HANDEL, George Frideric 1685-1759

Handel's Celebrated Coronation Anthems in Score for Voices and Instruments Vol. I. [Price 12:0]. [HWV 258, 259, and 260]. [Full scores]

London: Printed for William Randall Successor to the late Mr. Walsh in Catharine Street in the Strand, [1769].

Folio. Disbound. Nineteenth-century half dark brown pebbled cloth with matching boards. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-53, [i] (blank), 55-98 pp. Engraved throughout.

Contains:
HWV 258: Anthem I, Zadok the Priest
HWV 259: Anthem III, Let thy Hand be Strength
HWV 260: Coronation Anthem, The King shall rejoice

Provenance
Noted American harpsichordist Louis Bagger (1926-2024)

Binding worn, rubbed, and bumped; upper detached. Slightly worn and browned; stain affecting title (the word "Score") and three following leaves, to a lesser extent; occasional minor foxing to blank margins.

Second edition. Smith p. 151, no. 3. BUC p. 423. RISM H1161 (two copies in the U.S. only, at the University of Minnesota Music Library and the Library of Congress).

"Despite his involvement with opera, Handel found time for other musical activities in the 1720s. On 25 February 1723 he was made Composer of Music for His Majesty’s Chapel Royal – an honorary appointment because, as an alien, he could not hold an office of profit under the Crown. The title seems simply to have given official recognition to his role in supplying occasional music for the Chapel Royal, which in the mid-1720s included three orchestrally accompanied anthems and the Te Deum in A, all based to some extent on works written for Cannons. An exceptional opportunity for ceremonial church music arose after the unexpected death of George I in June 1727. For the coronation of his successor George II and his consort Queen Caroline at Westminster Abbey on 11 October Handel provided four new anthems of great splendour, showing how much he welcomed the chance to use the massed forces not available to him in the opera house. They included Zadok the Priest, which has been sung at every subsequent coronation of a British monarch. According to Burney (Sketch, p.34) Handel ‘took offence’ at being provided with the words of the anthems ‘by the bishops’, murmuring ‘I have read my Bible very well, and shall chuse for myself’." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online 

With one of the composer's most iconic and recognizable works, Zadok, still performed for every British coronation.

Item #41199

Price: $650.00  other currencies