George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV55
The story of the composition of the oratorio L’Allegro, il
Penseroso ed il Moderato is connected with the
development of the so-called English oratorio, that had its
unobtrusive beginning with the composition of Esther,
HWV50, in 1718. For fourteen years Handel wrote no
oratorios, returning in 1732 to a form that would mark the
musical culmination of his achievement.
The oratorio Esther is not only recognised by
musicologists as the first work of its kind, but it is also
Handel’s first work in English. The original biblical drama
Esther by Jean Racine, written for the pupils of Madame de
Maintenon at Saint-Cyr, was known in England through
the translation by Thomas Brenton. It formed, with its
special mixture of historical, literary and choral elements,
the occasion for literary and musical exchanges between
Handel and friends, fellow-guests of James Bridge, Earl of
Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos.
It was friends, among them Alexander Pope and John
Arbuthnot, who brought the subject to Handel’s attention,
discussing the historical dimensions and psychological
implications of the biblical narrative of Ahasuerus and
Haman, Esther and Mordecai, and inspiring the
composition. It seems important to mention these
circumstances, since the origins of Esther and of L’Allegro,
il Penseroso ed il Moderato exhibit certain common
elements connected with what we nowadays might call
Handel’s ‘social milieu’.
Turning again to Esther, until 1732 the oratorio
remained without any further resonance, neither were there
reports of performances or editions. Esther fell into
oblivion at a time when Handel was fully occupied in
composing, rehearsing and performing operas for the
Academy, tormented by the vanity of his singers, warding
off intrigues and cabals, and acquiring rich patrons for his
plans and projects. For these reasons he did not continue on
the promising path on which he had set out with Esther.
The score remained in the drawer. That changed at a stroke
when Bernard Gates, Master of the Choristers in the Chapel
Royal, on the occasion of Handel’s 47th birthday, to mark
the occasion gave private performances of Esther at the
Crown and Anchor Tavern on 23rd February and 1st and
3rd March 1732 to the delight of audiences. Much to the
anger of ecclesiastical authorities the work was originally
performed by male and female singers on the stage, yet in
spite of the protests of the clergy against the alleged
profanisation of biblical material the performances
benefited from a stage setting.
This first ‘London’ performance had undreamed of
consequences for all those involved. Among the audience
sat a music-lover who to this day remains unknown, who
thoroughly enjoyed the music and by devious means
acquired the score and shortly afterwards arranged a public
performance, announced under anonymous direction, to
take place on 20th April 1732 at the Great Room, York
Buildings in Villier Street. At that time there was no
question of copyright. Handel was powerless. There was no
legal way to prevent this pirated performance. What could
he do?
The composer reacted immediately and directly,
asking the librettist Samuel Humphreys to prepare a new
version of the text, and dealt with his unknown competitors
with a second expanded version of Esther, HWV50b, with
arias, ensembles and choruses, which he newly composed
or based on the earlier work. This he did in a few days, as
time was pressing. The copyists then quickly made copies
of the material and distributed it to the soloists, chorus and
orchestra, while a massive publicity campaign made
Londoners aware of the event.
The concert took place on 2nd May 1732 at the King’s
Theatre. The audience reacted with enthusiasm, so that
Handel gave six further performances of the expanded
work in the space of a few weeks, on 2nd, 6th, 9th, 13th,
16th and 20th May. The triumph was absolute, and his
unloved rival driven from the field. There were many
reasons for this overwhelming success. The music is
breath-taking, the arias and ensembles are full of melodic
magic, as with his operas, while the choruses, the new
special element of oratorio, Handel composed in such a
way that they could also be performed by talented
amateurs. This as it were ‘democratic’ aspect was, after the
wonderful musical structure, the second important
building-stone in the new form. Above all, however, the
public saw with some satisfaction that their beloved
English language was set to music and was a match for
Italian, since that language, dominant as it was on the
operatic stage, had become so unpopular that Aaron Hill in
a letter to Handel spoke of ‘Italian slavery’.
With these performances of the second version of
Esther and those of his masque Acis and Galatea,
transformed into a serenata, Handel inroduced a completely
new form of musical ‘entertainment’ to the London public.
Opera was in a bad way. The egocentric behaviour of some
of the stage stars, pampered by the public, had mounted to
such arrogance, of so little service to the music that Handel
turned some of them summarily out into the street.
Nevertheless he did not want to dispense with a number of
his noble patrons. Infatuated with their favourites, like
Odysseus they were consumed by enthusiasm for the sound
of their sirens and sought their personal political ends at
first by power of persuasion, then with intrigues and finally
through economic pressure. With Handel they had come to
the wrong shop. He remained inexorable and made no
concession to the taste of his patrons. Thereupon those
whose hopes had not been realised set up a new operatic
undertaking, the ‘Opera of the Nobility’, to see their own
singers on the stage again. These rebels achieved only
moderate success, but it was enough to aggravate further
the already stretched financial situation of the Academy.
Probably the success of Esther had also stimulated Handel
into further pursuing the development of the new form,
since he actually composed only shortly afterwards two
other works on English texts with arias, ensembles,
recitatives, accompanied recitatives and chorus parts, the
oratorios, or, as he called them, sacred dramas Deborah,
HWV51, performed on 17th March 1733 at the King’s
Theatre in London, and Athalia, HWV52, performed on
10th June 1733 in the Oxford Sheldonian Theatre. In spite
of the great success of the three oratorios it was years
before Handel could finally set himself free from the world
of opera. His heart was with opera, but how wrong he was.
The extent to which Handel suffered at the decline of
opera is described by William Shield in the following
moving words: ‘I have heard it related, that when Handel’s
servant used to bring him his chocolate in a morning, he
often stood with silent astonishment (until it was cold) to
see his master’s tears mixing with the ink, as he penned his
divine notes’. The wonderful works written in these years
in spite of the unfavourable circumstances were Orlando in
1733, Arianna in 1734, Ariodante and Alcina in 1735,
Atalanta in 1736, Arminio, Giustino and Berenice in the
critical year 1737, Faramondo, Alessandro Severo and
Serse in 1738, Jupiter in Argos (incidental music) in 1739
and Imeneo in 1740, and, as the last of his forty operas,
Deidamia in 1741, all evidence of uncompromising will as
of a singular wealth of musical invention and of almost
inconceivable creative power.
In this period of his life Handel suffered from a severe
illness. Demanding but unsuccessful struggles over the
Academy, the similarly fruitless battles over the survival of
a regular opera among different forms of organization that
were demanded of him by often unreliable partners, took
their toll on him. Completely exhausted, he allowed
himself neither pause nor rest, was always negotiating with
potential patrons, travelled yet again across Europe,
struggled, quarreled with those around him, was reconciled
again, composed, ate and drank. All to excess: in short, he
did not know how to spare himself or those around him,
and so it was first through his superhuman exertions that his
exhausted body called a halt.
In 1737 he suffered a stroke and, after this, physical
troubles and heavy depressions which neither the waters at
Tunbridge Wells nor the brutal remedies of the time,
emetics and blood-letting, could cure. A continuing
paralysis of his right hand and general ill-health finally led
in May 1737 to a breakdown. His illness gave rise to fears
for the worst, and he was a difficult patient: ‘But tho’ he
had the best advice, and tho’ the necessity of following it
was urged to him in the most friendly manner, it was with
the utmost difficulty that he was prevailed upon to do what
was proper, when it was in any way disagreeable’
(Mainwaring). His friends succeeded in persuading him to
leave London and take the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle, and
he travelled there in September. The result was a miracle.
The cure succeeded. The depressive moods disappeared,
physical health returned, and his right hand began again to
respond. Thankful, he returned to London.
The situation with opera had, for its part, in general not
improved. That there was fear of bankruptcy had for some
months been clear to all those involved. As a responsible
partner Handel had to respond with his own means to the
financial disaster. He had had the prudent foresight to set by
financial reserves for some years. This saved him from a
catastrophe. In spring 1738 he decided to invite the London
public, with the help of friends, to a benefit concert at the
King’s Theatre in the Haymarket on Tuesday 28th March,
and to a work that he called, succinctly, ‘An Oratorio’,
consisting of a hastily assembled compilation of arias from
the oratorios Esther, Athalia, and Deborah, some Italian
arias and the anthem Zadok the Priest, a pasticcio without
any underlying plot. In the breaks between the acts he
played organ concertos. This concert achieved absolutely
incredible success. The London public felt itself called on
to show solidarity and flocked in crowds to the opera
house. On the same night the Earl of Egmont wrote in his
diary: ‘In the evening I went to Hendel’s Oratorio, where I
counted near 1,300 persons besides the gallery and the
upper gallery. I suppose he got this night 1,000 L.’ The
number of subscribers necessary for financing the new
opera season, however, declined so that Johann Jacob
Heidegger in the name of the management on 25th July
1738 threw in the towel. We read in the London Daily Post
for 26th July 1738, the day after Heidegger’s
announcement: ‘Whereas the Opera’s for the ensuing
Season at the King’s Theatre in the Hay-Market, cannot be
carried on as was intended, by Reason of the Subscription
not being full, and that I could not agree with the Singers
th’I offered One Thousand Guineas to One of them: I
therefore think myself oblig’d to declare, that I give up the
Undertaking for next Year, and that Mr. Drummond will be
ready to repay the Money paid in, upon the Delivery of his
Receipt: I also take this Opportunity to return my humble
Thanks to all Persons, who were pleased to contribute
towards my Endeavours of carrying on that Entertainment.’
The unparalleled contribution of the audience, reflected in
their attendance at the benefit concert, as well as the end of
the Academy opera, persuaded Handel to concentrate more
on the composition of oratorios. On 23rd July 1738 he
started work on Saul, HWV53. His librettist was Charles
Jennens, the later librettist of L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il
Moderato and of Messiah.
The first performance of Saul took place on 16th
January 1739. The public flocked to it. It had been
rumoured that the score was a rich one and with unheard of
instruments, and they were not disappointed. The audience
was enraptured. Following further performances of Saul
Handel produced Alexander’s Feast and Il Trionfo del
Tempo e della Verità, as well as a benefit concert for the
impoverished or orphaned families of musicians. The
season was extremely successful.
For the 1739/40 season Handel hired from John Rich
the smaller theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and on Thursday
22nd November, St Cecilia’s Day, opened the season with
his Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, a setting of Dryden’s text,
excerpts from Alexander’s Feast and Il Trionfo del Tempo
e della Verità, and two ‘new Concerto’s for Instruments’
and an organ concerto. On 13th December followed the
performance of the serenata Acis and Galatea, together
with several instrumental works.
On 19th January 1740 Handel began the composition
of the third secular Ode of the season, the oratorio
L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. At the beginning I
mentioned certain parallels between this oratorio and the
first, Esther, and also the fact that the new work owed its
composition to Handel’s milieu. As at Cannons there were
again good friends, on this occasion the philosopher James
Harris, the fourth Earl of Shaftesbury, and Charles Jennens,
who, in conversation, drew Handel’s attention to John
Milton’s poems. The form of the poems appealed at once to
the composer. Charles Jennens was chosen to be involved
in the arrangement of the libretto. The first two acts are
versions of the two poems L’Allegro and Il Penseroso,
which reflect on the merits of the two opposite but finally
complementary characters in a series of images and scenes.
It was evidently James Harris who proposed that it might
be possible to link the two poems together to make a
dialogue of contrasted imagery and setting. In a letter to
James Harris on 29th December 1739 Charles Jennens
reported that he had told Handel of the plan and made him
impatient soon to see the text: ‘Having mention’d to Mr.
Handel your schemes of Allegro & Penseroso, I have made
him impatient to see it in due form & to set it immediately.
I beg therefore that you will execute your Plan without
delay and send it up; or if you don’t care to do that, send me
your Instructions, & I will make the best use I am able of
them; but by all means let me know your Intentions by the
next Post for he is so eager that I am afraid, if his demands
are not answer’d very soon, He will be diverted to some
less agreeable Design.’
James Harris produced his sketch in the the next two
weeks. Not only did he choose the texts, but also made
proposals concerning the music, pitch, instrumentation, and
choice of singers. Handel was glad to receive the text,
although he was not always completely in agreement with
the combination of the poems, ‘too much of the Penseroso
together, which would consequently occasion too much
grave music without intermission’. For this reason he asked
Charles Jennens to re-arrange the text with this in mind and
also asked him for a third part, a conclusion, to bring the
poems together into ‘one Moral Design’. For this he
thought of a passage from Milton’s At a Solemn Musick,
Blessed pair of sirens.
Charles Jennens met the first request, but as far as the
third part was concerned, decided to write it himself. He
created a third person, Il Moderato, who made it his
business with reflections guided by level-headedness and
reason to bring about a reconciliation between Milton’s two
opposite standpoints, Allegro and Penseroso. James Harris
proposed overtures for each part. Handel, however,
obstinately refused ‘to make so much as one’. He decided
instead to perform ‘one of his 12 new concertos’.
On 4th February 1740, within three weeks of receiving
the libretto, Handel completed the composition. The first
performance took place on 27th February, when the
London Daily Post announced: ‘Never perform’d before.
At the Theatre Royal at Lincoln’s-Inn Fields, this Day . . .
will be perform’d L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato.
With two new Concerto’s for several Instruments, and a
new Concerto on the Organ . . .’ Pit and Galleries to be
open’d at Four, and Boxes at Five. Particular Care is taken
to have the House secur’d against the Cold, constant Fires
being order’d to be kept in the House, till the Time of
Performance.’
With the unusual reference to the care with which the
theatre management promised to protect the audience from
cold, the circumstances were that for weeks London had
been subject to a cold spell of unusual intensity. Oxen were
roasted on the spit on the frozen Thames, and in the
evenings people sat shivering by their fires or huddled by
their ovens. For this reason the attendance at the first
performance was pitiful, although Handel had announced
in the newspaper that the theatre would be effectively
heated.
The composer was not discouraged by this, and
arranged three further performances before Easter and one
more on 23rd April 1740. This suggests that the London
public had come to appreciate the work, in spite of the
criticism of the last part of the text, written by Charles
Jennens. Il Moderato was not only the target of a series of
objections and sometimes malicious remarks. Yet this text
had inspired Handel to write wonderful music and met with
his full satisfaction. The following year, after the
performance of the oratorio in Dublin, he reported to
Charles Jennens that ‘the words of the Moderato are vastly
admired’.
Note on the text
John Milton wrote his two poems L’Allegro and Il
Penseroso in 1632 at the age of 24. In the same year he
took the degree of Master of Arts at Christ’s College,
Cambridge, and left the university, where he had spent the
previous seven years, to return to the house his father had
bought at Horton, in Buckinghamshire, after an active life
as a scrivener in London. In the first of the two poems
Milton seeks to banish melancholy, recalling the delights of
country life and of the cities, with their theatres and
pageantry, matters to appeal to the sanguine man. The
second poem banishes ‘vain, deluding joys’ and welcomes
melancholy and contemplation, considering now the
pleasures of the mind.
Joachim Carlos Martini
English version by Keith Anderson