Handel, George Frideric

THE FULL SCORE OF THE COMPLETE SERENATA FOR VOICES AND ORCHESTRA, comprising twenty-two numbers, without a title page, division into acts or the other alterations made by Handel in the 1730s, with English words only, notated in dark brown ink on up to twelve staves per page, mainly in an early English hand (perhaps with a second hand preparing the clefs), with additional bass figuring to some of the airs and the trio, decorated with distinctive ink finials (pp.53, 84, 169, 181 & 211), the characters named as Acis (tenor), Galatea (soprano), Damon (tenor), Coridon ("...3^d Tenore"), Polyphemus (bass), and with the following instruments: "Flauto piccolo ottava" (ie sopranino recorder or flageolet), "Hautb[ois]: 1ma", "Hautb: 2do"; "Viol: 1ma"; "Viol: 2do"... "Fagotto è Violoncello solo", "Basso", and "Basso Continuo"; the score includes Coridon's air 'Would you gain the tender creature', several features common with other very early sources, some numbers dropped in the 1730s, the original English versions of 'Love in her eyes sits playing' and 'O ruddier than the cherry', together with all the "choruses" and recitatives  

236 pages, large 4to (28.4 x 22.4cm), 12-stave paper, without a title-page, blank leaf at end, English red morocco gilt (second quarter of the eighteenth century), possibly by John Brindley of London, nineteenth-century flyleaves with later library stamps and annotations, some pin-holes in the margins, [English, probably around 1718-1722], overall browning, with some show-through, occasionally heavy, a few pages trimmed by the binder, some holes and stains on pages 77/78 & 117/118 repaired with tape, lower edges somewhat affected by damp and paper loss, binding split, rebacked, very worn, tears to covers, covers loose

B. Baselt etc, Handel-Handbuch, [HWV] 49a, volume 2 (1984), pp.63-80; G.F. Handel, Acis and Galatea, edited by W. Windszus (1991), pp. xvii-xx & 195-202; B. Trowell, in Music and Theatre, edited by N. Fortune (1987), pp.31-93; W.C. Smith, Concerning Handel (1948), pp.197-265; W. Dean, Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques, (1959), pp.153-190; H.-D. Clausen, W. Dean, G. Beeks in Handel Collections and their History, edited by T. Best (1993), pp.14-15, 31-32, 151-152 & 152n; H.M. Nixon, 'English Bookbindings XLIII', The Book Collector (1962), 466; S. Bennett, Trade Bookbinding in the British Isles, 1660-1800, (2004), p.69

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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"ACIS AND GALATEA" IS ONE OF HANDEL'S GREATEST WORKS: it is rare for so early a copy of such an important work by him to be offered for sale at auction. This pastoral opera or serenata has always been Handel's most frequently-performed dramatic work and the only one to be published complete in his lifetime (in 1743).  It was originally composed for the Duke of Chandos and performed at Cannons in Edgware in 1718, sung by five solo singers (including the "choruses"), probably unstaged, but "in front of a backcloth representing an idyllic view" (see Windszus). It contains such well-loved numbers as 'O ruddier than the cherry' and 'The flocks shall leave the mountains', and, despite its modest forces, is arguably Handel's closest approach to a secular English opera (indeed, it was first described as "a little opera"). This is the complete score, whereas the first edition by Walsh (1722) ran to merely thirty-six pages and omitted the "choruses".  In 1732 Handel revised Acis and Galatea in response to unauthorized performances, by incorporating numbers from his early serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (composed for Venice in 1708) and creating a bilingual pasticcio suited to the company of English and Italian singers he had for that season.

The present manuscript is one of a small group of about half a dozen very early sources for Acis and Galatea that enshrine the form of the opera as it was performed at Cannons; they are all directly copied or derive from (it is impossible to say which) Handel's lost conducting score of 1718.   These scores share certain textual details not found in Handel's autograph, which can also be seen here.   Although not itself a performing score, it includes one extra air, some instrumental designations, a few other alterations, and some bass figuring that presumably reflect Handel's performances around 1718.  Wolfram Windszus, who edited the work for the Halle scholarly edition, dates these six scores to between 1718 and 1722, and there seems little reason to suppose that this one is later; indeed it might be one of the earliest. Further textual study to reveal its precise position among these early Handel sources could prove very interesting.  It certainly predates Handel's revisions of the 1730s, lacking the additions and alterations that Handel made in his 1739 English version: the recitative for Damon ('Cease, Galatea, cease to grieve'), the choral version of 'Happy we' and the division into acts.  It also lacks a title page, as is the case with Handel's autograph manuscript and, apparently, his conducting score, believed to have been owned by the Duke of Chandos, but long since lost.

The most significant number this manuscript shares with the early sources is the air 'Would you gain the tender creature' [no.14], here assigned to a third tenor called "Coridon".  This was a very early addition to Acis, which Handel did not originally include in his composing score; it must have been added during the performances at Cannons.  It is present in the score belonging to the Earl of Malmesbury, with a similar inscription to here ("Coridon. 3. Tenor"); that score, dated 1718, is thought to be the earliest of the copies deriving from the conducting score.  The present manuscript also contains other similarities with the Malmesbury score, which set it slightly apart from the others in this early group, including original readings in Polyphemus's accompanied recitative 'I rage, I melt' [no.11], which were quickly altered.    The instrumental designations include "flauto piccolo ottava" and "Fagotto è Violoncello solo", characteristic of these early scores, but it does not generally record the characters' names in the "choruses" (instead, merely "Coro" or "Galatea, Ten. 1^ma, Ten 2^do, Ten 3^za, Basso").   

The contemporary red morocco binding, although now very worn, features a distinctive gilt roll present in a number of volumes in the Royal Library, dating from the second quarter of the eighteenth century.  See, for example, the copy of a French New Testament (1718), bound for George II, and A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy (1728), by Pemberton, bound for Queen Caroline by John Brindley (see BL Database of Bookbindings, 2.a.14 and 31.e.12).  Brindley was established as a bookbinder in London in 1723 and moved to New Bond Street in 1728.  He became "Bookbinder to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales", and also bound books for Handel's patron at Cannons the Duke of Chandos (see Altieri's Dizionario at BL: c.108.e.15).  However, these rolls may have had a long life and Brindley appears to have been active until around 1756-1758.  

Handel's autograph manuscript of Acis and Galatea is in the British Library; like this manuscript, it is undated, and lacks both the title page and the division into acts.  It does not contain 'Would you gain the tender Creature', although much later the composer added a cue for it in pencil.   Windszus lists fourteen contemporary manuscript copies of Acis, of which six are based on the 1718 conducting score: in Winchester (Malmesbury collection), London (Coke collection), Durham, Manchester, Berlin and Washington, together with a later score in the British Library, copied from the Coke score and possibly associated with the first public performance in 1731.  Among the other pieces present, but cut in the 1732 pasticcio, are Galatea's air 'As when the dove laments her love' (no.8), the chorus 'Wretched lovers' (No.10), Polyphemus's 'Cease to beauty to be suing' (no.13) and the trio 'The flocks shall leave the mountains' (no.17).  The music for a few of these pieces had become familiar in Handel's operas.  Also present here is the duet for Acis and Galatea 'Happy! happy! we' (no.9), ie not scored for chorus as in the second version.

Sotheby's is happy to acknowledge the kind assistance of Professor Donald Burrows in our description of this lot.