Most music lovers have encountered George Frederick
Handel 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, ...(+)
Most music lovers have encountered George Frederick
Handel 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.
The Sonata in G minor (HWV 360) was composed by George
Frideric Handel for recorder and harpsichord (the
autograph manuscript, a fair copy made most likely in
1712, gives this instrumentation in Italian: "flauto e
cembalo"). The work is also referred to as Opus 1 No.
2, and was first published in 1732 by Walsh. Other
catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work
as HG xxvii,9; and HHA iv/3,16.
Both the Walsh edition and the Chrysander edition
indicate that the work is for recorder ("flauto"), and
published it as Sonata II.
SHEET MUSIC