1724
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SIR. J. VANBRUGH TO [LORD CARLISLE]. 1724, Feb 18.—[...] The masquerade flourishes more than ever. Some of the Bishops (from the true spirit of the clergy to meddle in everything) had a mind to attack the King about them, which I believe he did not like, for he took occasion to declare aloud in the Drawing-room that whilst there were masquerades he would go to them. This, with what the Bishops understood from some Ministers they applied to, made them think it might be as well to be quiet. The Bishop of London however, during this (sic—Lent?), preached one very spiritless sermon on the subject, which I believe has not lost Heydegger one single ticket. . . .[...][1] |
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Signora Durastanti being about to quit this Kingdom, at her Benefit last Night sang the following English Cantata, Generous, gay, and gallant Nation, Bold in Arms, and bright in Arts, Land secure from all Invasion, All but Cupid’s gentle Darts: From your Charms, oh who would run? Who would leave you for the Sun? Happy Soil, adieu, adieu: Let old Charmers yield to new. In Arms, in Arts be still more shining, All your Joys be still refining, All your Jars for ever ceasing: But let old Charmers yield to new, Happy Soil, adieu, adieu.[2] |
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[Lord Chamberlain’s Records] These are &c. to Mr. John Kite Hautboi, Mr. George Angels and David Williwald Double Bases Richard Vincent Bason and Christopher Smith Tenor the sum of Twenty Five Pounds Four Shillings for attending three Practices of the Te Deum and
performing in the same before His Majesty at St: Jame’s Also to pay them the
sum of Three Pounds two Shillings and Sixpence for Office Fees Amounting in all to the Sum of Twenty Eight Pounds Six Shillings and Six Pence. And &c. Given &c. this 1st Day of April 1724. in the Tenth Year of His Majesty’s Reign. To Charles Stanhope Esq. &c. Holles Newcastle Marginal entry: Hautboy and Double Base &c. for p[er]forming in the Te Deum at St Jame’s. £28.6.6. These are &ca to Mr. George Frederice Handle the sum of Three Pounds Eighteen Shillings and Sixpence for Writing the Anthem which was P[er]form’d at St. Jame’s before His Maj[es]ty And &c. Given &c. this 1st day of April 1724. in the Tenth year of His Ma[jes]ty’s Reign. To Charles Stanhope Esq. &c. Holles Newcastle Marginal entry: Mr. Handle for writing the Anthem which was P[er]formed before his Ma[jes]ty £3.18.6d.[3] |
Apr 16
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PROPOSALS for Printing by Subscription, A Book, entitled, The Mirrour of the Age; or, Great Britain’s Glory, exemplify’d and display’d. Being a weak Attempt to set forth and celebrate the uncommon Virtues, Abilities, Publick Spirit, extensive Charity, and Liberality, most unfeign’d Piety; and, in a Word, the extraordinary and unparallel’d Merit of that illustrious Person his Excellency the Count JOHN JAMES HEIDEGGER, Baron Heidegger of Heidegger; born in Switzerland, but Naturaliz’d and Ennobled, and, as a small Acknowledgment for his many great and never-to-be-forgotten Services for our Church and Nation, preferr’d to the high Dignity and Degree of Inspector and Superintendant General of, and over all the Operas, Balls, Masquerades, Ridottos, Musick-Booths, and Hops, in, and throughout England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed. Faithfully recounting the most material Transactions and Occurrences of his Life, from his Birth, to the last Masquerade, Monday, February 17, in the Year of the World 5727, and of Grace, 1724; and how he raised himself to his present Grandeur and Honours; and the exceeding Depth and Discernment, and prodigious Capacity and Strength of Parts that he discover’d therein. Subscriptions are taken in at Mr. Hobart’s, at the old Smyrna Coffee-House in Pall-Mall, opposite to the Passage leading into the Park, and at no other Place.[4] |
[Wells, 1 May 1724]
[...] Went to Church. We mix’d again in a Grand Consort; & after 2 of Valentini’s Concertos, we perform’d very justly Hendel’s Oritorio, & some of his Anthems.[5]
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[highways rating, St. Martin in the Fields parish, 20 December 1723 – 11 June 1724] George Frederick Hendell, Rent £20. Rate 3s. 4d.[6] |
To the Author of the Universal Journal.
SIR,
AS you seem, by some of your Writings, to bear Respect to the Memory of the late famous Mr. Henry Purcel, it has revived my Veneration for that wonderful Man, and stirr’d up a little Resentment in me against the modern Fops, who seem resolv’d to tear the Laurel from his Brow, and lay his Memory low in Oblivion.
I shall not vindicate him at the Expence of any Musician now living, tho’ I hope I may without Offence, say, That Purcel was a Shakespear in Musick; and tho’ we have had many great Poets since Shakespear, yet as none have exceeded, may I not say equal’d him; so tho’ Musick has been improved almost to a Prodigy since Purcel’s Time, yet those Lines of Mr. Hall’s may be very well apply’d.
Sometimes an Hero in an Age appears;
But scarce a Purcel in a Thousand Years.
Now that this Great Man’s Fame should dye, nay worse, that his incomparable Works should be made a Jest of by ignorant Coxcombs, who praise and condemn but by Example, and for Fashion’s Sake, is enough to raise Resentment in any, who have the least Regard to the Honour of their Country, or Concern for true Merit.
The first and chief Reflection they cast on his Musick, is, that ’tis Old Stile: I grant it; (all the World knows it was not made Yesterday;) but I cannot comprehend these Gentlemens [sic] nice Distinction of Old Stile and New Stile, unless they would infer that the three Sister-Arts never flourished ’till now, or that the Musick, Painting and Poetry of the last Age is Old Stile, (i. e.) out of Date, and therefore ought to be kick’d out of Doors.
We have doubtless many good Painters now living; must therefore Rubens, Vandyke, Lilly, and Kneller be forgot? Must Spencer, Milton, Shakespear, and Addison be never read, because there are Writers of a later Date? And must Corelli, Bird, and Purcel never be sung, because they are Old Stile?
In Musick we have many Great Masters now living, to support the Dignity of that heavenly Science; but it is the worst Complement any one can pay them, to make Blockheads of Corelli and Purcel. I am confident they would receive it with as much Indignation as Mr. Pope or Mr. Philips would hear a Reflection on Shakespear, tho’ never so much intended in their Favour. No, ’tis only the noisy Vulgar who set up Idols, and demolish the Shrines of the Ancients. It is from our present Great Men I would have our petits Maitres silenced:
I defy any Person living to have a greater Veneration for Raphael, Rubens, and Vandyke, than Richardson, Dake, or Vandebank have for those glorious Ancients. Let our Dablers in Poetry therefore learn of Philips or Welsted to prize Milton: And had every Man the same Value for our Purcel, as the wonderful Hendel has, I had never set Pen to Paper. In Cotemporaries [sic] indeed Emulation may eclipse the Merit of great Men in each other’s Opinion: But the Grave throws all Blots aside; and there can be little Merit, where there is not Generosity enough to have Respect to the good Works of our Ancestors.
Purcel was our great Reformer of Musick; he had a most happy enterprizing Genius, join’d with a boundless Invention, and noble Design. He made Musick answer its Ends, (i. e.) move the Passions. He express’d his Words with a singular Beauty and Energy; there is a Manliness of Stile runs through his Works; and were Italian Words put to some of his Airs, they would not be found Old Stile, nor need any of our modern Composers be ashamed of them.
His Recitative is gracefully natural, and particularly adapted to the English Tongue. There is a Solemnity in his Songs, which at the same time awes and pleases; and when they do not, the Fault is too frequently either in the Singer, who consults not the Intention of the Author; or in the Hearer, who is determined to condemn whatever is Purcel’s.
Had that great Man lived till now, he had doubtless made yet greater Improvements in Musick; and it must be owned a great Misfortune, that his Works were not corrected by himself, but that after his Death all Copies were called in from private Hands, and a Collection made with a View more to the Bookseller’s Advantage, than the Author’s Honour. There are doubtless many Songs in Orpheus Britannicus, which Purcel never intended for the Publick; little Occasional Pieces, done in his Juvenile Years, which he never designed to transmit to Posterity. But then, on the contrary, there are in that very Book; (and of those a great many) such bright Originals, as will outlive the Malice and Ignorance of this fantastick Generation, and shine to the latest Posterity; when the Memory of that glorious Englishman shall again flourish, and when Musick and Reason shall once more be united.[7]
Aug 10
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ODE. On
Seigniora ****’s Voice and Face. [Cuzzoni?] I. ’TWAS long a Paradox to me, That Musick dwells in Discord most: But now ***** Face I see, And hear her Voice, my Wonder’s lost. II. I thought she was, at the first Sight, Of Lucifer’s Apostate Train, But, fal’n from such prodigious Height, Did yet her Angel Voice retain. III. To her such Qualities are giv’n, As serve at once, to charm and fright: Let her but sing, we rise to Heav’n! But shew her Face, we’re d-mn’d out-right! IV. So have I known, with sweetest Sound, An old worn Lute affect the Ears; Its Looks might Harmony confound; Its Notes work Envy in the Sphears. V. The Tongue, that us’d to be the worst Of Womankind, she most prefers: The Face, that others covet first, And call their Pride, is least of hers. VI. Here would I doat, were I to chuse, A Wife by th’Ear, and not the Eye: Who wou’d not such an Hag refuse? Who wou’d not for such Musick die? VII. While she has Tongue, and I have Eyes, I ne’er shall tast Content of Mind —— Ye Pow’rs, that know my Scorn, and Sighs, Oh! make her dumb, or strike me blind.[8] |
Aug 17
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To be LET, The GREAT ROOM in Villars-street, York- Buildings, 32 Foot 4 Inches long, 31 Foot 6 broad, 21 Foot high, the Sides and Roof adorn’d with Painting, Gilding, Pillars, Capitals, and other Decorations, 4 Rows of Seats round the Room, stuff’d and cover’d with green Bayes, and rail’d in with Iron, besides an Alcove rais’d four Foot, with a Semicir[c]le of Seats, and stands for Musick, 15 Foot 9 deep, and 17 Foot in Diameter; towards the Room, a Gallery over-against the Alcove, handsomely rail’d with Iron. Together with the House thereunto belonging, of 2 Ground Rooms, 3 one Pair of Stairs, 6 two Pair of Stairs, and 7 Garrets, with Kitchen and Cellars. Enquire at the next Door.[9] |
Their Highnesses the Princess Anne and Princess Carolina came on Monday last to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and heard the famous Mr. Handel (their Master) perform upon the Organ, the Reverend Dr. Hare, Dean of Worcester attending upon their Highnesses during their Stay there.[10]
We hear, their Highnesses the Princess Anne and Princess Carolina went last Monday to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and heard the famous Mr. Handel (their Musick Master) perform upon the Organ, the Reverend Dr. Hare, Dean of Worcester, attending upon their Highnesses during their Stay there.[11]
Last Monday their Royal Highnesses, the Princess Anne and Princess Carolina, came to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and heard the famous Mr. Handel, (their Musick-Master) perform upon the Organ; the Reverend Dr Hare Dean of Worcester attending on their Royal Highnesses during their Stay there.[12]
[Gio. Giacomo Zamboni to Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri in Florence, 21 September/2 October 1724]
Operatic productions will resume here near the beginning of November, and they should succeed well, because this year we will have—in addition to Cuzzona and Senesino—the famous Borosini, recently arrived from Vienna, who pleases nicely {…}. [Andrea] Pacini has also arrived, and shortly we expect Anna Dotti from Paris and [Benedetta Sorosini, called] Seresina from Venice. The first opera will be Bajazet [i.e., Tamerlano], set to music by Hendel.[13]
We hear that there is a new Opera now in Practice at the Theatre in the Hay-Market, called Tamerlane, the Musick composed by Mynheer Hendel, and that Signior Borseni, newly arrived from Italy, is to sing the Part of the Tyrant Bajazet. N. B. It is commonly reported this Gentleman was never cut out for a Singer.[14]
From Mr. J——’s Letter, London, Nov. 10.
They write from the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, That the Company of Singers lately arriv’d from Italy, continue performing Mr. Handel’s new Celebrated Opera, call’d Tamerlane, with such great Applause from the Nobility, and all the Audience, that ’tis order’d by the Royal Academy to be play’d 6 Weeks successively. The Italian Words in the said Opera, are truely translated into English Verse, and Engrav’d under the Musick, which was never before done in any other Opera.[15]
[Giuseppe Riva to Agostino Steffani, London, Sunday 10 December 1724]
{...} the Academy has many expenses this year and the first opera [Tamerlano], which was by Mr Handel, was poorly received. Next we shall see that [Artaserse] of Father Attilio [Ariosti], which will necessarily be worse, and if they do not call [/94] Bononcini to the rescue, things will deteriorate even further. {...}
{...}
[P. S.] 20 December. {...} the directors of the Academy {...} are distraught because the operas are going very badly, Attilio’s having been staged with little success.[16]
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[Mrs. Pendarves to Mrs. Ann Granville, 12 December 1724] [...] Artaxerxes is liked by most people. I think there are some very pretty things in it. I have bespoke three of the best songs in it. I will copy them, and send them to Mrs. Carter as soon as I have them. Enclosed is a song out of Tamerlane, which is a favourita. [...] There will be no masquerades till after Xtmas. I have leave to go to one or two, but one will content me. I was to see the opera of Dioclesian, but was very much disappointed, for instead of Purcell’s musick which I expected, we had Papusch’s, and very humdrum [102] it was; indeed I never was so tired with anything in my life. The performers were, Mrs. Barbier, Mrs. Chambers, (a scholar of Margarettas), Legard and old Leveridge. Mr. Rich promises the town a great many fine things at the new house this winter. There is a great curiosity set up in one of the rooms in the Opera house, and nobody is admitted to see it under a guinea a piece, ’tis the Temple of Solomon; but it is too much money for me to bestow only to see a model that may be no more like the original than like St. Peter’s at Rome! Lady Lansdowne just now sent me a ticket for the opera, but I have resisted the temptation, and stay at home to nurse.[17] |
[late? 1724]
Mr. P. Tillemans & Mr Jos. Goupee both joyntly imploy’d to paint [/] make a Sett of Sceenes [sic] for the Opera house in the Haymarkett. which were much approv’d of[18]
De’ Signori Sottoscriventi,
[…]
N. Haym
G. Hendel
Mr. Heydegger
[…][19]
PSAL. XLII.
AS pants the hart […]
By Mr. GEORGE FREDERICK HANDELL, Composer to his Majesty.[20]
[1] The Manuscripts of the Earl of Carlisle, preserved at Castle Howard (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1897), 48.
[2] The Daily Journal, no. 985, Wednesday 18 March 1724, [1].
[3] Donald Burrows, “Handel and the English Chapel Royal during the Reigns of Queen Anne and King George I,” 2 vols. (Ph.D. dissertation, Open University, Milton Keynes, 1981), 2:188r, v; Donald Burrows, Handel and the English Chapel Royal (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 609.
[4] The Daily Journal, no. 1010, Thursday 16 April 1724, [2].
[5] [Claver Morris], The Diary of a West Country Physician, A.D. 1684-1726, ed. Edmund Hobhouse (Rochester: Stanhope Press, 1934), 107.
[6] William C. Smith, “Handeliana,” Music & Letters 31 (1950), 125-32: 125.
[7] The Universal Journal, no. 33, Saturday 25 July 1724, [3]. repr. Purcell Remembered, ed. Michael Burden (London: Faber and Faber, 1995), 136-38; William Weber and Donald Burrows, “Henry Purcell and The Universal Journal: The Building of Musical Canon in the 1720s,” in Music and History: Bridging the Disciplines, ed. Jeffrey H. Jackson and Stanley C. Pelkey (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), 181-99: 195-97 (see also p. 197, n. 3).
[8] The Daily Journal, no. 1109, Monday 10 August 1724, [2].
[9] The Daily Post, no. 1526, Monday 17 August 1724, [2]; repr. The Correspondence of Richard Steele, ed. Rae Blanchard (Oxford University Press / London: Humphrey Milford, 1941), 115.
[10] The British Journal, no. 102, Saturday 29 August 1724, 3.
[11] The History of The Universal Journal, no. 38, Saturday 29 August 1724, 5.
[12] The Weekly Journal: Or, British Gazetteer, Saturday 29 August 1724, p. 2957.
[13] Lowell Lindgren, “Musicians and Librettists in the Correspondence of Gio. Giacomo Zamboni (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Rawlinson Letters 116-138),” [Royal Musical Association] Research Chronicle 24 (1991), 1-194: 70.
[14] The Weekly Journal or Saturday’s-Post, no. 312, Saturday 17 October 1724, 1945.
[15] The Newcastle Courant, no. 230, Saturday 14 November 1724, 10.
[16] Lowell Lindgren and Colin Timms, “The Correspondence of Agostino Steffani and Giuseppe Riva, 1720-1728, and Related Correspondence with J.P.F. von Schönborn and S.B. Pallavicini,” Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle 36 (2003), 1-174: 93-94.
[17] The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany, ed, Lady Llanover, 3 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1861), 1:101-02.
[18] The Twenty-Second Volume of the Walpole Society, 1933-1934: Vertue Note Books. Volume III (Oxford: Walpole Society, 1934), 21; repr. Deutsch: 176; HH4: 131.
[19] F. A. di C., Teatro Fisicosmografico: Overro trattato di Cosmografia (London: J. Bettenham, 1724), list is not paginated.
[20] A Collection of Anthems, As the same are now performed in his Majesty’s Chapels Royal, &c. (London: B. Barker and C. Rivington, 1724), 81.