R.M.20.d.4

ROYAL MUSIC COLLECTION. (Händel-Gesellschaft XII; Hallische Händel-Ausgabe I/1, 1957). Between ff. 47 and 48 is a leaf, ruled with staves but otherwise blank, foliated 47a; ff. 70v and 88v are ruled with staves but otherwise blank. The following names of singers occur in the MS.: ‘Sigra. Strada’, ‘Mrs Young’ (Sopranos); ‘Mr Beard’ or ‘Bird’ (Tenor); ‘Mr Erard’, ‘Mr Reinhold’ (Basses). The Violoncello obbligato to ‘Softly sweet’ was played by ‘Sigr Capporale’. See also R.M.20.f.12. (ff. 15-17); for copies see R.M.19.a.1. (ff. 79-110), R.M.19.a.10., Add. Ms. 31567 (‘Il convito di Alessandro’, in Italian). See also Donald Burrows and Martha J. Ronish, A Catalogue of Handel’s Musical Autographs (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), pp. 83-84.

ff. 88. 9 x 11.5in.

Points of note:

1. f. 1. ‘Ouverture’ (not ‘Overtura’, as in H-G.).

2. f. 11. ‘Timotheus plac’d on high’ (H-G., p. 20). At the end of the recitative: ‘Concerto per la Harpa ex B’.

3. f. 18. At the end of ‘With ravish’d ears’ (H-G., p. 38): ‘Si replica il Coro antecedente, The listning Crowd’ (crossed out in pencil).

4. f. 18v. ‘The praise of Bacchus’ (H-G., p. 39). This recitative is written for Bass (‘Mr. Erard’) and differs from the H-G. version.

5. f. 19. ‘Bacchus then’. The bracketed passage in H-G. (p. 40) is in the MS., also the corresponding passage on p. 51.

6. f. 28. ‘He sung Darius’ (H-G., p. 55). The solo was originally much longer. Two pages have been cancelled (in pencil), and ‘Adagio’ and the double bar after ‘Welt’ring in his blood’ have been added. The Largo has been shortened by cuts (in pencil). At the end was a repeat, also cancelled.

7. f. 34. ‘Softly sweet’ (H-G., p. 63). Written in E, but marked: ‘Un tuono piu basso ex D#’.

8. f. 47v. ‘Fine della parte prima January ye 5. 1736’.

9. f. 56v. ‘Revenge, Timotheus cries’. A long cut has been made in pencil from the end of H-G., p. 109, line 2, bar 1.

10. f. 58. The MS. has Version A in H-G., p. 110.

11. f. 66v. At the end of the chorus, ‘The princes applaud’ (H-G., p. 127): ‘Segue il Concerto per l’organo’ (crossed out in pencil).

12. f. 69. A cancelled page, containing a first version of the recitative ‘Thus long ago’.

13. f. 74. The recitatives (H-G., p. 138) in the MS. are for two basses (‘Mr. Reinhold’ and ‘Mr Erard’). They are much longer than in H-G. and are not cancelled.

14. f. 80. At the end of the chorus ‘Let old Timotheus’ (H-G., p. 148): ‘N.B. – Segue il concerto per l’organo poi segue il coro your voices tune and raise’ (in pencil). The end of the chorus is followed (in ink) by a recitative for ‘Sigra Strada’: ‘Tune ev’ry string, your voices raise, joy[n]d well on each melodius Tongue of bright Caecilia be your song in smoothest Lines, in softest Lays’ (crossed out in pencil). At the end of the page: ‘12 Jan. 1736’.

15. f. 80v. ‘Your voices tune’. Air (S.) for ‘Sigra Strada’ (not in H-G.). The air is the same as the second part of the following chorus.

16. f. 83. ‘Your voices tune’. Chorus (H-G., p. 154).

17. f. 88. At the end of the chorus: ‘Fine. 17 January 1736’.

John Dryden, poet and dramatist: Newburgh Hamilton, author and librettist: Handel's 'Alexander's Feast' (HWV75) to a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton, after a text by John Dryden: 1736-circa 1750.

George Frideric Handel, composer: Music manuscripts: 18th cent: Autogr.