Sight singing with Handel

When Handel travelled through Chester, on his way to Ireland, this year, 1741 (to give the first performance of Messiah), I was at the Public School in that city and very well remember seeing him [Handel] smoke a pipe, over a dish of coffee, at the Exchange Coffee House; for being extremely curious to see so extraordinary a man, I watched him narrowly as long as he remained in Chester, which, on account of the wind being unfavourable for his embarking at Parkgate, was several days. During this time, he applied to Mr. Baker, the Organist, my first music master, to know whether there were any choirmen in the cathedral who could sing at sight, as he wished to prove some books that had been hastily transcribed, by trying the choruses which he intended to perform in Ireland. Mr. Baker mentioned some of the most likely singers then in Chester, and, among the rest, a printer the name of Janson, who had a good bass voice and was one of the best musicians in the choir…

A time was fixed for this private rehearsal at the Golden Falcon, where Handel was quartered; but, alas! on trial of the chorus in the Messiah, 'And with his stripes we are healed,' poor Janson, after repeated attempts, failed so egregiously, that Handel let loose his great bear upon him; and after swearing in four or five languages, cried out in broken English,

Handel : "You shcauntrel [scoundrel]! tit not you dell me dat you could
               sing at soite [sight]?"
Janson : "Yes, sir, and so I can, but not at first sight."

Charles Burney, An Account of the Musical Performances…in Commemoration of Handel (1785).  Cited at: gfhandel.org,  Accessed 1 May 2010.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, ,

Featured Content

Don’t loaf and invite inspiration
Don’t dash off a six-thousand-word story before breakfast. Don’t write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will none the less get something that looks remarkably like it. […]
Lullaby for Edward
Title: Lullaby for Edward Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: Piano I – Level 1 (5 finger position, left and right hands) Product medium: PDF score & MP3 accompaniment track SAMPLES: (audio sample of accompaniment track only)
Saint-Saens on Bach and Mozart
“What gives Sebastian Bach and Mozart a place apart is that these two great expressive composers never sacrificed form to expression. As high as their expression may soar, their musical form remains supreme and all-sufficient.” – Camille Saint-Saëns, from a letter to Camille Bellaigue, 1907 Cited in: Fisk, Josiah (ed.) (1997) Composers On Music: Eight […]
What is an artist?
“What is an artist? An artist is a tortured being who, when he opens his mouth to scream, only beautiful sounds emerge.” (Or something like that.)… Do I believe this at all?  It was John Cage who first exposed us to this gorgeous phrase.  In 1945?  Cage the Romantic? Ned Rorem (2000) Lies: A Diary […]
Adding quality music to the world
“My music is melodic.  After all, why add to the world’s problem’s with bad music.” Alexander Prior, composer. Source: Classic FM, December 2009, p.9
Scores
Brass Brass ensemble Trombone Piano Piano solo Piano method Orchestra and concert band Concert band Strings Cello and piano String ensemble Vocal and choral General Sacred Woodwind Bassoon
Brass
Brass ensemble Trombone
Sondheim on audiences
“I do think audiences become more sophisticated. You try something out on them and they say, “Ugh”. You try it a second time and they say, “Oh”. You try it a third time and they say, “Ooh”. You try it a fourth time and they say, “Oh, that’s awfully old hat.”’ He laughs. ‘That’s the […]
The experience of composition
“I am not suited to ‘writing music’. All has to be experienced.” -Jean Sibelius Cited in:Goss, Glenda (2009) “Sibelius”. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, p. 6.
Stokowski rebukes
The conductor Stowkoski was always in complete control of his orchestra: He never lost his tempoer with the orchestra, never raised his voice.  On the contary, he would lower his voice for a subtle rebuke or a sarcastic comment. Schwar recalled Stokowski saying, “Second clarinet, don’t play notes – sing them.”  To the first violist, […]