Table of Contents

List of plates; Notes on contributors; Preface; Chronology; Introduction Donald Burrows; Part I. Background: 1. Germany - education and apprenticeship John Butt; 2. Italy - political and musical contexts Carlo Vitali; 3. Handel's London - political, social and intellectual contexts William Weber; 4. Handel's London - the theatres Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume; 5. Handel's London - British musicians and London concert life H. Diack Johnstone; 6. Handel's London - Italian musicians and librettists Lowell Lindgren; 7. Handel's London - Handel's English librettists Ruth Smith; Part II. The Music: 8. Handel and the aria C. Steven LaRue; 9. Handel's compositional process David Ross Hurley; 10. Handel and the idea of an oratorio Anthony Hicks; 11. Handel's sacred music Graydon Beeks; 12. Handel's chamber music Malcolm Boyd; 13. Handel as a concerto composer Donald Burrows; 14. Handel and the keyboard Terence Best; Part III. The Music in Performance: 15. Handel and the Italian language Terence Best; 16. Handel and the orchestra Mark W. Stahura; 17. Production style in Handel's operas Winton Dean; 18. Handel's oratorio performances Donald Burrows; Bibliographical note; Notes; List of Handel's works; Index.

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A Companion to one of the principal creative figures in Baroque music.

Reviews

'... condenses the current state of knowledge on various topics and the fruits of very recent research, some of it original and some of it now made available for the first time in English.' The Handel Institute Newsletter '... both scholarly yet eminently readable and, as such, it s a book that will undoubtedly have wide appeal to both musical scholars and the ordinary music lover ... it places its subject firmly in historical context and gives us many (otherwise all too rare) glimpses into the mind of one of the truly great composers'. Scenario