Handel's use of flute and recorder in opera and oratorio Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Cornsweet, Amy, 1956- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 27/09/2021 10:22:37 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291499 INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 1341267 Handel*s use of flute and recorder in opera and oratorio Cornsweet, Amy, M.M. The University of Ariiona, 1990 UMI 300 N. Zeeb R& Ann Arbor, MI 48106 HANDEL'S USE OF FLUTE AND RECORDER IN OPERA AND ORATORIO by Amy Cornsweet A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF MUSIC n Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1990 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfill­ ment of requirements for an advanced degree with The Univer­ sity of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknow­ ledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reprodiction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. ; SIGNED APPROVAL BY THESIS This thesis has been approved on the date shown below John Boe Professor of Music 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES 4 TABLE OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES 5 ABSTRACT 6 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 7 notes 9 Chapter 1 'THE RECORDER AND TRANSVERSE FLUTE: 10 THE INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR LITERATURE notes 17 Chapter 2 HANDEL'S LIFE AND WORKS: A SUMMARY 18 notes 22 Chapter 3 HANDEL'S USE OF BORROWED MATERIAL AND 23 MULTIPLE WOODWIND PLAYERS notes 45 Chapter 4 RECORDERS AND FLUTES USED INDEPENDENTLY OR 46 TO DOUBLE OTHER PARTS notes 75 Chapter 5 TYPES OF PIECES USING FLUTES AND RECORDERS 76 notes 89 Chapter 6 THE USE OF KEYS IN THE OPERAS AND ORATORIOS 90 notes 119 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 121 TABLES 124 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 146 4 TABLES OPERAS: PIECES USING FLUTES AND RECORDERS ARRANGED 124 CHRONOLOGICALLY ORATORIOS: PIECES USING FLUTE AND RECORDER ARRANGED 129 CHRONOLOGICALLY PIECES USING FLUTE OR RECORDER FROM THE OPERAS 133 AND ORATORIOS ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY PIECES USING FLUTE OR RECORDER ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY 139 BY OPERA OR ORATORIO TITLE 5 MUSICAL EXAMPLES 1. The Choice of Hercules, "This manly youth" 24 2. Alceste, "Gentle Morpheus" 26 3. The Choice of Hercules, "See, Hercules!" 27 4. Alceste, Descent of Apollo 28 5. Aci, Galatea e Poliferoo, "S'agita in mezzo" 29 6. Acis and Galatea, "Hush ye pretty warbling quire" 30 7. Floridante, "Fuor di periglio" 32 8. Esther, "Breathe soft, ye gales" 36 9. Almira, "Sprich vor mir" 48 10. Riccardo Primo, "Morte vieni" 49 11. Aqrippina, "Vaghe fonti" 51 12. Rodrigo, "Nasce il sol" 52 13. Radamisto, "Troppo sofferse" version 1 54 14. Radamisto, "Troppo sofferse" version 2 55 15. Rinaldo (1711), "Augelletti" 57 16. Rinaldo 1731), "Augelletti" 61 17. II Parnasso in Festa, "Nel spiegar sua voce" 65 18. Resurrezione, "Notte funesta" 68 19. Alexander's Feast, "Thus, long ago" 69 20. Resurrezione, "Ferma l'ali" 70 21. Deborah, "Tears, such as tender fathers shed" 72 22. Silla, "Dolce nume de' mortali" 77 23. Admeto, "Luci care" 79 24. Alcina, Tamburino 81 25. Ezio, "Cangia sorte" 82 26. Sonata in G minor, Op. 1 no. 4 84 27. Resurrezione, "Per me gia di morire" 94 28. Terpsichore, "Hai tanto rapido" 96 29. II Parnasso in Festa, "Spira al sen" 100 30. Serse, "0 voi che penate" 103 31. Acis and Galatea, "0 ruddier than the cherry" 105 32. Giustino, "In braccio a te" 107 33. Solomon, "Beneath the vine" 109 34. Judas Maccabeus, "Oh lovely peace" 110 6 ABSTRACT Handel uses flutes or recorders in 125 pieces in his operas and oratorios. Flutes appear most frequently in the keys of G major, D major and the relative minor keys of E minor and B minor, and recorders in the keys of F major, Bb major, and the relative minor keys of D minor and G minor. Other keys are used primarily for special reasons, especially those related to the affections. Most pieces including flutes or recorders are pastoral songs, lovesongs, and laments. Flutes and recorders double other musical lines more than 50 percent of the times they appear in the operas, and in the oratorios, they double about 35 percent of the time. Flutes are independent of all other parts about 15 percent in the operas and 17 percent in the oratorios; recorders about 28 percent in the operas and 15 percent in the oratorios. In the remain­ ing pieces, flutes and recorders alternate between inde­ pendent use and doubling other parts. In all but a hand- full of pieces Handel uses only alto recorders or transverse flutes in D. On rare occasions he specifies a higher or lower member of the flute or recorder family. 7 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Handel's works have finally begun to receive the attention and study that they deserve in this century. His use of specific singers or types of voice in theatric­ al works has been examined, but, as with many other areas little attention has been given to his use of the recorder and transverse flute in operas and oratorios. The ero- neous assumption has been made that these instruments are used very little or not at all*. Recorders are in fact used in ten oratorios and twenty-five operas; transverse flutes are used in seventeen oratorios and eleven operas. This paper illustrates how Handel uses these popular Bar­ oque woodwinds. It focuses on his technique of borrowing and doubling; on the types of pieces using flutes and re­ corders; and on the keys Handel used. I base my findings on Chrysander's edition of the Handel works^, which—al­ though presenting conflations--is both accessible and com­ plete. The core in Handel's opoera Tatorio orchestra consisted of oboes, strings, and the continuo group... the opera Siroe, Berenice, and Imeneo, as well as in sev­ eral oratorios, there were in fact no additions to this ensemble. Flutes and recorders, however, are used as obbl gato instruments in most of the operas and many oratorios, 8 as are other instruments—including bassoons, horns, trum­ pets, tympani, and even viols, theorb, harp, and an early form of the clarinet. Recorders are usually used in pairs, although there are a number of obbligato recorder solos. Transverse flutes are more commonly used singly than are recorders. At times Handel uses both flute and recorder in the same piece, either doubling each other or indepen­ dently, thus contradicting the common Baroque practice of using a single player for all high woodwind parts. 9 Notes for Introduction and Overview 1. Edgar Hunt, "Recorder," The Mew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. (London: Macmillan, 1980) vol. 15, p. 655: "Handel did not write for the recorder in his oratorios." 2. Fred. Chrysander, ed., The Works of George Frederick Handel. (Leipzig: The German Handel Society, Brei- kopf and Hartel, 1859-1894, 1902; reprint Ridgewood, New Jersey: Gregg Press, 1965). 10 Chapter 1 THE RECORDER AND TRANSVERSE FLUTE: THE INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR LITERATURE The term "flute" is used for a large group of instru­ ments in many shapes and sizes having one common feature: an air column confined in the hollow body and set into motion by the vibration of a thin jet of air from the play- yer's lips, striking the sharp edge of an opening. The sharp edge may be the cut off end of a tube; the jet of air may be directed and shaped by the player's lips, as in the transverse flute, or it may be directed through a prepared channel against a fipple, as in the recorder, flageolet, whistle, and organ flue-pipe.