Handel

Table of Contents

Published by The Bodley Head 2008
24681097531

Copyright © Jonathan Keates 2008

Jonathan Keates has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

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First published in Great Britain in 1985 by Gollancz Ltd

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Contents

Preface to the New Edition

Since 1985, when the first edition of this book appeared, Handel has been dramatically reclaimed, both by public awareness and through scholarly enquiry, like a submerged continent rising from under the tides of age-long neglect and ignorance. The opening of hitherto restricted archives, the recovery of lost documents, a closer attention to his creative processes and working methods, the establishment of a more precise chronology for his musical oeuvre, a firmer grasp of its context within European Baroque musical culture and of its impact on later composers, the study of his voluminous borrowings and ongoing identification of their sources, all these have enlarged our appreciation of his unique artistic achievement. More has been discovered, meanwhile, about Handel's personal life, about his family background, education and travels, about his circle of English friends, his relations with the Hanoverian royal family, his professional career and his finances. The foundation of the Handel Institute and the opening of the Handel House Museum in London have deepened the perspective still further.

The one area which, for the time being and for the foreseeable future, remains stubbornly off limits to us is that of the composer's sentimental attachments. Tiny scraps of evidence hint at the existence of a private life but so far they are nothing more than scraps. I remain unconvinced by the notion that Handel's lifelong bachelor status must indicate either homosexuality or celibacy. Theorizing of this kind nevertheless reveals just how much, during the past twenty years, we have come to need Handel, eager for him to fit a multiplicity of stereotypes, models and constructs often less appropriate to his own era than to ours. At no time in the three and a half centuries since his death has his music held such a universal appeal, filling theatres and concert halls across the world.

It seemed a propitious moment to produce a revised version of my 1985 biography, updating and correcting it wherever possible and taking the chance to reappraise certain works in the light of new research surrounding them or of my changing experience as a critical listener. I have modified (slightly) what one of my original reviewers called the ‘chromatic' aspect of the book's style and softened the combative approach I adopted at a time when Handel was still a victim of what might be called the iceberg principle, with only a small proportion of his works accessible above the waterline dividing the wider musical public from academic specialists. I hope that most of the pleasure and excitement I tried to communicate in the original text is still palpable. Rewriting this book has been more enjoyable for the experience of sitting down once again with ‘the great and good Mr Handel'.

Acknowledgements

My leading acknowledgement must be to Hilary Engel, who commissioned the first edition of this book and was unfailing in her encouragement. I am equally grateful to David Burnett for his later adoption of the project and to Richard Wigmore, a more astute Handelian than I, for his careful editing of the third edition. Jenny Uglow's enthusiasm for a revised version was shared by Will Sulkin; my thanks to them both for giving me the opportunity to complete this project, and to Drummond Moir for his editorial patience.

Winton Dean read this book in its earliest stage and, in offering much useful criticism, showed a courtesy towards an upstart amateur which all scholars might study to emulate. I was also grateful for advice, in the actual process of writing, from Robin Lane Fox and Gerard McBurney. My special thanks to Michael Rose for professional wisdom and the loan of vital sources. Ariane Bankes allowed me to consult the notes made, after reading the original typescript, by an anonymous Handel expert (whose name has since been identified for me). His comments were more helpful and illuminating than he may have imagined or intended. Colin Dunn provided useful source material at a crucial moment and John Lee furnished me with interesting detail as to Handel in Derbyshire.

At City of London School thanks are due to my colleagues present and past, Anthony Gould, Nicholas Byrne, Roy Reardon, Alison Heaf and David Rose. Elsewhere to the following for information, assistance and encouragement at various stages: Edoardo Betti, Rupert Christiansen, John and Thekla Clark, Sarah Connolly, Mark Elder, Mrs G. Fallows, James Fenton, John Fleming, Margaret Gardiner, Gianni Guidetti, Eleazar Gutwirth, Hugh Honour, James Loader, Maria Maschietto, Patrick O'Connor, Richard Portes, Nicholas Salaman and Mary Sandys. Special thanks to my seventeen companions on the Martin Randall trip to the Halle Festival in May 2007: the earliest version of this book was written before we met, but their delight in Handel's music makes them its ideal readers.

My thanks also to the staff of the British Library, the London Library, the Cambridge University Library, the National Archive, the public libraries of Oxford, Kensington and Islington, the Biblioteca Marciana and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice), the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini (Florence), the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York), the New York Public Library and the Handel House Museum. My particular gratitude to the staff of the Music Reading Room in the Bodleian Library (Oxford), where most of my preparatory work was carried out.

List of Illustrations

Handel, by Balthasar Denner,
c
. 1726–8 © National Portrait Gallery

Georg Händel, by J. Sandrart © The Trustees of the British Museum

Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj, by Jacques Blondeau © The Trustees of the British Museum

John Walsh's score of the overture and arias in
Rinaldo
, 1711 © British Library

Lord Burlington's House in Piccadilly, by Johannes Kip © Guildhall Library, City of London

Handel's autograph score of
Acis and Galatea
, 1718 © British Library

Giovanni Bononcini, attributed to Bartholemew Dandridge © Royal College of Music

Francesco Bernardi, ‘il Senesino', attributed to Antonio Maria Zanetti © National Portrait Gallery

Model of Handel for the Vauxhall Gardens Statue, by L. F. Roubiliac,
c
. 1737 © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

‘The Charming Brute' (colour etching) by English School, (18th century) © Private Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library

Susannah Cibber, by Thomas Hudson, before 1749 © National Portrait Gallery

Elisabeth Duparc, ‘La Francesina', by John Faber © National Portrait Gallery

Handel's autograph score of
Music for the Royal Fireworks
, 1749 © British Library

Handel's autograph score of
Jephtha
, 1751 © British Library

1

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