Zweig MS 38

Autograph score. Written in ink on systems of two staves: vocal line in the alto clef and figured bass. Headed ‘Joseph’ in the upper margin, the music followed by ‘Segue il Coro Alleluja we will rejoice’, and with ‘Fine dell oratio. [sic] Joseph’ in the lower margin.

Joseph and his Brethren was composed during the late summer of 1743 and first performed at Covent Garden on 2 March 1744. It was revived in four subsequent seasons during Handel’s lifetime (see Dean, Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques). This manuscript appears to have been written out by Handel for insertion in the conducting score drawn up by his copyists; traces of sealing wax and the sewing holes indicate how it was fixed in place. The final chorus of the oratorio to which Handel’s note on the manuscript refers was taken from the ‘Dettingen’ Anthem (HWV 265), composed earlier in 1743. This was Zweig’s first Handel manuscript. He was always aware of their rarity, with very few in private hands, but his interest in Handel seems to have been further stimulated once he settled in London. His ‘historical miniature’ Georg Friedrich Händel’s Auferstehung includes a lively evocation of Brook Street and the surrounding area of London in Handel’s day; it was published in an elegant limited edition by his Viennese publisher Reichner in 1937. There followed the purchase of Zweig MS 36 in 1938 and of Zweig MS 37 in 1940.