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Intellectual Bases of the Handelian Tradition, 1759–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1981

William Weber
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Extract

When we study the rise of the Handelian tradition in eighteenth-century England, we are studying the early history of musical classicism. Here the term ‘classicism’ does not refer to musical style, to the classical style, but rather to a performing repertory of music from the past which is valued as a set of masterpieces, as models for judgment of new works. Before this time musical life had had no classicism of the kind found in literature or the plastic arts. Even if the names of a few composers were passed on as great men, their music was performed only in exceptional circumstances. Rarely did Italian operas appear after the death of the composer; most did not even last ten years. Handel was the first composer a large body of whose works were performed continuously after his death. Most significant of all, his name was the first to be enshrined in the highest reaches of the modern musical Pantheon, to be linked to those of Haydn, Mozart and Beedioven. That such composers as Pergolesi or Corelli also enjoyed English performances after their death for a few of their works, shows how a broad movement toward historical repertory began in the eighteenth century. Handel's music did not persist alone; it was part of a new musical order.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 108 , 1981 , pp. 100 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

1 The principal works on the early Handelian tradition include: Robert M. Myers, Handel's Messiah, A Touchstone of Taste (New York, 1948) and Handel, Dryden and Milton (London, 1956); Winton Dean, The Oratorio and English Taste', Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques (London, 1959); Percy M. Young, ‘Die Händel-Pflege in den Englischen Provinzen’, Händel-Jahrbuch, iii (1960), 31–50; and Michael F. Robinson, ‘The Decline of British Music’, Studi Musicali, vii (1978), 269–84.Google Scholar

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