HANDEL, George Frideric 1685-1759

The Most Celebrated Songs in the Oratorio call'd Queen Esther to which is Prefixt The Overture in Score. [HWV 50]. [Full score]. Together with Deborah [HWV 51] and The Choice of Hercules. [HWV 69]

London: Printed for & Sold by I. Walsh Musick Printer & Instrument-maker to his Majesty at the Harp & Hoboy in Catherine Steeet in the Strand. No. 388, [ca. 1743].

Folio. Modern half light brown morocco with marbled boards, raised bands on spine with black leather label gilt and titling gilt. 1f. (recto title, verso table), [i] (blank), 161-167, 9-30 pp. (some pagination deriving from earlier editions). Engraved throughout. First Edition, fourth issue. Smith p. 104, no. 4: "The pagination 161-167 is from 'Overtures in Score' (1740) and takes the place of the original pagination in 2-8 in the earlier editions." BUC p 434. RISM H537 and HH537.

Esther, the first English oratorio, was first performed at [?]Cannons in 1718.

"Given its importance ... it is regrettable that nothing is known about how [Esther] came to be written; even the authorship of the libretto (variously attributed to Pope and John Arbuthnot, and drawing upon Thomas Brereton’s translation of the Racine play) is uncertain. The revivals of both Esther and Acis in 1732 inspired the series of English oratorios and secular musical dramas that were to crown Handel’s achievement. ... English oratorio as a public entertainment began with Handel’s production of a much revised version of Esther in London on 2 May 1732. ... The 1732 Esther included two of the coronation anthems of 1727, and its immediate successor, Deborah, [first performance at King's Theatre, London, 17 March 1733] included the other two as well as more music from the Brockes Passion, as if Handel was using his first English oratorios as a means of rehabilitating past work." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online

Bound with:
Handel
The Most Celebrated Songs in the Oratorio Call'd Deborah. [HWV 51]. London: Printed for & Sold by I. Walsh Musick Printer & Instrument maker to his Majesty at the Harp & Hoboy in Catherine Street in the Strand. No. 545 [ca. 1735]. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-21 pp. Engraved throughout. First Edition, first issue. Smith p. 101, no. 1. BUC p. 433. RISM H520 and HH520. "Contains six songs and one duet. ... The first three of these numbers are in the original libretto and in the music are described as sung in 'Deborah', the next two are from 'Esther', and the last two from 'Athalia', the latter four numbers appearing with the heading 'Sung ... in the Oratorio', but without any oratory being named." Smith. An 18th century owner has added "Esther" and "Athalia" in manuscript to headings where applicable.

Deborah, with libretto by Samuel Humphreys based on Judges V, was first performed in London at the King's Theatre on 17 March 1733.

It is primarily a work of pasticcio, with a substantial portion of the music drawn from several sources within Handel's oeuvre, including his Dixit Dominus [HWV 232], Brockes Passion [HWV 48], and Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno [HWV 46a]. High points within the oratorio include the magisterial choruses and poignant arias.

"Much of the finest of the airs - apart from the exquisite 'Tears such as tender fathers shed' - is Barak's 'Low at her feet'. The melody with its rising ninth in the first bar and the spare accompaniment with the sudden tumble down three octaves at the words 'he fell down dead' are a happy blend of the pictorial and expressive." Dean: Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques, p. 234

Bound with:
Handel
The Choice of Hercules. [HWV 69]. London: Printed for I. Walsh, in Catharine Street, in the Strand. Of whom may be had Just Publish'd ..., [ca. 1751]. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-41, [i] (blank) pp. First Edition, second issue. Engraved throughout. Smith p. 100, no. 2. BUC p. 433. RISM H987 and HH987.

The Choice of Hercules was first performed at Covent Garden on 1 March 1751; this incidental music is largely a re-working of existing material, particularly as relates to Handel's abandoned Alceste, written six months earlier. See Dean: Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques, p. 579.

Provenance
Possibly from the collection of noted English composer, organist, and violinist John Stanley (1712-1786), with an 18th century armorial bookplate to front pastedown incorporating a stag, stars, and shield, with "John Stanley" in contemporary manuscript; an additional bookplate of noted British architect Sir Gilbert Samuel Inglefield (1909-1991), with armorial bookplate incorporating a lion, shield, crowned helmet, pair of birds, and the motto "The Sun My Compass" to free front endpaper.

Titles of Esther and Deborah slightly soiled; lower margins slightly trimmed with occasional minor loss to figured bass. In very good condition overall.

Stanley had quite a close association with Handel. His playing of organ voluntaries attracted musicians from all over London, including the great composer; he also directed several of Handel's oratorios in the 1750s, with his own oratorios modeled closely upon the master's. "Even more interesting, however, are the concertos and cantatas, which illustrate the part played by Stanley in the transition from the Handelian Baroque to the galant style associated in England with J.C. Bach. The six op.2 concertos are among the finest English string concertos in the Corelli–Handel tradition, and were popular enough to be reissued in arrangements for organ and as solos for violin, flute or harpsichord." Malcolm Boyd, revised by A.G. Williams in Grove Music Online

An attractive ensemble of Handel lifetime first editions.

Item #39619

Price: $5,500.00  other currencies