George Frideric Handel (German: Georg Friedrich Händel
(1685 – 1759) was a German-born British Baroque
composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and
organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family
indifferent to music. He received critical musical
training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in
London (1712) and becoming a naturalised British
subject in 1727. By then he was strongly influenced by
the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the
middle-German polyphon...(+)
George Frideric Handel (German: Georg Friedrich Händel
(1685 – 1759) was a German-born British Baroque
composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and
organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family
indifferent to music. He received critical musical
training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in
London (1712) and becoming a naturalised British
subject in 1727. By then he was strongly influenced by
the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the
middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.
Falling into only three movements, this is the most
abbreviated of Handel's oboe sonatas; it's also the
earliest, found in a manuscript in the Fitzwilliam
Museum that employs the type of paper Handel used in
Venice and Hanover in 1709-1710. The work was not
published during Handel's lifetime. The first movement
lacks a tempo indication but is taken to be an Andante;
the broad, stately melody would be appropriate in the
more pastoral sections of Handel's Messiah and is just
spare enough to invite lavish ornamentation in the
repeats. The Grave takes an even more serious turn and
reveals the influence of the plaintive Italian aria.
But before this material has a chance to develop,
Handel brings on a bright Allegro, full of quick,
intricate melodic runs that are often canonically
echoed in the continuo.
SHEET MUSIC