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 Violin sonata in G major (HWV 373) is a work for violin and keyboard (harpsichord) that was originally thought to have been composed by George Frideric Handel. Modern scholars however believe it doubtful that the work was composed by Handel, and have labelled it as "spurious". The work was first published in 1730 by Walsh. Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxvii,54; and HHA iv/4,55.

The sonata was first published in the 1730 Walsh edition as Sonata XII. For some reason Walsh did not republish the work in his 1732 edition. The Chrysander edition published the work as Sonata XV, and the designation of "Opus 1, No. 15" is his. All editions indicate that the work is for violin.

I created this arrangement for Viola & Piano.