G-f Haendel

[Pierre Lauwers]

Once again, I read something that drives me mad about Haendel,

this time here on another thread (but it was only a quote, so no panic!)

 

Much has been said about Haendel 'carrierism", a man who would care

for social games.

I believe any guy capable of composing something like this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buihlt6ybVw...feature=related

 

....And which raise my hair on the head, by the way, cannot have been

someone like that.

When I visited british churches in the 70's, I very often heard Messiah's

transcriptions. With all the armada: Violes d'orchestre, Tubas, big Diapasons

et tutti quanti.

Wieder machen bitte (wééder mach'n astabliffe), please, we want it again !

 

Pierre

[MusingMuso]

Once again, I read something that drives me mad about Haendel,

this time here on another thread (but it was only a quote, so no panic!)

 

Much has been said about Haendel 'carrierism", a man who would care

for social games.

I believe any guy capable of composing something like this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buihlt6ybVw...feature=related

 

....And which raise my hair on the head, by the way, cannot have been

someone like that.

When I visited british churches in the 70's, I very often heard Messiah's

transcriptions. With all the armada: Violes d'orchestre, Tubas, big Diapasons

et tutti quanti.

Wieder machen bitte (wééder mach'n astabliffe), please, we want it again !

 

Pierre

 

 

=============================

 

 

 

I quite agree Pierre, and had you travelled from Belgium to Halifax PC at Christmas, for the 9 lessons and carols, you would have heard the organist, Philip Tordoff, instantly transcribing straight from the vocal score, the "Amen" chorus. It was a truly fine experience, especially as the organ-scholar played bits of Messiah too. All this on a largely untouched H & H !

 

I had a bit of a transcription Mass this morning, when the church was full of "them".....people who don't go to church, but turned up in their thousands to be at the children's "first mass." Always like a bear-pit at such services, I was obliged to play over the noise and chose fairly loud even before mass, and so "they" got mainly Handel transcriptions, and the concluding movement of the Royal Fireworks music.

 

Afterwards, I went slightly up-market, and played the Sinfonia Concertante from Cantata no.29, by J S Bach.

 

I don't do many trasncriptions, but baroque usually transcribes well, as Bach knew all too well.

 

MM

[Davidb]

Baroque transcriptions seem to work because there aren't so many parts in the original as the later pieces due to orchestras enlarging etc.

 

Handel does seem a little out of fashion at the music, but equally his organ music isn't up there with his finest work.

[sbarber49]

Dover published an 18th Century edition of Overtures by Handel arranged for keyboard which I've used from time to time.

 

I think it's virtually impossible to destroy Bach's music if you play the notes he wrote, whatever instrument you play it on, but Handel, for me, doesn't work if it's played too slowly and heavily. It took me a long time to appreciate Messiah - in my youth the performances I heard were usually slow and turgid. So, not too many transcriptions for me, please, although Fireworks and Water Music work well.

 

Stephen Barber

[heva]

Dover published an 18th Century edition of Overtures by Handel arranged for keyboard which I've used from time to time.

 

I think it's virtually impossible to destroy Bach's music if you play the notes he wrote, whatever instrument you play it on, but Handel, for me, doesn't work if it's played too slowly and heavily. It took me a long time to appreciate Messiah - in my youth the performances I heard were usually slow and turgid. So, not too many transcriptions for me, please, although Fireworks and Water Music work well.

 

Stephen Barber

 

Indeed: I remember listening to a 'composition' made of a Bach-notes arranged for barrelorgan where all the 4th quarters of every bar were removed and all bits pasted back together (leaving a 3/4 bar). You could definitely hear it WAS from Bach, but there was something strange going on ....

[Guest Stanley Monkhouse]

As with Stephen Barber, it has taken me a long time to get over the turgid Messiah extracts of my youth. But who could not be cheered by the coronation anthems? My recent discoveries (how could I have lived so long without having heard them?) are the Utrecht and Dettingen Te Deums. Turn the volume up for the beginning of the Dettingen on the Preston/Pinnock recording, and listen to the rocket taking off as the choir enters. And it's all very well for some to say, as I've heard, that 'anyone could have written that' - but the fact is that Handel did. Utrecht and Dixit Dominus are hard to beat. SM