Georg Friedrich Händel
Israel in Egypt (HWV 54) is a biblical oratorio by the composer George Frideric Handel. Most scholars believe the libretto was prepared by Charles Jennens, who also compiled the biblical texts for Handel's Messiah. It is composed entirely of selected passages from the Old Testament, mainly from Exodus and the Psalms.
Israel in Egypt premiered at London's King's Theatre in the Haymarket on April 4, 1739 with Élisabeth Duparc "La Francesina", William Savage, John Beard (tenor), Turner Robinson, Gustavus Waltz, and Thomas Reinhold. Handel started it soon after the opera season at King's Theatre was cancelled for lack of subscribers. The oratorio was not well received by the first audience though commended in the Daily Post; the second performance was shortened, the mainly choral work now augmented with Italian-style arias.
The first version of the piece is in three parts rather than two, the first part more famous as "The ways of Zion do mourn", with altered text as "The sons of Israel do mourn" lamenting the death of Joseph. This section precedes the Exodus, which in the three-part version is Part II rather than Part I.
Israel in Egypt
Part I
1. Recitative: Now there arose a new King
2. Solo and Double Chorus
a. Solo: And the children of Israel sighed (Alto)
b. Double Chorus: And their cry came up to God
3. Recitative: Then sent he Moses (Tenor)
4. Chorus: They loathed to drink of the river
5. Aria: Their land brought forth frogs (Alto)
6. Double Chorus: He spake the word
7. Double Chorus: He gave them hailstones
8. Chorus: He sent a thick darkness
9. Chorus: He smote all the first-born of Egypt
10. Chorus: But for his people
11. Chorus: Egypt was glad
12. Double Chorus: He rebuked the Red Sea
13. Chorus: He led them through the deep
14. Chorus: But the waters overwhelmed
15. Double Chorus: And Israel saw that great work
16. Chorus: And believed the Lord
Part II
17. Double Chorus: Moses and the children of Israel
18. Double Chorus: I will sing unto the Lord
19. Duet: The Lord is my strength (2 Sopranos)
20. Double Chorus: He is my God
21. Chorus: And I will exalt Him
22. Duet: The Lord is a man of war (2 Basses)
23. Double Chorus: The depths have covered them
24. Double Chorus: Thy right hand, O Lord
25. Double Chorus: And in the greatness
26. Double Chorus: Thou sentest forth Thy wrath
27. Chorus: And with the blast of Thy nostrils
28. Aria: The enemy said (Tenor)
29. Aria: Thou didst blow (Soprano)
30. Double Chorus: Who is like unto Thee
31. Double Chorus: The earth swallow'd them
32. Duet: Thou in Thy mercy (Alto, Tenor)
33. Double Chorus: The people shall hear
34. Aria: Thou shalt bring them in (Alto)
35. Double Chorus: The Lord shall reign
36. Recitative: For the horse of Pharaoh (Tenor)
37. Double Chorus: The Lord shall reign
38. Recitative: And Miriam, the prophetess (Tenor)
39. Solo Soprano and Double Chorus: Sing ye to the Lord
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Georg Friedrich Händel - Sarabande
The dance may have been of Guatemalan and Mexican origin evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced with a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called zarabanda is first mentioned in 1539 in Central America in the poem Vida y tiempo de Maricastaña, written in Panama by Fernando de Guzmán Mejía. The dance seems to have been especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, initially in the Spanish colonies, before moving across the Atlantic to Spain.
The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people". A character in an entremés by Cervantes alluded to the dance's notoriety by saying that hell was its "birthplace and breeding place" (in Spanish: origen y principio). It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance, by Lope de Vega).
It spread to Italy in the 17th century, and to France, where it became a slow court dance.
Baroque musicians of the 18th century wrote suites of dance music written in binary form that typically included a sarabande as the third of four movements. It was often paired with and followed by a jig or gigue. J.S. Bach sometimes gave the sarabande a privileged place in his music, even outside the context of dance suites; in particular, the theme and climactic 25th variation from his Goldberg Variations are both sarabandes.
The anonymous harmonic sequence known as La Folia appears in pieces of various types, mainly dances, by dozens of composers from the time of Mudarra (1546) and Corelli through to the present day. The theme of the fourth-movement Sarabande of Handel's Keyboard suite in D minor (HWV 437) for harpsichord, one of these many pieces, appears prominently in the film Barry Lyndon.
The sarabande was revived in the 19th and early 20th centuries by the German composer Louis Spohr (in his Salonstücke, Op. 135 of 1847), Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (in his Holberg Suite of 1884), French composers such as Debussy and Satie, and in England, in different styles, Vaughan Williams (in Job: A Masque for Dancing), Benjamin Britten (in the Simple Symphony), Herbert Howells (in Six Pieces for Organ: Saraband for the Morning of Easter), and Carlos Chávez in the ballet La hija de Cólquide.
The sarabande inspired the title of Ingmar Bergman's last film Saraband (2003). The film uses the sarabande from J. S. Bach's Fifth Cello Suite, which Bergman also used in Cries and Whispers (1971).
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Georg Friedrich Händel
George Frideric (23 February 1685 (O.S.) [(N.S.) 5 March] – 14 April 1759) was a German, later British, Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.
Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. Musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that "Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order." As Alexander's Feast (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742) he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.
Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks remaining steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed for the coronation of George II, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign's anointing. Another of his English oratorios, Solomon (1748), has also remained popular, with the Sinfonia that opens act 3 (known more commonly as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba") featuring at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. Handel composed more than forty opera serias in over thirty years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and historically informed musical performance, interest in Handel's operas has grown.
Laudate Pueri (Psalm 112)
1. Laudate Pueri 3:39
2. Sit Nomen Domini 2:29
3. A Solis Ortu 1:39
4. Excelsus Super Omnes 2:30
5. Quis Sicut 1:27
6. Suscitans a Terra 3:04
7. Qui Habitare 2:22
8. Gloria Patri 4:03
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