Full Description
This book offers a deep analysis of Handel's Twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6, a part of Handel's repertoire which has remained relatively understudied. Bringing together an analytical approach to the concertos with their historical context, the author shows how studying these concertos offers new insights into Handel's innovative and deeply individual compositional techniques, reframing our modern understanding of Handel as a composer. Refocusing scholarly attention on the crucial role of the orchestra, this book demonstrates how Handel utilised a unique compositional strategy that involved juxtaposing and fusing elements of different concerto types, including the grosso, ripieno, solo, and hybrid concerto. Revealing the remarkable consistency and creative deployment of the multilayered interconnections between concerto types in these works, this study shows that they represent a novel development in the history of the concerto genre. Shedding new light on Handel's Grand Concertos, on Handel as a composer, and the history of the concerto, this book is relevant to Handel scholars, musicologists, music theorists, and all those with a serious interest in Handel and eighteenth-century music.
Contents
Part 1: The concerto and the orchestra
1. Three constitutive attributes of the instrumental concerto: Non-concerto cases
2. The birth of the orchestra
3. Orchestra vs ensemble: Similarity vs difference
Part 2: Types and models of the instrumental concertos
4. Problems of the instrumental concerto classifications: Concerto grosso
5. Concerto ripieno and solo concerto
6. Concerto models: Handel's reconsideration of the Corellian concerto model
Part 3: Analysis of the Twelve Grand Concertos Op. 6
7. Introduction
8. First Concerto
9. Second Concerto
10. Third Concerto
11. Fourth Concerto
12. Fifth Concerto
13. Sixth Concerto
14. Seventh Concerto
15. Eighth Concerto
16. Ninth Concerto
17. Tenth Concerto
18. Eleventh Concerto
19. Twelfth Concerto
Conclusions
