Handel’s Samson

Abstract

HANDEL'S SAMSONGeorg Friederic Handel. Samson: Oratorio in Three Acts, HWV 57. Herausgegeben von Hans Dieter Clausen. (Hallische Handel-Ausgabe, Ser. I, Bd. 18). Kassel, New York: Barenreiter, 2011. [Teilband 1: Partitur von 1743. Pref. and ed. policy in Ger., Eng., p. vii-xxx; table of versions, p. xxxi-xxxiii; concordance HWV-HHA, p. xxxiv; comparison of the texts of Hamilton's manuscript wordbook and the corresponding lines in Milton's Samson Agonistes and other works by Milton, p. xxxv-lxvii; facsims., p. lxviii-lxxv; repr. of 1743 libretto, p. lxxvi-lxxxv; text in Ger. trans., p. lxxxvi-xcvi; texts of arias added later, in Eng., Ger., p. xcvii; scoring, p. 2; index of scenes, p. 3-5; score, p. 7-328. Teilband 2: Anhange und Kritischer Bericht. Anhang Ia: original version, p. 329-86; Anhang Ib: mvts. from intermediate 1742 version, p. 387-96; Anhang II: variants and additions, p. 397-424; Kritischer Bericht (abbrevs., p. 426; RISM sigla, p. 427; sources, p. 428-50; Einzelnachweise, p. 450-526). Pub. no. BA 4099; ISMN 979-0-006-55011-1. i585.]Georg Friederic Handel. Samson, HWV 57. Klavierauszug nach dem Urtext der Hallischen Handel-Ausgabe = Piano Reduction Based on the Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition, by Andreas Kohs. Kassel, New York: Barenreiter, 2011. [Ensemble, p. iii; pref. in Ger., Eng., by Hans Dieter Clausen, p. iv-ix; index of scenes, p. x-xii; table of versions, p. xiii-xix; score, p. 1-325; appendix 1A: original version, p. 328-89; appendix 1B: mvts. from intermediate 1742 version, p. 392-401; appendix II: variants and additions, p. 404-32. Pub. no. BA 4099-90; ISMN 979-0-006-54127-0. i49.95.]The musicologist in search of a particular year through which to illustrate musical activity in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century could hardly do better than 1741. Marking the end of an era, we can note the deaths of the composer and theorist Johann Joseph Fux on 13 February, and of Antonio Vivaldi on 27/28 July. Tomaso Albinoni retired. Notable publications issued that year include Johann Sebastian Bach's Clavierubung IV, which we now know as the Goldberg Variations. In France, Jean- Philippe Rameau issued Pieces de clavecin en concerts. Meanwhile, in London, George Frideric Handel directed the last staged versions of his own Italian operas. Thereafter he focused his compositional attention-in terms of large-scale works- on English oratorios, a form that he had pioneered and had included in his performance seasons for nearly a decade.Having taken his typical late-spring and early-summer break, Handel began writing Messiah on 22 August, finishing it on 14 September. Soon thereafter he began Samson, completing the initial drafton 29 October. We can be this specific because Handel dated his scores. In November Handel leftLondon for Dublin, where his actor friend James Quin had gone in June. Quin was joined on the stage of the Aungier Street Theatre in mid-December by another of Handel's friends, Susannah Cibber, who traveled to Dublin in order to repair her theatrical reputation. On 23 De - cem ber Handel led the first of the concerts in two subscription series of six concerts each. On 13 April 1742 he directed the first performance of Messiah, at which Cibber gave a most affecting performance of He was despised. Having returned to the London stage the following season, Cibber was given the lead female role of Micah in Samson. Though not performed today with anything like the frequency of Messiah, Samson, from 1743 to Handel's death in 1759, was in the top four, with over fifty performances among the oratorios on sacred themes.The story of Samson derives from the Old Testament Book of Judges, but the version set by Handel is hardly recognizable as such. As Deborah Rooke puts it in Handel's Israelite Oratorio Libretti: Sacred Drama and Biblical Exegesis (New York: Oxford Uni ver - sity Press, 2012), The biblical Samson is a wild, uncontrolled loner who despite being styled a national hero is really acting in accordance with his own impulses to satisfy his own desires (p. …