Handel at Cannons

Last updated

George Frideric Handel was the house composer at Cannons from August 1717 until February 1719. [1] The Chandos Anthems and other important works by Handel were conceived, written or first performed at Cannons.

Contents

Cannons was a large house in Middlesex, the seat of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos who was a patron of Handel. The duke, a flute player, had a private orchestra, consisting of 24 instrumentalists. [2] Johann Christoph Pepusch was the Master of Music at Cannons from 1716 and he saw the size of the musical establishment at first expand and then decline in the 1720s in response to Brydges' losses in the South Sea Bubble, a financial crash which took place in 1720. [3]

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos (1673-1744), Handel's patron at Cannons, painted by John Vanderbank in 1722. Vanderbank - 1st Duke of Chandos.jpg
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos (1673-1744), Handel's patron at Cannons, painted by John Vanderbank in 1722.

Handel's move to Cannons

Handel settled in England in 1712, but appears not to have maintained his own household in London until 1723. [4] He attracted the patronage of noblemen such as Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, [5] and he was based at Burlington House before becoming Cannons' resident composer from 1717 to 1718. It has been suggested that the move to Cannons was related to the fact that in 1717 there was reduced demand for his services in central London because operatic productions were experiencing a temporary downturn. At the end of Handel's stay at Cannons, the Duke and his friends helped him establish a new opera company in London, the so-called Royal Academy of Music. [6]

Church music

Handel's connection with Cannons is commemorated in this gravestone of questionable accuracy - see The Harmonious Blacksmith William Powell grave.jpg
Handel's connection with Cannons is commemorated in this gravestone of questionable accuracy – see The Harmonious Blacksmith

Handel wrote church music for performance at Cannons, the Chandos Te Deum and the Chandos Anthems (settings of texts from the psalms for use in the Anglican liturgy). While Handel was at Cannons, the ducal chapel was still being constructed (it was finished in 1720). The church music was performed at the parish church (St Lawrence, Whitchurch). [7] The church reopened in 1716 after the Duke had reconstructed the building to his baroque taste. St Lawrence still contains artwork by Louis Laguerre and Bellucci (who also worked on the decorative scheme of the house). At the east end of the church is the organ used by Handel. Modernised over the years, it was restored in 1994 using the surviving parts of the original 1716 single-manual organ as the reference point. [8]

Chandos Anthems

The Chandos Anthems were written at a time when the musical establishment at Cannons was still being expanded. The scoring of the anthems varies, with strings predominating including first and second violins (but only occasionally violas), cellos and basses. There is usually a separate part for an oboe, and one for organ. [9] Bassoons occasionally join the cellos and basses.

The number of singers at Handel's disposition is unknown. Although Daniel Defoe referred to the duke having a "full choir" at a slightly later period, [10] it seems that altos were missing from the choir at the start of Handel's tenure at Cannons (see As pants the hart for details of the scoring of one of the earlier anthems).

Dramatic music

Handel's Esther (HWV 50a), which is now recognised as the first English oratorio, was performed by the Cannons musicians as early as 1718. [11] The libretto, based on a tragedy by Jean Racine, was by John Arbuthnot and Alexander Pope, and according to Winton Dean [ citation needed ] appears to have been given in a semi-staged version although this is not definitively proven in any known document. Handel used several parts of his Brockes Passion in "Esther."

Another premiere in May 1718 is without doubt the masque Acis and Galatea . [12] [13] The libretto was by John Gay, who was to collaborate with Pepusch in "The Beggar's Opera" in 1728. According to tradition, Acis and Galatea was performed in the garden. Appropriately for Cannons, which had expensive water features, the pastoral hero Acis is transformed into a fountain at the end.

Instrumental music

Handel published eight keyboard suites in 1720. It is possible, though unproven, that some of them were written at Cannons. Dating the music is difficult because it was written over a period of years and the composer had been happy to leave it in manuscript until he got wind of a forthcoming unauthorised publication. The Harmonious Blacksmith variations (concluding the 5th suite, in E major) is said to have been written at Cannons. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Frideric Handel</span> German-British Baroque composer (1685–1759)

George FridericHandel was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the "high baroque" style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Christoph Pepusch</span> German composer (1667–1752)

Johann Christoph Pepusch, also known as John Christopher Pepusch and Dr Pepusch, was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England. He was born in Berlin, son of a vicar, and was married to Margherita de l'Epine who also performed in some of his theatrical productions.

<i>Samson</i> (Handel) Oratorio by George Frideric Handel

Samson is a three-act oratorio by George Frideric Handel, considered to be one of his finest dramatic works. It is usually performed as an oratorio in concert form, but on occasions has also been staged as an opera. The well-known arias "Let the bright Seraphim", "Total eclipse" and "Let their celestial concerts" are often performed separately in concert.

The year 1718 in music involved some significant events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos</span> English politician (1673–1744)

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, was an English landowner and politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 until 1714, when he succeeded to the peerage as Baron Chandos, and vacated his seat in the House of Commons to sit in the House of Lords. He was subsequently created Earl of Carnarvon, and then Duke of Chandos in 1719.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Theophilus Desaguliers</span> British philosopher (1683–1744)

John Theophilus Desaguliers FRS was a British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton. He had studied at Oxford and later popularized Newtonian theories and their practical applications in public lectures. Desaguliers's most important patron was James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. As a Freemason, Desaguliers was instrumental in the success of the first Grand Lodge in London in the early 1720s and served as its third Grand Master.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canons Park</span> Human settlement in England

Canons Park is a public park and the name of its surrounding residential area, in the Edgware district of the London Borough of Harrow, north west London. Canons Park was a country estate which partially survives today as a public park. St. Lawrence's Church, the parish church of Little Stanmore, and the accompanying Chandos Mausoleum are located here.

<i>Acis and Galatea</i> (Handel) 1718 masque by Handel

Acis and Galatea is a musical work by George Frideric Handel with an English text by John Gay. The work has been variously described as a serenata, a masque, a pastoral or pastoral opera, a "little opera", an entertainment and by the New Grove Dictionary of Music as an oratorio. The work was originally devised as a one-act masque which premiered in 1718.

<i>Esther</i> (Handel) Oratorio by George Frideric Händel

Esther is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. It is generally acknowledged to be the first English oratorio. Handel set a libretto after the Old Testament drama by Jean Racine. The work was originally composed in 1718, but was heavily revised into a full oratorio in 1732.

Chandos Records is a British independent classical music recording company based in Colchester. It was founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens. Since March 2024, it has been owned by Klaus Heymann.

<i>Solomon</i> (Handel) Oratorio by George Frideric Handel

Solomon, HWV 67, is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous libretto – currently thought to have been penned by the English Jewish poet/playwright Moses Mendes (d.1758) – is based on the biblical stories of the wise king Solomon from the First Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles, with additional material from Antiquities of the Jews by ancient historian Flavius Josephus. The music was composed between 5 May and 13 June 1748, and the first performance took place on 17 March 1749, with Caterina Galli in the title role at the Covent Garden Theatre in London, where it had two further performances. Handel revived the work in 1759.

The Harmonious Blacksmith is the popular name of the final movement, Air and variations, of George Frideric Handel's Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430, for harpsichord. This instrumental air was one of the first works for harpsichord published by Handel and is made up of four movements. An air is followed by five doubles : semiquavers in the right hand; semiquavers in the left hand; semiquaver triplets in the right and left hands; and finally demisemiquavers in both hands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Wylde</span> English composer, conductor and music critic (1822 - 1890)

Henry Wylde was an English conductor, composer, teacher and music critic.

<i>Clori, Tirsi e Fileno</i>

Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno, Cantata a tre, subtitled Cor fedele in vano speri, is a 1707 comic cantata by George Frideric Handel. The subject is a pretty shepherdess who loves two young men, but loses both when they discover her fickleness. Believed lost for many years, the score is the source of arias in some of Handel's later, more celebrated operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannons (house)</span> Stately home in Little Stanmore, Middlesex, England

Cannons was a stately home in Little Stanmore, Middlesex, England. It was built by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, between 1713 and 1724 at a cost of £200,000, replacing an earlier house on the site. Chandos' house was razed in 1747 and its contents dispersed.

Little Stanmore was an ancient parish of Middlesex which is today the residential area of Canons Park in the London Borough of Harrow, England. The parish included the western part of the town of Edgware.

As pants the hart is an anthem composed by George Frideric Handel for the Chapel Royal of Queen Anne and subsequently revised. There are five versions of the work, the first being completed in 1713, and the final in 1738. HWV 251a was the first anthem Handel composed for the Chapel Royal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chandos Jubilate</span> Anthem by George Frideric Handel

Chandos Jubilate, HWV246, is a common name for a choral composition by George Frideric Handel. It was published as the first of the Chandos Anthems, and is known also as Chandos Anthem No. 1 and as Jubilate in D Major. A setting of Psalm 100, "O, be joyful in the Lord", it is the first in a series of church anthems that Handel composed between 1717 and 1718, when he was composer in residence to James Brydges, later 1st Duke of Chandos. The anthem was probably first performed at St. Lawrence's church, Whitchurch, near Brydges' country house. The work is written for a small ensemble of instrumentalists, solo singers and choir, and is approximately twenty minutes in length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Lawrence's Church, Whitchurch</span> Church in Whitchurch Lane, United Kingdom

St. Lawrence, Whitchurch, is a Church of England parish church in Little Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow, England. The building is Grade I listed. It retains a stone tower dating from ca. 1360, but the main body of the building was constructed in the 18th century in Baroque style.

<i>Chandos Anthems</i> Set of anthems by George Frideric Handel

Chandos Anthems, HWV 246–256, is the common name of a set of anthems written by George Frideric Handel. These sacred choral compositions number eleven; a twelfth of disputed authorship is not considered here. The texts are psalms and combined psalm verses in English. Handel wrote the anthems as composer in residence at Cannons, the court of James Brydges, who became the First Duke of Chandos in 1719. His chapel was not yet finished, and services were therefore held at St Lawrence in Whitchurch. The scoring is intimate, in keeping with the possibilities there. Some of the anthems rely on earlier works, and some were later revised for other purposes.

References

  1. Dean, W. & J.M. Knapp (1995) Handel's operas 1704–1726, p. 166.
  2. Handel. A Celebration of his Life and Times 1685–1759, p. 99-100, 105–109. National Portrait Gallery London (1985). Some musicians doubled as a waiting page or a valet.
  3. The Cambridge Companion to Handel , Donald Burrows
  4. The composer's home from 1723 is preserved as the Handel House Museum
  5. Murdoch, Tessa. "The Music Room". Royal College of Music. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  6. ("during ... [Handel's] residence at Cannons, a project was formed by the Nobility for erecting an academy at the Haymarket") Dean, W. & J.M. Knapp (1995) Handel's operas 1704–1726, p. 299.
  7. "The Rise and Fall of Henry James Brydges First Duke of Chandos" . Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  8. "St Lawrence Whitchurch, Edgware". Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn . Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  9. Original full score
  10. Defoe, Daniel (1725). A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. pp. Letter 6, Part 1: Middlesex, Hertford and Buckinghamshire.
  11. Marx, J.H. (1998) Händels Oratorien, Oden und Serenaten, p. 73-77.
  12. Marx, J.H. (1998) Händels Oratorien, Oden und Serenaten, p. 8.
  13. Bonavia Hunt, H.G. (1898). A Concise History of Music from the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Day . United States: Kessinger Pub. ISBN   1-4179-0645-6.
  14. "Edgware and Mill Hill". London Borough of Barnet. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2008.