| Contents |
The oratorio before Handel: terminological confusion -- Origins in liturgical music drama and mystery plays -- Italian oratorio in the seventeenth century -- German passion -- Cosmopolitan Hamburg -- The early works and Italian operas: early influences -- The Hamburg works -- The Italian period -- Musical and dramatic idiom of the cantatas -- First London works -- English church music -- Brockes passion -- The Italian operas -- Formal limitations of opera seria -- dramatic gift stunted -- The Handelian synthesis: status of the English oratorio -- Historical outline -- Fortuitous birth -- Quality of Handel's genius -- Dramatic structure of the oratorios -- Effects of the ban on staging -- Nature of dramatic music -- Handel, Racine, and Greek tragedy -- Pantheism and dramatic detachment -- Range of characterization -- Flexibility of design -- Rivals and successors -- Handel's style in the oratorios: the international style -- Nature of Handel's originality -- Handel and Bach -- The borrowings -- Improvisation and response to stimuli -- Associations of key and mode -- Affektenlehre -- Musical imagery -- View of nature -- Word-setting -- Musical handling of the chorus -- Influence of English theatre -- Decline of the da capo -- Structure of airs -- Dramatic duets and ensembles -- Instrumental symphonies -- Overtures -- Orchestration -- The background to performance: the autographs and printed librettos: place of performance -- Regulations in Lent -- Charity and club performances -- Provincial festivals -- Copyright in the eighteenth century -- The Walsh scores -- Handel's autographs and sketches -- His method of composition -- Collaboration with librettists -- Changes made in revivals -- Defects of Chrysander's edition -- Handel's printed librettos -- Their value for dating -- A dispute over copyright -- Provincial librettos -- The oratorios in performance: corrupt traditions -- Handel's orchestra -- His oratorio singers -- Rehearsals and conduct of performances -- His compound organ and harpsichord -- Correct use of continuo instruments -- 'Additional accompaniments' -- Conventions of performance -- Free embellishment -- Baroque expression -- Crotch and eighteenth-century tempo -- Interpretation of Handel's markings -- The oratorios on the stage -- The oratorio and English taste: disastrous influence of the oratorios -- Aesthetic and ethical values -- Jeremy Collier and the revival of Puritanism -- Reception of early oratorios -- Biblical words in the theatre -- Press controversy over Messiah -- Tastes of the new middle class -- Eighteenth-century aesthetics -- The Methodists and Evangelicals -- 'Theatrical oratorios' at Cambridge -- The Crystal Palace festivals -- Shaw's criticism -- The view of Handel -- The inevitable reaction -- Handel today. |
| Abstract |
Looking in depth at Handel's oratorios and masques in dramatic form--among them some of the highest achievements of musical drama ever written--the author discusses general questions of history, style, and performance, and explains how the oratorios have been progressively misrepresented since Handel's day; subsequent chapters detail each of his eighteen works in this genre. |
| General note | "Performances during Handel's life": pages 629-639. "Handel's oratorio singers": pages 651-661. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 675-678) and index. |
