370 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VII. May 7. '59. 



an old experienced souldier and have done great service 

 in other forrain countries, as when I was in Russia I did 

 put thirty thousand to flight, and killed six or seven 

 thousand Polonians by the cut of my instruments of 

 warre when I first invented them, and did that great ser- 

 vice for the Emperor of Russia : I do hereby tel y*i truly 

 I am able to do my King and Country the best service of 

 any man in Christendome, and I will maintaine it with 

 my art and skill, and with my sword, in the face of all 

 my enemies that do abuse me to the Lords of Parlia- 

 ment and others, and if I did know them I would fight 

 with them where they dare, and also disgrace them." 



Who can say that the destinies of England 

 might not have been changed had parliament 

 listened to a Poore Brother of Charter House — a 

 crown preserved — a royal head gone bloodless to 

 the grave ? Q. R. S. T. 



HANDEL AND HIS WOKKS. 



HandeVs Messiah (2'"^ S. vii. 329.) — Mr. W. H. 

 . Husk says : — 



" . . we may perhaps, therefore, assume without much 

 fear of error, that such a band (together forty-seven) 

 united with a proportionate number of vocalists, was the 

 greatest force by which Handel's works Avere executed 

 under his own direction." 



There is a contemporary testimony that the 

 force was much greater : it is a letter of Benjamin 

 Victor, a dramatic author, whose correspondence 

 was noticed to me by the kindness of Mr. Will. 

 Chappell, the scientific author of National English 

 Airs. 



Benj. Victor, in his letter dated Dublin, De- 

 cember 27, 1752, writes : — 



"... as much as I detest fatigue and inconvenience, I 

 would ride forty miles in the wind and rain to be present 

 at a performance of the Messiah in London under the con- 

 duct of Handel. I remember it there, he had an hundred 

 instruments, and fifty voices. How beautiful the full 

 choruses." — {Original Letters by Benj. Victor, p. 190.) 



The statement of such a band, enormous for 

 the time as it may appear to persons acquainted 

 with the history of music, will be relied upon, 

 when it is remembered that the orchestra of Han- 

 del was considered by his friends " as uncom- 

 monly powerful" (Memoirs of Quants, quoted by 

 Burney), and by his enemies as 

 " producing a thunder intolerable, an horrid rumbling ; 

 for, to make the noise greater, he causes his music to be 

 performed bj' at least double the number of voices and 

 instruments than ever were heard in the theatre before." 

 — (The Art of Composing Music, Pamphlet, in 8vo., Lon- 

 don, 1751.) 



In order not to lengthen uselessly these re- 

 marks, I take the liberty to refer to my Life of 

 Handel (pp. 133. 137. 141.), where will be found 

 other proofs that Handel was accused by some of 

 his contemporaries of being " a very noisy musi- 

 cian ;" and it was impossible for the good old con- 

 servative gentlemen not to judge him so, since, 

 according to an eye-witness, he had 150 perfor- 

 mers. Imagine their stupor, their horror, their 



terror, should they have been told of the 4000 

 performers of the forthcoming commemoration at 

 the Crystal Palace ! 



It must be said, however, that this extraordi- 

 nary number of 150 was not without example. 

 The London Daily Post, December 8, 1737, in- 

 forms us that the day before, at the burial of 

 Queen Caroline, for which was composed the sub- 

 lime Funeral Anthem, " there were near eighty 

 vocal performers, and one hundred instrumental 

 from his majesty's band and from the opera," &c. 



It may be interesting for the musical reader to 

 know that seventy years before London heard a 

 band almost as numerous. Peller Malcolm relates 

 " a consort of musick " given on the Thames by 

 Abell, on the 18th June, 1668, to celebrate the 

 birth of Prince James (afterwards the Pretender), 

 in which the orchestra " amounted to 130 perfor- 

 mers." The music was composed expressly for 

 the occasion " by Signor Fede " (?) (Anecdotes of 

 the Manners and Customs, Sfc, vol. iii. p. 51.). 



Malcolm does not give his authority for this 

 statement, but he is known as a faithful compiler, 

 and not fond of taking the trouble to invent his- 

 tory. 



Perhaps Abell wished to rival France, where 

 the Te Deum of Lully (not LuUi, as is inscribed 

 on the walls of St. James's Hall) had been per- 

 formed in 1686 "for the convalescence of Mon- 

 seigneur aux Peres de I'Oratoire by 300 musicians, 

 led by Marets " (Comparaison de la Musirjue ita- 

 lienne et de la Musigue frangaise, par Lecerf de la 

 Vieville, being the 2nd vol. of Histoire delaMusique 

 by Bourdelot, p. 93., ed. 1743.) V. Sch{Elcheb. 



The Handel Festival of 1784 (2"'^ S. vii. 292.) 

 — The details connected with the band and chorus 

 of this celebrated gathering, as quoted by R. W., 

 appear ^o be wrong in almost every figure. This 

 is the more to be regretted, as the statement has 

 been quoted in more than one musical journal. 



According to Burney, whose Account of the 

 Musical Performance in the Abbey, S^c. was pub- 

 lished in 1785, the following is the correct state- 

 ment of the " voices and instruments " assembled 

 together on that occasion : — 



First Violins, 48 ; Second ditto, 47 ; Tenors, 

 26 ; First Oboes, 13 ; Second ditto, 13 ; Flutes, 

 6 ; Violoncellos, 21 ; Bassoons, 25 ; Double Bas- 

 soon, 1 ; Double Basses, 15 ; Trumpets, 12 ; Trom- 

 bones, 6 ; Horns, 12 ; Kettle Drums, 3 ; Double 

 Drum, 1. 



Cantos, 59; Altos, 48 ; Tenors, 83 ; Basses, 84. 

 Total of the Band and Chorus, 524. 



The predominance of the second violins over 

 the first, and the small number of treble voices, 

 led me to suspect the correctness of your corre- 

 spondent's list. The mystery is now cleared up, 



I may remark of the succeeding festivals in 

 honour of the great musician, that, in 1785, the 



