Handel The Music for the Royal Fireworks. Facsimile. Feuerwerksmusik, HWV 351. Concerti HWV 335a & 335b. British Library Manuscript R.M. 20.g.7. Facsimile. Introduction and Commentary by Christoher Hogwood / Eingeleitet und kommentiert von Christopher Hogwood

Documenta Musicologica, II/32. Kassel, 2004. 4˚, 26, 70 pp. Handel's great outdoor piece for strings and wind band. Halftone of the 1749 autograph score, composed for the celebration of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The overture is the longest single instrumental movement that Handel wrote and is scored for tpt 1-3 (x3), hn 1-3 (x3), ob 1-3 (x12, x8, x4), bsn 1-2 (x8, x4), timp (3 pairs), & bc. The manuscript also includes 2 concerti, HWV 335a and 335b, intended as interludes during oratorio performances, scored for strings, 2 ob, 2 tpt (only HWV 335a), 4 hn, bsn, timp, & bc (organ). This is a fascinating score, in Handel’s forceful script, showing his erasures by smudging, his clarifications by writing note letters over a correction, and his normal abbreviations for colla parte using custodes. The manuscript also bears evidence of arguments over scoring that went on with the civil servants organizing the spectacle. Preface in Ger/Eng. Hardbound. $68

Handel, Music for thr Royal Fireworks, cover

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