2°dS.VII. Atrii. 9. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



291 



HANDEL 8 MODE OF COMPOSING. 



(2"-' S. vii. 109. 240.) 



In Sir Joshua Reynolds' Twelfth Discourse will 

 be found statements as to Kaffaelle and his obliga- 

 tions to others, similar to those which Dr. Gaunt- 

 LKiT has made respecting Handel : thus, for 

 example, treating of the Cartoons, Sir Joshua 

 writes : — 



" For the Sacrifice at Lystra he took the whole cere- 

 mony much as it stands on an ancient basso-relievo, since 

 published in the Admiranua." 



Sir Joshua particularises four figures, including 

 the celebrated one of Paul preaching, as being 

 based upon figures by Masaccio. He also inti- 

 mates that he confines himself to giving examples 

 from works of Raffaelle in England, although 

 many other instances of his borrowings might have 

 been produced ; and he states his opinion strongly 

 as to the absolute right of such an artist as Raf- 

 faelle to make use of existing ideas. The whole 

 Discourse would be highly interesting to those 

 who are concerned either in the general question 

 of what constitutes originality, or in the particular 

 case of Handel. 



Having compared Handel's March in Judas 

 MuccabcEus with the movement by Muflfat from 

 which it is derived, I will ofler some account of 

 Handel's mode »f composing in that particular in- 

 stance. The original commences with the key- 

 note G, as a semibreve. For this Handel at once 

 substitutes a cluster of quavers (G, F, G, A). At 

 the 2nd bar he takes out a crotchet rest, and 

 makes the note (B) continuous, and so again at 

 the 3rd bar. With these exceptions the five first 

 bars are identical. For his 6th and 7th bars, 

 Handel repeats the 4th and 5th bars, instead of 

 following the original ; seven more bars in which, 

 completing the first strain, are replaced by four 

 different ones in Handel. One of these bars, how- 

 ever, the 9th, where he is passing into the key of 

 D, repeats nearly the whole of the melody of the 

 4th bar. These repetitions seem to bring out of the 

 original material quite a new power. The second 

 strain in the original commences with D as a semi- 

 breve, which Handel changes as before into a cluster 

 of quavers (D, Clf , D, E). At the 3rd bar, instead 

 of following the original, he repeats the 2nd. 

 About 13 bars of modulation Into B minor, Han- 

 del condenses into four : then, omitting altogether a 

 modulation into G, he passes at once into E minor, 

 again converting the E semibreve of the original 

 into 4 quavers (E, DJt , E, F). In his base, Han- 

 del repeats three times clusters of quavers, similar 

 to those he has introduced into the melody, — a 

 contrivance which is not to be found in the ori- 

 ginal. He also removes, both from the melody 

 and the base, all the crotchet rests of the original, 

 so as to flow on in one unbroken stream, and that 

 stream also a far stronger one, by virtue of his 

 repetitions and condensations. Alfred Roffe. 



handeliana. 



The Magnificat transferred in the Israel in Egypt. 

 — The introduction of the Magnificat into the 

 Israel in Egypt, I cannot treat as a reproduction 

 by Handel of his own work, for I do not believe 

 Handel wrote the Magnificat. It is not "grist 

 from his mill." If Handel wrote this Magnificat, 

 he must, as an old man, have forgotten the cun- 

 ning of his youth. Look at the chorus " The Lord 

 shall reign" and then at " He is my God." " The 

 Lord shall reign'" is Handel's, and is not in the 

 Magnificat; '■'He is my God'' is not Handel's, 

 and is a part of the Magnificat. Where is the 

 man, with the pen always in his hand, who will 

 tell us these two choruses are written by one 

 person ? In the chorus " The Lord shall reign,'' 

 when the eight voices begin together (in bar six) 

 the altos and basses of the second choir start in 

 consecutive fifths, which the tenors and basses 

 continue. There are five sets of fifths, G C, E A, 

 C F, G C, and D G. Mark the stiffness, the labour 

 in all this ; and then marvel at the masterly power 

 of the other — the freedom, the constant movement 

 and figure so determined to be obtained and so cle- 

 verly consummated. But then it is only greatness 

 of manner, command of mechanism. Great art con- 

 sists of great ideas, and the Magnificat as it stands 

 has no great ideas. To suppose Handel wrote the 

 Magnificat, is to believe that Handel had an enor- 

 mous command over eight part counterpoints in 

 a school he says himself was " too stiff," and which 

 he evidently disliked ; and at the same time, nay, 

 the same year, writes an eight-part chorus, which 

 demonstrates he was not at all practised in such 

 writing, signed by himself and dated. Further, 

 it is to suppose he had forgotten Ijis neio way of 

 combining sounds, which he had revealed to Mat- 

 THESON, and on which he ever relied for all his 

 great points. I trust the Magnificat will be 

 printed as it stood before Handel blotted and 

 changed it; for I do not believe there will be 

 found any scholar in Europe who would say it 

 is Handel's composition. If it be so, he must 

 have written it under some chapel master, and 

 according to the direction and instructions of such 

 master. H. J. Gauntlett. 



HandeFs original 3ISS. — Is it in the power of 

 any reader of "N. & Q." to inform me whether 

 these MSS., now in the Royal Library, were in 

 the state they now a?-e (^especially as to the binding) 

 before Handel's death ? If not, were they bound 

 before their presentation to George III. or after 

 that time ? Who was it labelled the volume now 

 called " Sketches for the Messiah ?" 



H. J. Gauntlett. 



Handel's Copyings. — A careful investigation 

 of the original scores would, I think, much assist 

 in tracing Handel's reliance on the compositions 

 of his predecessors and contemporaries. When 



