Title
Handel as Orpheus : Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas / Ellen T. Harris.
ISBN
9780674273450
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2004]
Copyright
©2004
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (448 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/9780674273450 doi
Alternate Call Number
LP 39136 HBZ
Dewey Decimal Classification
782.48092
Summary
Handel wrote over 100 cantatas, compositions for voice and instruments that describe the joy and pain of love. In Handel as Orpheus, the first comprehensive study of the cantatas, Ellen Harris investigates their place in Handel's life as well as their extraordinary beauty. The cantatas were written between 1706 and 1723--from the time Handel left his home in Germany, through the years he spent in Florence and Rome, and into the early part of his London career. In this period he lived as a guest in aristocratic homes, and composed these chamber works for his patrons and hosts, primarily for private entertainments. In both Italy and England his patrons moved in circles in which same-sex desire was commonplace--a fact that is not without significance, Harris reveals, for the cantatas exhibit a clear homosexual subtext. Addressing questions about style and form, dating, the relation of music to text, rhythmic and tonal devices, and voicing, Handel as Orpheus is an invaluable resource for the study and enjoyment of the cantatas, which have too long been neglected. This innovative study brings greater understanding of Handel, especially his development as a composer, and new insight into the role of sexuality in artistic expression.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on the Musical Examples
Prologue: "The Ways of the World"
1. Code Names and Assumed Identities
2. Women's Voices/Men's Voices
3. Pastoral Lovers
4. Cantata Couples and Love Triangles
5. Silence and Secrecy
6. Culmination of the Private
Epilogue: "True Representation"
Appendix 1: Cantata Chronology
Appendix 2: Texts and Translations of the Continuo Cantatas
Bibliographic Abbreviations
Notes
Title Index of Handel's Cantatas, Duets, and Trios
General Index
