The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-30 00:00:00

MAY 30, 1857 giteratart. The Life of Handel. By Victor Schcelcher. London : Trubner and Co. Handel: His Life, Personal and Professional. With Thoughts on Sacred Music. A Sketch. By Mrs. Bray. London : Ward and Co. Grand Handel Musical Festival at the Crystal Palace in 1857. A Letter addressed to the Members, Subscribers, and Assistants of the Sacred Harmonic Society. By Robert Bowley. London : Bradbury and Evans. THE commemoration of Handel in 1859, now organising in Germany, suggested the Crystal Palace Festival for next June, and evidently has hastened the production of the two books of M. Schcelcher and of Mrs. Bray. It is clear that the biography of the French author has been the work of years, and has been prematurely published; it is palpable that the " sketch" of the English lady has been brought out under the erroneous impression that the genius of Handel was not sufficiently appreciated in this cJuntry ; and it is certain that the Crystal Palace Festival will not derive much aid from the zeal and enthusiasm of the two biographers. Mrs. Bray's intentions are good, but inasmuch as she speaks of Nlendels sohn's Elijah as a work " so admirable and so "much in the school of Handel" that she " sometimes could have fancied it was his "own "—as Dr. Morell is mentioned as the arranger of the words of The Messiah for Handel—as the date of the birth of the com poser is wrongly given—as she describes the recitative " There were shepherds " as a " sacred song," and as her Handelian impres sions seem to be mainly based on the Com memoration at Westminster Abbey in 1834, since which festival oratorio execution has progressed enormously, we must be pardoned if we go at once to the more elaborate effusion of Victor Sehcelcher. This is an extraordinary work in many re spects. In the first place, it is curious that a Frenchman should have taken up Handel, and that he should rate his country and his country men so soundly on their non appreciation and non-acceptance of the immortal composer. Schcelcher is a republican in exile, and of all the arts, he tells his readers in his preface, " Music " is that which brings the greatest consolation "to the mind when consolation is pos , ible." He was an admirer of Handel from an early period. He delighted in listening to his oratorios. He began to collect his works and to study the records of those authors who made mention of Handel, and after three years of labour and research his " Life " sees the light. Originally written in French, it is Mr. James Lowe who has given it, M Schcel cher states, " the English dress," and the foreigner himself, oddly enough, testifies to the perfect exactness with which the language renders his " intentions." M. Schcelcher, despite of his German name, is no linguist. It is Dr. Dick, " his friend and companion in " exile," who translates for him Von Matthe son's German biography of the musicians of the epoch, published in Hamburg in 1740. Thus much for the literary portion. In respect to the musical editorship, M.Scheal cher avows that he is no professed musician, but he acknowledges that Mr. Rophino Lacy has not only conducted for him a minute research in the British Museum and the journals of the Handeliar. period, but also that the technical details of a complete catalogue of Handel's works, which is to be published shortly in a separate volume, are by Mr. Lacy. He states that this well-known " adapter " also inspected for him the original MSS. of Handel, now in Buckingham Palace, and that Mme. Viardot had examined for him the MS. copy of the oratorio The Passion. He includes Mr. Ayrton and Dr. Rimbault amongst the persons to whom he is indebted for information. He thanks Prince Albert for having allowed Mr. Rophino Lacy to take copies of many Handelian MSS. at Buckingham Palace; he is most grateful to Mr. Anderson, in whose charge are these MSS., for his courtesy and his vigilance over the THE PRESS. relics ; he is indebted to Mr. Horatio Towns end for his "elegant correspondence " ; he had great assistance from the Rev. C. C. Babington, of St. John's College, Cambridge, in examining tho MSS. in the Fitzwilliam Museum; Mr. R. Bowley and Mr. W. Husk placed at his disposal the library of the Sacred Harmonic Society ; Mr. R. Lonsdule commu nicated to him some useful documents ; and Mr. Surtnan, who is called CEdipus, is also thanked for his readiness in replying to questions (what questions ?) Professors and amateurs will stare at some of these names, and many of them will smile at one or two beingaccepted as " authlrities." The au• thor supplies the list of works he has referred to. Of course Dr. Burney and John Hawkins have been ransacked. The musical dictionaries of Grassineau, Rousseau, Hoyle, Charon and Fayolle, Busby, Dannely, Lichteuthal, Fetis, &c., have been consulted ; the memoirs by Mainwaring, John Bishop, Richard Clarke, Townsend, &c., have been perused, and various periodicals of Handel's days referred to ; but it is surprising, with all this industrious re search, how little has been added to the before existing stores of information. With his unquestionable enthusiasm fur Handel, it is strange M. Schcelcher should not have visited Halle, the place of his birth, and Hamburg and Hanover, where he resided, in order to have searched for records of his early youth. Throughout the work the author is very severe against those professors who have on various occasions " cooked " Handel's works : to serve a special purpose. And yet it is not a little curious that the musical colleague, Mr. Ro phino Lacy, with whom he has worked on this " Life," should have been the very " arranger" who has taken the most unpardonable liber ties with Handel. Mr. Lacy has been known as an operatic adapter and " cook " for seine years. Ho might have been forgiven for his Rossinian mixtures, but what can be urged in defence of that extraordinary melange which he made at Covent-garden Theatre in 1838, by giving Handel's Israel in Egypt, in action with scenery, with a selection from Rossini's Mose in Eyitto (Zora)? This was to have been fol lowed by Jephtha, another concoction, but the profanity was stopped by the Bishop of Lon don, and nothing has been, very properly, heard since of oratorios in action. Tho list of sacred works cited by M. Sehcel cher in the appendix includes 2 Italian orato rios, 1 German oratorio, 19 English oratorios, 5 Te Deums, 7 psalms, 20 anthems, 2 motets, 3 hymns, a Gloria, Kyrie, and Nlagnificat. Handel's secular music comprised 4 German operas, 39 Italian operas, 1 English opera, 2 Italian serenatas, 2 English serenatas, 1 Eng lish interlude, 1 Italian interlude, 4 odes, 2 chamber trios, 24 chamber duets, about 150 cantatas ; and in the instrumental pieces are included sonatas, water music, harpsichord suites de pieces, minuets, marches, hautbois concertos, fugues for the organ, concertos for the organ, concertantes, forest music, fireworks music, &c., out of number. George Frederic Handel was born at Halle, on the Seale, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, Lower Saxony, on the 23rd of February, 1685, and he died in Brook-street, Hanover-square, on Good Friday, the 13th of April, 1759, being the anniversary of the first performance of The Messiah, which oratorio was heard for the first time in Dublin 13th of April, 1742, at the Music-hall in Fishamble•street. On the 2nd of May, 1759, the people of Halle heard of his decease, and public prayers were offered up in the Lutheran Church of St. Laurent, where he was baptized. His will was in English and in his own handwriting, for he became a natu ralised British subject by private Act of Par liament in 1726. He arrived first iu London at the close of 1710, after a residence of some years in Italy and a sojourn in Hamburg and Hanover. On the 24th of February, 1711, his first lyric work, Rinaldo, was produced at the Italian Opera (Haymarket Theatre), the poet Aaron Hill having concocted a libretto from the episode of " Rinaldo and Amide " in Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," and dedicated it to Queen Anne. Rinaldo was given fifteen times without intermission, so great was the success, Walsh the publisher clearing 1,5001. by it, and causing Handel to write to him, "As it is only right jthat we should be upon 535 "an equal footing, you shall compose the next " opera and I will sell it." He returned to Hanover for a time, hut finally settled in Eng land in 1712. He held a pension from Queen Anne of 2001. per year, one of 2001. a year from George 1., and finally an additional 2001. as musie•master to the daughters of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George 11., making 6001. per annum from the Royal Family of England. He became chapel-master of the Duke of Chandos in 1718; between which year and 1720 he composed the two To Deuins and the twelve works called the " Chandos Te Deums" and the " Chandos Anthems." In 1726 the Ita lian Opera was revived under the title of " The Royal Academy of Music." A subscrip tion, at the head of which was George I. for 1,000/., was raised by a few noblemen to the extent of 50,000/. Handel wits appointed director. In the sante Haymarket Theatre, a company of French comedians played on the offnights of the opera. In 1721 he resigned his post at Whitchurch-chapel, Edgware, after composing for the Duke of Chandos in 1721 his first oratorio, Esther, and the serenata, Acis and Galatea. The organ at \Vhitchurch is actually in existence, with an inscription that Esther was composed on it by Handel. The Royal Academy of' Music expired in 1728, Handel having been found an impracticable impresario, owing to his violent and imperious character. Out of the profits of his works, however, he had realised 10,0001., and, with Heidegger, took the Italian Theatre, which was reopened in December, 1729. He was singularly unsuccessful in his new operas. a result which M. Schcelcher ascribes to the somniferous effects of the poems, in which there were scarcely any without some one or other of the principal personages who did not fall asleep in the presence of the audience. In 1733 came the Senesino schism, a portion of the nobility espousing the cause of the singer, and many of Handers best patrons going over to the coalition against the com poser, whose passionate disposition became in tolerable. Under the " banner of the barons," a second Italian Opera-house was opened on the 20th of December, 1733, with the Ariadne of Porpora. Frederick, Prince of Wales, at that time headed the coalition. It was at his house the general rehearsal took place. On the 26th of January, 1734, Handel produced. another Ariadne, writing it, accordin4 to Hawkins, "to recover the favour of the " nobility, whom he was sensible he had dis " pleased in some of his most elaborate corn " positions." 'This satire of the composer ex plains the feuds of the day. It was high art against fashion. What can approach the malignant feelings of rival opera-houses ? What were the deadly animosities between the Gueiphs and the Ghibelines, the Montagues and the Capulets, compared with those of the Gluckists and the Piccininists, the nobles and the Handelians? The two Ariadnes were equally successful, having been given exactly the same number of representa tions, namely, nineteen, at the rival establish ments ; but in 1734, owing to the cessation of the partnership between Handel and Heidegger, the nobility lost possession of the Haymarket Theatre, and Handel occupied Lincoln's-inn Fields, vacated by the coali tion, and for the first time stood on his own account. In this struggle he lost his savings of 10,0001., and in the same year (1737) the coalition wound up with a loss of 12,000/. We are struck at once with the recollection of the conflict between Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket and the Royal Italian Opera at Covent-garden Theatre between the years 1847 and 1857. Farinelli, in 1734, was paid 1,500 guineas for fifty performances, and Signore, Cuzzoni 2,000, besides benefits. So that the great artistes a century since com manded even higher prices than the present day, looking at the difference in the value of money. The ancients, according to the " Traite des Cytharedes," cited by Fetis, re munerated musicians on a much higher scale, Atnoebceus, the celebrated flute player of Athens, never taking less than an Attic talent (about 2701. sterling) to play anywhere ! M. Sclicelcher, in reply to a protest that it was a scandalous thing a mere singer should receive p l . more than a general who has served hie