Most music lovers have encountered Georg Friedrich
Händel (1685 – 1759) through holiday-time renditions
of the Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus. And many of them
know and love that oratorio on Christ's life, death,
and resurrection, as well as a few other greatest hits
like the orchestral Water Music and Royal Fireworks
Music, and perhaps Judas Maccabeus or one of the other
English oratorios. Yet his operas, for which he was
widely known in his own time, are the province mainly
of specialists in...(+)
Most music lovers have encountered Georg Friedrich
Händel (1685 – 1759) through holiday-time renditions
of the Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus. And many of them
know and love that oratorio on Christ's life, death,
and resurrection, as well as a few other greatest hits
like the orchestral Water Music and Royal Fireworks
Music, and perhaps Judas Maccabeus or one of the other
English oratorios. Yet his operas, for which he was
widely known in his own time, are the province mainly
of specialists in Baroque music, and the events of his
life, even though they reflected some of the most
important musical issues of the day, have never become
as familiar as the careers of Bach or Mozart. Perhaps
the single word that best describes his life and music
is "cosmopolitan": he was a German composer, trained in
Italy, who spent most of his life in England.
If there is an archetypal Handel keyboard suite, it is
the E major. Like most of the other suites, it is in
four movements. And, like most of the other suites,
those four movements are predominantly stylized dance
movements preceded by a prelude. And, like most of the
suites, it is a beautiful and beguiling work fully at
the level of Bach's best keyboard suites. Unlike
Handel's other suites, this work (published by the
composer himself, in London, in 1720) is frequently
performed. Or, more specifically, its last movement is
still frequently performed: as lovely as the graceful
opening prelude, the fine-boned Andantino Allemande,
and the porcelain-skinned Allegro Courante, the closing
Air con variazioni is what guarantees the Suite in E
major immortality. Obliquely based on the English folk
song "Four Days Drunk," but far better known by its
title The Harmonious Blacksmith, the air and five
variations is quintessential Handel: sturdy and supple,
elegant and powerful, lyrical but virtuosic. It also
features the only movement in Handel with the compound
time signature 24/16 against common time.
PARTITION