fashion, as some of his biographers have suggested. A more elaborate ceremony could not have been ordered for a king, and, concerning it, Handel's biographers have missed three important facts, viz. :-The attendance of the Gentlemen of the Chapels Royal; the combined Choirs of St Paul's and St Peter's; and, the most important point, that the music played was Croft's.

So passed Handel, midst all the pomp and circumstance of a nation's reverence. How different to the passing of some of the masters who came after him! Chopin, his bones rattled over the cobbles of Paris on his way to Père Lachaise. Schubert, and his brother pawning his coat to bury him. Bizet,dying of starvation just as the acclaiming crowd poured out of the theatre after the first performance of Carmen. But each of the great ones, as they came, yielded his tribute to the feet of Handel. Beethoven, dying, pointed to the Arnold edition of Handel's works, which were piled up in a corner of the room, and exclaimed: "There lies the truth!" Mozart declared, "When Handel chooses he can strike like a thunderbolt." Gluck took Michael Kelly up to his room to show him "the portrait of the inspired master of our Art" whom he had always endeavoured to emulate, and pointed to a picture of Handel. Haydn worshipped his memory. And a greater judge than all the musical world of nearly two hundred years, has acknowledged the genius of Handel. To many, he remains as the greatest dreamer in music the world has ever known. His whole life was a dream. And his every effort was votive offering to his temple of dreams-that temple which he always sought to make beautiful.

He went to the Abbey as he would have wished-the acknowledged Master. Those who had laughed and jeered now came to mourn. Three thousand people gave him the tears of the world.

One is reminded of Thackeray's words on George III:

"Hush! Strife and Quarrel, over the solemn grave! Sound, trumpets, a mournful march! Fall, dark curtain, upon his pageant, his pride, his grief, his awful tragedy !"

But in the case of Handel, can be added-his ultimate Triumph!

APPENDIX

HANDEL'S DIFFICULTIES WITH HIS SINGERS

AND NOTES ON HIS SCORE CORRECTIONS

REFERENCE has been made in this volume to the continual difficulty which Handel had with his singers. Fortunately there still exist certain copies of Christopher Smith's transcriptions, which reveal not only these difficulties that necessitated frequent alterations, but the constant change of mood which made Handel adapt a song he had composed for one singer, in order to suit the voice of another.

Only six of the transcriptions remain, and these only in part, which bear such alterations. They are now in the State and University Library at Hamburg, and were previously in the possession of Victor Schoelcher, the Handel biographer, who bought them for a trifle at Bristol. Of the other Smith transcriptions existing, none of those in the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, nor in my own collection bear the same heavy corrections in Handel's writing, which goes to prove that he cast his companies for his revivals from those now at Hamburg.

The six works in question, and the number of volumes of Smith's transcriptions of them, which are at Hamburg, are as follows: Alexander's Feast, I vol.; L'Allegro, 1 vol.; Arianna, 1 vol.; Athalia, I vol.; Belshazzar, 3 vols.; Song for St Cecilia's Day, 1 vol.

They are interesting from several points of view as they give us the names of the singers for whom the songs were composed, as well as those who were chosen for subsequent performances, while, apparently, Handel sometimes changed his mind in the choice of a singer for some particular performance. Apart from this, they show the shortenings, corrections, alterations and interpolations or substitutes of various numbers, which Handel made very frequently, partly for artistic reasons, and partly to suit the taste of his audiences. As comparatively little is known about these alterations, the following notes on the Hamburg copies may not be without interest.

ALEXANDER'S FEAST

The name of Sigr Avolio is pencilled against that of Mr Beard, while Signa Avolio, as well as Mrs Weichsell, appear against the name of Signa Strada. The name of the latter is written in Christopher Smith's

hand against the words "With ravish'd ears,” while the names of Mrs Weichsell and Miss Brent are entered as cast for the part. The names of Mrs Weichsell and Mr Callogh are written in pencil at the beginning of the air: "Bacchus ever Fair." Callogh was evidently a high baritone, as Handel has pencilled in higher notes for the passage:

of which the original setting was evidently for a lower voice.

If Handel had an artist whom he thought particularly suited to the effective rendering of the music, he would turn over a soprano song to a contralto, or even to a tenor, and transpose it accordingly, provided the text would permit of such a change.

"The mighty master smiled" was apparently composed for Beard in the first instance, for his name was placed at the beginning in Christopher Smith's handwriting. But it was later struck out in pencil, and next to it we find the name of Miss Brent. Callogh is written underneath Beard and crossed out again. Under Callogh we find Mrs Cibber's name, and Sigr Guardacci underneath that again, while next to the latter, under the first line, appears "Mrs Weichsell."

The original Recitative, in the key of "A minor," is in the tenor clef, while the Arioso "Softly sweet," in " D major," is in the soprano clef. Afterwards he transposed it a third higher, indicating the notes he wanted by placing their respective letters in pencil over the original notes, using the German form "h" for the "b natural." The Arioso, Largo No. 9, originally written for Signa Strada, was afterwards given to Miss B .. (Brent, illegible in pencil). Next to it, likewise in pencil, is written "Guardacci," a note higher, covered by a patch of paper. All is struck out again, and the Arioso begins and gives the names of Signa Strada, Sigr Tend. (Tenducci), "Mrs Cibber in contralto ex g," "Mrs Weichsell ex A." The whole of the Recitative (in tenor clef) and the Arioso are then struck out, and another version, in which the violin replaces the violoncello, is inserted.

...

"Let old Timotheus," originally given to Beard, appears to have been at one time intended for Mrs Cibber, whose name is written over the words by Handel in pencil, but struck out again and "Williams " written by the side of it.

The entire score of Alexander's Feast is altered in this fashion, which is suggestive of Handel's difficulty in casting.

HANDEL'S DIFFICULTIES WITH HIS SINGERS.

Af Edward Mr Scott

mr C

HIS PENCIL NOTES ON A TRANSCRIPTION BY
CHRISTOPHER SMITH.

Showing how he continually changed his mind with regard to his singers.