George Frederick Handel was born in the German city of
Halle on February 23, 1685. His father noted but did
not nurture his musical talent, and he had to sneak a
small keyboard instrument into his attic to practice.
As a child he studied music with Friedrich Wilhelm
Zachow, organist at the Liebfrauenkirche, and for a
time he seemed destined for a career as a church
organist himself. After studying law briefly at the
University of Halle, Handel began serving as organist
on March 13, 1702, at the ...(+)
George Frederick Handel was born in the German city of
Halle on February 23, 1685. His father noted but did
not nurture his musical talent, and he had to sneak a
small keyboard instrument into his attic to practice.
As a child he studied music with Friedrich Wilhelm
Zachow, organist at the Liebfrauenkirche, and for a
time he seemed destined for a career as a church
organist himself. After studying law briefly at the
University of Halle, Handel began serving as organist
on March 13, 1702, at the Domkirche there.
Dissatisfied, he took a post as violinist in the
Hamburg opera orchestra in 1703, and his frustration
with musically provincial northern Germany was perhaps
shown when he fought a duel the following year with the
composer Matheson over the accompaniment to one of
Matheson's operas. In 1706 Handel took off for Italy,
then the font of operatic innovation, and mastered
contemporary trends in Italian serious opera. He
returned to Germany to become court composer in
Hannover, whose rulers were linked by family ties with
the British throne; his patron there, the Elector of
Hannover, became King George I of England. English
audiences took to his 1711 opera Rinaldo, and several
years later Handel jumped at the chance to move to
England permanently. He impressed King George early on
with the Water Music of 1716, written as entertainment
for a royal boat outing.
"Singe, Seele, Gott zum Preise" is the fifth of a set
of nine songs that Handel wrote to the German-language
texts of Barthold Heinrich Brockes from his collection
Irdisches Vergnuegen in Gott (Contentment on Earth
through God). The tone of the text is religious in an
easygoing manner. All of these songs are in ABA form
with vocal declamation that is lyrical, sometimes
melismatic, and never virtuosic. The instrumentation of
the accompaniment is flexible, and the performers are
allowed to choose whichever instruments are appropriate
and available for the continuo and instrumental
obbligato.
This song, whose title translates as "Sing, O my soul,
sing in praise of God" states, "Sing, my soul, in
praise of God, who in so many ways makes all the world
so beautiful. let him who delights our ears, let him
who enchants our eyes with his flowering woods and
meadows be braised and magnified".
Although originally written for strings (violin) and
continuo, I created this arrangement for double-reed
Trio (Oboes (2) & English Horn).
