Keyboard Works for Solo Instrument

George Frideric Handel

May 2013 · Courier Corporation

About this ebook

The music historian Sir John Hawkings recorded that his friend Handel's keyboard improvisations "stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the harmony close wrought, and as full as could be possibly be expressed; the passage concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the same time being perfectly intelligible, and carrying the appearance of great simplicity." Such fecund spontaneity generated the few published pieces Handel wrote specifically for the keyboard. The first set of suites appeared in 1720, perhaps composed and published for the instruction of Princess Anne, to whom Handel serves as music master. Other collections of harpsichord and clavichord work followed; all seem to have been preserved from Handel's freely inventive keyboard sessions. Here, for the first time in a popularly accessible edition, are 35 of his finest keyboard works for solo instruments, reproduced from the monumental Deutsche Händelgesellschaft edition, still the most complete.
This collection features the celebrated Eight Great Suites, including the Harmonious Blacksmith Air and the Passacaille in G Minor (G 255), "a work in which Handel approaches most nearly to the monumental style of his choral writing" (Grove's Dictionary). Other works include: Fugue in A Minor; Fantasia in C Major; Suite (Partita) in G Minor; Sonatina in B-flat Major; Capriccio in F Major; Minuet in G Minor; Sonatas in C Major; Chaconne in F Major; Prelude and Sonata in G Minor; and more.
For this new edition, the pieces have been rearranged and retitled according to the latest scholarly sequences found in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Students and scholars will find many of the ideas Handel sketched here expanded and reworked in later chamber and orchestral works and in the opera dance movements; musicians and every Baroque music lover will see in these neglected pieces "a Protean fluidity" (New Grove) worthy of the great composer, and more than worthy of any musical library.

About the author

George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Germany on February 23, 1685. As a youth, he became an accomplished harpsichordist and organist, studied violin and oboe, and mastered composing for the organ, the oboe, and the violin by the time he was 10 years old. In 1704, he made his debut as an opera composer with Almira. During his stay in Italy from 1706 to 1710, he composed several operas including Rodrigo and Agrippina and several dramatic chamber works, which helped establish his early success. In London, Handel composed Rinaldo, which was released during the 1710-1711 London opera season and became his breakthrough work. After Handel released Rinaldo, he spent the next few years writing and performing for English royalty, including Queen Anne and King George I. In 1719, he accepted the position of Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, the first Italian opera company in London. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1726. He eventually formed his own company, calling it the New Royal Academy of Music in 1727. When Italian opera fell out of style in London, he started creating oratorios Handel's musical output was prodigious. He wrote 46 operas including Julius Caesar and Berenice; 33 oratorios including The Messiah; 100 Italian solo cantatas; and numerous orchestral works. In 1751 Handel suffered a sight impairment that led to total blindness by 1753. Nonetheless, he continued to conduct performances of his works. He died April 14, 1759 at the age of 74.