.
s
52
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Ex 26 (continued.)
N i
^=^
wa - ters in
to blood;
they loa - thed to
N N
ir
lr
ISRAEL IN EGYPT 53
In turning this old organ-fugue into a chorus Handel has evidently effected
great improvements in the disposition of his parts, especially in bars 22, 23, 33-36,
38-40. But a power of a much higher order is recognizable in the imagination
which could discern in a not exactly inspiring organ-piece the makings of a
choral picture so gruesomely descriptive as that which Handel has succeeded in
producing. It suffices to play over on the pianoforte first the passages quoted from
the organ-fugue and then the chorus, giving effect in the latter to the entries of the
subject on "They loathed" and the descending chromatic scale-notes, in order to
realize how astonishing this power is.
The Air " Their land brought forth frogs " has not been shown to be derived
from any antecedent source.
The ensuing double chorus, (No. 6), " He spake the word," is taken, as far as the
choral parts are concerned, with few, but very effective, improvements, from a
secular serenata composed by Alessandro Stradella. This will, therefore, be the
proper place to tell the little that is known about that composer, from whom, as
will presently be seen, Handel took a good deal of material.
ALESSANDRO STRADELLA was a celebrated Italian composer in the seventeenth
century and became the central figure of a romantic story which was afterwards
put upon the stage as an opera.1 Subsequent researches having reduced the
historical value of this story to zero, we learn from Herr Eitner2 that the course of
Stradella's life is " wrapped in complete darkness." The dates of his birth and
death are unknown and nothing of him but a large number of compositions appears
to remain.
A score of one of these, entitled "II Barcheggio" bears evidence that it
was composed for a wedding-festivity which took place in 1681. This date is
written on two pages of the score, as is also a statement that H Barcheggio was
Stradella's last "sinfonia" or " composizione"* No question of priority, therefore,
can arise between a work by Handel and one by Stradella, whose last composition
is thus fixed at a date four years earlier than Handel's birth.
Dr. Chrysander published, in 1888, as No. 3 of his "Supplements,"4 an edition
of the serenata by Stradella which concerns us here, together with indications of
where Handel had used it. The movement on which the chorus " He spake the
word " is built up is an orchestral interlude for two separate groups of instruments,
one scored for two violins and a bass, the other for a quartet of strings with
doubled parts. These two groups alternate with each other throughout the move-
ment in phrases varying from half-a-bar to two bars in length. This arrangement
may well have suggested to Handel the idea of turning the movement into a double
1 Set to music both by Flotow and by Niedermeyer in the same year, 1837, (Art. in Grove's
Dictionary.) 2 M usikalisches Quellen-Lexicon, article ' Stradella.'
3 Grove's Dictionary. 1st ed. vol. III. p. 723 note 4. * See ante p. xi.
54
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
chorus, which is what he did by adding a fourth part to Stradella's smaller group,
revising his counterpoint with occasional masterly touches and composing descrip-
tive passages of orchestral accompaniment. Handel's chorus and the movement
from Stradella's Serenata— the latter taken from Dr. Chrysander's. edition— are
given in full in the following example :
Ex. 27.
1st
Choir.
Handel.
2nd
Choir.
He spake the word,
J
^=f^
And there came all man-ner of
And there came all man-ner of
He spake the word,
1st
Choir.
Handel.
2nd
Choir.
<^ r * * J « ff
^=
-
flies, all man-ner of
flies,
\
|
r r + . ..
He spake the word,
OTT^ — r — £ — ^ — ~ — * — v S
J i •
™
— p *
flies, all man-ner of
flies,
— ' — 5 » — 1 — ^
J V
He spake the word,
1st
Choir.
Handel.
2nd
Choir.
iffr
fc= ^=±r -f^-
— E * d
^M^
/ J* J t
1
^"TT^
And there came
^T=
lice in
T~^
all their
quar
F f
ters;
N
l; - l^ «T -J-
r r
N N
=4=
J ^
^
"•/-H-
And there came
7
lice in
T^
all their
^=
quar
^^
ters;
j^y >y
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
55
Handel.
He spake the word,
Stradella
p. 33.
#
J±t
And there came all man-ner of
A.- M.
J"
A
flies,
^)^-<1
r * -
^LL^=
t)7
*-! «
«
!** r
||fcj:L^ C*
-=- -^rH1
— * = 1
^ 1 J p • ^ .
•^ !? — ~
\
^ ' ^
_i — ^
1 /L. [j /*
~t i^ J »
> f --f — 1 f d~ F~
J> -
(ff) ^ — 5
-^TT-r-
* \ . f — f — — -?
-M- —
gEB
4 La r~t~
jra A A A A
J
56
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
J J
He spake the word,
H
12
T * ' ^" £ r^
¥
And there came all man-ner of
flies,
and there came
|S N fe
t^ j_l
^^^-^
r
i
S.
n rjT ^
-».-«• — •«• 2t
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
57
He spake the word,
r r
ii
^
Si
lice,
A
and there
J1
came all man-ner of flies and lice in
g g E E^PS
i
=P=^F= 3*=
58
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
M
Is h / J
i * r
and there
came all man-ner of flies and lice in
^^
^
all their quar - ters,
J1 J
e^
14444
3=*
^
¥
¥=^
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
59
e
*
- g- g r
He spake the word,
all their quar - ters,
A
and there
1
r
H
17
W
i
He spake the
word,
and there
came all manner of flies,
I
S
*=^
A
f
60
,1.
came all man-ner of flies and lice in
g_ |/ y ^ >z
all their quar - ters,
A
H.
7 ' f
and lice in
^
s
^-^-^
S.
^-^-H-
r j*
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
61
¥
J J J
He spake the
word,
H.
P^
23
all their quar - ters,
N N 1
A A
He spake the word,
*-.-
^_J.J_J^
S.
62
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
^
*
came all man-ner of flies,
^
He spake the word,
25
He spake th
word,
i
He spake the
fc|:.; •
f E
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
63
J=i
rt
^
I.J J J J J
p
*
^
f=5=f
flies and lice in all their quar
J* J
ta
And there came all man-ner of
H
t^
word,
M
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ters,
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flies and lice in all their qiiar -
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ISRAEL IN EGYPT
^
65
He spake,
II
and the lo - custs came with- out
30
31
- ters,
He
spake,
66
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
mim-ber and de-vour'd the fmits of the
round,
A
and the lo - custs came with-out
T=
J
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
67
$L$ —
ati ^^
L J /-T J
and de-vour'd the
r /
fruit of the ground.
\
'tH$*f **}*-&
j /; J j
(3 E P P P P P P P P"
num-ber and de-votir'd the friiit of the
"^T' — f~~0 — r — r — b — p — i* — i*n*~
r • P p r r
ground, and de-vour'd the
fruit of the ground.
iEI — *— h — i^-^^ — ± — b — 1» — ^ ^
—f ^ *— — f
— f— f &
*t±
/Cs
68 ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Handel opens his chorus with seven bars based on Stradella's material, but in
five of these the sopranos and altos alone take part. Thus a sforzando effect is
produced when, after bar 8, where continuous borrowing from Stradella begins,
mixed-voices harmony is for the first time heard.
In bar 12 Handel obtains increased vigour by his added D in the first choir and
by lowering Stradella's semi-quavers an octave.
In bar 17 the two choruses overlap on the 3rd beat with a greatly enhanced
effect, which is heard again in bars 22, 23 and 25.
In bars 22 and 23 there is a fine free movement in the two soprano parts where
Stradella has none.
In bars 28 and 29 the counterpoint is immensely improved.
In the last beat of bar 30 and the first of bar 31 a wonderful impression of
finality is conveyed by the Octave rise of the basses and the Fifth drop of the
sopranos on " He spake," where nothing of the kind exists in Stradella. Handel
has reinforced these improvements by an accompaniment of florid violin-passages
in demi-semiquavers, which pervades the whole chorus, to suggest the buzzing of
the flies, and in bars 31-34 by a moving bass in semi-quavers, to illustrate the
heavier calamity of the locusts coming " without number " to " devour the fruits
of the ground." Chrysander remarks that " the originality of the chorus rests
upon this accompaniment." : Only if the narrowest and most literal meaning
be assigned to " originality " can I admit this. In a higher sense true originality
appears to me to be required in order to discern in Stradella's simple, and
a trifle jog-trot, piece of chamber-music the potentiality of being developed
into a chorus which should present with almost terrifying energy the issuing of
the supreme behest and its dire fulfilment. As was well said half-a-century ago :
" The imitation of the buzzing of insects in the accompaniment to Handel's
chorus in Israel in Egypt " He spake the word and there came all manner of flies "
were merely an ingenious trifle, but for the superlative grandeur of the choral
passages which tell of the Almighty fiat." 2
The orchestral introduction to the next, the famous " Hailstone," chorus, (No. 7),
probably the greatest popular favourite of the entire oratorio, is made up of eleven
bars taken from the opening of the ' Sinfonia ' to Stradella's Serenata, and four
from that to a bass song in the same work, the former standing in the key of D,
the latter in that of A. Handel's contribution to his own prelude consists at most
in three original bars as against fifteen taken from Stradella.
1 Life of Handei vol. III. p. 66.
a Townsend : " Visit of Handel to Dublin : " Dublin 1852 p. 92.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Ex. 28.
JIandel.
(Organ Solo.)
Stradelle,
p.2.
(Transposed
one Tone
down.)
69
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7 m
J/ ^ Sinfonia.
h '
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Group II.
70
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
pp
Stradflla p. 50.
1 Transposed
a Minor Third up.1
t
^3
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etc.
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ISRAEL IN EGYPT
71
The fine flowing passage set to the words " ran along upon the ground " is
written on a bass in Stradella's song, the second bar of which had already appeared
in the symphony to it, and been incorporated in Handel's sixteenth bar :
Ex. 28. (continued.)
Handel
bar 30.
Stradella
P. 51. i
tr. a Minor |
u- J J J j> i — n f 5 -T-
I
X p •
— * • —
^'
JE
fm < i r
' F m m i*
^V f- L
r r i
ran a
> 1 •*•
f •* —
/ [/ 1
long up - on the
J* N I £
ground
1
fc J* pi ~~|^ 9
i v ' —
1 _L_^>rf •
"**"^ 1 1 ' 1 .4
Q y
ran a, long- up - on thw
ground
/ p. f. £ £ £ m +
»): L_ — L — L — L — L — *
-t -m ?—
•
-^jC— j
vv * * r= c J
;/
Third up. ^^ se-guir non vo - glio piu, no, no, no, no, no, no
Finally an energetic phrase is taken from the same song, and its force greatly
intensified by the repetition of its first bar and the extension of its descending
scale.
Handel
(Tenor. >
Stradella
Ex. 28. (continued.)
XL f i* i*
-— p — ^ I —
-* 1
rm EZH 1 /
' 1-4 ' Jl
saz r L« * Lc
r ^
l' m
V»J r (^
min.-gled with the hail r
in a. - limp- up- on t,l
ie ground
(W f r f ^
=-f f r r r
•Mr- -y — &— i
^— -v — ix— fa — F—
1 X — t — —
sen- za Var
- wit del-lo sde-gno,
Of the chorus proper, apart from the opening symphony (which is repeated at
the close, cut down to half its length and with no original matter introduced) nearly
one-half is mere rearrangement, or contrapuntal development, of the phrases from
Stradella which have been set out in Ex. 28.
It cannot be denied that these supply the most interesting material to be found
in the chorus, but there remain as Handel's property the vigorous alternating
entries of the two choirs and the wonderful choral shouts of " fire " first with simple
accompaniment and at last with a magnificent moving bass. But, when all has
been said, we are no nearer to understanding how it was that Handel could detect
the possibilities which lay hid in these, to ordinary observers rather uninteresting
passages, and work them up with other matter of his own into a colossal sound-
72
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
picture, vivid, sublime, instinct with a terrible energy and perfectly homogeneous
from one end to the other. While we must, I think, rank the power of doing this
less highly than that of producing an entirely original composition of equal merit,
the name of genius can hardly be refused to it when it attains such results as are
embodied in the " Hailstone chorus,"
Passing over No. 8, the chorus " He sent a thick darkness," which appears to be
original, we come to No. 9, the chorus " He smote all the first-born of Egypt." The
subjects of it are taken from another of the set of organ-fugues mentioned above,1
but, as the treatment of them diverges widely after their first entry, it will suffice
to compare the opening eight bars of the two compositions, as is done in the next
Example :
Ex. 29.
the chief
Chorus.
J Q
> J -f--^ J _f hJ J. -T i^J—
rfl — f '
~^ — J~
— *
y- — f
I ^^ \_/
* *
V}- L/
•/ « 5HMI5IB
He smote all the
first-born of E -
7 * C r C * r r
gyp*. X / / L ' J
Thechinf of all
•fc-\* - ^
/• f*
iM
••
•1
J \J
Fugue No.l.
(Transposed
one Tone
= i=J -
i r*i J
•
pn
-i=--=i-
h J J J
*L J
HB- -J1L-
' Lm&
_ of all
their strength
Fugue.
1 p. 47.
73
Chorus.
^- 4
rt tt~ m F
41
— m — _» — gp »P
•frp
The chief of _____
0L__JL_J 1* "*" • "1" J
r *[jTL-j
•c? ^ . j
J;
4V r-
V* *?— -> — P—
SF F
— p- —
-^ J L €- 1 ,
— br —
-+
~^N,
1 •» *
P"""^ ! i — r"! ."1
1
Fugue.
The next chorus (No. 10), " But as for His people," consists, of 168 bars of which
117 appear to be Handel's property, while 51 are evidently made out of a phrase in
a soprano song in Stradella's Serenata which Handel has transferred bodily, with
its canonic accompaniment shortened by one bar, as shown in the next Example : —
Ex. 30.
Sopranos.
Handel
bar 15.
Stradella
P. ift.
(Original
Key-signature
C Major.)
-j/-y :j > > >. r
•
O-*
*- — 1
•
./ '
r» •
3
w — 4 —
^
f
I r
2* '
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r —
^
Violins I
He
& II.
led,_
He
— / —
led them
" — ' n
forth like
WE:: i
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v
>>r;
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J j
Instrumental bat
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|
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fc > — 1
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|
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10
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r ^ -^
^ '
1
Instrumental bass.
,
r
P^ — 4—
o
£*
— Q_!
74
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Violins 1 & El.
Handel first makes his Altos sing this phrase in the key of Gr and then his Sopranos
in that of C (as in the Example) : next the Tenors sing it in the same key, the Altos
chiming in at the end with an ingeniously constructed little imitative tag,
Ex. 30. (continued.)
TV U
•
•
•
f f i
fm '
r r
J— A. S
J— J. 1
i i
He
^ ^^
*• TT
— B^ —
^--
,
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He led.
them forth likt
lr-£— 5- i
V^y^
1
led tlle.m
forth
, — ^
J |
f~ ^ v x
^r — i
V /
He led,.
He led.
etc.
after which the Basses sing the phrase and the Tenors the tag. Finally the
Sopranos sing the phrase again in the key of D, the other voices taking over
Stradella's figure of accompaniment, shortened as before, and the Sopranos
emphasizing the close by an octave drop simultaneously with the entry of the
Basses :
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
75
Ex. 30. (continued.)
He led___ them forth like
J" J-~^-l ^ 1 h
i
— » a* / * —
• — ffj — * — i
— - —
1 ~\'* ~=^ri
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He
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5
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led. He
i I \
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Mr 7^
forth like
J^J J
— ~Z2T*
r^-
sheep
?
A U J * -' A
^E. C"^" / ^^
^r-
,
*£$ —
-* i !•—
— ^ —
In this manner, if we count in two bars of orchestral continuation, Stradella's
phrase of eight bars is elongated into thirty-nine. Later on in the chorus his bit of
canonic imitation appears first for the Basses and Tenors and then for the Altos
and Sopranos :
Ex. 30. (continued.)
^ y «
^ .
— — —
— > V-= — j- — « — -
™ y
r"
-
N
i
H- t
— «
-^ • — -
He
UMI
—
^
He
led
them
f<
^r
>rth
— r
like
like
sheep
** fe
*/ j
-1
sheep
IE ^
m^J
it
.£
<1,
* *
H
He
led_
|
them
forth
like
-^v "•
1 ^~
sheep
-
^^__
rr i
i
-
^N
which, with two more bars of orchestral finish, complete the tale of fifty-one bars
which Handel has contrived to spin out of Stradella's phrase of less than nine bars.
But for all that, the effect produced is unflaggingly fresh and completely congruous
with the words sung.
76
JSEAEL IN EGYPT
The chorus which comes next in order, (No. 11), "Egypt was glad when they
departed " presents an instance of appropriation which is extreme even for Handel.
A celebrated German organist JOIIANN CASPAR KERL (1628-1693) published at
Munich in 1686, one year after Handel's birth, a work entitled Modulatio
Organica super Magnificat. A mnzona contained in that work reappears, with
hardly any alterations beyond what were required to adapt an organ-piece for
performance by voices, as the chorus now before us. The following Example in
which I have printed Kerl's canzona as it appears in an undated edition published
at Amsterdam1 will make this surprising fact quite manifest.
Ex. 31.
Chorus "Egypt was glad when they departed."
(The Soprano
Clef is
used in the
original/J
Handel.
J J
±L
Canzona for the Organ.
£^
^^
Kerl.
H.
1 Kindly placed at my disposal by Dr. A. H. Mann.
H.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
77
ti-j-1 -1 J 1
, i j J =,
j i j
r1 — = — i
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(Q ±L
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j ^ J j
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r r -f-
~n
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rs
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;.
j-
1 J J
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i
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J
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j j j
"73 V
l^_'_!
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r r i
\\ r r !
^=^
H.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
„,
pa=£
K.
•J J J J
^^
SEE^Ed;
±=fe
mM
~f
H.
A
£^
^_
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i
± ^.
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^
"For the fear of them fell upon them!'
r T
J
H.
•y-y-
K.
79
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^e
f=
S
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J J J J
II.
r
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ISRAEL IN EGYPT
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H.
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m
K.
jOTtf
r
H.
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$
-±
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feM
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ISEAEL IN EGYPT
i_^^ >N
81
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ro
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b'l M
82
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
As Kerl published his cartzona in 1686, when Handel was only one year old,
his priority is beyond dispute. Curiously enough Sir John Hawkins, in his
'History of Music,' which appeared in 1776, published an inaccurate version of this
canzona " as a specimen of Keii's style of composition for the organ," 1 evidently in
entire ignorance of the use to which Handel had turned it, 38 years earlier, in
Israel in Eyy-pt.
Fortunately nothing prevents our regarding the next chorus (No. 12), " He
rebuked the Eed Sea," as anything but what it has always been taken for — a
tremendous stroke of original genius. The remark attributed, I think, to
Beethoven, that when Handel chose, he could " strike like a thunderbolt,"
thoroughly applies to these mighty eight bars. Nor does the inspiration take any
lower level in that superb oceanic commingling of sublimity and loveliness, the
chorus (No. 13) " He led them through the deep," though for its original form
Handel went back more than thirty years to a work which he had composed in Rome
in 1707,2 a setting of Psalm CX. in Latin (Dixit Dominus) for a five-part chorus,
orchestra and organ. A double fugue in this work to the wrords " Tu es sacerdos
in cete'mwin wcundum ordinem Melchisedech " contains the germ from which
the chorus now undnr consideration was developed.
In the Psalm,5 the movement opens as follows, the Basses singing the first
subject while the upper voices take the much shorter and quicker second subject
in canonic imitation and development :
Soprano I.
Soprano II.
Alto.
Bass.
•)'• > n t
Ex. 32.
>SV - c-nn - ditm
j*
9
tie - c,un - dinn or - di- nem Mel -
Tu
Vol. V. p. 96. * Chrysander ; Life of Handel, vol. I. p. 162.
3 Which I quote from the German Handel Society's edition, vol. 38, p. 79.
83
flX i v — j, — p—
-* P p — i p =— -P— *
^ *i r "p ~~i
£b-^ — S — ?-
-' — '< i t i — | — ' J «
cw»- rf?/?n or - di - nem Mel - chi - se - de
~~? ^ S — & =3 ^~~
fi^, se - cun-dum
J ^ p- r
tJ
or - di -
JP ^_v_
nem Mel- chi - se - deck, se - cu
• . j> J j> N n L
-* ^ p p
n-dum or - di - nem Mel -
^ —
c#? - se -
^= ? J ^ J ^^^^=^-^-~j=
deck, se - cun - dum or - di - nem Mel - chi - se - deck,
~F~ -f— -L
IE_Z ) . :
— \ r — -
- dos
-ter
In Itfi'vcl in Egypt the double chorus opens by the Basses giving out the first
subject accompanied, in unison, by the instrumental basses only, but instead of
singing the whole octave-scale as in the Psalm, they plunge down a Seventh upon
the word ' deep ' with a wonderfully fine effect :
Ex. 32. (continued.)
p>^V^= *- ~
— F 1* —
F 1
m _
=4=
=4=
t^f-b^ — J^_
He
led t
lem
th
"ough the
=3=
deep,
— W—
He
led
4=^
them
iv >
J^ — [• tr i
0
r
*
*=$=\
f-
?=$- HS —
through the deep as through a wil - der -
84
ISBAEL IN EGYPT
In the last Soprano entry of this subject the plunge is deferred, with increased
effect until close upon the end of the subject :
Ex. 32. 'continued.
He lei
led them through the deep, He led th
m m
^?=]
^E~
9 1*
t ?
•—
f-
— F—
-*=|
through the deep as through a wil • der - ness
The second subject, modified in various ways, is constantly at work throughout,
first in the orchestra only and then both there and in the voices. Thus the opening
of the Psalm-inovement gives a rough scheme which is adhered to in the double
chorus, but with a richness and exuberant variety of effects which make tho earlier
composition, fine as it undoubtedly is, pale into comparative insignificance
The companion picture describing the destruction of Israel's pursuers is drawn
with tremendous force in the following chorus (No. 14) " But the waters over-
whelmed their enemies." The original idea for this too was taken by Handel from
one of his earlier works, the Chaudos anthem " The Lord is my light " composed
between the years 1717 and 18201 while he was music-director to the Duke of
Chandos. It appears there in the form of the orchestral prelude3 to a soprano song
set to the kindred words " It is the Lord that ruleth the sea : "
Ex. 33.
Chorus.
Orchestra.
Anthem.
(Prelude.;
But the wa-ters o - ver
=*=E£
1 Chrysarider : Life of Handel, vol I. p. 458.
2 Which I quote from the German Handel Society's edition, vol. 35, p. 198 sq.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
85
^=^^=:^
whelm - ert their e
ne-mes,
m
EM
Or.
s
53 £~
=^*=5=Cp
q?^
etc.
An.
Ch.
Or.
there was not,
i i I
Bar?
^
one of them left, there
^s.
An.
Bar 2 continued.
==e
8G
An.
Ch.
one of them left, there
± 1
left,
E 3
etc.
Or.
r1^1^^^ FfT-Fi
An.
-^r-u'i
SsiBzE
: JT
f-s
^jT
•> f
ir—
Tr
*
, M
s=
r
j. -^^
ISRAEL IN EGPYT
87
The short, but extraordinarily impressive, double chorus (No. 15), " And Israel
saw that great work," contains such palpable discharges of creative energy that it
may, I hope, be set down to Handel's sole initiative. It is followed by the chorus
(No. 16), "And believed the Lord," consisting of 63 bars, 46 of which, i.e. nearly
three-quarters of the whole chorus, are, with but small modification, taken from, or
built up on, a soprano song accompanied by two violins and a bass in Stradella's
Serenata. Example 34 sets out the first 17 bars of the chorus with the corres-
ponding passages in the song :
Handel.
Ex. 34.
X U7i 3 = —
_r
— _...
— •» —
(fo *-g —
*J
And be -
lie - ved the
— . J. .
-_jL^
J J J
*)• i b o &
—
r>
S n a *)
rj f^j 5"
i^
-^ " ? ^
1
^
a c> w^
1 IT'1'
And be - lie - ved the Lord and His ser - vant
Handel.
Stradella
p. 31.
(Original
Key-signature
one flat.)
And be - lie -ved the
And be - lie - ved the Lord.
S 0 l> !_d__J_ _1_J
M ^V
i /a
/^L r>
^*
LV V B*
r iiS ^ ^j
^PJ
Ho 1^ Z
L/ M F*^ f*'/
^-j F^
^ r
Lord and His
, ^ J J
r r r
ser - vant
"r"
and His
ser - vant
e J
^0^
"il ^ J
4\* k ^
1
•1« i !? |O»
••
/ U AI o
^
^7 ?2 •
-s v y i
i i
S i ! 1
Mo - ses, His ser - vant Mo - ses
Soprano.
Jf \ ^ "•£
z
«
~f\_ \% *y ^— !•
••
—
v i P
I ^ft ^ *ii
1
v- V/ ^
1
1
I 1 J
J i
ter- ri al di -
1 ill
_y i b> »j ^d
2
2Z
i
/T ^ o
rj r) &
V
L J hJ
£
Ho • «l • H
Violins I &
: H.
w), 7 o j-«
— 19 ^ ~ —
' ' 72
— <9 ^ —
S }> 7 ^
e —
*»
_^ — ; __p_
Instrumental bass.
U 1 =| 1
88
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Lord and His ser
vant
And be - lie-vt-il tlui Lord and His ser
i
r— I f-
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
89
After four bars of continuation on these materials Handel produces (bars 22-31)
the following burst of inspiration :
Ex. 34- ^continued.)
r^-*L J
J J
SE=± — f — -f —
and the
A A
S •»
peo - - pie
fea - red the
-^ r M
Lord and be
uLi?
— »- V B
•J~'V\r
1
_j? (L -P H
—p — j. — 1
1
1 i '
ii
, i
1 1
J
— ?y
3 — d —
L— 4
=^z
-( —
^
— -p —
^ — & —
h** — ~ — & — '
s
iV
-f-f-4-^?
~~fl
1 1
lie - ved the
J ^ J.
Lord
and His
i
A. **.
r
st
•*
*r -
\ r r
vant Mo -
"*" c>
- ses
0—
-p o
The rest of the chorus reverts to the Stradella material except in bars 45-52 where
a descending scale-passage of four notes receives the following fine treatment in
canon :
Ex. 34. (continued.)
and the peo - pie fea - red the
J f\
I 1 — i
i 1 1
1
sf L'
— = 3 d
^ & \
J
d
vjfT) —
, ^
—4- -a
P
and the
peo - pie
fea - red the
=
Lord, an
r
d the
*)• \l
_ —
— •. —
.—
V
- _
Lord, and the
peo
pie fea - red the
1
~KT^
1 — bd
=f= ~
3=
— o —
V 1
— s1 s* n) 1
0
peo
£L
^
]
)le
J
P
fea -
R^*
- r
H
ed,
.L
fea - red the
Lord
^
-7
a
ind t
he
peo
I
le
l~r r r — '
fea - red the
Lord
With this chorus Part I. of Israel in Egypt ends.
CHAPTER VII.
COMPARISON OF PART II. OF ISRAEL IN EGYPT WITH A LATIN MAGNIFICAT THE AUTHOR-
SHIP OF WHICH IS DISPUTED, AND WITH A PASSAGE FROM A LATIN TE DEUM
BY URIO.
WE have seen the use that Handel made of a serenata by Stradella in the first
Part of Israel in Egypt. In the second Part he made a still more
extensive, indeed well nigh exhaustive, use of a Latin Magnificat set for double
chorus, orchestra and organ, the authorship of which presents a problem of much
interest. Only two manuscript copies of it are known to exist, one in Handel's
own handwriting, but without indication of authorship, which is preserved in the
Royal Library at Buckingham Palace, the other in a different handwriting and
inscribed " Magnificat Del Rd Sigr Erba," x which is preserved in the Library of
the lioyal College of Music. After what we have seen of Handel's copying
of choruses by Graun in the Fitzwilliam autographs, the mere existence of this
Magnificat in his handwriting cannot be accepted as proof that he composed it ;
indeed, in the opinion of Dr. Chrysander, Handel's manuscript presents clear
internal evidence of not being an original work but a copy, and probably made
from separate 'parts,' not from a score. The Royal College manuscript, on the
other hand, supplies a piece of positive evidence by assigning the composition of
the Magnificat to a priest (Rd Sigr) named Erba. It has, however, been
maintained by two supporters of the Handelian authorship that the words
"Magnificat Del Rd Sigr Erba" meant only that the manuscript score now
in the Library of the Royal College was once the 'property of — not had been
composed by — the person named in the superscription. "I suppose," wrote, in
1857, Mr. (afterwards Professor Sir) G. A. Macfarren, "this superscription to signify
that the copy had belonged to a Signor Erba." 2 " The obvious meaning of this
inscription," asserted, in 1883, Mr. W. S. Rockstro, "is that the volume in
which it is written had once belonged to a Priest named Erba. Had the
Magnificat been composed by Signor Erba, the word used would have been ' dal,
not 'del.'"3
In order to test the truth of the idiomatic rule thus confidently laid down by
Rockstro, I examined the titles of many old Italian manuscript scores in the Fitz-
william Library.
1 Mr. Barclay Squire informs me that the third word of this inscription may be read either as
' Sigr' or as ' Sgr' and that the handwriting has too little character to be used as decisive evidence
to show whether the copyist was Italian or English.
2 Preface to an analysis of Israd in Egypt written for the Sacred Harmonic Society in 1857.
3 Rockstro : Life of Handel : Macmillan and Co., 1883, p. 222.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT 91
The following are a few of these titles, which, it will be observed, are exactly
parallel to the " Magnificat Del Rd Sigr Erba " of the Royal College score :
F. W, Library Olassmqrte
30 F 7 No. 4 Messa . . . Del Sigr: Alesaudro Scarlatti
23 F 4 p. 212 Messa . . . del Sigr: D. Leonardo Leo
24 F 9 p. 1 Oratorio . . Del Sig Alesandro Stradella
22 F 25 p. 1 Duetti per Cammera Bel Sigr; Abbate Stefaui
24 F 4 p. 33b Cantate Domino del Si#r Silvestro Durante
30 F 7 p. 37 Dixit ... del Mol": R^: P: M: G: B«: Martini
22 F 12 [cover] Fetontc opera orig[ina]le del Sigr Paradies
22 F 6 p. 1 Dixit .... Del Siif: D: Nicola Jommelli oelebre Maestro
These examples suffice to refute the assertion that del, thus used, denotes
mere ownership. That, indeed, used to be indicated in a different way. Thus
in the preface to Bach's organ works, vol. III. p. XIV. of the Leipzig edition, a
manuscript is mentioned entitled " Sonata per il cembalo solo del Sigr J. S. Bach,
poss. J. G. Miithel" and on the following page another entitled: "Fuga clamat1
in Bft di Johann Seb Bach Poss. Joh Peter .Kellner." The persons to whose
names ' poss.' [i.e. ' possessore ' or ' posseditore '] is prefixed are as evidently the
owners of these scores as Bach is the composer of the sonata and of the fugue.
The general result of my inspection of a large number of manuscript title-pages
was that, for the purpose of designating authorship, ' del ' was in much the most
common use, that ' di ' was not unfrequently employed and that ' da ' and ' dal '
were but rarely met with.
We are now, I think, entitled to conclude that the entry on the Royal College
manuscript was meant to assert that the R(1 Sigr Erba composed the Magnificat
written on its pages.
It remains to enquire who Erba was, and on this point we are again
indebted to the researches of Dr. Chrysander. In his 'Life of Handel'2 he has
shown that a composer of much distinction, Don Dionigi Erba, was in the year 1694
writing opera for Milan, and may well have been the author of our ' Magnificat.'
The prefix ' Don ' indicating that he was a priest, agrees with the ' Rd Sigr ' of the
Royal College score, and the laying out of the work for a double chorus is consistent
with its having been composed for the 'duomo' at Milan where "opportunities were
afforded, principally by means of two large organs placed facing each other, for
keeping the old polychoric church music longer in use than in the rest of Italy." 3
On these grounds Chrysander conjecturally assigned the composition of the
Magnificat to Dionigi Erba. Its style, he wrote, "is not in the most remote
1 1 do not know what ' clamat ' means in this connexion. - Vol. I. p. 173.
3 Ib. p. 175. My friend Mr. E. J. Dent tells me that he has frequently seen organs thus placed
in churches elsewhere in Italy.
92 ISRAEL IN EGYPT
degree that of Handel, either in his earlier or his later period." 1 Macfarren, on the
other hand maintained that the Magnificat " if not so mature, is perfectly congenial
in style with all the more earnest compositions of Handel with which we are
acquainted."2 In the presence of opposite judgments pronounced with equal
confidence by recognized authorities, the appeal to the ' evidence of style ' must be
regarded — at any rate for the present — as indecisive. There remains the reasonably
probable hypothesis, based on external evidence, assigning it to Dionigi Erba — a
hypothesis which the coming to light of other copies of the score or ' parts ' might
at any time conclusively establish — or refute. Accordingly we are unable to say
with certainty whether Handel, when incorporating practically the whole of this
Magnificat in the second part of Israel, was appropriating a work by another com-
poser or refurbishing one of his own. I shall, therefore, in order not to prejudge
this alternative, indicate the Magnificat in the sequel by the neutral abbreviation
' Mag.' rather than by the question-begging names ' Handel ' or ' Erba,' though
personally I am inclined to regard as preponderant the arguments against a
Handelian origin for the disputed work. For our immediate purpose, indeed, the
question of authorship is unimportant, since, as has been seen, Handel's mode of
dealing with earlier compositions of his own did not differ from that which he
applied to those of other Masters.
The second Part of our oratorio opens with the majestic piece of choral declama-
tion (No. 17) "Moses and the children of Israel," leading into the superbly jubilant
double chorus (No. 18) "I will sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed
gloriously," in which no older material has been detected save, indeed, an ascending
and descending scale passage, of four notes — a regular locus conimunis of contra-
puntists— which Handel had used much less impressively in his Te Deura for the
Peace of Utrecht in 1713.3
The duet for two Trebles (No. 19), "The Lord is my strength," which
immediately follows this great effort, is simply a revised reproduction of a duet for
the same voices in the Magnificat, accompanied too in the same manner, by unison
violins with a practically unfigured bass in the oratorio, ;intl by a viola with a
figured bass in the Magnificat. The comparison of the two settings is particularly
instructive because it shows us Handel improving the earlier one exactly in the
way in which a first-rate teacher of composition corrects the work of a promising
pupil; cutting it about quite freely but without altering its essential character.
What strikes one as really surprising is that, considering the great amount of
correction expended on what was after all only a moderately meritorious piece of
work, Handel should not in this instance have preferred independent composition
to so tiresome a process of adaptation.
1 fb. p. 173. 2 Analysis of Israel in Kgypt quoted by Chrysauder. Ib. p. 168. note.
3 Chrysander : ' Life of Handel,' vol. L p. 393.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
93
In Ex. 35 and wherever the Magnificat is quoted in these pages Dr.
Chrysander's edition is used ; but I have omitted the figuring of the Bass as not
required for the purposes of our comparison.
Ex. 35.
Mag.
Bass.
Mag.
94
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
1st Treble.
2nd Treble
Handel.
Unison
Violins.
Bass.
Soprano I.
Soprano II.
Mag.
Viola.
ex - ill - t(t - fit,
Et ex
6
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
95
5^
song",
The
'-=?--
H.
strength and my soup,
8
r-. V
Mag
et
£te3
96
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
L.
Lord is my strength and my
and my song,
The Lord is my
10
strength and my s
11
;iud my
12
_j v
— — j
= JE
[_ _ _| mi I
Mag.
tn-vii,
10
ul - t<i-vit,
11
5Efe=^
ISBAEL IN EGYPT
98
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
h.
tion,
15
?&£EE£
my sal - va - tion, my sal -
14
c.r - it I - ta - vif, ex - ul -
15
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
va-tion,He is be - come
100
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
il.
my sal - va-tion,
f— C r_f
Ho is be - come
20
- o sa - In - tn
Mag.
18
in -De - o sa - In - t<i
19
ISRAEL IN EGPYT
101
3
my sal- va - tion,
my sal - va - tion, my sal - va-tion,
- mysal-va tiun, my sal -
2,
va - tion
sal - va - tion
22
arid
e,r - ?// - ta - vit, ex - ul - fa - vit.
§F5
me - o, ex -
20
ta - fit, ex - 1/1 - (a - vit,
21
^
102
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
my sal-va - tion,
^
£
s e -
my sal - va - tion,
23
24
5
Fj3f
25
-^-
^
- ta-vit spi- ri-tns
Mag.
22
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
103
p
mm
my sal - va-tion,
my sal - va-tion,
#5= ==£=P-
IHF1 =>-
E|E
m
my
strength,
my
song',
He is be-
H.
25
2(5
27
- In -
ta - ri,
?'?i De - o.
Mag.
o,
24
25
104
ISBAEL IN EGYPT
He is be - come.
my salva - tion
the
rt
H.
my salva - tion.
29
Lord is ir.v
in DC - o
DC- o so - It
sa - lu -
et ex - ul
27
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
105
Lord is my
strength and my song, the
Lord is iny strength and my
7&
H.
strength and my
30
song1, the Lord is my
strength and my song,
32
Mag.
28
ul - ta - vit,
106
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
He is be- come my sal -
II
dfcz
He is be - come my sal -
tion,
35
30
r
i
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
107
- tion, my sal -
va-tion, my sal - va
tion,Hwis be-come
r r 0 . - T' r
g 5 L M*— i/ *
~lr Hf — ^3 — T^ ~ — l^"
— y / >-r
my sal-va
H.
-tioiijHe is be-come my sal-
37
3=z=
£\* i V
0
s
/L r r
MM di K r 0 P ^
rm
* • * J
^ ^ f 4L *
sSz .. ^
* L L B eJ
r * r ^
^, ex - id - ta-vit, ex - id -
^^-
tn - - - nit spi - ri-tus me - us
/JL ^
0 9 1* m m m P*
ofts
\ p \ 9. ^f A
u DHL C r J
v-l/
^^J
/ / P « , * •
ex - ul - fa
31
p* I/
wY s/)i - ri-tus me - us in
32
V ^w
^ s
V
/I.
> SZSZI _IS
*y i
f/^ m
r / 3
3 J
J •
•
* •*-
i .n
4V *
•
« • W
I*
•/ • «Y A «/
J r v ^
/
L 7 r 7 r 7
a
Mag.
108
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
my sal-va
H.
-va-tion, my sal-va
38
tion,
- tion,
He is be-
Mag.
» .. .
84
85
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
109
Ho is be-come my sal-va
i
2
my sal-va
H
40
m sal-va
41
tion, my sal-
42
^
^
Dc.-o,
DC
Mag-.
35
m
Di'-o sa-bi-ta
sa-lu-ta
36
110
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
tion, mysal-va
^^^=^^^^5:
= z£r=aE— &J J*
tion, He is be-
_ va - tion,mysal-va
43
tion, He is be-
44
fer
45
&
m
me - o,
-Mag.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
111
my sal-va
47
izat
sa-lu- ta
Mag
39
"J v ~v h J
112
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
tion,mysal -
ttF
II
48
49
50
- r? me -
«, sa- In - ta - ri me,
Ma-
40
41
iffl:
^
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
113
^£
-tion.
^EEi
50
51
52
H.
I
•^
1st & 2nd Violins.
Viola & Bass.
Mag.
42
44
H.
54
Mag.
114
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
The double chorus (No. 20) "He is my God," which comes next in order,
consists of ten bars, of which the first two contain only percussions of the chord
of A minor. Bars 3-8, save for a slight alteration in bar 4, reproduce almost note
for note the whole opening chorus of the Magnificat, and bars 9 and 10 contain
the closing flash of genius which we have learned to expect from Handel when he
has finished working up a piece of old material. All this is shown in the following
Example, in which I have not included the orchestral parts, as they possess
no independent interest :
Ex.36.
Choir I.
Handel.
Choir II.
riJL ^ J--J-
n J ^^
*»
V J J * • •
XL C5 s 0 0 f —
-4 — * .-
He is my
J J 1
God
tt
"^~r ~r
and I will pre -
— ~P~ — "P" — ' ' — * — r —
-fr V J* — ^ —
zzdz*
1 I r r
(• i* i*
^
yO III
^ ,
V V
^1 J •
/L v i *- — • — *—
*->
-i J — * — f-r-^
«= T -f
J J J
ns /
^):/* >
__^ —
ZHSZHE
T" i 1 &&
Coro I.
Coro II.
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
115
- Him.
H.
116
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
ha - bi - ta - tion,
- pare Him an
ha
bi
J.
-pare
T
P
ta - tion,
+±
my fa-thers'
God.
Him an
bi - : ta - tion,
3;
^
me - a Do
me - a Do
PP
Mag-.
c
Z/o
~rr
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
117
Passing over the chorus (No. 21) " And I will exalt him," which has not been
shown to owe anything to pre-existing materials, we come to the famous duet for
Two Basses, "The Lord is a man of war," in which Handel, besides making
abundant use of a duet for the same voices in the Magnificat, has worked into
the orchestral prelude and accompaniments a theme taken from a work by an
earlier composer named Urio.
Of FRANCESCO ANTONIO URIO hardly anything appears to be known except
that he was a priest and lived at Bologna in the seventeenth and beginning of
the eighteenth centuries. The important fact for us is that he composed a
Te Deum for voices and orchestra, a score of which, now in the Library of
the Conservatoire at Paris, bears the heading "Te Deum, Urio, 1660." 1 Handel
used this work very extensively in his Dettingen Te Deum? and a theme from it,
which had already done duty there, in the orchestral prelude to the chorus " All
the earth doth worship Thee," leads off the introduction to " The Lord is a man of
war," the rest of which is either directly copied from, or developed out of, the
prelude to the duet in the Magnificat. This will be at once seen from the ensuing
comparison, for the sake of which I have transposed the extract from Urio's Te
Deum, a Fourth down and that from the Magnificat a Minor Third down.
Ex. 37.
Symphony to
"The Lord is a
man of war."
Urio's Te Deum:
Prelude to
Chorus
"Te eternum"
(Transposed
a Fourth down.)
1 Grove, Dictionary of Music, 1st edition.
e A revised reprint, issued in 1902, of Chrysander's edition of Urio's Te Deum contains a preface
describing the use made by Handel of that composition, which was absent from the earlier issue.
(See above, Introd. pp. xi. and xii.)
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
*
etc.
M:ig. transposed a
Minor Third down
18
19
— |— T-m-f*-
=*=^= S
^
Handel.
^ y ; j J j j J , jf?T> f rr>J «.
ft * p r --f— i
r r r i
FF^^
f
I«J
Q
i
9
i
•
1
10
£k^* ft ll 1 I
-^x^ H.. ........ ,...,_.[__
3 a
i — r —
• ««.* J j J J J i J J J J
J^l J^J J-
1A "V J
•=*
^ 1
-^m — n # .
r— — —
d _ > » n
Magnificat,
tr. a Minor
Third down.
Y ITY
r * rr
7
b.
^ * r i
8
•i. ffitii '
— Ifr/rJ —
-**- — II -=.
^o to
[— O — • — P —
u.
11
d
18
^
f
i
11
^
12
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
1
119
t=^^f=
14
•4 ^_
H.
15
Mag-.
IHTV" -*>-*-•>- -V-i
^ — *
2
g 1
^- -£--—
13
8 a
J 1 ^ =
14
— I L«j —
15
IK *
3
Mag.
m
H
17
^U -
f r,.,'r
S?' T * -
E*E =-
SiE^
Treble of bars 8 and 9 repeated a Fourth higher.
^
16
SO t S *] J
^ :
\-
-— J J^
^
ffk ft — •-*
--J-1
-J-l-^-X
-J
1 — i —
r*1
^
» -.
F"
o
r 1
20
, M ^_
21
7
— =
B
"if
"ft
22
23
)* fTU^
-f —
— *—
^
_. ,
f
)
IE
pC
• n
3*_ fT
'
^
^
r j
«L
Bars R and 7 repeated with slight
alterations.
Urio's instr! phrase combined with vo-
cal phrase from Magnificat treated in
canon. :
Mag.
120
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
*i ^"BT""
j
v -T
j j
-— - J •
. 2
j
— ^' M M.
\ — "F~
m. M. M.
F f- |-
Vfc'-Tr"
—
*^-H
• —
• •
«...
_J
J. 24
i
25
—
^
_J 2t
A
)
•^ —
— r
— g— J
64
efc.
Bar 21 repeated an octave
higher
Mag.
i
20
• Bars ft and 7 repeated again.
II.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
121
The duet proper opens with a phrase for the first Bass modelled on a lead for
the vocal Altos in the Dettingen Te Deum chorus "All the earth doth worship
Thee," where, as here, the Urio instrumental theme is used as accompaniment after
having served as prelude.
Ex. 37- ^continued.'
f rr > ,f
Bass I. iLV ^ F FR-H^-i' "
Handel.
Basses.
Dettingen
Te Deum.
Transposed
a Fourth
down.
1 ~V* ^tf1
1
i
? 1-
H
\
a]
1
tti
e
f
urth
doth v
/or - ship
Thee,
A
|
'' Q ii $
— J
*
-
— p K
M
fK
~?«L~T* —
9
J ^
P •
zzz:
— H
r^R 1T
f
fl
f
« •
™
" . »
p
^ T
4
•
~T^
&
^
P^
J
^)* Iffi
0
i
£
«-5
=fc=
122
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
The next nineteen bars are made up of the same materials contrapuntally
treated. Then comes a section 45 bars long in which the Magnificat is followed
almost bar for bar :
Ex. 37. (continued.)
:E*r=pi
P
£ipp
Lord
is His
67
is His
Mag.
Transposed
a Minor
Third down.
P^
28
m
f*
cit mi - hi
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
123
pp
Lord is His
H.
Lord,
Lord In His
m
» — i»
- grwa,
z=:
Mag.
i^
i
Qui - a
o-5-
rr
*»
is His
^
H.
*t
His
Mag.
ctY mi - hi
124
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
H.
Mag
Mag.
fel
125
Lord
is His
H
L(ird
is His
HI
^m
m
f
po - tens
«>
- tens
2
a
name,
&
s
t^=
esi
Mag-.
f
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Mag-.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
127
/•fit" ' tt« r
' F «• J ^
r i* ti« r
E_c_iLBa™E
IZ ' ttr
I flr * 1
r Hr
r ft *
2_ IT
I-J
^
p
nu- men, etsan-ctum
- ../• fuilt H<«5
710
i i
1 u .*-
_ tto
•> rr**—
^ ft ftp — «*
N - - mt'n,
3 — ^ —
•«"/ ».
3 — £V
h~ rn ' I
~?Tr — TJ — — — —
— •> —
— •• —
— ••
f(H TI
u W
4V 8 C
1
!
V'¥ ^ -r—
i
H
Mag-.
Sim &^
fer J Jrrr 1
— jp —
r
9 fl* J • '
T r i i
wzen c
1 1 1 — -1
J7/S ,
f T^1 \ * J J it i* P
— * ^» — P— — — « —
1 P J Ju
^j j
_
— ^f— f FE
EfcSH
3 — E
\ i '
iLJ.
- ctum no-men e fl -
jus,
, jj 1 J I J •
~Jf- — <*TT •
^
u
>^jf* J • J •
CM} tf
1
1
r#FTrr
4\* jt u
1* — * —
-_ —
u J
'-j
**--% <s
ttr J j r r r
'r j J^
— ff~ 1 —
A
Mag
128
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
The
Lord,
etc.
111
112
Mag
i^N
*<
89
fP
f
£
P
In bars 111 to 123 the two Basses sing successively a phrase beginning with
that in bars 40 to 42 but lengthened by four bars, after which Handel works in a
vocal phrase * of four bars with Urio accompaniment and then proceeds for the
most part parallel with the Magnificat for 17 bars more :
1 Which may itself have been taken from Urio's setting of ' ' Pleni sunt coeli " but is too short to
be definitely identified as borrowed.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
Ex. 37. (continued.'
129
Handel.
Urio's
Te Deum.
(Transposed Jf^f
a Fourth
down.)
SI
int ca> . U
7
H.
130
j
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
cast in - to the
hath He
h;ith Hi
c;ist in - to the
11.
ctu»i
Mag.
s»* tt —
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
131
cast
> fj
hath
H
m
^
^m
rrpirJ
**
no-men,et sanctum
Mag.
5F
-o-
P
i
JO"
i^f
132
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
in - to
H.
etc..
r
/• i*>~ r r* _,
«• J • i»
/ rs &F uJ * •
ft m * *
,
-. «
2_ZH3i « C* *
w |
j •'
i » tt
a ll
- Vi
//l(.'«. fl
-*»-•
jus.
A\« « C
I
/• r>^ 1
J +iJ
rj • .
Z U
J DC J * r
e
* J « Q*
JO* *
•
• v • •
* 1
/ne» e
-«*-•
jus.
ate.
^'••Jn^^"_ •> - •
—
•
I
\ ro — j
t^
a it
i I 1 '
¥fFO , -
3ti9t:
FJ-4*—
•
r \ \ LZSL_
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
133
This section ends with bars 20-36 of the instrumental introduction
repeated. Next come a few bars of vocal Canon leading to the fine descending
Fifths on " also are drowned " which occur, fittingly set to " misericordia" in
the Magnificat.
Ex. 37. (continued.)
n.
ifcv a tt -• — ^ — f — n* — ^ — ^ — rn» — i*" — T— rf^ — r >. — i
^gi-T — £—
=t= — i — r—
, — | 1 1 —
— i
1
?^
His eho - sen
cap - tains
ill - so ;ire
drown -ed,
^M*ip~ ™
l-f E^£-
hf~JL~ * J
£~ — ^ — : -^— -+ - ' - — L-
His cho - sei> cap - tains
_4\!^JL
— — o
Map.
(Transposed
half aTone down.5
)• w — ---
-^ TT~
et
~^ it
>
• •
—
-^^ ^
tr 0
i *
ill - so are
a li T*" p"
drown- ed,
-4\* ft fl
P
m
P
x" TI# '
•i
m m
^^ V
drown - ed,
j
al - so are drown-ed,
i k. i
M \ * TL 3
v
f
f
m
9* TT jf^
^p J
^3- 5
^
• . » v
96
»ii - se -
ri -
cor - di - a,
n
!• ?^ r r r
~^-^\
IB
S5
^ — E
— •
L-f
-0- — & —
*N . .
H.
mi - se - ri - cor - di - a,
This short passage is, after eight bars of other matter, repeated in the key of
E major, and then Handel again takes up the thread of the Magnificat to form a
famous passage :
134
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
Ex. 37. (continued.)
drown - ed.
Mag.
Mag-. Transposed a
Minor Third down.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
135
Handel purposes repeating this impressive passage with increased effect.
Accordingly, in order to prepare a contrast for it, he takes the little subject already
used in bars 124 and 125, adds to it a further bar of brisk quavers and works the
result up into the following jubilant bit of canonic writing :
Ex. 37. 'continued.)
* ' ft
i ' r
4yfft [• ^— — f~
r"rf~r r M^
al - so are
p |» — » f—
^7 *| —
al - so are
— Q — Zrrft ^— — m~i ^ m —
p^ 1 — T-4-4-
drown
1
1
X W c— -» p.
1
— ^ —
fm ff / r
a •
fcfc*==&==l?
"x "^n^~r
e
^5^
/• m11
£ F
r r
y ^i - \ — — —
h — H
q
drown
ii li
r f r
P f" P f"
fc\* « S v
F p
^^^? f 1-
4 1 1
^3 — 1 1 — U
tf
^ - 5,
/ A u U
al - so are
drown
VT ^
M
^*
i ^^ IT
Vj- 1/
4\* ^ Q
/• rir p •
I
z "a
the Red
ed in
the I?ed
136
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
The previous passage then comes in again, but this time in the key of A with
the vocal parts in more sonorous positions in the Bass compass, and with the
leading singer above, instead of, as before, below his colleague :
Ex. 37. (continued.'
S a * f" f" f" ^ 1s- -f-'f-T^ -P-*
£\» ^ tr
' J
I 1 ^L
— i — 'r-
^ 1
1 T- -$
His .-ho - sen
eup - tains
al - so art'
drown - ed,
^\« if tl ^ ^
r r
r 1 r
r •
1* ffu
H '
— t 5 F
i +
-^ L^- . .. .,
— 1 *- !
1 C
/rt tf ti
^^ Jf il^T
XT "if j
x^ — _ — — ^™~ zii —
**
u
^J.
^J
^ -£-=^.
!
*^»--
H E
~L r — &
| ~
u«j --
58 •
al - so are
drown - ed in
the Red
sea.
r
\
' r I
rf- — f
- -i
-XL — $—
^" T
°
i -• — ""
-^xj
^w •«-
J* ffil"^ ^ '"^
-^ 2
.-X ^- —
<9 *
-P 1
?v~«
This is the real close of the duet, for though a repetition of the opening sym-
phony is directed to follow here, its effect, after the magnificent matter which has
preceded it, is necessarily somewhat of an anti-climax. Handel's power of welding
together heterogeneous materials into a perfectly homogeneous whole, imbued with
a far grander spirit than dwelt in its original elements, can nowhere that I know of
be seen at work with such unrelaxing energy as throughout this duet.
The next number (23), the double chorus "The depths have covered them,"
consists of sixteen bars, twelve of which are a reproduction, with quite astonishing
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
137
improvements, of matter from a chorus in the Magnificat In bars 1 and 2
Handel has provided some simple chords in the orchestra to fix the tonality, and in
bars 3 and 4 has written vocal phrases congruent with those which he was about to
transfer from the Magnificat. l
Ex. 38.
The depths
Choir T.
Handel.
Choir II.
The depths have coverd them .
V
the depths-
N
N S
i
ptlis liave eover'dthem,
_:g. / ^cr:
the depths hav i
5
s££
r C
Coro I.
Mag:.
Coro II.
mi - a re. -
r
1 See, for another instance of the latter procedure, bars 1-7 of "He spake the word." Ex. 27,
p. 54.
138
ISBAEL IN EGYPT
The depthshave cover'dthem,theysank
m^
The depths haveco - vitr'd
\ N
L J-
s
m
them,
JU
They sank in-
N N
7J J
cover'dthem,
5
w^
The depth shavt
u
FFF3
The depths have
N N N N
iEt^^
E^EEp
*=
^
•7 -r
w
^
- ifevn ,
=f=
rrr
;- w?' - li - to.
^
i^»
, 7i?<- wit - 7,i-
f^
Mag.
^-
t
1^ f
i i
-ife^E^
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
139
in - to the bot - torn
V j AN S
^K w »/
1 — 1 — 1 — *|J J J
a f rJ J
\ i
•KB-P " m- J— a
i U /'>•»•
trfk~ 1 k* — E
* •
T r- 1
to the
bot - t( m they sank in -
\£ £ £
J J - i>r r" r
T^ fil
to the bot - torn
1
1
in -
J U V <
— ^ — 7 — 7 7 —
^T"5 — r — * *
-i — 1
- 7E E g-
8
'0 . N IS S
~r r
9
10
1 -\ U
11
1 J
i _
j: ^ ^ ]yi
{(T) * —
-4— J —
-± *— — m >f
—0 0
4V ,JSJ^
J „
\ \
They sank in -
to the
V-u */!>? ? ?
_i 1 L — .? —
m 0
<- mi- li - td - ton
S-—5
m
=*
i
•g g g r
/zu - mi - li - ta - tern an -
- ta
cil - lae, an -
J.
a
&
£
Mag
hn-mi- li - ta - tern
cil - lae s>t - ae,
* J
/ X
140
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
gf-U
-Jf— t a — ' r» —
.r^-^--:
W~ '^i^^t
to the
•0-0—1* — 8—
ff^ff
bottom as a stone,
--ii^
l^> I
the depths have
i* -T J"
JL A A
~ *i_ *- r p
11
fehrH^T^
^4^=
12
as a stone,
5E =J^=f "
"i/ ^ ~ / •
13
FrJ J J J -J J
S^-^ft-^-r-^
ti > i/ i* /
bottom as a
JJ^E-
^ J J *!-
stone.
^H g: Tr
the depths have «« - ver'd them,
j* / Jv ;. j» i
^•~i — — * —
/ U # 0 • *
O
v ifi _ _ 5 • •» «
/ ffiii v p
Mag.
P^P^F
___ _^_J * J_
if- ~f- =p
oil - lac, sn - an,
^L^ J J
* * *
an - cil - lae,
__ — — __^ — _ — — ,f _ —
3^5 — F F
r r
^
N \
^ w W
: v — n — tf 1~^ ^ ^ —
~7Jfr~fc *r\ j — [* Jj — J * —
"*?~ " L ti* J J J -
-W5 — — ' — ij7P ^ %)| — ^—
_/ . — ^M — n_ * — c c C —
rt?i - o7 - lae su - <ie,
'/ ^ ^ ^ ^
hu->m - li - ta tern an -
Li J ^ ^ W. jL M.
<»1'. | • * * —
-E — TT ^ jj ^
^ — ^
^r r — p — r — — f — t — '
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
141
^
Pi
s
co-ver'cl them.
-^ 0-
they sank in
In th>/ bot-tomlike a
stoi\e.
^
14
15
16
^=3
they sank
rrr
in - to the bot,tom lil<e a
stone.
i-cil- lae
Mag.
=:r
- lac
^±
rr
M
142
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
The next number (24), the double chorus, "Thy right hand, 0 Lord," opens as
follows :
Ex. 39.
Choir T.
Handel.
Choir II.
TJiy right hand, 0 Lord, is become
Coro T.
Coro II.
ttti js JN f
JFT:.^
Jf gi mm i/ • - 0 • 0 • 0-
m-0-M
(tt\ *-J i P A m
+ * * mm
"V r r
, 1 r m r r
*J ^ f f
ex hoc be -
N
- ^
T"hf i 1^
a - - f'/m
**)- c* ••• •- -^ — * i "T
• •
\ ^
£'c-ce e - nim ex hoc, ex hoc be -
; r
a - tarn
J-^^tt =£-£-*-
tT~-r. T—
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
143
f^FE — J J J -T Is J // I
n — J — 3 — '
1 J J\ --n
/ ' ^
Thyrighthand,0 Lord, is become
glo - rious in
pow-er,
! ,
T^"1' . f
</ r p ™ ^
3
4
5
^rl _ i? *"~ ^ — >
— ^ . • K
J
f m 2 i* « 3
A 11
SE r r r
r r r
r ZP
«7 / / X
is become
r! 1
glo - rious in
J J J
t "
pow-er, Thy right hand, 0
s . > n Is >
j V F f f f V
-^>i — — s, F— *— m—
-X T | ^~^
—yy —
r • */ l>* UJ U ^—
T — F— f--J
ht=F=:
Mag-.
me dice nt, di-cent
tftti
144
0 Lord, Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is
gjr.izr_-.p-_l-:--if -~|ri— i_ - .
pE^B^ ^^Z^EE^E
II.
N S S
s s
' '
? ?
Lord, Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is
s s
£ ft r ; :g==g=5==
/ / ^ ^ / /
be-como glo-ricus in povv-er.
J J
r/--tJll.fijy^
bt;-coinc glo-rious in pow-er,
It will be observed that from the middle of bar 2 to the beginning of bar 5
Handel merely repeats the matter of bars 1 and half 2, slightly modified. He next,
still following the Magnificat, takes the same subject into the key of G and, after
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
145
a repetition similar to the former one, completes his use of this section of the
Magnificat, which has now been entirely absorbed :
Ex. 39. 'continued.)
N IS \
Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is become
glo - rions,
glo -
H
Mag.
ex hoc be - a
^
>— r
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
J J J
*«
r r r
is become
glo - rious in
J
pow-er. Thy right hand, 0
N N N r^ Is
A A A j J ±
^^----
ETTE~E
n.
10
Is N N
»bliy=
11
^=^
Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is become
1fc=f^:
glo - rions in
r?
pow-er,
it*
12
^
N y
3^
di-cent, di-cent
^^
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
147
J J J J.
J J JJ >^£
^^
y
£
Lord, Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is
J
be - come glu-rious in pow-er,
"F F~
H.
13
*
=^^
rr
0 Lord, Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is
lae - come glo-rious in pow-er,
w
^^
=f
y ^ g:
~f£r
^f I -y-
— * f — u* — — $y —
SE
p p r — r~
~~ F — r fr
€/
t k ^ ^
om-nes gc - ne .
k x
ra - ti - o - - nes,
N s
4\*
•1-
m m
^/
£ 0
r + \
^l M
y r
\
J'J' h h
h ^ J
y
• *
r v rj
3E
f #
* m
P
^
i p
W * - >v
r F t<r J
' J LT
om-nes ge - ne
ra - ti - o - - nes,
^
r r ^ E
-E — P- -7^-
Mag
148
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
The rest of this chorus is a fine specimen of Handel's contrapuntal powers. At
bar 15 he starts a splendid subject :
Ex. 39. 'continued.'
Thy right hand, 0 Lord, hath dash-ed in pie-ces the e
ne-my
the first bar of which appears to have been developed from the bass of bar 1 of this
section in the Magnificat. With this he makes play in Canon for half-a-dozen
bars and then delivers again some of the earlier material, but greatly enriched, in a
series of alternate utterances by the two choirs, which constantly increase in
grandeur until they finally unite in the following prodigiously jubilant and
exultant close :
Both
Choirs.
Ex. 39. (continued.)
Thy right hand, 0
Nt
+—£
Lord, hath
i •
id
dash -
ed
^
f
f-=g=g
es, Hath dash - ed in
pie - res tiie e
s
M
ne - niy.
^
fcz=fe
Had the Magnificat not come down to us, the apparent complete spontaneity
of this wonderful chorus would have at once negatived the idea that it could have
been developed from a setting made to another text. There was, however, one
indication pointing that way in the strong accent erroneously placed in this chorus
on the first syllable of the word ' become ' every time that it occurs. Nor could
this be attributed to Handel's incomplete knowledge of English, for in the duet for
two sopranos "The Lord is my strength"1 where the word 'become' occurs far
more frequently than in this chorus, it is invariably accentuated correctly.
A short choral introduction (No. 25), " And in the greatness of Thine excel-
lency," leads into "Thou sentest forth Thy wrath which consumed them as
See pp. 97-110.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
149
stubble," a double chorus, 82 bars long, chiefly remarkable as being, -with the
exception of its last three bars, the entire choral setting in the Magnificat of the
words "Fecit potentiam in broxichio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui,"
transferred bodily, with very few, and those quite insignificant, corrections, to the
score of Iwael in Egypt. The orchestral accompaniment, too, is taken over from
that in the Magnificat, with parts for three trombones added to it, but substan-
tially unchanged.
The three independent bars which Handel has appended by way of close
present no point of interest.
This number is followed by the chorus (No. 27) " And with the blast " in which
about 50 bars out of 71 are taken, or contrapuntally developed, from the Alto solo
" Deposuit potentes " in the Magnificat After one bar of orchestral prelude the
chorus enters as shown in the following Example :
JQ jt i
JllJ
i. 4U
•
And with the
J¥ — N — N r* — i
X ftf /t
1
•
"^^ — ^T~3
fm ft I;
m m m •»
VSLJ f
3
rm f
1* r
i r r
u ' f
A
Handel- And with the bias
v v N \^-
» F
s / S
ml with the
t
— =
blast
r |
r
/ x
of Thy
-trils
» . v
of
Thy nos
J" A
-IT
p
J ^
fc V fl */
J
1
J • «
, »
/* TW /* ' J «
1 •
A A
0
~
T r r r
Tr [ t,J
• —
V
=•*: ff
/ ! 1 .
G
"V F* F" F
And with the, hlnst,
blast of Thy nos-trils
pfa J JJ-M^t T^
•
the
wa - ters
H.
nos-trils the, wa -
^. j* 7 P r f
ters were
the
t'ttt It t =
ga -ther-ed to - ge-ther,
wa - ters were ga -ther-ed to -
~* e
f 7
ge-ther,
.r.r
-+-* — • — * —
hy fa ], if * »
—4
r '
4
r~f^p~
— 5"
P p P
3f —
p
1 — E
Vs r
of Thy nos-trils
"^ ' V
the wa - ters were ga - ther-ed
•H ft J J - i
J
•<
J :
A\ ft '(^
*~p —
•EEJ — p-f — p
rrT — r —
VH/ OhA^.st T A- ii jg
Mag. (Transposed
/^ a a Tone up.)
J
^
•4
L— 1
J— J5
* JJ
j
~r\I — ^Ti — ft <C
r i
i
— f-
— ,
i* » * "
fm fiZHE 3
K
>
B
F
___£ — :
/ /
~+VT r'..'—
150
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
This Example shows Handel, after writing a couple of bars in Canon on an
independent subject, taking up, and playing contrapuntally with, a phrase from the
prelude in the Magnificat. He then modulates into the key of G and repeats
the Canon there. Next he borrows a phrase from the song to which the
prelude leads :
Ex. 40. (continued.'
the floods stood • up - right, stood up- right as an \ heajj etc.
I
Mag.
^
et ex - ul - to,
vit etc .
and occupies with it and a series of iterated crotchets the next twelve bars, after
which he resumes continuous touch with his source as follows :
Ex. 40- ^continued.)
the floods stood
fc^
up - right as an
the
the wa - ters were
wa - ters were ga -ther-ed to -
ga -ther-ed to - ge - ther,
ge-ther,
Handel.
heap,
as an
x ^ — «* —
"_3"
— •»- w —
W> * ± m
A ^ ~
r «« A
^V I V r P m
•
"
r * \ \
b 8P * p
7 f [J*
C
r y I/
^ Lj k
the wa -
ters were
ga - ther-ed,
the wa - ters
were
tlie
depths were
con-geal - ed,
the
k
J
7
^
N
* J
J* J -T
JT
2? $ • — • "" — •
— _ —
Alto.
Mag.
Instrumental
Bass.
»X fjl ^ ^
IN i
s is ..
K —
^ 1
[ |* ]S N I
v—
/ •
de
^=*=^ * •> ' r,
po-su-it po - ten-tes, et
JL. g r — F=
ex- al -ta - vit
m SZZZZ
^- — ft -1
/
p- - - -7--- -'-
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
151
heap,
heap,.
H.
Mag.
X fj tt 1 J * —""""
jf f w ^
• A A
CM} 1** ^ 1* 1 fr— Cl0 ^ A
i * r r
cJ / ^ ^ <-»«». r L
ga - ther-ed, the wa ters were,
depths were con - geal - ed, the
*,i J J J J ; -
ga - ther-ed to - ge-ther
depths were con - geal • ed
»y an — 9— — • —
— $ — — ^
^/ "{I
,£
K
rf-$-$-f-
Xfy /. J* J r [t^V ^ «*~ r ?~£~
hu - mi- les, de - po - su - it po - ten - tes et
wi-F — r — k 1— f — r —
ex - al -ta - vit
tn ' f 1 r v ^ i i
The rest of the chorus is supplied by contrapuntal working on materials already
used in it, more particularly on the groups of four notes descending by Thirds in the
bass of the last extract from the Magnificat. With these Handel produces effects
of wonderful sublimity which culminate at their last appearance just before the
choral close :
Ex. 40. (continued.)
the depths were con -
J f\ A
, >
i ,. ,.
—Jf — Wf — — «» — —
r . •
J _S !,
rflN ff
— »—
— -• —0
fo*=
f f
the depths were con
sea. were con -
geal
geal
ed, con
-5? — _
5*
, ^ . geal-ed, were con - geal - ed
7t — Tl 1 —
z±: —
— i
(^^ tr
V^ y ^ ^J fl
•
r^
• M
- m
rj
i32 m
»»
geal - ed, were con
ed, con
bl j
• J -
geal - ed
geal - ed
J. J
TT r
in the heart
1 , ^
of the
o
sea.
u r %
^•^
*
, 0 1
— & '
— o —
^ — # — EE
"
— F — '
^ m
-
— ^__ — — ^
r /^ ttf
the depths were con - geal - ed
n~ ~T
H.
152
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
This is followed by twelve bars of concluding orchestral symphony closely
modelled on those which perform the same function after the Alto solo in the
Magnificat :
Ex. 40. (continued.)
Mag.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
153
* 0 It
J- . Jy
rrr
H.
IP
Mag-.
Mag.
The reader will observe that, whereas in bars 3 and 4 on page 152 Handel
reaches five-part writing, he drops abruptly into three-part writing at the beginning
of bar 5 and continues in it to the end of the movement
154
A parallel drop from six-part to four-part writing occurs at the same place in
the Magnificat, the stave in which parts for two oboes are written-iu for the first
three bars becoming abruptly vacant at the beginning of the fourth bar, and
continuing so to the end of the symphony. Handel, however, does not silence his
oboes, but directs them to play in unison with the first violin during the rest of the
movement. In the Magnificat this symphony is also used as a prelude to the
Alto solo, but with this difference that independent oboe-parts are there written-in
throughout the ten bars of which it consists. The parts which Handel has
discarded are certainly less interesting than that of the first violin, which he
has improved and bidden the oboes to reinforce This will be seen from the
following Example :
Ex. ^.O. 'continued.
Mag1.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
155
Passing over the two airs " The enemy said " and " Thou didst blow," and the
double chorus " Who is like unto Thee," where there is r>o reason to suppose that
Handel was indebted to any previous sources, we reach the double chorus (No. 31)
" The earth swallowed them," which consists of 41 bare taken, as far as the voice
parts are concerned, all but note for note from the setting in the Magnificat of
" Sicut erat in principio " etc.
The false accentuation on ' The ' in bar 1
Ex. 41.
Handel.
Mag.
The earth : swa
- low'd : tli em
f
Si - cut e - rat in prin - ci - pi - o et nnnc et sem - per
might, even without access to the Magnificat, have raised a suspicion that the
setting here was not absolutely original.
The Alto and Tenor duet, " Thou in Thy mercy," is almost wholly based on a
composition for the same voices in the Magnificat set to the words " Esurientes
implevit bonis." Out of the 115 bars which this movement occupies in Israel,
only 26 appear to owe nothing to the Magnificat, and 17 more to contain a mixture
of independent and derived matter. But the improvement effected on the material
taken over, especially by supplying an interesting string accompaniment where the
Magnificat had only a bare figured bass, is very great.
The duet in the Magnificat not being provided with an instrumental symphony,
Handel has supplied one, the first half of which is made out of its opening vocal
subject, and the second half appears to have been scored independently, as will be
seen in the next Example :
nP i-f T
~rr «" i
]
3x
•
4
:2.
i— «
r
Violin I.
Handel.
(fa b tf ^^—
\
y=
a
^IH — H — —
y
— ^
(^ M _ i
Violin II.
U^-V-j |g =
E
=6
b ^
r i* •
Instr. Bas?
j fa Tenor.
r —
>i__ —
L * i j
N J »~, ? ,^i
Mag.
Instrumental
QJ p
+¥. — 'A 0.
s
i
/•i
; *
J-
_? ^. — pL_ P_ ?_•
J J J 1 1 ?^
Bass.
* ^ «! J J J1^-
156
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
~~fe^££^
tfr
n.
lfi£~T — T~ ~T~ 1
i I~~J — h~n
1 — 1 — — J rTI
- fes
j • j j
i/n - pie - vit
— i
*}• L **- 0—P- -&-
ft€> .
3. — tt"-
IT " i r i r
tfl 1
i
=jp |» y ±M=j
H.
Mag.
Instrumental Bass.
fry — — Nn
|AJ> J. — •> J. j-j
—.-. — -*~z J J , J
— i- — . — — . — —
_j
/• i
r
r rrr
0^-
H.
Mag.
^~
ISEAEL IN EGYPT
157
The duet then proceeds side by side in the two versions for many bars, as the
next Example will show. The first five bars from the Magnificat already quoted
are repeated here for convenience of comparison.
Ex. 42. (continued.)
Alto.
-f-^^-1-
1 J J J. J^H
— 1 1 ,
ffy " « 0 m
» • * V
«2
SSz 9 • J • J
fl «>
Handel.
Thou in Thy
mer
r~ "f~ • m 0 m ,
- cy
¥ r r f
fc\* Q \.
r (•
t
/• 1 •' "^ f
LJ ' r
S b 4 r r
^"**"— W ^"^ j
•^ " • T *
N
^ ^ Tenor.
1 I
V i «5 — ..
,- — s
i
(1 t> i! J J
-J-J-15 • F • ,
__^__ —
Mag.
p. 49.
(Transposed
a Tone
down.)
ViU Z * • « • " J J
tJ *
E - SM - ri -
4\* 1
"-tLS^
e?t ...
J 1 1 T-1 FiT-
- <cs
V* L I! o •
SS _P
!;r p v P
hast led forth Thy
**=
&
Mag.
"\
' 0 , — 1 — 1 — h — t-
— r 1 1
i — t- -i — \ fn
X U - - -d—
J i r""i
~g— ~T
I m 2 • • J
U • d I
Gt ' * * •
n^> • ^ w
r
t/n - ^)^e - mt
• * if
60 -
.
!
P 1^*>
-or^—
158
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
II.
re - deem
ed, which Thou
hast
ZS"~ r -V
§E^ E±E
'
P^5
Mag.
«r:r
O '
Tenor.
[rn '•' LjF P fl^
V •
— H — HP- ' f
re deem
ed.
Thou in Thy
6V
•L V
/• 1 Pi
> f
-X ^
f- r
•
V
Alto.
XL i? — P ^ bJ ii J . —
<» .
1 — I — r~~~\ f^ —
vii/ [ ' I* -^ iT 0 »
.
rai's.
1 1 1 H
E - s?6 rt
/*~i — — ^ —
1 i^~d — f —
-*^ r>
HJ * J
Mag.
ht'-h —
I
i
- en
UF= f p r 7-7- . .
*>
^i=-==i=i=
ww - ple-vit
^i^±=t^
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
159
Ma»
Mag.
Thou in Thy
160
hast led forth Thy peo - - pie which Thou
hast led forth Thy
z'wi - pie - vit
Ma*.
tes
J,
J. «N J
60
• r
hast
re - deem
- ed, Thy
Mag.
^bfesE^
m
<>
peo - pie
which Thou hast re - deem
_•/ fl - nt's, im - pie - vit : bo
Mag.
- nts,
vit
60
. J. J J J
S
TT
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
161
ed.
J J J
c r —
1 -
A ;*
- ed.
J
*v ^ -
no
-yZ—j, __
•
i* ^
-P
^ — r
'j>
3p
? i i
J
— J ?
-pa-
tj
•4s"
c* •
J^L ^L.
r
nt's.
. «~«rk
J^ — "J"
—
^3 —
gfc
> 0 =H
^ =Lf~T — 1
a
Mag.
Handel constructs the next five bars by repeating the last five, transposed a
Fifth higher, and with the voice-parts inverted :
Ex.42, (continued.)
which Thou hast re - deem ...
H.
*
H.
Last five bars
transposed.
Thy
. A
±-*rf-f
peo - pie
which Thou hast re -
ed.
H.
- deem
±_
§=
- ed.
iM
^r
162
ISRAEL IN EGYPT
After a short instrumental interlude, abridged from the opening symphony to
this duet, Handel leads off a section not taken from the Magnificat, beginning with
the beautiful phrase :
Ex.42, (continued. ]
Tenor.
Thou hast guid - ed them in Thy strength, in Thy strength
This he first works contrapuntally for the voices, and then modifies, while
ingeniously constructing an instrumental accompaniment for it out of the vocal
material of the duet, as shown in the following Example :
Alto
Violins.
Bass.
Ex. 42. (continued.*
Thou hast guid- ed them in Thy
p^
strength
A complete repetition of the introductory symphony terminates the duet.
The succeeding number (33) is the colossal double chorus, " The people shall
hear," probably the greatest of all Handel's polyphonic compositions, and certainly
one which both as respects construction and sublimity has been surpassed by
the choral masterpieces of J. S. Bach alone. Fortunately there is no ground for
doubting that it is a thoroughly spontaneous product of his genius. Dr. Chrysander
has, it is true, suggested that a morsel from Stradella's Serenata may have given
Handel the first germ of his wonderful setting of "shall melt away."1 The passages
in question open thus :
1 Sae the table of contents prefixed to his edition of the Serenata.
ISKAEL IN EGYPT
163
Ex.43.
r Q &
N
J 1 N
i — 1 -- •
' Jt ' — ff E
c «/ *
* J v ifJ
_j
CM} ^~*
r 2
' 1* —
Choir I.
\i i
ys&"
shall
melt a
i
way
b\* S
7 ^
\
— ^
J * \^J
f
f
Handel.
shall
'ft it
melt a -
way
X, {* v
_
> «/ ft J
* J V aj J
IjT) — — *~^ *
_^ — / — E
^ ^ff .
Choir IT.
shall
melt a - way
fc># tt v —
_J ?
2.
*
N
Instr. Ba
mi- che,
ss.
a -
shall melt
mi- che a pie - ta
Soprano.
(*& ff ij ftp —
r
h MH
i P - .
Stradella.
Serenata p. 21,
(Transposed
a Tone up.)
-U-f
Ne
Bass.
^-^
?m- che, ne
'A i
*> 4$e *
mi-che a pie - ta
? J. J ^
Bass.
5j£ 2 — £ —
E
Instr. Bass.
but the resemblance is evidently too slight to prove anything.
This terminates our survey of Israel in Egypt, as its remaining matter (Nos.
34-39) contains nothing relevant to our present inquiry, indeed mainly consists in
the repetition, with some additions, of the double chorus (No. 18) which, with
No. 17, opens Part IL of the oratorio.
CHAPTER VIII.
DISCUSSION OF THE QUESTION WHETHER HANBEL's MODE OF DEALING WITH
COMPOSITIONS BY OTHER MASTERS WAS MORALLY JUSTIFIABLE.
IN our survey of parallel passages contained in Chapters V. and VI. we saw by
numerous instances that Handel was in the habit of working up his own earlier
compositions into new forms. In this he was, indeed, only following the practice of
his time, even when, as we saw him doing in movements in the Messiah, he divorced
music which he had previously written to extremely secular words and reset it to
others of a strongly sacred character. It may interest my readers to see his great
contemporary, John Sebastian Bach, doing exactly the same thing in his Dramma
per Musica " The choice of Hercules " and his Christmas Oratorio. The former
work contains a song in which ' Pleasure ' lulls Hercules to sleep with the advice
to " follow the allurements of raging desire, revel in enjoyment and recognize no
bounds." The music to this reappears, substantially unaltered, as the celebrated
cradle-song in the Christmas Oratorio. Again, Hercules, in a vigorous aria, pro-
claims his refusal to listen to " abandoned Pleasure," and boasts that he has " long
since crushed and torn to pieces the serpents that sought to catch him in their
toils." Save for a few alterations, the music set to these denunciatory words is that
of the Alto song in the Christmas Oratorio calling on Zion to prepare herself to
receive with tender endearments the infant Messiah. Admirers of that song have
doubtless wondered, as I have, why in its second part a moving bass with an
undulating effect is introduced, though there is nothing in the praises of Zion's
beauty, which form the text, to suggest such treatment. Inspection of the next
Example will show that this accompaniment was, in the earlier form of the
composition, an imitation of snake-motion, which, by simple transference, has
come to occupy an inappropriate place in the Christmas Oratorio.1
Ex. 44.
Alto.
Christmas Oratorio: Dei-ne Wan - gen
Choice of Hercules: Denndie Schlan-gen
Instrl
Bass.
miis-sen heut' viel sclio - ner pran . gen
die mich woll . ten ivie - gend fan - g?n
etc.
Comparisons such as the above and those which we have already made between
settings by Handel of secular words and their employment in the Messiah* are at
1 My attention was first drawn to the connexion between the Christmas Oratorio and the Dramma
per Musica by that excellent Bach scholar, Mr. Donald Tovey. a Pages 36-46.
164
SACRED AND SECULAR TEXTS 165
first sight rather perturbing, but have their use in reminding us that music is not
in itself either ' sacred ' or ' secular.' It may, when set to sacred or secular words,
gather to itself their respective associations : it may be grave or light in character,
and so better fitted for the one destination than for the other. But, as religious
emotion does not differ in essence from secular emotion of a kindred sort, music,
however splendidly adapted for association with either, can express neither as
distinguished from the other. Such, however, is the strength of association, that at
the present day no leading composer would venture on transferences such as those
we have seen effected by Handel and Bach. Nor is the reason of this difference
far to seek, residing, as it does, in the vast extension of music-publishing since the
days of those great men.
To us, who are apt to consider that an injury is done us if we cannot buy a
pianoforte score of a great choral work for a shilling or two, it seems at first sight
incredible that, in spite of Handel's enormous popularity, only one of his composi-
tions of that class, Alexander's Feast, was published in a complete form during his
life-time, the oratorios having appeared only in selections with the choruses left
out.1 Of Bach's church cantatas, also, only one1 attained publication during his
life, and that, perhaps, less on account of its intrinsic merit than because it was
composed to celebrate an election of town-councillors.8 The rest of his compositions
of that class, and they numbered hundreds, remained in manuscript at his death.
Now the fact of publication or no publication would evidently greatly affect a
composer's attitude towards his works. If he had published a setting of a
particular text, his music had thereby entered into a union with it for better for
worse, a printed certificate of which was producible at any moment. But if the
setting had not been published, the composer occupied a freer position, and by
attaching his music to new texts might secure further hearings for it — assuredly a
legitimate object of ambition. We may thus explain, e.g., Bach's incorporation
in the Mass in B minor of materials already used in his church cantatas, and
Handel's manifold adaptations from his own older choral compositions in Israel in
Egypt and elsewhere. Even in the case of settings transferred from light secular
to decidedly religious texts, the fact of non-publication prevented any fixed associa-
tion growing up between music and words such as would make a fresh destination
given to the former appear incongruous or even lacking in reverence.
Enough has, I think, now been said on Handel's readaptations of his own old
materials, in which he followed what was the practice, and, as I have tried to show,
a not unreasonable practice, of his age. His appropriations from the works of
other composers, living and dead, went, on the contrary, both as to their character
and their extent, far beyond anything that has been established, or even asserted,
1 Chrysander's ' Life of Handel,' vol. II., pp. 428, 429. s " Oott ixt mein K&nig."
8 Sedley Taylor, ' Life of Bach : ' Cambridge, Macmillaii and Bowes, 1897, p. 25.
166 ZACHOW
in the case of any other composer of the first rank. They give rise to a problem of
remarkable interest and no small difficulty, viz., how it was that Handel, who is
recognised on all hands as having been a thoroughly honourable man, can have
thought himself at liberty to take such unprecedented liberties with the results of
other men's labours. But before entering on the discussion of this problem, let us
try to ascertain at what period of his career specimens of this method of procedure
first show themselves.
It is well known that Handel's only teacher in music was Zachau (or to adopt
the correct spelling, Zachow), the principal organist at Halle, under whose
instruction he remained from early boyhood until he was qualified to start as an
independent musician. As Zachow was a somewhat prolific composer, it seemed a
not unreasonable conjecture that when his works came to be published they would
prove to have been a further quarry of Handelian ideas. Their recent appearance
under the editorship of Dr. Max Seiffert1 has, however, failed to verify this fore-
cast. A few instances of parallel treatment and similarity of phrase present
themselves and have been pointed out by Dr. Seiffert, but none of thematic
appropriation such as Handel subsequently practised. Nor need this surprise us,
for Zachow's melodies were too dull and his harmonies too common-place to have
stirred the emancipated Handel to thoughts of appropriation. But, for all that,
Dr. Seiffert has ably shown ' that Zachow was a thoroughly equipped church
musician of a sound pre-Bachian type, who at the time when Handel was under his
charge was himself actively endeavouring to advance in his art, and is therefore
likely to have given the young genius exactly the kind of instruction best suited
for his future development. Handel is known to have always spoken of his one
and only teacher in music with the utmost respect, and through Dr. Seiffert's
exertions we know in some measure why he did so.
In 1703 Handel, then in his eighteenth year, went to Hamburg, where he
occupied, until 1706, a post as violinist and accompanist at the harpsichord in the
orchestra of the opera, at that time one of the first in Europa His contemporary
and associate, Matheson, has left us the following account of Handel's powers on
his arrival at Hamburg :
" He used at that time to compose very long, long Arias and almost endless
Cantatas, which yet had neither the right skill nor the right taste, though they
possessed a complete harmony, but the high school of opera soon fashioned him
into something quite different "
" He was strong on the organ : stronger than Kuhnau* in fugues and counter-
points, especially extempore, but he knew very little of melody before he had to do
1 Denkm&er deutscher Tonkurut, Bde 21, 22. 1905.
a In the preface to his edition of Zachow's works and more at large in an unpublished Paper
which he has very kindly allowed me to see in manuscript
8 J. S. Bach's immediate predecessor at the Leipzig Thomastchule.
REISER 167
with the Hamburg operas. . . . During the last [seventeenth] century, hardly
anybody thought of melody ; harmony was the one and only object aimed at." *
REINHA.RD KEISER (1673-1739), the director and leading composer of the Hamburg
opera during Handel's time there, is described by Chrysander8 as a man whose
morality was "equal to zero," and who was by no means remarkable for his
acquirements in technical musicianship, but endowed by nature with a seemingly
inexhaustible spring of beautiful ideas whence he poured out incessantly during
forty years a stream of some hundred-and-twenty operas. We must think, then, of
Handel as gathering, in this school, ideas concerning the formation of melody.
Dr. Max Seififert, in the preface to the edition of Reiser's opera Octavia which
forms No. 6 of the Handel ' Supplements,' * gives us the opportunity of observing
this process at closer quarters, as will be seen by the following passage which I
translate thence :
"Reiser had in the year 1704 begun to set " Almira" and finished some of it,
but then, in the rush and turmoil of operatic management, had let the work drop
and at last handed over the libretto by way of experiment to the young Handel,
whose setting met with so warm a reception by the Hamburgers that, between the
8th of January and the 25th of February, 1705, it was given 19 or 20 times
running. Handel strengthened the good impression which his first opera had made
by at once following it up with a second, " Nero." Its first performance took place
on Feb. 25, thus interrupting the long run of " Almira ; " and, as " Nero " also
made a success, Handel had the pleasure of hearing his own music performed
continuously until the beginning of Lent, during which theatrical performances
were forbidden. This success of the novice in opera caused the utmost annoyance
to Reiser, who forthwith set to work to compose the same dramatic materials
himself. In the following August he brought on the stage his " Octavia," which
displaced Handel's " Nero," and his " Almira " followed it later. Beside this Keiser
sent to press a selection of the most beautiful Arias and Eecitatives in his
" Almira " and " Octavia " with the purpose of challenging a comparison between
his compositions and those of Handel Handel took no notice of all
this, and, moreover, the opera-intrigues led at that time to an abrupt disappearance
of Reiser from Hamburg. Handel, too, quitted the town at the 'end of 1706 in
order to go to Italy ; but he retained Reiser's proceedings in his memory in order
on a fitting occasion to inflict an innocent requital for them.
" Among the German music which Handel took with him on his journey was a
manuscript score of Keiser's " Octavia." To study it seriously and work it up
exhaustively as a source for his own activity, was the form which his requital took.
Everything in the way of reminiscences of Keiser's melodies which we find in
Handel's Italian compositions points back to " Octavia." '
1 Quoted by Chrysander, ' Life of Handel,' vol. L, p. 85. 2 Ibidem, p. 80.
3 Leipzig, Handel Society, 1902.
168
HANDEL AND KEISER
Dr. Seiffert follows up these remarks by specifying ten phrases in " Octavia "
one or more of which reappear in operatic and other works of Handel belonging to
the years 1707, 1708, 1714 and 1715. The very popular opera Agrippina,
contains six of these phrases : one of them appears in three works, six occur in two
each and three in one each. I will set out four of these belonging to the years
1707 and 1708, as they supply materials for interesting comparisons showing
Handel thus early in his career employing, on a small scale, the same system which
he carried out, on so great an one, in later years.
Ex. 45.
From a setting of "Laudate pueri" (Rome, 1707.)
it. > ii
Soprano.
Handel.
Instrumental
Bass.
From an
Alto.
Reiser.
p.m.
(Transposed
a Tom; up.)
Strings.
/ ffff' '6 —
— • —
J
P P "f" f" 1*" (•
L\' jtiza
jl
•
1
P
/ ~jj <j
-• r}
I
-J— J 1
H L- 1
aria in Octavia.
f# *ti* §l
^r-
— • —
/yw ^T ^
\\V/ fll
y ^ .t
J-. i j JJ-]
^B H •* ,
> -«
i--
— J — J —
v* fflt ^
IP ~f (•
•^ "TT H
... ./•
— 1 ;
HANDEL AND KEISER
169
Ex.46.
Symphony to the song "DelV Iberia al soglio'.' (Rodrigo, Handel's first Italian
opera, Florence 1707)
Handel.
(Rodrigo.)
I II I I
Symphony to the song "Es streiten mit reizender Bliithe" (Outavia.)
Reiser,
p. 84.
Transposed
one Tone
down.
170
HANDEL AND REISER
r^ 0
•—••— *— -j
1,
ft. ^
Tfol?
I — J
S 9-
—
2 bars omitted.
•
I
2
i
9 —
r
Ex. 47.
From a song sung by 'Lucifer' in Handel's cantata "La Jlesurrezi&neMRome,
1708.)
_ i * A _
noei. Ib^jrrlr^d—
(Resur,
Bass of Symphony to the song "Costante og-nor." (Oc.tavia.)
(Octavia.)
p. Ii7.
(Transposed
a Tone down,) ^
HAJSTDEL AND KEISER
171
Ex. 48.
Symphony to the song "Vaghe Fonte" (Agrippina, 1708.)
/L b «-
jjj
J J J J*
rM z A
* * * <
! * *
v-u g
p p P •
• P P
r r r r
r j
Handel.
yl
qrippma.
^L V V ,
rT5
ZT3kj» •'
•|.| C
^ b 4
Symphony to the song "Rtihig
iL t> 2 r i i 1 -F
sein."
?3=
— £
,
r
B
Reiser. 1 gn 7 4 J J J J J
Octavia. IP- ••••*• •*• •*• •*•
P.i2. i r r r r i
(Transposedl
^
r
— ^ —
*
V «L V ,
rr?
EiE
-r — F-
r-
— -—
H.
Except for the obligations to Keiser which have been named above,1 nothing
appears to have been found to show that Handel in the long series of his Italian
1 See p. 168.
172 HANDEL'S PROCEDURE DELIBERATE
operas made any important use of extraneous sources. But the examples set out
in the present volume suffice to show that in the series of choral works composed
between 1737 and 1757 he drew on such sources pretty continuously. The
names of the works ill which we have seen him doing this stand as follows in
chronological order :
Trionfo del Tempo, 1737
Israel in Egypt, - .... 1738
Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, 1739
Samson, - - 1741
Dettingen Te Deum, - - .... 1743
Joshua, .... 1747
Theodora, - • 1749
Jephtha, - - - - 1761
Triumph of Time and Truth, 1757
In 1752 the disease in Handel's eyes began, which, after three couchings, left
him totally blind. This calamity fully accounts for the cessation of production
between Jephtha and the Triumph of Time and Truth, which latter was mainly
made up of older work and constituted his final effort.
That Handel appropriated consciously and deliberately would, I think, be clear
even if we possessed no other evidence than that supplied by comparison of
passages. The similarities are much too minute and extensive to be accounted for
either by fortuitous coincidence or by unconscious reminiscence. The former
explanation would demand a series of gigantic improbabilities, the latter a
combination of superhuman memory of music with inl'rahuman forgetfulness of
authorship. But the evidence supplied by the Fitzwilliam autographs removes any
shadow of doubt remaining on this point. They constitute what is in effect
Handel's common-place book into which he copied from works by other composers
passages ranging from short phrases to entire long movements, many of which he
subsequently incorporated, sometimes with much, sometimes with very slight,
alteration, in his autograph scores.
We must therefore, I think, conclude that Handel's procedure was deliberate
and thoroughly systematic. But before approaching the personal issues which this
conclusion opens, it is necessary to consider the question whether public opinion in
Handel's time regarded the unacknowledged appropriation of other men's musical
ideas in the light in which it would be regarded now. Fortunately for us a
correspondence which took place in 1731 and was published in the following year1
throws a most instructive light on this question.
1 " Letters from the Academy of Ancient Musick at London, to Sigr> Antonio Lotti of Venice :
with his Answers and Testimonies. London : Printed by Geo. James. MDCCXXXII."
I owe the perusal of this extremely rare pamphlet to the kindness of the Librarian of the Faculty
of Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, who most obligingly sent the volume containing it to the custody
of the University Library, Cambridge, for my benefit. Dr. Chrysander (Life of Handel, vol. II. pp.
293-297) and Victor Schcelcher (Life of Handel, pp. 149-155) have both quoted extracts from these
letters.
LOTTI AND BUONONCINI 173
On Feb. 5, 1731, Mr. Howley Bishop, Secretary of the Academy of Ancient
Music, addressed, by order of that body, a letter written both in English and Latin,
to Signor Lotti at Venice, in which, after a few introductory paragraphs describing
the scope and character of the Academy's work he came to the gist of his communi-
cation in the following terms : " One of our Members having received from Venice
a Book entitled Duetti, &c., and having look'd it over, pitch'd upon the XVIII.
Madrigal, the only one for five Voices, inscribed La Vita Caduca, beginning In
una Siepe, to be performed in the Academy. Signor Buononcini, who is also one
of our Members, and who three or four years before had presented us this very
Madrigal as his own, being inform'd of this, immediately sent a letter to the
Academy, in which having greatly complained of the Person who introduced it
among us under your Name, he accuses you as the Plagiary of his Works, and
affirms that he composed this Madrigal thirty years ago, exactly as it is printed in
your Book, at the command of the Emperor Leopold; and for the Proof of this
appeals to the archives of that Emperor."
After saying that he had also, by order of the Academy, applied for information
to " M. Fucks, Chappel-Master to the Emperor," Bishop added : " I don't therefore
in the least doubt but that you will have so much Regard for your own Fame and
Reputation among us, as to inform us as soon as possibly you can how this Matter
stands."
To this direct and characteristically British appeal Lotti replied in a French
letter dated Venice, March 29, 1731. After some courteous introductory remarks
about the Academy he continued :
" Touching the object of your letter I confess the truth to you, Sir, when I say
that I was extremely surprised to see myself accused of being the debtor of my own
property, and after twenty-six years that my book has been in the hands of the
public, to find myself obliged to prove that it belongs to me. If this had been
represented to me from any other quarter, I should have appealed to the public
notoriety of the fact and have intrenched myself in silence; but the esteem which
I owe to yourself, and to the illustrious body whom you represent, calls on me to
satisfy your request."
Lotti goes on to do this by saying that the Duetti, Terzetti, and Madrigals were
composed by him shortly before their publication and that there were professional
musicians and amateurs who had witnessed the progress of the disputed madrigal
and taken part, some as singers and some as hearers, when it was rehearsed from
the rough draft before being written out fair. Further that the words of it had
been specially written for and given to him by the Abbe" Periati, who was then at
Vienna, where the Madrigal was performed before the Emperor Leopold.
After mentioning these and a few more evidences of his authorship, Lotti begs
the Secretary to be on his guard " lest, in order to do a bad turn to M. Buononcini,
some one had falsely attributed to him the letter written in his name to the
174 LOTTI AND BUONONCINI
Academy, because it is incredible that, learned musician as he is, he should have
been willing, out of light-heartedness, to adopt my defects as his own."
The next move was a communication dated April 14, 1731, from the Secretary
addressed by order of the Academy to Signor Buononcini, enclosing copies of the
letters to and from Signor Lotti. " The Academy," he wrote, " thought themselves
obliged in Justice to acquaint you with what he says in Support of his own Claim
and in opposition to yours. I have therefore omitted a Post in returning him an
Answer, that I might have an opportunity of receiving your Commands in relation
to any thing you shall think proper for me to say in my Eeply. I shall wait till
the middle of next Week in Expectation of the Favour of a Letter from you. . ."
The non-result of this application is shown in a second letter to Signor Lotti
dated June 5, 1731, which had been delayed by a prolonged illness of the Secretary.
It begins by informing him that the Academy unanimously agreed that the
Madrigal was his, and continues thus :
" I also (which we thought just) wrote a letter to Signor Buononcini, which
was delivered into his own Hands, in which I sent him copies of both our letters,
and told him I would wait a Week before I wrote to you again, that he might, if
he should think proper, have an opportunity of replying. But I waited a Fortnight
to no Purpose. I then sent a second Letter by the Keeper of our Library, and
Signor Buononcini not being at home two or three times, I order'd it to be left
with his Servant ; but this also, which I am surprised at, was denied : For the
Servant said he had Orders to receive no Letters but what came by the Post.
Thus stands the affair with Signor Buononcini. Yet notwithstanding this, some
Persons who pretend to be his Friends, and who have separated from the Academy
on this very Account, as it appears since no other is pretended, obstinately assert
the Madrigal to be his, still appeal to the Archives of the Emperor, and accuse you
of Theft, and the Academy of Slander through the whole Town. No answer from
M. Fuchs has yet come to my Hands, from what Cause or by what Accident, if he
be still alive, I can't so much as guess. The Academy, after hearing your Letter
were willing to have prosecuted this Affair no farther, but they think it is your
Interest as well as theirs, that these Calumnies should be answered. They intreat
therefore, Sir, that entirely to refute these ill-minded Persons, you would be
pleased to send us some Certificates of the Count de Par, Abbot (sic) Periati, or
some others who saw the Madrigal at Venice before it was published."
The letter ends with a request to Signor Lotti that he would allow his name to
be entered on the list of Members of the Academy. Lotti's reply — this time
written in Italian — is so very charming that, though it is rather long, I cannot
resist reproducing it almost in full.
" I have received, Illustrious Sir, your most gracious letter of June 5 and, much
as the news of your ill health grieved me, so on the other hand was I equally
consoled by that of its complete re-establishment I thank you, the whole
175
Academy and the worthy Members who compose it, for the justice they do me,
and may God grant, since they agree as to the Author of the Madrigal, that they
may also be able to agree in their approval of the work itself. I hear how Partisans
of Sign. Buononcini are out of temper with the Academy and with me, and I could
wish I possessed the art of that lost Music which excited and calmed the Passions.
I think too that they little consult the glory of their Friend, because, by with-
drawing themselves on this account from the Academy they exhibit a degree of
anger which would be just had an only Son1 been concerned, but is after all
excessive for a Madrigal, when Sign. Buononcini can make similar madrigals and
better ones too. At Venice, on the contrary, and at Vienna, all is quiet, indeed my
friends joke with me about a composition of mine having been set up in the arena
as if it had been the Golden apple the possession of which was to be contended for.
As for the certificates asked of me, I verily should have thought I stood in no need
of this remedy, as I am in good health ; but I ought to submit myself to the
opinion and command of the Academy ; I therefore enclose some papers from
Vienna and from Venice, sufficient even for any one who hates the Truth. I
consigned to Mr. Smith,* three months ago, in accordance with your command and
with the courage which it gave me, some of my musical things, which shall be
followed by others, and among these you will find a Madrigal for 5 voices, which I
composed at Dresden, during the time that I was in the service of that Court, and
you will recognize that it is Grist from the same Mill. I know not whether this
will have the fate of being attributed to any one else ; in which case I shall equally
console myself, with the reflection that my parts are not judged so indifferent
when they meet with people who wish to adopt them as their own. But let us
make an end, Illustrious Sir, of this ridiculous business which was not set going by
us, into which I entered for obedience' sake, and from which, as I do not fear shame,
so I claim no glory. Let us pass on to better things. A more laudable, a more
profitable, a more grateful, study the Academy could not set before itself and as
far as my forces will permit, they will always have in me an admirer and a disciple
of the sublime models which Antiquity has left us, among which it will be extremely
agreeable and instructive to me to be able to see the works of old English
composers which you offer me with so much courtesy."
The rest of the letter contains only expressions of gratitude towards the
Academy. The accompanying certificates consist of affidavits made by leading
1 An amusing blunder in the version of this sentence given in Schcelcher*s ' Life of Handel, »
p. 153, makes Lotti write that Buononcini's partisans showed a resentment which might be just were
the dispute about "an air only," but was excessive for a madrigal. Lotti's words are " tm Figlio
unico," which Schcelcher, who wrote in French, would of course translate " un jtts unique" and his
English translator may have rendered " an only heir. " It needed but the thoughtless attentions of
some proof-reader to " correct " this into " an air only " and thereby reduce Lotti's sensible remark
to sheer nonsense. 2 British Consul at Venice.
176 LOTTI AND BUONONCINI
musicians at Venice and Vienna : they constitute overwhelming proof of Lotti's
claim to be the composer of the Madrigal.
The correspondence ends with an undated letter addressed to Signer Lotti
by the Directors of the Academy in person, the Secretary being disabled by
illness from discharging his official functions. After some preliminary matter they
write :
" The testimonies, dear Sir, you transmitted to us, have had their due Weight
with us, and abundantly confirm us in the good Opinion we had before conceived
of you. It can be no disagreeable News to you to hear that we have sent them,
together with the several letters that have passed between us, to be printed.
This Procedure will serve eternally to convince you of our good and sincere
Intentions towards you ; and at the same time confound those who have taken
upon them to arraign our conduct throughout this affair. We will take care you
shall have some of the printed copies by the first opportunity. By the ship called
the Ruby, you will receive from us two Pieces of Musick, the Work of two English
Masters, Tho. Tallis and William Bird, the latter organist and composer to
Henry VIII., the former Master of the Koyal Chapel in the Reign of the same
King. When you cast your Eye upon those Pieces, you will clearly perceive that
true and solid Musick is not in its Infancy with us, and that, whatever some on
your Side of the Alps may imagine to the contrary, the Muses have of old time
taken up their abode in England."
The letter is signed
John Pelling, S.T.P.
Hen. Needier, PhUomus.
Directors of the
Academy
Humphry Wyrley, PhUomus.
J. C. Pepusch, Doctor of Musick.
Bernard Gates, Master of the children of his Majesty's chappel.
J. Freeman, orae of the Gentlemen of his Majesty's chappel.
This correspondence shows conclusively that plagiarism was regarded by
educated musicians in the eighteenth century exactly as it is regarded by them in
the twentieth. A charge of being a " Plagiary " is what no man who has " regard
for his own fame and reputation" can afford to leave unrebutted. To impute
plagiarism is to impute " theft," and the imputation, if untrue, is " slander " and
" calumny." And that public opinion viewed the matter in the same light is shown
by the fact that when, through the publication of the correspondence, the conduct
of Buononcini had become generally known, his adherents withdrew their support,
his principal patrons, the Marlborough family, severed their connexion with him,
and he finally found himself practically obliged to leave the country.1
The same correspondence affords firm ground from which to approach another
1 Article in Grove's Dictionary, 2nd edition.
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM? 177
question which now presents itself: — Was the fact of Handel's indebtedness to
other composers, living and dead, at all generally known during his life-time ? If
so, it is hardly conceivable that the powerful paity known to have been so furiously
and relentlessly hostile to Handel should have one and all abstained from using
against him the weapon — a charge of plagiarism — to be convicted of which had
proved so ruinous to his former rival, Buononcini. That such a charge was not
made by them appears certain from the silence of subsequent historians about it,
and from the claim to absolute originality which they put forth, as we have seen,1
on Handel's behalf.
But it may be maintained that the term f plagiarism ' is totally inapplicable to
Handel's appropriation.^ which had so immensely improved and glorified the
appropriated material that, even supposing them to have been contemporaneously
notorious, no charge of plagiarism could with any hope of success have been
brought against him. This view, which was that of Dr, Chrysander,2 has been
stated in the following terms by Dr. Max Seiffert ; 3
"During Handel's lifetime he had opponents and enviers enough: all their
machinations, however, produced but a passing effect — Handel always got the upper
hand again with new deeds and works, compelling admiration by his art. His
treatment of the works of other Masters could not at that time remain unnoticed :
the works were for the most part accessible in print and played a part in musical
life. There were also enough connoisseurs who could have raised effective protest
against the illegitimate use of other people's property, and have branded as such
Handel's dishonourable proceeding. Nothing of the kind happened. Surely the
only conclusion to be drawn from this fact is that Handel's contemporaries found
nothing to blame in his procedure."
Expanding a hint given by Heinichen on the subject of musical plagiarism in
general,4 Seiffert lays down as follows the conditions the presence of which renders
that term inapplicable :
" Before one can speak of a plagiarism, it ?'s necessary to examine whether the
foreign ideas in their original connexion are literally taken over, or whether they are
differently combined or submitted to fresh harmonic treatment, melodic develop-
ment and contrapuntal interweaving. In thj latter case the independence of the
composer counts as assured. This exactly hits Handel's case."
On this argumentation I have two criticisms to offer :
1. While some among the works of which Handel made free use, e.g. Muffat's
1 See Introduction, pp. ix, x.
2 " While Handel took possession quite notoriously (qffenkundiy) of so much extraneous material,
without any one daring to call him to account, his rival [Buononcini] has, curiously enough, to serve
as the means of making us rt •.•"gui/e the difference between thievish and legitimate transference."
Life of Handel. Vol 11 p. 302. 3 Kirchenmubikalisches Jahrlmch, 1903. p. 93.
4 "7e/j -wc/t-i in farglt.vr.hen JJui'us eiwas in der Arte Combinatorial,.'" Heinichen : ' Der (Jeneralbasy
infer <:v m fwit ton.' Dresden I72S i>, 33, quoted by Seiffort,
178 HANDEL AND LOTTI
Componimenti, were accessible in print in his time, Dr. Seiffert goes, I think, a
little beyond what the facts warrant in saying that this was the case with these
works " for the most part." Several of those from which Handel borrowed most
largely, composed by Stradella, Urio, Graun and Habermanu, were certainly not in
print at that time. But even if they had been, this would not have necessarily led
to a general knowledge of Handel's appropriations, for lack of the other term of
the comparison, as his choruses, to which he transferred most of the borrowed
materials, were, with the single exception named above,] not published during his
life-time. To detect and hunt down to some extraneous source a passage which
one had only heard in performance, and could not consult a score of, would involve
an effort possible only to exceptionally tenacious memories. These considerations
go far towards explaining how Handel's methods may have remained unsuspected
by his contemporaries.
2. That there is often the greatest originality in the forms into which borrowed
materials were worked up by Handel is indisputable, and has been amply proved
in the present volume. But that infuriated opponents would have been withheld
by such refined distinctions as those laid down by Seiffert from charging Handel
with plagiarism, had they been acquainted with such transferences as those from
Stradella and Kerl in Israel in Egypt, or from Graun in The Triumph of Time
and Truth — to mention only these — appears to me incredible. So far, therefore, as
the- evidence before us goes, it points, I think, to the conclusion that, if no contem-
porary voice was raised against Handel's annexations, this was because they were
not publicly recognised as such during his life-time.
Be this as it may, however, thus much is indisputable — that Handel, though
he apparently never acknowledged his sources, was yet far from acting as if he
thought he had anything to fear from their detection and exposure. He laid under
contribution works by distinguished contemporaries as freely as those of forgotten
predecessors. Thus we have seen him inserting, in operas of 1707 and 1708,
phrases taken from Keiser's Octavia composed in 1705. From his contemporaries
Muffat, Haberniann and Graun, who all outlived him, he borrowed very deliber-
ately. The retribution which fell on his old rival Buononcini, in 1732,2 can have
had no terrors for Handel, who, only five years later, incorporated in his Trionfc
del Tempo (1737) two entire choruses taken almost unchanged from a work by
Graun. In the English Triumph of Time and Truth (1757), which was his last
work, he not only repeated one of these choruses, but proceeded to appropriate,
though with additions and manifest improvements, a chorus from a mass by
Antonio Lotti ( + 1740), the very man from whom Buononcini, with results so
disastrous to himself, had sought to filch the credit due for the composition of the
madrigal "In una siepe ombrosa" ! This final act of annexation, to which notice
1 See p. 165. a geo p 176
HANDEL AND LOTTI
179
has not hitherto, as far as I am aware, been publicly called, was recognised by
Dr. Crotch (+1847) with the aid of Latrobe's 'Selection of Sacred Music,' which
contains a " Qui Tollis from a Mass by Antonio Lotti." In some manuscript notes
by Crotch in a copy of the Triumph of Time and Truth belonging to the British
Museum he has written against a passage in the chorus " Comfort them, 0 Lord "
the words " This passage all from Lotti — in Latrobe No. 16." Mr. Barclay Squire
very kindly drew my attention to these notes by Crotch,1 and my friend Mr. A. M.
Hind was good enough to copy for me the extract from Latrobe1 which is set out in
the following comparison. The accompaniment described by Latrobe as for the
cembalo [i'.e. harpsichord] is no doubt arranged from an orchestral accompaniment
in Lotti's mass, the original form of which I have not seen.
Ex. 49.
Chorus from "The Triumph of Time and Truth*'
Handel.
Comfort them,0h
Lord,
S N
when they are
*m
fe
sick,
?
when they are
sick!
H.
X. -
\tj— n
lift 5) —
LJ j J
a J •
rt^J 4-
Com-fort them
-H — F-
Make Thou their
ff r
bed,
when they are
V
sick, i
ha44f p-
|
nake Thou their
tt» J J
**)' \
•y^- — • — -0 &
•§ —
»i
IB
— •• —
IB
v \> r
w ! k.
I
Lotti.
-F S— — &^
m
- re, mi - se -
n
»t? - se-re.'re
1 Another entry in these notes shows that Crotch had anticipated Mr. Lunn in recognizmg the
identity of the chorus " To dust his glory " in The Triumph of Time and Truth with that published
as Grauii's by Latrobe. Sea above pp. 31, 32. a Vol. II. p. 62.
180
HANDEL AND LOTTI
bed
Comfort them, make Thou their
bed.
i=
A
Accompaniment,
string1 parts only.
-S—K--
w
y^cu
v / *
«
1 ^ 1 >
J. ± ±' ^
i
Cembalo.
b«/b*/ ^=9
w~^ ^
P
*5f
A
^
/ k
HANDEL AND LOTTT
181
Voices.
H.
Acct
when
they
J
sick,
mi - - se -
J- J
L.
182
HANDEL AND LOTTI
J »J J , J
make Thou their
bed
sick -
m
ness!
H.
&
i F i * i w
m
se - re - re
- bis
r , r^J££
-fV-j^:
-^ 7 JJ^
i.\.
•
It will be observed here how Handel from his fifteenth bar onwards improves
the effect by putting the treble of Lotti's accompaniment into the mouths of his
own sopranos.
183
In trying to form an idea what was Handel's object in adopting the procedure
which he carried out so extensively and systematically, we shall do well to begin
by examining the views which have been put forth on this subject by Dr.
Chrysander, He sets out by asking somewhat indignantly, in reference to a remark
made by Schcelcher, an earlier biographer of Handel, whether "anything more
disgraceful can be attributed to a composer than that he seeks to enrich himself
illegitimately at the cost of his fellows ? " and continues : " If the treatment of the
whole question had started with an examination of how Handel made use of the
Magnificat for Israel and Susanna, it would indeed have been shown, independently
of all external proofs, that he did not compose the work, but his relation to it would
also have appeared in a quite different aspect. In the course of this transformation
things come to light which are completely new and so overwhelming that an
observer finds it difficult to preserve the requisite balance during the investigation.
What he retained note-for-note, and what in unexpected fashion he created entirely
new, all has become his own. How great Handel is and what a commanding
position he occupies towards other musicians becomes thoroughly palpable only
through work of this kind. If sufficient insight has been gained into the relation
here set before us the idea of robbery cannot present itself, and not less certain is
it that it was not arrogance which drove him to such rearrangement. It was the
impulse of his artistic nature to save from perishing musical ideas which he saw
lying half-developed or in an environment foreign to them. That he instantly
recognized where they belonged to and saw them in complete form and full of
dignified potentialities — this is the unintelligible part of the business. Here his
mind worked like a force of Nature which far outstrips all calculating investi-
gation." 1
Elsewhere Chrysander, in speaking of the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, more than
half of which contains elements derived from Muffat's harpsichord music, says :
" That everything has become Handelized down to its subtlest characteristics, no
unbiassed judge can for a moment fail to recognize. But it is equally indubitable
that Handel's music has gained much in value in all directions by the insertion of
melodious matter due to others. This practice of employing as models and
material existing pieces of his own or others, was in him not an affair of accident
but of principle, and pervades all his writings." 8
In our study of Israel in Egypt we saw decisive proofs that Handel possessed
a quite astonishing power of seizing on older music, his own or that of others,
raising it to a far higher level, and transfusing it with a nobler life. Where he did
this, it is not too much to say, with Chrysander, that the material taken over
" became his own " in the sense which I understand to be here intended, viz. that
1 Cbryaander : Life of Handel, vol. I, p. 176.
J Chrysander. Preface to edition of Muffat's Componimenti, p. IV.
184 DE. CHRYSANDER'S VIEW
what Handel added was of an incomparably higher order than what he took. But this
only applies to instances where he is felt to be working with strokes of genius, or,
to use Chrysander's happy phrase " like a force of Nature." In so ' inspired ' a work
as Israel there are, indeed, many such great moments, but also considerable tracts
where the alterations effected do not go beyond what might be expected from a
first rate teacher of composition correcting, and improving on, work by a talented
pupil. In these the " melodious matter due to others " by the insertion of which
Handel's music "gained much in value" may not unfairly rank equally with the
greater man's contribution or, if the alterations have been insignificant, may even
claim the first place. In the case of practically note-for-note transference of entire
movements such as the two choruses by Graun and the canzona by Kerl, it appears
to me impossible to claim that they have by this sJmple process " become Handel's
own."
That, as a matter of fact, Handel gave a new lease of life to musical ideas, his
own or others', which if left in their original forms would have been no more heard
of, is of course indisputable. But Dr. Chrysander, as we have just seen, while
recognizing that " his music has gained much in value by the insertion of melodious
matter due to others " asserts that Handel was led to his practice of working up
pre-existing material by " the impulse of his artistic nature to save from perishing
musical ideas which he saw lying half -developed or in an environment foreign to
them."
This is an hypothesis which one would be very glad to believe true. Dealing,
however, as it does, with the 'motives of a man dead nearly a century-and-a-half ago
from whom no utterance about them has been handed down to us or even asserted
to have been made to any of his contemporaries, it is evidently susceptible neither
of proof nor of disproof. A probable judgment on it could only be reached by
examining in what proportions Handel's rearrangements of material show develop-
ment and improved environment, or appear merely to have been made for the
temporary convenience of a composer who was also an impressario carrying on a
campaign which involved the constant production of ' novelties.' The examination
would be an interminable one and all the materials required for making it have
probably even yet not been collected. That its result would bear out the sweeping
assertions of Dr. Chrysander I hesitate to believe.
Quite apart from what may have been Handel's motives, his action raises a
question of morals which must be considered here. The nature of that question
has been stated and discussed very clearly and suggestively by the Eight Hon.
A. J. Balfour, M.P,, in the following passage extracted fiom his extremely able
and interesting essay on Uaudel:1
" But, it will be said, the question of morality still remains. It cannot be right
1 Essays and Addressei , 2nd edition. Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1893.
MR. A. J. BALFOUR'S VIEW 185
for a great writer to appropriate the work of a small one, and at the same time
wrong for a small one to appropriate the work of a great one. Bare justice requires
that a common rule should apply to both.
" I will not venture on a full discussion of the casuistical problem thus raised.
An interesting chapter remains to be written 011 the history of " private property in
thought." When this is accomplished, it will become clear, I believe, that while,
at the revival of learning and before it, Iho UP. writ ten code regulating such matters
was so lax that it was by no means considered necessary to acknowledge even
direct quotations, the monopoly has become stricter and stricter down to our own
time. And it will also be found that some of the greatest and most original
geniuses — Shakespeare, for instance, and Moliere — have distinguished themselves
by the readiness with which they have made use of other men's inventions.
Among such is Handel : and with regard to him, and before finally dismissing this
topic, I will only make two further observations
" The first is, that he does not himself seem to have regarded it as a thing to be
ashamed of. Among the most astonishing feats of appropriation which are laid to
his charge is the wholesale transference of large fragments of a " Magnificat " by an
obscure musician of the name of Erba, to the score of " Israel in Egypt." Now,
one of the only two copies of this " Magnificat " known to exist is in Handel's
handwriting, and is preserved among his manuscripts at Buckingham Palace. But
what is the history of these manuscripts ? They are by no means casual chips
from his musical workshop, scraped together from holes and corners, and arranged
for the first time after his death. On the contrary, Handel himself, always
sedulous of his fame, set the greatest store by them. He intended leaving them to
his amanuensis, the elder Smith. He quarrelled with Smith, and then proposed to
leave them to the University of Oxford. He and Smith afterwards became
reconciled, and he reverted to his original intentions. If, therefore, we are to
believe that in employing Erba's materials he was committing what he considered,
or what, in his opinion, others might consider, a breach of morality, we must
suppose him to be guilty of the extraordinary folly of leaving the evidence of his
misdemeanour in a convenient and carefully-preserved shape among the papers on
which he relied for the honourable perpetuation of his memory. And we must
further suppose that he could venture to quarrel with a man so intimately
acquainted with all the secrets, and according to the hypothesis the discreditable
secrets, of his method, as was Smith ; and that with the fate of Buononcini before
his eyes, in a country which possessed its share of learned musicians,1 and where
1 " Among UIQ most learned of whom was Dr. Pepusch, whom Handel had ousted at Cannons,
and who had compiled the " Beggars' Opera " which ruined Handel's operatic speculations." [Note
by Mr. Balfour.] Additional force ia given to this argument by the fact that Pepusch was, aa we saw
above (p. 176), one of the Directors of the Academy of Ancient Music pertonally active in bringing
about the publio exposure of Buononcini.
186 MR A. J. BALFOUR'S VIEW
Handel possessed more than his share of open enemies and jealous friends, he was
prepared to risk reputation and livelihood at once in order to save himself a few
hours' extra exertion,
" My second observation is this. If the main objection to robbery consists in
the fact that the victim of the robbery is injured by it, Handel's appropriation of
the music of his predecessors would seem to be innocent, if not meritorious. So
far from their being injured by it in the quarter in which injury was alone possible,
namely, their reputation, it is not too much to say that their whole reputation is
entirely founded on it. Who would take the slighest interest in Urio if Handel had
not condescended to use his " Te Deurn " in " Saul " and the " Dettingen ? " Who
would ever have heard of Erba if Handel had not immortalised him by introducing
parts of his " Magnificat " into " Israel ? " The fact is that Handel has not cheated
them out of their due meed of fame, he has cheated them into it. And I apprehend
that if this were made a preliminary condition of all literary or artistic pilfering,
the art of plagiarism would not in all probability be extensively practised or grossly
abused." (pp. 152-156.)
A comparison between Shakespeare, Moliere and Handel in regard to their use
of sources might doubtless lead to interesting results, and the similarity between
them as being all three connected with theatres, for which they had to produce
under pressure, of itself invites sucli a comparison. Its result could not, however,
supply evidence bearing on our present enquiry comparable in importance with
that afforded us by the Buononcini affair as showing that in the time of Handel
plagiarism in music was regarded just as it is now. The first Copyright Act (8 Anne,
cap. 19), passed in 1709, under which proceedings were also taken in defence of
musical property,1 shows, too, that a stricter view of literary ownership had by that
time found utterance in legislation.
Mr. Balfour argues that Handel, if conscious of having used a Magnificat by
Erba in a way which, once detected, was likely to ruin hoth himself and his reputa-
tion, would never have included his own autograph copy of that work among the
collection of volumes which, bequeathed to his amanuensis, the elder Smith, are now
in the Library of Buckingham Palace.
The case which Mr. Balfour makes out is undoubtedly strong, but is subject, I
think, to certain deductions. As Handel's autograph of the Magnificat bore no
composer's name, it was only likely to be used against his authorship if and when
independent external evidence was forthcoming to show that the work was the
composition of another. Then, no doubt, Handel's autograph might play an
important part in settling the question of priority, but equally possibly a non-
Handelian authorship might be completely established without its aid. The risk
1 Encyclopaedia Britannic* : article 'Copyright.'
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS 187
of retaining the autograph in Handel's collection is somewhat reduced by these
considerations.1
Mr. Balfour lias limited his argument to the single case of the disputed
Magnificat, but it is equally applicable to the survival among the Fitzwilliam
autographs of many passages copied by Handel from the works of Continental
composers and afterwards incorporated in his own. That he did not destroy these
copies may indeed be accepted as showing that he considered himself to have
committed no breach of morality towards the composers concerned. But that he
considered other people likely to take the same view of these appropriations —
notably of the two long ones from Graun, which go to the very verge of the
Buononcini procedure — this I am unable to join Mr. Balfour in believing.
The point so forcibly put about the benefits which Handel conferred on the
reputations of his predecessors by appropriating their music, loses some of its force
if we remember that these appropriations were invariably made without acknow-
ledgment, jusi as in Handel's Fitzwilliam extracts the name of the composer copied
from is in no single instance recorded. How then can the reputation of a
predecessor be said to have gained by the credit due to him for something he
had written having been absorbed by Handel ? No doubt, now that the fact
and sources of these appropriations have become known, an historical interest is
taken in composers like Urio and Habermann which is wholly due to the use made
by Handel of music written by them. But this interest is restricted within the
narrow circle which concerns itself with musical history, where these composers'
reputations will be measured by the intrinsic value of their works, not by the fact
that Handel saw fit to make use of them. To the bulk of the music-loving world
the very names of Stradella, Clari, Muffat and the rest are unknown and likely to
remain so.
If, however, it be asked what has been the effect of Handel's action, not on the
reputations but on the musical ideas, of the composers from whose works he
borrowed, the answer given must be a very different one. Even when he merely took
over matter substantially unchanged, he first gave it a fresh hearing under, in most
cases, greatly improved conditions of performance, and then, by leaving it embodied
in his own scores, bequeathed to it further opportunities of being heard. But in
the much more numerous instances where he subjected what he had borrowed to a
process of reconstruction, he was able to breathe a new life into it and, by working
it up into one or other of his most inspired efforts, seems to have even secured —
as far as this is humanly attainable — that it should be " had in everlasting remem-
brance."
That the musical world is the richer for the way in which Handel used
1 This remark is of course made on the assumption that Erba composed the Miujnijical, winch is
the view here taken for granted by Mr. Balfour.
188 CONCLUSION
thematic materials due to his predecessors and his contemporaries can hardly be
doubted, Surely, however, he could equally well have conferred that boon if he
had openly acknowledged his obligations to other composers. But, as matters
stand, the fact remains that he accepted, indeed practically claimed, merit for what
he must have known was not his own work. That this was wrong can, it appears
to me, be denied by those only who are prepared to estimate the morality of an act
according to the amount of genius shown in performing it.
APPENDIX.
LIST OF WORKS BY HANDEL QUOTED FROM IN THIS VOLUME
LIST OF COMPOSERS, INSTANCES OF THE USE OF WHOSE WORKS
BY HANDEL ARE QUOTED IN THIS VOLUME
LIST OF EXAMPLES
APPENDIX 191
LIST OF WORKS BY HANDEL QUOTED FROM
IN THIS VOLUME.
EXAMPLES PACK
Agrippina ........ 48
Alexander's Feast ....... 20
Chandos Anthem ....... 33
Dettingen Te Deum 37 121
Dixit Dominus ....... 32
Giustino 18, 19
Israel in Egypt ....... 2G — 43
Italian duets 21—25
Jephtha 10—16
Joshua 8
Laudate pueri ....... 45
Messiah 21—25
Ode for St Cecilia's Day ..... 5, 6
Organ-fugues . . . . . . . . 26, 29
Resurrezione 47
Rodrigo ......... 46
Samson ......... 9
Theodora 7, 17
Triumph of Time and Truth 49
192 APPENDIX
LIST OF COMPOSERS, INSTANCES OF THE USE OF
WHOSE WORKS BY HANDEL ARE QUOTED IN
THIS VOLUME.
EXAMPLES
Clari 17
Graun 18 — 20
Habermann . 10 16
Keiser ... 45—48
Kerl 31
Lotti .......... 49
Muffat i_9
Stradella 27, 28, 30, 34 [43?]
Urio .... 37
APPENDIX 193
LIST OF EXAMPLES.
EXAMPLE PAGES
1. Handel, autograph extract from Muffat, Prelude ..... 2
2. ,, ,, ,, Allemande .... 3
3. Same continued ........... 4
4. Handel, autograph extract from Muffat, Ouverture .... 5
5. Handel, Recitative in Ode for St Cecilia's Day — Muffat, Adagio . . 6 — 8
6. Handel, instrumental movements in same — Muffat, Fantaisie . . 8, 9
7. Handel, Trio in overture to Theodora — Muffat, Trio .... 10—12
8. Handel, March in Joshua — Muffat, Rigaudon . . . . . 12, 13
9. Handel, Allegro in overture to Samson — Muffat, Fantaisie ... 14
10. Handel, Chorus "No more to Ammon's god" (Jephtha) — Habermann,
Chorus 15—19
11. Handel, Symphony to song "His mighty arm" (Jephtha) — Habermann,
Prelude 20, 21
12. Handel, Chorus "O God, behold" (Jephlha) — Habermann, Chorus "Qui
tollis" 21, 22
13. Handel, Chorus "Theme sublime" (Jephtha) — Habermann, Chorus
" Osanna " with Handel autograph copy ...... 23
14. Handel, Chorus " Chemosh no more" (Jephtha) — Habermann, Chorus
"Cum sancto" with Handel autograph copy ..... 23, 24
15. Handel, Symphony to song "Hide thou" (Jephtha) — Habermann, prelude 24, 25
16. Handel, Symphony to song "Pour forth no more" (Jephtha) — Habermann,
prelude 25—27
17. Handel, Chorus "Come mighty Father" (Theodora)— Clari, duet . . 29, 30
18. Handel, Symphony to song " Nacque al bosco" (Giustino) — Graun, prelude
with Handel autograph copy ........
19. Handel, Symphony to song " DalV occaso" (Giustino) — Graun, pi-elude
with Handel autograph copy ........
20. Handel, fugue-subject (Alexander's Feast) — Graun, fugue-subject with
Handel autograph copy .........
21. Handel, (Messiah) Chorus "And He shall purify" — Italian duets, "L' oc-
caso ha" .
22. Handel, (Messiah) Chorus "For unto us" — Italian duets "No, di voi" 38—40
23. Handel, (Messiah) Chorus "His yoke is easy "—Italian duets "Quelfior" 41, 42
24. Handel, (Messiah) Chorus "All we like sheep" — Italian duets " So per
prova" ............ 42 — 44
25. Handel, (Messiah) Duet "O death" and Chorus "But thanks" — Italian
duets " Se tu non lasci "......-... 45, 46
194 APPENDIX
KXAMl'LK PAGES
26. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus "They loathed to drink" — Handel,
Organ-fugue ........... 48 — 52
27. Handel, (Israel in Egypt) Chorus "He spake the word" — Stradella,
Serenata ........... 54 — 67
28. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus "He gave them hailstones "-
Stradella, Serenata ......... 69 — 71
29. Handel, (Israel in Egypt) Chorus "He smote all the first-born "-
Handel, Organ-fugue ......... 72, 73
30. Handel, (Israel in Egypt) Chorus "But as for His people"— Stradella,
Serenata ........... 73 — 75
31. Handel, (Israel in Egypt) Chorus "Egypt was glad" — Kerl, Canzona . 76 — 81
32. Handel, (Israel in Egypt) Chorus "He led them "—Handel, Psalm ex . 82—84
33. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus " But the waters " — Handel, Chandos
Anthem . 84—86
34. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus "And believed the Lord" —
Stradella, Serenata ......... 87 — 89
35. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Duet "The Lord is my strength"
Magnificat, Duet .......... 93 — 113
36. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus "He is my God" — Magnificat, Chorus 114 — 116
37. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Duet "The Lord is a man of war" — Mag-
nificat, Duet .......... 117 — -136
and Urio prelude 117, 118
38. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus " The depths have covered them " —
Magnificat, Chorus ......... 137 — 141
39. Handel, (Israel in Kgypt] Chorus "Thy right hand" — Magnificat, Chorus 142 — 148
40. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus " And with the blast " — Magnificat,
Chorus H9—154
41. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus "The earth swallowed them" —
Magnificat, Chorus ......... 155
42. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Duet "Thou in Thy mercy" — Magnificat,
Duet . . 155—162
43. Handel, (Israel in Egypt] Chorus "The people shall hear "—Stradella,
Serenata ........... 163
44. J. S. Bach, Arias in Christmas Oratorio and Choice of Hercules . 164
45. Handel, Aria in " Laudate pueri" — Keiser, Aria in Octavia . . 168, 169
46. Handel, Symphony in Rodrigo— Keiser, Symphony in Octavia . . 169, 170
47. Handel, Aria in La Resurrezione — Keiser, Symphony in Octavia . 170, 171
48. Handel, Symphony in Agrippina— Keiser, Symphony in Octavia . 171
49. Handel, Chorus in Triumph of Time and Truth— Lotti, Chorus in a
Mass . 179—182
INDEX.
Academy of Ancient Music, The, publish
their correspondence with Lotti on the
charge of plagiarism made against him by
Buononcim, p. 176.
Accentuation, false, pp. 148, 155.
Bach, J. S., his Christmas Oratorio and Choice
of Hercules quoted from, Ex. 44.
Bacon, Richard Mackenzie, Editor of the
Quarterly Musical Review, p. x.
Balfour, The Right Hon. A. J., M.P., on
the character of Handel's appropriations,
pp. 184—186.
Buononcini, Giovanni Baptista, accuses Lotti
of plagiarism, p. 173.
- his attitude in the Lotti controversy,
pp. 173, 174.
forced to quit England, as the result
of it, p. 176.
Burney, Dr Charles, on Handel's originality,
p. x.
Chrysander, Dr Friedrich, his edition of
Handel Sources, p. xii.
his view of the object of Handel's
appropriations, p. 184.
- his opinion that these appropriations
were known to Handel's con-
temporaries, p. 177 note.
Clari, Giovanni Carlo Maria, vocal duets by
him used by Handel in Theodora, pp. 28 — 30.
Crotch, Dr William, his researches on Handel's
sources, p. xi.
' Del,1 proved capable of indicating authorship,
p. 90.
Erba, Dionigi, regarded by Chrysander as the
author of the disputed Magnificat, p. 91.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Handel
autographs preserved there, pp. xii — xiii.
Graun, Karl Heinrich, appropriation of two
choruses and other materials of his in
Handel's Trionfo del Tempo and elsewhere,
pp. 32 — 35.
Habermann, Franz Johann, portions of five
masses composed by him used by Handel
in Jephtha, pp. 17 — 27.
Hamburg, Handel's time at, pp. 166, 167.
— operas composed there by him, p. 167.
Handel, his complete originality asserted in
unqualified terms by Hawkins, Mainwaring
and Horsley, and, with some reservation,
by Burney, pp. ix, x.
- charged by Salomon with despoiling
continental composers, and by
Samuel Wesley with wholesale
pilfering, p. xi.
stated by Crotch to have quoted or
copied the works of more than
twenty-nine specified composers,
p. xi.
— editions of works which he had used
as sources published by Chrysander
and Seiffert, p. xii.
— shown by the evidence of the Fitz-
william autographs to have been
acquainted with Muffat's ' Componi-
menti,' pp. 1 — 5 : instances of his
indebtedness to that work, pp. 6 — 14.
shown to have borrowed largely from
masses by Habermann : instances of
his indebtedness to them, pp. 15- — 27.
instance of his indebtedness to a duet
by Clari, pp. 28—30.
— shown by the evidence of the Fitz-
william autographs to have appro-
priated t\vo entire choruses, and
other smaller portions, from a work
by Graun, pp. 31 — 33 : instances of
these latter appropriations, pp. 34, 35.
his use in the Messiah of compositions
of his own previously set to secular
Italian words, pp. 36 — 46.
his indebtedness in Israel in Egypt,
Part I, to a Serenata by Stradella,
pp. 1, 54—67, 69—71, 73—75, 87—
89 ; and to an organ-piece by Kerl,
pp. 76—81.
his xise in Israel in Egypt, Part II, of
a Magnificat, which may, or may not,
be an earlier composition of his own,
196
INDEX
pp. 90— 1G2, and of an instrumental
prelude by Urio, pp. 117, 118.
Handel, his use in Israel in .Egypt of earlier
compositions of his own, pp. 48 — 52,
72—73, 82—86.
- his only music-teacher, Zachow, p.
166.
- his musicianship on arriving at Ham-
burg, pp. 166, 167.
- his relations with Reiser, p. 167.
- his slight borrowings from Keiser,
pp. 168—171.
- chronology of his principal appropria-
tions, ]>. 172.
- his blindness, p. 172.
- his final embodiment of a chorus by
Lotti, pp. 178—182.
- character, object and moral aspect of
his appropriations, pp. 183 — 188.
Hawkins, Sir J., asserts Handel's entire
originality, p. ix.
Heinichen, Johann David, his view of what
constitutes plagiarism, p. 177.
Horsley, William, asserts Handel's entire
originality, p. x.
Hueffer, the late Mr F., describes Handel as
carrying on a system of "wholesale plagiar-
ism," p. ix.
' Italian duets,' Handel's, used in the Messiah,
pp. 36—46.
Keiser, Reinhard, Handel's relations with,
p. 167.
- Handel's borrowings from, pp. 168 —
171.
Kerl, Johann Caspar, a canzona of his for the
organ turned into a chorus in Israel in
t, PP- 76—81.
Lotti, Antonio, his letters to the Academy of
Ancient Music, pp. 173 — 175.
— a chorus of his appropriated by Handel,
p. 178.
Lunn, the late Rev. J. R., his share in bringing
about Professor Prout's discovery in the
Fitzwilliam Museum, pp. 31, 32.
Macfarren, Mr (afterwards Professor Sir) G.
A., his opinion that Handel wrote the dis-
puted Magnificat, p. 92.
Magnificat, work the authorship of which is
disputed, very extensively used in Part II
of Israel in Egypt, pp. 90 — 92.
Mainwaring, John, asserts Handel's entire
originality, p. ix.
Matheson, Johann. his opinion of Handel's
musicianship before his connexion with the
opera at Hamburg, pp. 166, 167.
Muffat, Gottlieb, his "Componimenti Musicali,"
p. 1.
- II andel's indebtedness to him , pp. 6 — 14.
Music, not in itself distinctively ' sacred ' or
' secular,' p. 165.
Pepusch, Dr J. C., personally active in the
exposure of Buononcini, p. 176.
Plagiarism, how regarded in the eighteenth
century, p. 176.
Pohl, the late Mr C. F., his article on Muffat,
p. 1.
Prout, Professor, his recognition of Handel
autographs at the Fitzwilliam Museum as
copies made from a work by Graun, pp. 32,
33.
Publication, effect of, on musical settings,
p. 165.
Rockstro, Mr W. S., his assertion that ''del'
cannot indicate authorship, p. 90.
Salomon, John Peter, describes Handel's
reputation in England as " wholly consti-
tuted upon the spoils of the Continent,"
p. xi.
Seiffert, Dr Max, his article on Handel's
obligations to Habermann, pp. xii. & 15 — 27.
- his edition of Zachow's works, pp. xii.
and 167—171.
- hisopinionthatHandel'sappropriations
were known to his contemporaries,
p. 177.
Stradella, Alessandro, a Serenata of his ex-
tensively used by Handel in Israel in Egypt,
pp. 53—67, 69—71, 73—75, 87—89.
Trionfo del Tempo, II, earlier version of The
Triumph, of Time and Truth, pp. 31—33.
Urio, Francesco Antonio, use of an orchestral
prelude by him in Israel in Eyi/pt, pp. 1 1 7sqq.
Wesley, Samuel, characterizes Handel's pro-
cedure as ' pilfering,' p. xi.
Zachow, Friedrich Wilhelm, Handel's only
teacher in music, publication by Dr Seiffert
of his complete works, pp. xii. & 166.
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