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Search - Handel

Handel
Author: Romain Rolland

Text extracted from opening pages of book: PREFACE FOR a proper appreciation of the colossal work of Handel many years of study and a book of some two hundred pages are very insufficient. To treat at all adequately of Handel's life and work needs a whole lifetime in itself, and even the indefatigable and enthusiastic Chrysander, who devoted his ... more »life to this subject, has hardly encompassed the task. ... 1 have done what 1 could ; my faults must be excused. This little book does not pretend to be anything more than a very brief sketch of the life and technique of Handel. I hope to study his character, his work, and his times, more in detail in another volume. ROMAIN ROLLAND. CONTENTS PAGE His LIFE i His TECHNIQUE AND WORKS in ( 1) THE OPERAS 122 ( 2) THE ORATORIOS ; 134 ( 3) THE CLAVIER COMPOSITIONS .... 143 ( 4) THE CHAMBER Music ( SONATAS AND TRIOS). 154 ( 5) THE ORCHESTRAL WORKS 158 APPENDICES LIST OF HANDEL'S WORKS 193 BIBLIOGRAPHY 201 INDEX 204 PLATES PORTRAIT BY THORNHILI GEORGE I AND HANDEL'S WATER Music tofacefage 69 HANDEL'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. . 107 HANDEL DIRECTING AN ORATORIO .... 165 INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR HERE in England we are supposed to know our Handel by heart, but it is doubtful whether we do. Who can say from memory the titles of even six of his thirty-nine operas, from whence may be culled many of his choicest flowers of melody ? M. Holland rightly emphasises the importance of the operas of Handel in the long chain of musical evolution, and it seems impossible for anyone to lay down his book without having a more all-round impression than heretofore of this giant among composers. M. Saint-Saens once compared the position of a conductor in front of the score of a Handel oratorio to that of a man who sought to settle with his family in some old mansion which has been uninhabited for centuries. The music was different altogether from that to which he was accustomed. No nuances, no bowing, frequently no indication of rate, and often merely a sketched-in bass. . . . Tradi tion only could guide him, and the English, who alone could have preserved this, he considers, have lost it. Can it be recovered to any extent, and, if so, how ? Behind each towering figure of genius are to be X INTRODUCTION found numbers of 8 eloquent men who prepared the way for him ; and amongst these precursors there is frequently discovered one who exercised a domi nating influence over the young budding genius. Such an influence was exercised by Zachau on Handel, and M. Rolland rightly gives due import ance to the consideration of this old master's teach ings and compositions, a careful study of which should go far to supplying the right key to Handel's music. One of the great shortcomings in the general musical listener is a lack of the historical view of music. It is a long cry from Bach and Handel to Debussy and Scriabin, but we shall be all the better for looking well at both ends of the long musical chain which connects the unvoiced expression of the past with the vague yet certain hopes of the future. No doubt we have hardly yet recovered from the false position into which we have all helped to place Handel. He was never the great Church composer which has been assumed for so long. Perhaps, rather, he leaned to the pagan side of life in his art. As Mr. Streatfeild says, You can no more call the Messiah a work of art than you can call the Book of Common Prayer popular as a masterpiece of litera ture. . . . Handel the preacher is laid for ever in the tomb, but Handel the artist with his all embracing sympathy for human things and his delight in the world around him lives for ever more/' Handel has been greatly, almost wilfully, misrepresented; but^ he has played too great a part in the history of English music to be cast aside on INTRODUCTION XI this account. It is true that there are many diffi culties in the way of a clearer understanding of his music. A two-hundred years' overgrowth of vain vocal traditions is not goi

ISBN-13: 9781117768557
ISBN-10: 1117768554
Publication Date: 12/17/2009
Pages: 230
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: BiblioLife
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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