George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (1685 – 1759)
was a German, later British, baroque composer who spent
the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known
for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ
concertos. Handel received important training in Halle
and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before
settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised
British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced
both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and
by the middle-German po...(+)
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (1685 – 1759)
was a German, later British, baroque composer who spent
the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known
for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ
concertos. Handel received important training in Halle
and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before
settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised
British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced
both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and
by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.
Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and
Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the
greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such
as Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks and
Messiah remaining steadfastly popular. One of his four
Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed
for the coronation of George II, has been performed at
every subsequent British coronation, traditionally
during the sovereign's anointing. Another of his
English oratorios, Solomon (1748), has also remained
popular, with the Sinfonia that opens act 3 (known more
commonly as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba")
featuring at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony.
Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty
years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of
baroque music and historically informed musical
performance, interest in Handel's operas has grown.
The composition of odes to celebrate the new year and
the birthday of the monarch was a long standing
tradition in England, as a number of works by Purcell
and others readily testify. Normally the task of
composing such occasional works fell to the Master of
the King's (or Queen's) Musick, a position held in the
early part of the eighteenth century by John Eccles.
However Eccles seems to have provided no such works
between 1711 and 1715, a gap filled probably in 1713
for the monarch's birthday by Handel. He had returned
to England for a second visit late in 1712, quickly
catching the mood of the nation by composing a Te Deum
and Jubilate for the service of thanksgiving to
celebrate the Peace of Utrecht. It was possibly the
success of this piece, the commissioning of which from
Handel rather than a native composer has puzzled Handel
scholars, which led to him being asked to provide a
celebratory ode for the birthday of Queen Anne,
February 6. Both the Utrecht Te Deum and the Ode
"Eternal Source of Light Divine" demonstrate how
clearly he had assimilated the English choral style of
Purcell, the sacred work being clearly indebted to the
English composer's well-known Te Deum and Jubilate in D
of 1694. However Handel's works are planned on a
broader scale, with greater prominence given to wind
parts. The text by Ambrose Phillips (1674 - 1749) is
one of the best examples of a genre that frequently
embarrasses modern listeners by its obsequious praise
of the subject. Here, however, Handel was provided with
a text that not only praises the queen as the author of
peace, but includes pastoral imagery of the kind to
which Handel always responded with his best music. The
result is a seven-movement work that transcends the
usual occasional nature of such pieces. Particularly
striking are the opening alto solo, with its demanding
obbligato part for solo trumpet, the gentle soprano and
alto duet "Kind health descends," and the majestic
final lines of the chorus, "The day that gave great
Anna birth."
Although originally written for Voices and Baroque
Orchestra, I created this Interpretation of the
"Eternal source of light divine" (HWV 74 Mvt. 1) for
Oboe English Horn & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION