The Cambridge Companion to Handel

by Edited by Donald Burrows

• ISBN13: 9780521456135
• ISBN10: 0521456134
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-01-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Handel is recognised as one of the principal creative figures in Baroque music. In this Companion acknowledged experts on Handel make their expertise accessible to the interested general reader and music lover. All the genres in which Handel composed are considered including oratorio, chamber cantata, opera, and church music, as well as works for the keyboard and orchestra. The wide-ranging, specially-commissioned essays cover topics from Handel's composing methods to his treatment of the Italian language and matters of performance practice. The background to Handel's musical career is a major theme of the volume. The opening chapters deal with his musical education in Germany and the circumstances in Italy during his time there. Most of Handel's career was based in London and important topics here include contemporary concert life and theatre management, the British and Italian musicians among whom he worked, and the librettists for the English oratorios.

Table of Contents

List of plates	vi	(1)
Notes on contributors	vii	(2)
Preface	ix	(2)
Chronology	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
Donald Burrows
Part I: Background	11	(100)
1 Germany -- education and apprenticeship	11	(13)
John Butt
2 Italy -- political and musical contexts	24	(21)
Carlo Vitali
3 Handel's London -- political, social and intellectual contexts	45	(10)
William Weber
4 Handel's London -- the theatres	55	(9)
Judith Milhous
Robert D. Hume
5 Handel's London -- British musicians and London concert life	64	(14)
H. Diack Johnstone
6 Handel's London -- Italian musicians and librettists	78	(14)
Lowell Lindgren
7 Handel's English librettists	92	(19)
Ruth Smith
Part II: The music	111	(116)
8 Handel and the aria	111	(11)
C. Steven LaRue
9 Handel's compositional process	122	(23)
David Ross Hurley
10 Handel and the idea of an oratorio	145	(19)
Anthony Hicks
11 Handel's sacred music	164	(18)
Graydon Beeks
12 Handel's chamber music	182	(11)
Malcolm Boyd
13 Handel as a concerto composer	193	(15)
Donald Burrows
14 Handel and the keyboard	208	(19)
Terence Best
Part III: The music in performance	227	(55)
15 Handel and the Italian language	227	(11)
Terence Best
16 Handel and the orchestra	238	(11)
Mark W. Stahura
17 Production style in Handel's operas	249	(13)
Winton Dean
18 Handel's oratorio performances	262	(20)
Donald Burrows
Bibliographical note	282	(4)
Notes	286	(45)
List of Handel's works	331	(7)
Index	338