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 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.
SHEET MUSIC