presentations

Discovering Handel’s London through His Music

n May 11, 2015, Ellen T. Harris (President of the American Musicological Society and Class of 1949 Professor Emeritus in Music and Theater Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) spoke at the Academy about O Handel’s life and his inner circle of friends. Harris’s slide presentation and discussion was followed by a perfor- mance by members of the Boston Early Music Festival Vocal and Chamber Ensembles. The program, which served as the Academy’s 2021st Stated Meeting, included a welcome from Jonathan F. Fanton (President of the American Academy) and a remembrance of Academy members who died during the year read by Arthur M. Jaffe (Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science at Harvard University). The following is an edited transcript of Ellen Harris’s unscripted talk.

Unexpectedly, Handel’s 1750 will was after Handel’s death, and hoped to make the best starting point I found for learning one thousand; she ended up creating about about the musician and the community of 980. Other associates of Handel included friends and intimates surrounding him. He Anne Donnellan, one of the legatees who left bequests to a number of friends, none lived nearby, and Elizabeth Mayne, who of whom were known to Handel scholars. married the lord of the manor in Teffont It seemed very strange to me that in the Evias, near the city of Salisbury. two hundred and fifty years since Handel’s How did I find out about Handel’s mys- death not one researcher had investigated terious colleagues, and where did I go to these individuals, who were referred to retrieve information about them? I spent simply as the mysterious people appearing a lot of time in historical archives, look- in Handel’s will. I suspected that they could ing through documents for evidence and emerge as more fully realized figures. The will led me ultimately to six col- leagues and acquaintances of Handel (some of whom are not actually named in the docu- ment). One of these was James Hunter, who Ellen T. Harris received a bequest, a significant portion of Ellen T. Harris is President of the American which unfortunately remains unreadable Musicological Society and Class of 1949 Professor despite the most advanced efforts to deci- Emeritus in Music and Theater Arts at the Mas- pher it. Another was Joseph Goupy, one of Handel’s colleagues who was best known as sachusetts Institute of Technology. She was elected a painter of copies of artistic masterworks a Fellow of the American Academy in 1998. for the aristocracy. (First-rate painters who specialized in reproductions were very y talk tonight stems from my most much in demand in the eighteenth century.) M recent book, George Frideric Handel: A But Goupy had a huge falling-out with Han- Life with Friends, in which I try to understand del and was not included in the will. Mary Handel, the man. We tend to think of him as Delany, who has in recent years become he is portrayed in Thomas Hudson’s famous well known for her flower mosaics, all of portrait (Figure 1), in which the rather which are preserved at the British Museum, Figure 1: Thomas Hudson, Portrait of George portly Handel is wearing brocade, silk, ruffs is another Handel colleague who fascinated Frideric Handel, 1748-1749. Image courtesy and lace, and, most important, a big wig. In me in the course of my research. Delany of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek a literal sense, Handel was, in fact, a bigwig. began making her mosaics at age seventy, Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky.

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material about their personal lives. Their own handwritten wills are preserved in the United Kingdom’s National Archives, based in Kew. The legal (Chancery) copies, which function like modern typed copies, can be purchased online, but in order to see the original handwriting, which can be very useful, it’s necessary to go to the Archives. Legal documents also reveal an enormous amount of information. Bills of complaint contain striking content, and depositions are especially interesting. Like captured speech, they are as close as we might get to the gos- sip of the time. In the course of a deposi- tion, people tended to reveal an enormous amount of information in response to ques- tioning (not all of it relevant to the case). All of that material was invaluable to my effort Figure 2: James Hunter’s fire insurance policy, renewed in 1752 with the Hand-in-Hand Fire to learn about these characters in depth. and Life Insurance Society. Image courtesy of London Metropolitan Archives, London. Bank of England documents, in particu- lar, were essential to my work. Not only did in-Hand Fire and Life Insurance Society– name is written in the catalog in red, indicat- I have Handel’s records, but I also had the on his dye house in Old Ford (Figure 2). ing he was the purchaser. The authenticity of bank accounts of many of his friends. The I learned a great deal from reading in the the “Rembrandt” cannot be confirmed. All Bank of England has preserved all of its doc- margins. Hunter owned not just a single of Handel’s paintings were auctioned after uments back to its founding in 1694. Both house, but a business with many buildings: his death, and we do not yet have enough my students and my colleagues sometimes dye houses, still houses, carriages and ser- information to trace his collection. ask me why I’m spending time with docu- vants’ rooms, which, taken together, con- Combing through these records, catalogs, ments in the vaults of the Bank of England. stituted a factory. I could glean, then, that and bank documents, I got the sense that For one, they’re beautiful: these are stun- Hunter was not himself up to his elbows Handel and his friends formed a distinct ning, handwritten documents of the time. dying linen in vats, but instead delegated neighborhood. All of these people lived in very There’s a Dickensian feel to a lot of this work to his company’s workers. Fire insur- close proximity to one another. In 1723, Han- research, though much of the material pre- ance records can tell you other essential del moved to 25 Brook Street, close to Bond dates his novels by one hundred years. The information about these residences, such Street, Tiburn Road (now Oxford Street), image of Bob Cratchit of A Christmas Carol as which rooms have wainscoting or how and Grosvenor Square (where the American sitting on his clerk’s stool and writing often many chimneys a house had (an import- Embassy stands today). For some time in the came to mind. Second, if you want to know ant piece of information for fire insur- late twentieth century, there was a chance about someone, where better to look than in ance). After examining Hunter’s insurance that Handel’s house would be torn down, their financial records? I ask my students, if record, I was able to create a fairly accu- but in 2001, it opened as the London Han- I had your credit card record and your bank rate facsimile of what Hunter’s dye house del House Museum. (Much effort went into accounts, what would I learn about you? would have looked like. preserving this house as a museum. Opera- They then understand! Finally, I relied on art auction catalogs, tions began on the upper three floors, thanks I also spent a lot of time with fire insur- some of which featured beautifully hand- to a “peppercorn rent,” before the museum ance records. After the Great Fire in written records about buyers and prices. raised enough funds to buy the ground floor.) London in 1666, fire insurance became a Unknown to many, Handel had a significant The map of the neighborhood around coveted commodity. I consulted James art collection that included “a large land- St. George Hanover Square (Figure 3) Hunter’s policy–created with the Hand- scape and figure” by Rembrandt. Handel’s gives an approximation of where Handel’s

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friends lived. They moved around a great inner circle enjoyed. Elizabeth Mayne (Eliz- events, she describes Handel attending and deal. In the small area of this map, Delany abeth Batt before she married) was a harp- how he was in a good mood, which suggests had two different residences; Donnellan sichordist, noted for her playing. I tracked to me that he wasn’t always in one. She had four; Goupy had three; and Palmer down her early keyboard book from 1704 relates that Handel performed with one of had two, including a big double house on in the British Library, and in it, I found a lot his featured prima donnas, but stayed until Curzon Street. Handel is the one station- of fascinating music from the time, such the early hours of the morning accompany- ary figure. Once he moved into the house as incidental music by Purcell adapted for ing all the ladies in attendance. on Brook Street, he remained there for the keyboard and excerpts from English opera. Handel’s friend Anne Donnellan was rest of his life, dying there in 1759. In con- Batt’s name is carefully written out in gothic widely known as a singer. There are letters trast, Goupy first took leased residence on letters on the cover of the book. She began from Delany about excursions on the Thames Bond Street, but as he rose in station, he using it when she was nine. River, during which other boats crowded moved to a much better address on Savile Mary Delany, who much of her life lived around to hear Donnellan’s voice. In another Row. When he began working for Freder- right up the road from Handel on Brook story, it was suggested that Lord Burlington ick, Prince of Wales, he moved to a beau- Street, was, like Elizabeth Mayne, also a would fly to her feet if ever he heard her sing tiful house at 97 Park Lane, just down the fine harpsichordist. She studied Handel’s “Verdi prati” from Handel’s Alcina. street from Handel. keyboard pieces and suites. Delany hosted In Figure 4 we see Donnellan stand in the Through the surviving documents, I many music parties, often attended by Don- middle of a particularly revealing Hogarth found, not surprisingly, that playing music nellan, also a friend of hers, and sometimes painting of the Wesley family, ancestors of was one of the main activities that Handel’s by Handel. In one of her letters about these the Duke of Wellington. The young girl is a dancer, and the older daughter is a key- board player. The father holds a violin in his lap. The mother is giving the beat. They are St. George poised to begin, and looking at Mrs. Wes- Hanover Square ley. Donnellan’s house at the base of Berke- ley Square on Charles Street has survived. Handel (There’s a pub just one door down, which was also in existence at the time, and I do like to speculate on whether Anne Donnel- Delany 1734-1741 lan or Handel ate there.) Delany 1742-1744 Probing the lives of Handel’s friends has Donnellan 1733-1734 helped round out certain difficult periods in Donnellan 1740-1752 Handel’s life. For instance, at the very end Donnellan 1752-1755 of his life, Handel began losing his sight; Donnellan 1755-1762 by 1754, he was completely blind. This loss Palmer 1746-1755 ended his compositional work, but not his Palmer 1755-1756 ability to perform music on the keyboard. His friends continued to ask him to play Goupy 1723-1736 instruments in their homes, and he contin- Goupy 1736-1746 ued playing up until his death in 1759. For Goupy 1746-1752 instance, Delany reports in a letter how in late 1755 Anne Donnellan had him try out her new Jacob Kirkman harpsichord at her Figure 3: Residences of Handel and his friends, based on John Pine’s and John house on Charles Street at the base of Berke- Tinney’s Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster and Borough of Southwark, ley Square, which still survives. In a combi- 1747. Image of map courtesy of the Westminster Archives Centre, London. nation of historical and financial sleuthing, I found Donnellan’s financial records at

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Goslings Bank, a private bank that many women used for the convenience of having a financial advisor. And within those records I found the record of her purchase of the harp- sichord from Jacob Kirkman for nine pounds and nine shillings in January 1756. This is a wonderful example of how documents can come together to support one another. When Handel first arrived in London, late in 1710, before he had his own house and had built all of these friendships in the neighborhood, he sometimes performed at public concerts held by Thomas Britton. Britton was a dealer in small coal, or char- coal, who is described as walking through the streets of London, in a blue smock with a sack of small coal upon his back, crying out his wares on the two notes that formed an octave. Above his shop, he had a music room where he held concerts. Many foreigners came to these concerts to get a sense of the cultural scene in London. I’m certain that Handel was one of the foreigners attracted Figure 4: William Hogarth, The Wesley Family (with Anne Donnellan), 1731. Wellington Collec- to this scene. tion; Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust. Image courtesy of Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust. I like to imagine that at Britton’s concerts Handel played his Trio Sonata in F, one of One imagines this composition might friends had marriages that were forced on only two trio sonatas that Handel is known have shocked the English auditors, who them, or they made “clandestine marriages” to have composed before he came to Lon- learned quickly that Handel’s music was where the couples effectively eloped with- don. This trio was written for two violins, not well-behaved. With a piece like this trio out any provision from their families and cello, and harpsichord, and it is a sassy little sonata, the young Handel would have intro- were then largely ostracized for doing so. piece. It would have introduced Handel to duced himself as an innovative, risk-taking Elizabeth Mayne was the exception, as his London audiences in a wonderful way. composer. His music might not be shocking the only friend who had anything resem- Listening to the trio, you get the sense to us now, since we have learned to relish the bling a conventional marriage, negotiated of a children’s game, of playing: notes that striking juxtapositions and silences he built by the participating families through a are approaching, then running away; or are into his scores. But if you were hearing Han- marriage contract that outlined a proper more like objects, tossed back and forth. del’s music for the first time, and his early exchange of status and money. At this time, What is astonishing about this trio is that work at that, it would have likely signaled to marriages more resembled mergers and once begun, Handel doesn’t continue along you that he was a figure well worth paying acquisitions than a love match. Despite the with this playful progression; he moves attention to. You would never be lulled into conventional preparations, however, Eliz- away from it, and slides into an unexpected an expectation of what would come next. abeth Mayne’s husband, it turns out, had chromatic passage before returning to the Besides being neighbors, playing music murdered a woman in Essex some years chase. As soon as this return accelerates up with one another, and visiting each other’s earlier. There is certainly something uncon- to full speed, Handel suddenly cuts it off as houses, Handel’s friends had another point ventional about that. One of the delights if with a guillotine. There’s a long silence in common: none of them had conventional of my research was that the Mayne family before the piece picks up again with a new marriages. Handel never married; nei- didn’t know this fact and they eagerly asked chromatic passage and moves to a close. ther did Goupy, nor Donnellan. The other for all the documents. So my research has

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revealed that having a murder in your fam- not given a comparable opportunity. So, he marriage. Two of Handel’s operas from the ily three hundred years ago turns out to be decided to take things into his own hands, early 1720s, Radamisto and Rodelinda, revolve an exciting event–at least it seemed to be and on December 17, 1728, at the age of sev- around marital relationships. In Radamisto, in this case. enteen, he set about marrying. To avoid the title character and his wife Zenobia are Some of the other friends had much more asking permission or having the banns in danger of being taken prisoner. Zenobia difficult marriages. For instance, Elizabeth announced for three weeks before the mar- pleads with Radamisto to kill her rather Palmer married Ralph Palmer, who was riage, Hunter acquired a marriage license than allow her to be taken captive, but he related, along with his family, to the aris- from the Bishop of London, in which he can’t bring himself to comply. In despera- tocratic Verney family by marriage. Eliz- falsely declared he and his bride-to-be were tion, she leaps off a cliff. abeth, whose maiden name was Peacock, both twenty-one years old. After their wed- Like Hamlet, Radamisto can never quite was the child of servants, and this fact did ding in Somerset Chapel, they were largely decide what is the right thing to do. After not sit well with the Verneys. Lord Verney, separated from family and left to manage on Zenobia’s desperate action, he stands par- in particular, was extremely unhappy about their own. Hunter tried to make a living as a alyzed and sings the aria, “Ombra cara,” the marriage, and all sorts of legal docu- trader in the city, but ran into financial diffi- calling out to her, Oh, beautiful shade. Rest ments were taken out to separate Elizabeth culties. He was sued by the Bank of England, happily, he continues; after I take revenge, I Peacock from any portion of the Palmer and, ultimately, was declared bankrupt, a will fly to you. Some interpreters of Radamisto inheritance. privilege allowed only to international trad- deem this aria an inappropriate response: In another case, we have James Hunter, ers in order to help them get back on their Radamisto should either feel more agitated the scarlet dyer. He was the third son of a feet. Other defaulters were declared insol- or sing a heartfelt lament. However, I think family of Huguenot traders, though he did vent and sent to debtor’s prison. the aria captures exactly the right tone. not expect to get very far from that posi- Among Handel’s friends who married, Radamisto is stunned, and the aria depicts tion. His oldest brother was sent to Aleppo Mary Delany offers, in some ways, the sad- that perfectly. to work for the Levant Company as an dest case (Figure 5). At the age of seventeen, As Radamisto sings long, sustained lines apprentice, but as the third son, James was she was forced to marry a man who was her with little melodic movement, the orches- uncle’s political crony. He brought a certain tra depicts his submerged emotions in kind of stature to the family, along with votes twisted, contrapuntal and chromatic lines in Parliament. Mary hated him. She wrote a that wash over the listener in a flood of great deal about her feelings, mentioning, sound. That is, the passionate depth of the vividly, that on her wedding day, never was woe aria emerges not from the voice, but from dressed out in gayer colors. As she was led to the the melodies of the orchestra, from which altar, she wished from her soul she had been Radamisto is wholly cut off. The power of led, as Iphigenia was, to be sacrificed. Mary’s the scene is derived in part from an unyield- marriage lasted until her husband died, seven ing divide between the stark vocal line and years later. As a young widow, she moved to the orchestra’s roiling emotion. Brook Street, only a few blocks from Handel. Generally, when Handel composed operas At the age of forty-four, she married Patrick about true love, or about companionate Delany, the love of her life, though her family marriage, he was writing about something disapproved and thus withheld inheritances that was desired, but did not often exist, in and family gifts from her. contemporary culture. Elizabeth Robinson Looking closely at the marriages of Han- Montagu remarked that talking about mar- del’s friends might give us some insight into riage based on love was a fitter conversation what Handel observed around him and drew for an imaginary Utopia than the current Figure 5: A miniature portrait of Mary Delany, inspiration from. Marriage played an enor- state of Great Britain. Given her own expe- one of four portraits in a friendship box, by mously important role in all of the operas he riences, Handel’s friend Mary Delany felt Christian Friedrich Zincke, c. 1740. Image cour- wrote. In conventional narratives, true love strongly that marriage should be based on tesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London. faces obstacles, but ultimately prevails in choice. “I have no notion of love and a knap-

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sack, but I cannot think riches the only thing pen in Deidamia’s aria. Deidamia expresses known. The dying King Admetus can only that ought to be considered in matrimony,” her unhappiness, followed by an explicit be saved if someone else will die in his stead. she is quoted as saying. desire for vengeance. Though her “I am very None of the citizens of the kingdom, or any Unlike Handel’s earlier operas based unhappy” followed by her subsequent “I’m of his servants, are willing to make this sacri- more on Montagu’s Utopian dreams, Ime- very vengeful” sounds as if it should develop fice, so it falls to his wife, Alcestes. The opera neo and Deidamia, the last two operas Han- into a da capo, something the text seems begins with a depiction of the dying Adme- del wrote, are about couples not finding explicitly to allow, Handel’s setting, with its tus, and instead of employing a conventional the love they desire. They are the only two continuing vacillation, gives the clear sense overture, Handel begins the opera with the of Handel’s operas in which the cultural period is accurately represented, and the listener gains a good sense of what marriage When Handel composed operas about true love, or was like in the eighteenth century. Women about companionate marriage, he was writing about could be forced to relinquish a love relation- ship, forced to marry, or both. Handel’s last something that was desired, but did not often exist, two operas represent the first and only time in contemporary culture. this theme is touched upon in his work. In Deidamia, Achilles dresses up as a woman to avoid being shipped off to the that her emotional instability will continue. curtain rising on action. We see Admetus in Trojan War. Ulysses arrives with a large plat- There is none of the closure found in a tra- his bedroom, joined by hallucinatory figures ter of jewels, a sword, and a helmet. He asks ditional da capo aria. dancing around him. The orchestra repli- the lovely women gathered to pick some- Another vital cultural issue of Handel’s cates his convulsions and fever with pairs of thing they would like. Achilles is outed when time found in his operas and later oratorios jerky, loud notes followed by a weak falling he chooses the masculine tools of war. When is illness, which, of course, played a large back in four descending notes. he leaves to join his comrades, Deidamia is role in eighteenth-century culture, as it did In the next movement, Admetus begs his left desolate. in the stories of many of Handel’s friends. hallucinations to go away, and Handel care- She turns on Ulysses, and reproachfully The two most common causes of death fully adds directions in the score to make cries, “You have made me unhappy, and listed in the bills of mortality from this sure the emotional (and physical) vacilla- you’re proud of that?” There is no orches- period were convulsions and fever. Halluci- tions in the text are properly depicted (Fig- tral introduction; the aria just begins with nations that attended fever were a particu- ure 6). Admeto begins con stupore, shifts into the voice floating in space. The orchestra lar concern as doctors needed to determine adagio, e piano (slow and soft), then furioso, responds with a plaintive echo, one octave whether these were fever-induced or if the then adagio again, and so on. The scene is full below what Deidamia has sung. It is as if patient was, in fact, mentally ill. When Han- of agitation, and the tone full of instability, she is singing into a void. Deidamia receives del began in 1738 to have a number of what until Admetus, totally exhausted, pleads, in very little in return from the orchestra or were called paralytic attacks, some of the a very quiet, hymn-like aria, let me die. Just Ulysses; and she certainly doesn’t get back people around him worried about his men- close my eyes, and let me die. Achilles. She then pronounces vengeance on tal stability, which was, however, never in The final theme in Handel’s works that Ulysses: may he face storms; may they sink serious doubt. In contrast, we have the med- I’ll address tonight is religion, a subject of his ships; may he never get what he desires; ical records of a “mad doctor” consulted by paramount importance in Great Britain at may he never return to his homeland. Unlike Joseph Goupy for a person in his household this time. Handel’s penultimate oratorio, Radamisto, Deidamia is deeply engaged and who had to be confined. Theodora, is a story about the Christian emotionally connected to the scene as her Perhaps drawing from personal experi- martyr, Theodora. Theodora and Didymus, emotions shuttle back and forth. ence, Handel wrote a number of important a former soldier who had secretly converted For people who know Baroque opera and scenes of madness: in his opera Orlando, in to Christianity, are both sentenced to death, know the structure of da capo arias, return- the oratorio Saul, and in the oratorio Hercules. sacrificed as Christians before the Roman ing to the beginning is the norm. But that In Admeto (1727), Handel depicts the halluci- authorities. In their final duet together, they return, to the head of the piece, doesn’t hap- nations of physical illness. The story is well sing of the “Streams of Pleasure ever flow-

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Figure 6: The pages of the dramatic recitative of Handel’s Admeto (1728), which features Admeto singing, “Orride larve”! From G.F. Handel’s Werke: Ausgabe der Deutschen Handel-Gesellschaft, ed. Friedrich Chrysander. Images courtesy of the author. ing” that await them when they are “from in E-flat, as if “any” key is harmonically from 1738 on, his music takes on a very per- Life’s dull Labours free.” Earlier in the ora- “right.” I find it enormously moving that sonal sense of expression as he dealt increas- torio, Theodora has already said goodbye to Handel, as he was losing his sight, set this ingly with physical illness and blindness. All this “fond, flattering world.” phrase from Pope to the tune of “Fond, of these sensations, memories, and feelings The next year, when composing his last flatt’ring world, adieu.” resonate in his music, and we can still feel oratorio, Jephtha, Handel began to expe- As we reviewed these personal stories of them today. Through his music, we are wel- rience the symptoms that resulted in his Handel and his friends, we explored four comed into Handel’s world. n blindness. While working on the final aspects of their world, all of which ulti- chorus at the end of Part II, “How dark, O mately played a central role in Handel’s © 2015 by Ellen T. Harris Lord, are thy decrees,” he wrote in the mar- music: how these friends made music with gin: I was unable to continue my left eye was too one another; found (or failed to find) fulfill- weak. He was forced to stop composing for ment in marriage; fell ill; and exercised their about month. When he returned to work, religion. Learning about Handel’s friends he was able to complete this chorus, which helped me to see a reflection of their lives ends with the words, “What God ordains, in Handel’s music. Further, it gave me a pic- is right.” Later, he changed these words to ture of the Handel they might have known. “Whatever is, is right,” taken from Alex- He visited his neighbor’s houses, trying out ander Pope’s “An Essay on Man.” Every their harpsichords. He stayed up late at par- time this phrase is sung, it is pounded out ties, accompanying at the keyboard for all in a different key: first in C, then in F, next of the women in attendance who sang. And

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