Type: Book
by
- George Frideric Handel
35 neglected works from Handel's vast oeuvre, originally jotted down as improvisations. Includes Eight Great Suites and Fugue in A Minor, others. New sequence.
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
KEYBOARD WORKS
FOR SOLO INSTRUMENT
The music historian Sir John Hawkins recorded that his friend Handel's keyboard improvisations "stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the harmony close wrought, and as full as could possibly be expressed; the passages concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the same time being perfectly intelligible, and carrying the appearance of great simplicity." Such fecund spontaneity generated the few published pieces Handel wrote specifically for the keyboard. The first set of suites appeared in 1720, perhaps composed and published for the instruction of Princess Anne, to whom Handel served as music master. Other collections of harpsichord and clavichord work followed; all seem to have been preserved from Handel's freely inventive keyboard sessions. Here, for the first time in a popularly accessible edition, are 35 of his finest keyboard works for solo instruments, reproduced from the monumental Deutsche Händel-gesellschaft edition, still the the most complete.
This collection features the celebrated Eight Great Suites, including the Harmonious Blacksmith Air and the Passacaille in G Minor (G 255), "a work in which Handel approaches most nearly to the monumental style of his choral writing" (Grove's Dictionary). Other works include:
Fugue in A Minor Fantasia in C Major Suite (Partita) in G Major
Sonatina in B-flat Major Capriccio in F Major Minuet in G Minor
Sonatas in C Major Chaconne in F Major Prelude and Sonata in G Minor, and more
For this new edition, the pieces have been rearranged and retitled according to the latest scholarly sequences found in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Students and scholars will find many of the ideas Handel sketched here expanded and reworked in later chamber and orchestral works and in the opera dance movements; musicians and every Baroque music lover will see in these neglected pieces "a Protean fluidity" (New Grove) worthy of the great composer, and more than worthy of any musical library.
Unabridged Dover (1982) republication of all the music in Volume II, "Klavierstücke von Georg Friedrich Händel" (1859), of the set Georg Friedrich Händel's Werke, Deutsche Handelgesellschaft, Leipzig. New sequence and identifications in headings and contents. vi + 169pp. 9 3/8 x 12 1/4. Paperbound.
Free Dover Music Catalog (59057-7) available upon request.
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