Handel: Dixit Dominus / Salve Regina / Nisi Dominus

Scholars Bar Ens

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8553208

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099420822

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: HANDEL

Description
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Latin Church MusicHandel's father was in his sixties when his son George Frideric was born. Anestablished barber-surgeon at the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels nearHalle in Germany, he was detemtined that the boy should follow a similarlyrespectable calling and set him to read civil law. Handel's extraordinarymusical talent became increasingly apparent, his father was forced to relent andallowed him to study music under Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist andchoirmaster of the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle.From Zachow Handel received a thorough, yet catholic musical education. Hestudied both Italian and German music, becoming familiar with the melody-ledstyle of the former and the more contrapuntal cast of the latter. He learnedabout secular and sacred music, both instrumental and vocal, carefully copyingscores from Zachow's own collection into a manuscript book which he kept withhim for the rest of his life. He also became a highly proficient organist,harpsichordist and violinist and, at the age of seventeen, he was appointedorganist and choirmaster of Halle Cathedral. For a year he combined theposition with study at Halle University, but all the time he was dreaming ofanother kind music. For of all the musical forms he had explored under Zachow,one had held a particular fascination for him - opera.In the summer of 1703, the lure of the opera-house became too strong toresist. It drew him away from the city of Halle to Hamburg-the so-called Veniceof the Elbe. Here Handel was engaged in the opera orchestra as a violinist andthen a harpsichordist. While he played the music of others, he also composedthree operas of his own, Almira, Nero and Florindo which werestaged between 1705 and 1708. By the time the last two were being performed,however, Handel had left Germany and was happily ensconced in the warm South,pursuing his quest for true Italian opera in the country of its birth.In 1707 Rome, unlike the rest of Italy, was an operatic desert, the Popehaving issued an edict forbidding the production of musical drama in the city,following a carnival scandal in 1677. Sacred music was important, however, and,unsurprisingly, Handel's Roman patrons were some of Italy's leading churchmen,the Cardinals Colonna, Pamphili and Ottoboni.As organist and choirmaster in Halle Cathedral five years earlier Handel hadalready gained a reputation as a musician. In his subsequent operaticcompositions he had familiarised himself with a more Italian style. His facilityin bringing these two musical languages together in sacred music impressed hispatrons and commissions for a series of Latin church pieces quickly appeared. Ofthese works, composed between April and July 1707, the first was a setting ofPsalm CIX (Psalm CX in the Lutheran numbering), Dixit Dominus and thelast, that of Psalm CXXVI (Psalm CXXVII in the Lutheran numbering), NisiDominus. In between came several sacred anthems and cantatas including asetting of the hymn Salve
Tracklisting