Organ concertos, Op. 7 (Handel)

After Thomas Hudson: George Frideric Handel. 1756. Royal Collection

The Handel organ concertos Op 7, HWV 306–311, refer to the six organ concertos for organ and orchestra composed by George Frideric Handel in London between 1740 and 1751, published posthumously in 1761 by the printing company of John Walsh. They were written for performance during Handel's oratorios, contain almost entirely original material, including some of his most popular and inspired movements.[1]

“ A fine and delicate touch, a volant finger, and a ready delivery of passages the most difficult, are the praise of inferior artists: they were not noticed in Handel, whose excellencies were of a far superior kind; and his amazing command of the instrument, the fullness of his harmony, the grandeur and dignity of his style, the copiousness of his imagination, and the fertility of his invention were qualities that absorbed every inferior attainment. When he gave a concerto, his method in general was to introduce it with a voluntary movement on the diapasons, which stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the harmony close wrought, and as full as could possibly be expressed; the passages concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the same time being perfectly intelligible, and carrying the appearance of great simplicity. This kind of prelude was succeeded by the concerto itself, which he executed with a degree of spirit and firmness that no one ever pretended to equal. ”
— Sir John Hawkins, General History of the Science and Practice of Music. 1776.[2]

Works

HWV Opus Key Composed Premiere Venue Published Movements Notes
306 Op.7 No.1 B flat major 1740-02-1717 February 1740 1740-02-2727 February 1740 London, Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre 1761-00-001761 Andante - Andante - Largo, e piano - Bourrée First movement includes an independent pedal part
307 Op.7 No.2 A major 1743-02-055 February 1743 1743-02-1818 February 1743 London, Covent Garden Theatre 1761-00-001761 Ouverture - A tempo ordinario - Organo ad libitum - Allegro Performed with the oratorio Samson (HWV 57)
308 Op.7 No.3 B flat major 1751-01-041–4 January 1751 1751-03-011 March 1751 London, Covent Garden Theatre 1761-00-001761 Allegro - Organo (Adagio e Fuga) ad libitum - Spiritoso - Menuet - Menuet Two variant autographs of 1st movement. Handel's last orchestral work
309 Op.7 No.4 D minor 1744-00-00?circa 1744 1746-02-14?14 February 1746 1761-00-001761 Adagio - Allegro - Organo ad libitum - Allegro ?Performed with premiere of "The Occasional Oratorio" (HWV 62)
310 Op.7 No.5 G minor 1750-01-3131 January 1750 1750-03-1616 March 1750 London, Covent Garden Theatre 1761-00-001761 Allegro ma non troppo, e staccato - Andante larghetto, e staccato - Menuet - Gavotte Performed with "Theodora" (HWV 68). Final gavotte in published version probably added later by Smith Jr.
311 Op.7 No.6 B flat major 1749-00-00circa 1748–1749 1749-00-001749 1761-00-001761 Pomposo - Organo ad libitum - A tempo ordinario Assembled by John Christopher Smith after Handel's death for John Walsh the younger's publication

Borrowings

Organo ad libitum

Although a complete version of the first set of organ concertos Op.4 appeared in Handel's lifetime in 1738, many of the concertos of the posthumous Op.7 set have missing movements and sections, where Handel would have either used an existing movement solo keyboard from one of his other works or improvised directly. In the case of Op.7 No.1, HWV 306, Handel actually indicates that parts of the Passacaglia from the Suite in G minor HWV 432 for harpsichord are to be played; the score already contains quotations for this work. It is also reported by contemporaries that Handel would often play a slow and quiet voluntary for organ solo as a prelude to his concertos.

After Handel's death, his amanuensis and personal assistant John Christopher Smith collaborated with the mechanical organ maker John Langshaw (1725-1798) in transcribing a selection of Handel's works for chamber barrel organ.[4] Two mechanical "organ machines", operated by a hand crank, were constructed for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute: the first had 58 barrels, 32 of which were devoted to works by Handel, and was built by the organ-builder John Snetzler and clockmaker Christopher Pinchbeck in 1763, a year after Stuart became Prime Minister; a second had 6 extra barrels and was built by the Bond Street watchmaker Alexander Cumming, who left a detailed inventory for each barrel, including timings in seconds for each movement. One barrel contained the concertos Op.4 No.5 and Op.7 No.3 and another the concerto Op.7 No.4 with the ad libitum slow movement provided by the sarabande and variations on La Folia from Handel's Suite in D minor for harpsichord HWV 437. Cumming's inventory is all that survives of these organs, one having been destroyed in a fire in 1843. There is an existing set of barrels, however, for the chamber barrel organ made by Henry Holland around 1790, now in the Colt Clavier Collection in Kent. These contain two concertos HWV 290 and 294 from Op.4 with elaborate ornamentation supplied by Smith and have been recorded by Erato.[5][6]

Two modern performing editions of the concertos by the organists and musicologists Peter Williams and Ton Koopman provide missing movements and give suggestions for the ad libitum passages, possibly too earthbound according to some commentators. The recordings of the organists George Malcolm (1976) and Richard Egarr (2009) give further possibilities, which have so far not appeared in printed editions.[3][7][8]

Characteristics

George Shepherd, 1811: Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, where Handel moved with his company in November 1739 and where his organ concerto HWV 306 was first performed in 1740[9]

Discography

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Abraham 1954
  2. ↑ Burrows 1997, p. 221
  3. 1 2 Derr 1991
  4. ↑ Arthur W. Wainwright, ‘Langshaw, John (bap. 1725, d. 1798)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009 accessed 19 Oct 2014
  5. ↑ Malloch 1983
  6. ↑ Erato, Paris ERA 9274 (1985) Un enregistrement d'epoque, sleevenotes by Olivier Roux
  7. ↑ Burrows & Dunhill 2002
  8. ↑ Burrows 1997
  9. ↑ Dean 2006, p. 398
  10. ↑ Burrows 1997, p. 222

References

  • Abraham, Gerald (1954), Handel: a symposium, Oxford University Press, pp. 229–231 , Chapter 7 by Basil Lam (list of self-borrowings)
  • Burrows, Donald (1997), The Cambridge companion to Handel, Cambridge Companions to Music, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-45613-4 
  • Burrows, Donald; Dunhill, Rosemary (2002), Music and theatre in Handel's world: the family papers of James Harris, 1732-1780, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-816654-0 
  • Dean, Winton (2006), Handel Operas 1726-1741, Boydell & Brewer, ISBN 1-84383-268-2 
  • Derr, Ellwood (1991), "Review of new editions of Handel Organ Concertos, op. 7 by Peter Williams and Ton Koopman & Jan Kleinbussink", Notes, 47 (3): 953–955, doi:10.2307/941938, JSTOR 941938 
  • Gudger, William D. (1973), The organ concertos of GF Handel: a study based on the primary sources, Yale University , Ph.D. dissertation
  • Handel, George Frideric (1983), Great Organ Concerti, Opp. 4 and 7, in full score, Dover, ISBN 0-486-24462-8 
  • Handel, George Frideric (1941), Organ concertos, Op. 4, Schott , edition by Helmut Walcha with reduction of orchestral parts for a second keyboard
  • Handel, George Frideric (1988), Organ concertos, Op.7 (ed. Peter Williams), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-363998-X , Organ part on two staves with orchestral tuttis, reconstructions of missing movements and ad libitum passages
  • Handel, Georg Friedrich (1989–1994), Konzerte für Orgel, op.7 (ed. Ton Koopman), Breitkopf & Härtel , Score and solo part with reconstructions of missing movements and ad libitum passages. Continuo realized by Jan Kleinbussink.
  • Keefe, Simon P. (2005), The Cambridge companion to the concerto, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-83483-X 
  • Malloch, William, "The Earl of Bute's machine organ:A touchstone of taste", Early Music: 172–183, doi:10.1093/earlyj/11.2.172 
  • Ruthardt, Adolf (1956), Six Organ Concertos: Volume II (Nos. 7-12) by G.F. Handel arranged for piano duet, Peters 
  • Sadie, Stanley (1972), Handel concertos, BBCmusic guides, BBC, ISBN 0-563-10349-3 
  • Sadie, Stanley; Hicks, Anthony (1987), Handel: tercentenary collection, Boydell & Brewer, pp. 271–278, ISBN 0-8357-1833-6 , Chapter 15, Handel and the Organ Concerto: What we know 250 years later, by William D. Gudger
  • Schenker, Heinrich (1949), Six Organ Concertos: Volume II (Nos. 7-12) by G.F. Handel transcribed for piano duet, International 

External links

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