Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 - 1759) was a German,
later British, baroque composer who spent the bulk of
his career in London, becoming well known for his
operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel
received important training in Halle and worked as a
composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London
in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in
1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great
composers of the Italian Baroque and by the
middle-German polyphonic choral ...(+)
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 - 1759) was a German,
later British, baroque composer who spent the bulk of
his career in London, becoming well known for his
operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel
received important training in Halle and worked as a
composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London
in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in
1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great
composers of the Italian Baroque and by the
middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.
Israel in Egypt, HWV 54, is a biblical oratorio by the
composer George Frideric Handel. Most scholars believe
the libretto was prepared by Charles Jennens, who also
compiled the biblical texts for Handel's Messiah. It is
composed entirely of selected passages from the Old
Testament, mainly from Exodus and the Psalms.
Israel in Egypt premiered at London's King's Theatre in
the Haymarket on April 4, 1739 with Élisabeth Duparc
"La Francesina", William Savage, John Beard (tenor),
Turner Robinson, Gustavus Waltz, and Thomas Reinhold.
Handel started it soon after the opera season at King's
Theatre was cancelled for lack of subscribers. The
oratorio was not well received by the first audience
though commended in the Daily Post; the second
performance was shortened, the mainly choral work now
augmented with Italian-style arias.
The first version of the piece is in three parts rather
than two, the first part more famous as "The ways of
Zion do mourn", with altered text as "The sons of
Israel do mourn" lamenting the death of Joseph. This
section precedes the Exodus, which in the three-part
version is Part II rather than Part I.
Handel had long been resident in London and had enjoyed
great success as a composer of Italian operas there.
However, in 1733 a rival opera company to Handel's, The
Opera of the Nobility, had split the audience for
Italian opera in London. There was not enough support
for two Italian opera companies and Handel began to
find new audiences through presenting oratorio and
other choral works in English. Handel's oratorio Saul,
with a text by Charles Jennens, was presented at the
King's Theatre in January 1739, and for the same season
Handel composed Israel in Egypt, writing the music in
one month between 1 October and 1 November 1738. Israel
in Egypt is one of only two oratorios by Handel with a
text compiled from verses from the Bible, the other
being Messiah. The librettist of Israel in Egypt is
uncertain, but most scholars believe Charles Jennens
compiled both texts. Israel in Egypt and Messiah also
share the unusual characteristic among Handel oratorios
in that, unlike the others, they do not have casts of
named characters singing dialogue and performing an
unstaged drama, but contain many choruses set to
biblical texts.
In composing Israel in Egypt, in what was by then his
common practice, Handel recycled music from his own
previous compositions and also made extensive use of
musical parody, the re-working of music by other
composers. For the opening part of Israel in Egypt
Handel slightly re-wrote his 1737 Funeral Anthem for
Queen Caroline, "The Ways of Zion do Mourn", and he
adapted two of his keyboard fugues, a chorus from his
Dixit Dominus and an aria from one of his Chandos
Anthems. From Alessandro Stradella's wedding serenata
Qual prodigio é ch’io miri, Handel took the music
for his "plague" choruses "He spake the word,” “He
gave them hailstones,” “But as for his people/He
led them,” and “And believed the Lord,” as well
as the Part II chorus “The people shall hear/All
th’inhabitants of Canaan.”. From a Magnificat
setting by Dionigi Erba, Handel took most or part of
the music for “He rebuked the Red Sea,” “The Lord
is my Strength,” “He is my God,” “The Lord is a
Man of War,” “The depths have covered them/Thy
right Hand, o Lord,” “Thou sentest forth thy
wrath,” “And with the blast of thy nostrils,”
“Who is like unto Thee,” and “Thou in thy
mercy.” Other composers Handel parodied in Israel in
Egypt were Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Caspar Kerll,
Francesco Antonio Urio, Nicolaus Adam Strungk and
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow.
Much more than the previous works by Handel which were
designed, like Israel in Egypt, to attract paying
audiences to a commercial venture in a privately owned
theatre, the piece lays overwhelming emphasis on the
chorus. As an added attraction, the small baroque
orchestra accompanying was also used for an organ
concerto, the Cuckoo and the Nightingale, which served
as an interlude. However, London audiences at that
time were not used to such extensive choral pieces
presented as commercial entertainment, and perhaps
particularly the opening dirge, of about thirty minutes
in length, for the death of Joseph, adapted from the
funeral anthem for a recently deceased Queen,
contributed to the failure of Israel in Egypt at its
first performance. Handel quickly revised the work,
omitting the opening "Lamentations" section and adding
Italian-style arias of the kind contemporary audiences
expected and enjoyed. In its two sectioned form, Israel
in Egypt was very popular in the 19th century with
choral societies. Today many performances of the work
use Handel's original three part version.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_in_Egypt).
Although originally created for Baroque Orchestra, I
created this Arrangement of "By his hand, the earth
swallowed them" (28-"Who is like unto Thee" & 29-"The
earth swallowed them whole") from "Israel in Egypt"
(HWV 54 Mvts. 28 & 29) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French
Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
