Handel’s larger cantatas and oratorios will occupy 32 volumes in the Halle Handel Edition (Series I) – a body of works which have a tremendous fascination. For many of these works, vocal scores and performance material is available. 

Since 1955 the Halle Handel Edition (HHA), edited by the Internationale Georg-Friedrich-Handel Gesellschaft, has been published by Bärenreiter-Verlag. Since then, the major part of Handel’s output has been made available in the HHA, providing a reliable basis for the study of Handel for both practical performance and scholarship. Alongside the publication of usually three new volumes per year, Bärenreiter, often working with the editorial staff of the HHA, has also revised older published editions, together with the corresponding performance material.

On completion of the Complete Edition, the oratorios and larger cantatas will comprise 32 volumes. Over the last many years, Bärenreiter has invested heavily in this project, and as well as the regular publication of new editions, volumes which have been out of print, sometimes for decades, have been made available again. In the process, the music text updated both in content and presentation. For example, for the third edition of Saul (HWV 53) – first performed in 1739 by Handel as one of his first great English oratorios, and edited in 1962 by Percy M. Young as one of the first HHA volumes – research findings by Anthony Hicks and sources not fully considered at the time have been incorporated; the conducting score used by Handel for the first performance contains a wealth of details which differ from the composition autograph; for example the solo use of the organ not originally envisaged in the introductory Symphony, which has now been included in the HHA. For this third edition, Bärenreiter has completely newly set the volume, as well as the performance material and vocal score, the arrangement of which has been improved.

The series of oratorios and larger cantatas also includes the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (HWV 74), L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (HWV 55) and The Choice of Hercules (HWV 69). Published early on in the HHA (1962, 1965, 1963), these works for soloists, chorus and orchestra, some of which are very short (Ode, Choice of Hercules) are extremely popular. Some were composed in Handel’s early years in London (Ode), and others in his later years there (L’Allegro, Choice of Hercules). The scores published as part of the HHA were out of print for many years, but have since been republished as second, corrected reprints. The well-known Alexander’s Feast (HWV 75) should also be mentioned in this context. The vocal score by Konrad Ameln, published in 1957 and reprinted numerous times since, has been newly set, checked thoroughly in the process in comparison with Handel’s original dynamics, etc., and expanded with the inclusion of appendices in the score; the same adjustments have been made to the performance material.

As well as operas and church music, the most recent new editions in the HHA are two of Handel’s most important oratorios: Samson (HWV 57) and Solomon (HWV 67), each with corresponding vocal scores and performance material. The editor of both these volumes is Hans Dieter Clausen. With their Old Testament subjects on two impressive figures – the Israelite Samson, once invincible through his strength, and the Israelite ruler Solomon – both these oratorios stand out in Handel’s output. It is not only the life stories of the title figures which are set to music, but episodes which sustain their characterisation.

The oratorio Samson, scored for extensive forces, was composed in 1741, when Handel began to establish regular productions of his oratorios in London (see also [t]akte 1/2012). The plot begins when the previously invincible warrior lies in chains, captured by the Philistines. During captivity Samson sings three dialogues, large-scale in format, but nevertheless private in character – with Dalila who betrays him, with his reproachful father and with the malicious Harapha, a giant warrior from the ranks of the Philistines. These scenes are framed or complemented by some sumptuously-scored choruses, which Handel divided alternately between the Israelites and the Philistines. The Old Testament story is not conveyed through narrative biblical text, as in the epic oratorios Israel in Egypt (HWV 54) and Messiah (HWV 56), but through freely-written libretti which portray the cast in defining dialogue, in other words, dramatically. Handel chose John Milton’s drama Samson Agonistes as a literary source. Samson’s tragic death – in which the hero himself dies whilst bringing down the Philistines’ temple – is part of the drama. It was originally envisaged by Handel as the culmination of his oratorio, and had already been composed. However, for the premiere he made the conclusion of the oratorio more conciliatory. As well as including the version of the premiere, Hans Dieter Clausen has reconstructed the sequence of this “first version” and made previously unpublished musical numbers available which enable a complete performance of this version to be given for the first time. In addition the edition offers detailed information on no fewer than nine further versions which were performed with Handel’s involvement, the last from 1759, the year of his death.

The oratorio Solomon, premiered in 1749, is probably even more significant with its large forces and its exuberant wealth of musical ideas (see also [t]akte 1/2014). There is no framework plot. Each of the three acts is devoted to a different theme from the life of the Israelite King: Solomon’s relationship to his wife, the Judgement of Solomon and the state visit of Nicaule, Queen of Sheba. A musico-dramatic high point is the dispute between the two mothers over a child. Into this Handel first introduces the various characters and their positions, and allows the episode to culminate in a trio on a grand scale in which he contrasts and musically combines the different opinions. In this work too, monumental choruses frame the action. Handel evidently had large enough forces for the double-choir numbers which he set in traditional contrapuntal style as well as in homophonic, alternating writing. He also used additional ripieno parts for the strings. Hans Dieter Clausen’s edition offers the version of the premiere and the versions used in later revivals, including a shorter version which omits the first act. Of particular interest is the complete version of the final chorus of the second act (“Swell the full chorus”), published for the first time, which Handel shortened by about three quarters of its original length before the premiere.                             

Tobias Gebauer