1747 Original MUSICAL SCORE 1st edition HANDEL JUDAS MACCHABAEUS Oratorio NOTES

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1747 Original MUSICAL SCORE 1st edition HANDEL JUDAS MACCHABAEUS Oratorio NOTES:
$2850.00

DESCRIPTION : Up for sale is an extremely rare musical artifact. Being an over 250 years old ORIGINAL ANTIQUE MUSICAL SCORE , Namely the FIRST EDITION of the oratorio on Biblical subject , The much beloved popular piece \"JUDAS MACCHABAEUS An ORATORIO\" by GEORGE FEDERIC HENDEL . This FIRST EDITION was published in LONDON by I.WALSH in ca 1747. Hand made paper. Printid technique is engraving. Full Score , Musical notes and words engraved. . Antique binding ( Can be replaced by request by a new professionaly made luxurious leather and marbled paper binding for extra $150 or whole genuine leather binding for extra $250 ). Size around 13.5\" x 9.5\" . 73 pp as issued by the publisher . All pages are present. Good condition . Signs of old faint stain throughout the score. Hardly noticed in around half of the pages and somewhat visible in the rest of them. Reflected in opening price. ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )Will be sent inside a protective envelope .AUTHENTICITY :The publicationis fullyguaranteed ORIGINAL from ca 1747 , NOT areprint or a recent edition,It holds a life long GUARANTEE for itsAUTHENTICITY and ORIGINALITY.
PAYMENTS :Payment method accepted : PAYPAL .SHIPPING : Shipp worldwide via expedited registered airmail is $25 . Will be sent inside a protective envelope . Handling within 3-5 days after payment. Estimated duration 10 days.
Judas Maccabaeus (HWV 63) is an oratorio in three acts composed in 1746 by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto written by Thomas Morell. The oratorio was devised as a compliment to the victorious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746).[1] Other catalogues of Handel\'s music have referred to the work as HG xxii; and HHA 1/24.[2] Synopsis Morell\'s libretto is based on the deuterocanonical 1 Maccabees (2–8), with motives added from the Antiquitates Judaicae by Flavius Josephus. The events depicted in the oratorio are from the period 170–160 BC when Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire which undertook to destroy the Jewish religion. Being ordered to worship Zeus, many Jews obeyed under the threat of persecution; however, some did not. One who defied was the elderly priest Mattathias who killed a fellow Jew who was about to offer a pagan sacrifice. After tearing down a pagan altar, Mattathias retreated to the hills and gathered others who were willing to fight for their faith.[1] Handel\'s music depicts the changing moods of the Jewish people as their fortunes vary from dejection to jubilation.[1] Part 1 The people mourn the death of their leader Mattathias, but his son Simon tries to restore their faith and calls them to arms (Arm, arm, ye brave). Simon\'s brother (Judas Maccabaeus) assumes the role of leader and inspires the people with thoughts of liberty and victory through the power of Jehovah.[1] Part 2 The people have been victorious, but Judas is concerned that vanity will cause the people to claim victory for themselves. When news arrives that the Seleucid commander Gorgias is preparing to enact revenge, the people\'s joyous mood gives way to wailing and dejection (Ah! wretched Israel!). Again Judas rallies the people (Sound an alarm) and insists that the pagan altars must be destroyed and that false religions must be resisted.[1][3] Part 3 Victory has finally been achieved for the Jewish people (See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes!). News arrives that Rome is willing to form an alliance with Judas against the Seleucid empire. The people rejoice that peace has at last come to their country (O lovely peace).[1] First performance The first performance took place on 1 April 1747 at Covent Garden, and Judas Maccabaeus became one of Handel\'s most popular oratorios. The General Advertiser (issued on the day prior to the concert) announced the event as:[4] The famous chorus See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes! was composed during the summer of 1747 for Handel\'s next oratorio, Joshua. In the wake of its popularity, probably in 1751, Handel added it to Judas Maccabaeus, and so it forms a legitimate part of both oratorios. Popular uses The Halifax Choral Society owns a manuscript which purports to be a re-orchestation of the oratorio by Mozart.[5] Ludwig van Beethoven composed twelve variations on See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes! for piano and cello in 1796 (WoO 45). In 1884 the Swiss writer Edmond Louis Budry wrote new French words to the same chorus, creating the Easter hymn \" À toi la gloire, O Ressuscité!\", which was later translated into English as \"Thine Be the Glory\". See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes! also gained familiarity as the tune invariably played by brass bands at the opening of new railway lines and stations in Britain during the 19th century, and it was adopted as a movement in Sir Henry Wood\'s Fantasia on British Sea Songs, played at the BBC Proms. Come, ever smiling Liberty, / And with thee bring thy jocund train is sung by Maria, the heroine of Mary Wollstonecraft\'s novel Maria (1798), at the point where she believes herself to have escaped from her abusive husband. She calls her state \"Comparative liberty\", suggesting that \"the jocund train lagged far behind!\" because she takes no pleasure in her need for the separation.[6]Judas Maccabaeus was translated into German and published in 1866 as Volume 22 of the Händel-Gesellschaft. A Hebrew translation by Aharon Ashman, prepared for the 1932 Maccabiah Games, has become popular in Israel during Hanukkah. Another Hebrew version for Hanukkah (not a translation) was written by the Israeli children\'s poet and author Levin Kipnis. JUDAS MACCABEUS is an arrangement of a tune from the chorus \"See, the Conquering Hero Comes\" in Handel\'s oratorio Judas Maccabeus (first performed without this chorus in 1746). Handel initially used the tune in his oratorio Joshua (1747) but transferred it to Judas Maccabeus in 1751; such changes were common in Handel\'s operas and oratorios. Handel is reported to have said to a friend, \"you will live to see it [the tune] a greater favorite with the people than my other finer things.\"The tune\'s first appearance in a hymnal was probably in Thomas Butts\'s Harmonia Sacra (around 1760) where it was set to Charles Wesley\'s \"Christ the Lord Is Risen Today\" (388). This melody, also known as MACCABEUS, is the setting for Edmond Budry\'s Easter text \"A toi la gloire\" (\"Thine Be the Glory\") in a number of modern hymnals.Including the refrain, JUDAS MACCABEUS is cast in a rounded bar form (AABA). Sing in unison or in parts. This tune merits the use of trumpets or a brass ensemble in addition to festive, crisp articulation of organ tones. Georg Friederich Handel (b. Halle, Germany, 1685; d. London, England, 1759) became a musician and composer despite objections from his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Handel studied music with Zachau, organist at the Halle Cathedral, and became an accomplished violinist and keyboard performer. He traveled and studied in Italy for some time and then settled permanently in England in 1713. Although he wrote a large number of instrumental works, he is known mainly for his Italian operas, oratorios (including Messiah, 1741), various anthems for church and royal festivities, and organ concertos, which he interpolated into his oratorio performances. He composed only three hymn tunes, one of which (GOPSAL) still appears in some modern hymnals. A number of hymnal editors, including Lowell Mason (PHH 96), took themes from some of Handel\'s oratorios and turned them into hymn tunes (see ANTIOCH, 337). You would think that because Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus” tells a vague approximation of the story of Hanukkah — or at least it portrays the Maccabees, the story’s central characters — it should have become part of the seasonal repertory, as a Jewish alternative to “Messiah.” But it remains a rarity, and when it is performed at all — as it was on Tuesday evening by the Clarion Choir and Orchestra at Park Avenue Christian Church — it is calendar pages away from the holiday. Judas Maccabaeus, performed by the Clarion Choir and Orchestra at Park Avenue Christian Church on Tuesday. Handel used the Maccabees\' story as a tribute to the defeat of Charles Stuart\'s Jacobite forces in 1746. Handel had an entirely different kind of celebration in mind when he composed the work, to a libretto by Thomas Morell. For him, this story of the Israelites’ hard-won victory over the Syrians was a convenient hook for a commemoration of the British defeat of Charles Stuart’s Jacobite forces at the battle of Culloden in April 1746. Probably the reason the work has never found a secure foothold is that it is more talky than dramatic. Its shapely arias and robust choruses are mostly hymns of praise, either to God or to Judas Maccabaeus, the general who led the Israelite army, with occasional paeans to liberty and rejections of idolatry. Action is conveyed mostly in recitatives, in which nondescript characters (Israelitish Man, Israelitish Woman, Priest, Messenger) sing of the outcomes of recent battles or warn of approaching armies. You wait in vain for the vivid musical picture painting that animates “Messiah” and “Israel in Egypt.” The most “Judas Maccabaeus” has to offer in this regard is a rising figure ending in an upward leap during Judas’s “Sound an alarm!” and a couple of bright military pieces (including an instrumental march) with trumpets and timpani. And for all that, it is a long piece: the version Steven Fox led, shorn of about a dozen numbers, still ran two and a half hours. That is not to say that there is a deficit in beauty here. Among the choruses, “Hear us, O Lord, on Thee we call,” which ends the first act, has soaring soprano lines that make it sound for a moment like a Renaissance motet, and “See, the conqu’ring hero comes!” is magnificently varied in its deployment of both singers and musicians. If the closing “Hallelujah! Amen” is not quite as elaborate (or catchy) as the “Hallelujah!” in “Messiah,” it has its own grandeur and ebullience. The charms of the airs and duets are plentiful too, and if Judas has the best of them, his brother Simon has a few bright moments, most notably “Arm, arm, ye brave!” The Israelitish Man and Woman have florid, sometimes passionate outings, and the Priest’s “Father of heav’n!,” which opens Act III, has the subtlety and gracefulness that make Handel’s best vocal writing so timeless. English oratorio—the cornerstone of British musical identity in the eighteenth century—was in fact developed and popularized by a German composer who had built his reputation on Italian opera. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) emigrated to England in 1713, following several successful visits in which he introduced Italian opera to the British public. In 1719 he founded his own opera company, the Royal Academy of Music, for which he acted as impresario, organizing and controlling every aspect of the productions. Handel’s company relied upon imported Italian singers, who sang in their native language and enjoyed great celebrity and power. Italian opera seria, however, presented the composer with a string of difficulties. To begin with, it was very expensive to produce. Once Handel successfully mounted a production, he had to compete with other opera impresarios for patrons. And even a full house was not the end of the composer’s worries, for Puritans objected to Italian opera on aesthetic, ethical, and political grounds. When Handel suffered a severe bout of ill health in 1737, he found that he was no longer able to withstand the pressures of the opera world. English oratorio, a genre to which Handel had first contributed in 1718, quickly became his sole artistic focus.Handel’s oratorio style reflected his varied experience as a composer of Italian opera seria, German Passions, and English masques. Oratorio, established as an Italian genre in the previous century, was described by Newburgh Hamilton—one of Handel’s librettists—as “a musical Drama, whose Subject must be Scriptural, and in which the Solemnity of Church-Musick is agreeably united with the most pleasing Airs of the Stage.” Oratorios were never incorporated into worship. Instead, they provided suitable entertainment for the faithful, who were encouraged to avoid the profanities of the stage. Handel wrote largely on Old Testament subjects, but he also experimented more than once with mythical and poetic themes. As in opera, the leading roles are sung by a handful of soloists. In contrast to opera, the chorus in one of Handel’s oratorios is equal in importance to the soloists and always plays a central dramatic role, both as a character and as a commentator.Handel’s oratorios were sung in English, and few Italian singers could perform in that language. This had several implications for the composer, who had to write for and engage English singers instead. To begin with, English singers were usually not as accomplished as the Italian castrati and prima donnas. Handel assembled a cast of suitable soloists who appeared in many of his oratorios, but these men and women were generally known for their accomplishments on the legitimate stage, not for their musical prowess. Because of his singers’ vocal limitations, Handel’s oratorio arias were often less ornate and virtuosic than his opera arias, although he never sacrificed musical expressivity. The quality of English singers had one more important effect on oratorio staging: they were much less expensive than their Italian counterparts. The production of oratorios was a business venture, and Handel benefitted from every opportunity to cut costs. Handel’s use of English singers also had an important impact on the public reception of his oratorios. Musical stage entertainment with an English text and English singers appealed to the spirit of nationalistic sentiments of Handel’s audience. The plots appealed to these sentiments as well: British theatergoers were quick to read the oratorios as allegorical works, and they appreciated them both as expressions of Christian spirituality and as incisive political commentary.The fact that oratorio was unstaged accounted for much of its success in England. The absence of scenery and costumes cut down on the cost of oratorio production—and even in the face of Handel’s genius, we cannot ignore the financial considerations that molded his artistic output. However, the Church of England had a much greater influence on Handel’s success with oratorio. The Lord Chamberlain had limited theatrical entertainment during Lent, which meant that opera could hardly turn a profit. Oratorio, on the other hand, was approved for performance because of its subject matter and unstaged presentation style. Handel was able to secure theaters at a reduced rate (they would otherwise remain dark), and he simultaneously enjoyed a monopoly on Lenten audiences. Oratorio attracted audiences even when alternative entertainment was available. It appealed to the British public, which became increasingly conservative during the 18th century. Some felt that religious texts had no place in the theater, but most were satisfied with Handel’s treatment of sacred subject matter. Handel’s audiences were enthralled with the cult of the sublime, an 18th century aesthetic movement which sought to reform the arts and place them on a sound foundation of religion and reason. Reformers sought not to eliminate entertainment, but to transform diversion into devotion. Handel’s oratorios suited this agenda perfectly.Judas Maccabeus (HV 63) premiered at Covent Garden in 1747 and met with immediate success—perhaps because the allegorical content of this particular oratorio was even more overtly patriotic than usual. Handel composed Judas Maccabeus in 1746 to celebrate the military victory of Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746. The conflict ended a Jacobite uprising that had sought to restore Charles Edward Stuart to the throne. Cumberland became a popular hero as a result of the victory (the only real success of his military career), and Handel was quick to capitalize on his popularity by celebrating the event with a topical oratorio.Judas Maccabeus relates the events of 170–160 BC, when the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV sought to exterminate the Jewish religion. The Seleucids were a dynasty of Hellenistic kings that ruled throughout Asia Minor, Syria, and Persia for several centuries. In an effort to consolidate his empire and strengthen his hold over the region, Antiochus IV prohibited observance of the Sabbath, abolished Jewish law, outlawed circumcision, and ordered the people of Judea to offer animal sacrifices and worship Zeus in the temple. Judas Maccabeus, one of five sons of the revered priest Mattathias, led the resistance against Seleucid oppression and encouraged his people to turn away from paganism and put their trust in Jehovah. This episode in the Jewish saga is recorded in 1 Maccabees, verses 2-8, but librettist Thomas Morell enriched the Old Testament account with narrative elements from Antiquitates Judaicae, a Jewish history compiled by Flavius Josephus around AD 93.The only named characters in Judas Maccabeus are the title character, his brother Simon, and Eupolemus, the Jewish Ambassador to Rome, who delivers the crucial third-act news that Rome has allied with Judea against the Seleucid Empire, thus ensuring peace and the preservation of the Jewish people. Other roles include an Israelite woman, an Israelite man, a priest, and two messengers. The paucity of characters, however, serves to highlight the significant of the Jewish nation, portrayed by the chorus, as the drama’s most powerful force. It is only through the combined efforts and persevering faith of the Judean people that liberty is finally won.Like most of Handel’s oratorios, Judas Maccabeus opens with a dramatic overture in the French style. Much of Handel’s success derived from formulas and the recycling of musical material, and his overtures are no exception. The French overture was popularized in the court of Louis XIV and, by Handel’s time, had become emblematic of royal pomp. He used this characteristic two-part form to lend gravity and refinement to his theatrical offerings. The first part of a French overture is slow and stately, and it is defined by pervasive dotted rhythms (usually performed in an exaggerated, “double-dotted” style). The second part is faster and features imitative entrances reminiscent of a fugue, although the composer is not obliged to treat these entrances in strict fugal fashion.The final victory of the Jewish people is marked by one of Handel’s most famous choruses, “See, the conqu’ring hero comes.” This chorus was not a part of the oratorio at its premier, however, nor was it composed with Judas Maccabeus in mind. Instead, “See, the conqu’ring hero comes” was created in 1747 for Handel’s next oratorio, Joshua, which also set a Morell libretto. It was such a success that the composer himself incorporated it retroactively into the score of Judas Maccabeus, and it has featured in every performance since.Mr. Fox led his small, polished choir and a robust period-instrument band in a brisk, carefully balanced reading, and had the benefit of a solid, well-matched cast of soloists. Steven Caldicott Wilson, the tenor, projected Judas’s valor and faith powerfully, qualities matched by Jesse Blumberg in Simon’s brief appearances. Silvie Jensen, a mezzo-soprano, and Lauren Snouffer, a soprano, are both adept at Handelian filigree and gave beautiful accounts (alone and together) of most of the arias by the unnamed characters. Daniel Taylor, the countertenor, picked up a few of the bit parts, too, and gave an exquisite performance of “Father of heav’n!”