The horn parts in Handel's operas and oratorios and the horn players who performed in these works.
Item
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Title
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The horn parts in Handel's operas and oratorios and the horn players who performed in these works.
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Identifier
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AAI3283169
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identifier
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3283169
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Creator
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Beakes, Jennifer.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Raymond Erickson
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Date
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2007
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music
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Abstract
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Authors have commented frequently on the conservative nature of Handel's horn parts as well as on the impossibility of learning anything relevant about the horn players who performed this music. A careful examination of Handel's music for horn reveals general conservatism; however, individual operas and oratorios contain striking virtuosity and innovative technique. Examples include Giulio Cesare and Arianna. Furthermore, all Handel's music shows an awareness of continental trends in horn-writing. This fact is evidenced not only at the beginning of his operatic career with Radamisto but also towards the end, when he begins treating the horn as a harmonic---and not as a melodic---instrument.;The most striking feature of his music for horn is the imagery associated with the instrument. Although one finds the horn used in military and hunting music, one also sees it employed in pastoral and dance scenes. Furthermore, many of the oratorios require the horns to accompany pagan choruses. This association derives naturally from imagery surrounding the hunt.;Finally, an examination of the lives and careers of the horn players active in early eighteenth-century London reveals some surprising facts: not all doubled on the trumpet, and many worked in nonmusical as well as in musical fields. Frederick Messing (II) was even a stationer to King George III. These observations force us to alter commonly-held views about horn players active in the first half of the century.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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D.M.A.
