[347] Soon Handel was obliged to publish these works, because fraudulent
and faulty copies were being sold. It was so with the first volume of
_Suites de pièces pour le clavecin_, published in 1720, and the first
volume of Organ Concertos published in 1738. Some of these publications
had been made in a bare-faced manner without Handel's permission by
publishers who had pilfered them. So it was with the second volume of
_Suites de pièces pour le clavecin_, which Walsh had appropriated and
published in 1733 without giving Handel an opportunity of correcting the
proofs. It is very remarkable that, notwithstanding the great European
success achieved by the first volume for the Clavecin, Handel did not
trouble to publish the others.
[348] All his contemporaries agree in praising the wonderful genius with
which Handel adapted himself instinctively in his improvisations to the
spirit of his audience. Like all the greatest Virtuosos he soon placed
himself in the closest spiritual communion with his public; and, so to
speak, they collaborated together.
[349] Geminiani's Preface to his _Ecole de violon_, or _The Art of
Playing on the Violin, Containing all the Rules necessary to attain to
Perfection on that Instrument, with great variety of Compositions, which
will also be very useful to those who study the violoncello,
harpsichord, etc._ Composed by F. Geminiani, Opera IX, London, MDCCLI.
[350] Geminiani himself had attempted to represent in music the pictures
of Raphael and the poems of Tasso.
[351] For example, the _Allegro_ of the First Organ Concerto (second
volume published in 1740), with its charming dialogue between the cuckoo
and the nightingale, or the first of the Second Organ Concerto (in the
same volume), or several of the _Concerti Grossi_ (referred to later).
[352] Vol. XLVII of the Complete Handel Edition.
[353] It is a manuscript of 21 pages, the writing appearing to date from
about 1710. It is certainly a copy from some older works. Chrysander
published it in Volume XLVIII of the Complete Edition. It is probable
that Handel had given to an English friend a selection from the
compositions of his early youth. They were passed from hand to hand, and
were even fraudulently published, as Handel tells us himself in the
Edition of 1720: "I have been led to publish some of the following
pieces, because some faulty copies of them have been surreptitiously
circulated abroad." In this number appear, for example, the Third Suite,
the Sarabande of the Seventh Suite, etc.
[354] It is said that Handel wrote these for the Princess Anne, whom he
taught the clavecin; but Chrysander had observed that the princess was
only eleven years old at the time. It is more probable that these pieces
were written for the Duke of Chandos or for the Duke of Burlington.--It
is in the second book of Clavier Pieces that we find the much easier
pieces written for the princesses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account