February 23 - George Frideric Handel (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 23rd are here: George Frideric Handel (2020), John Blow; George Frideric Handel (2021), and Handel (2022)

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George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was one of the greatest, and still most popular, of Baroque composers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Performance Advice; or, Riparian Entertainments

At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 July 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing. Another barge, provided by the City of London, transported about 50 musicians who performed Handel's music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert. – Wikipedia, s.v. “Water Music”

While floating up the placid Thames,

Presenting your melodious gems,

Be sure the players on your barge

Comprised a band both loud and large,

A band sufficient to deliver

Music on the noisy river –

The King, at least when he is near it,

Will do his royal best to hear it. 

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Expatriates

When George the First, bedecked in ermine,

Spoke to Handel, it was German,

At least that’s what we might surmise

Since both of them were German guys.

 

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Making Cuts

There’s also the matter of cuts. The unabridged “Messiah” is such an epic that it’s almost always encountered in slightly truncated form. – Jack Walton, www.southbendtribune.com, 4 December 2019

Though some oratorios feature a plot,

Handel’s Messiah is one that does not,

And thus in performance it’s common to clip its

Motley collection of scriptural snippets.

 

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