Draft Introduction to the Edition
On 12 March 2001 The Times (London), with an exaggeration more appropriate to one of
our less reputable papers, announced on one of its news pages (not buried amid its Arts
section) Handel scholar finds the new 'Messiah'; more modestly, two days later it became
Glory in the Gloria. In fact, the work was not quite as unknown as the publicity
suggested. It is included in the commercially-available complete microfilm of the MSS in
the Royal Academy library issued by Harvester Microform/Research Publications a decade or
so ago and available in the world's major music libraries (though apparently no British
libraries bought a set). The opening violin and vocal themes were published in a letter in
Early Music (vol. 11, 1983, p.295) by the countertenor Nicholas Clapton, who was working
at the time for RISM; he described it as 'a highly dubious attribution to Handel by R. J.
S. Stevens'. Clapton had been working on the submission of UK Music MSS to the Répertoire
International des Sources Musicales (RISM), so the information was generally available to
scholars.
I was somewhat embarrassed by the revelation of this unknown Handel work since I had
catalogued the RAM's MSS in the late 1960s. I allocated the MSS their current numbers and
the catalogue card that prefaces the MS on the Research Publications film is the one I
typed then. At the time, although I was a Handel enthusiast, I did not have the
professional interest that I later acquired. The Gloria was an oddity in its
position in the MS and bore no ascription, so the only personal action I took was to note
in my copy of Gerald Abraham's Handel: a Symposium (whose list of works I used as a peg
for miscellaneous comments) 'doubtful Gloria RAM MS 139 & 288'. When the announcement
of the discovery was made, I wrote a few paragraphs in Early Music Review (39, April 2001) and
intended to do no more about it. But a singer asked me if I could provide an edition, so I
embarked on it before realising that Bärenreiter were intending to produce theirs with a
greater speed than is normal with publications of the Halle Händel-Ausgabe.
The Gloria survives in RAM MS 139, ff. 111-122. The foliation is modern (in my
hand, in fact), and has no implication that the Gloria was of the same origin as the rest
of the MS, which is bound together from several discrete items. The rest of the MS
contains opera arias, beginning with substantial groups from Atalanta (1736)
& Alcina (1735); further on, there are items dating from 1737. These are
mostly headed with the name of the opera and original singer, as was normal in operatic
publications, suggesting that perhaps they were copied from the early prints rather than
derived from Handel's scriptorium. The Gloria is in a different hand (separately
paginated [1] to 23) and seems to be independent of the arias. There is also a set of
parts (MS 288) with two copies each of violino primo, violino secondo and violoncello.
These were probably copied from the score; they have some mistakes and contribute nothing
to the information presented by it. There is nowhere in either MS any ascription to Handel
(or to anyone else). But the inclusion in MS 139, a volume otherwise devoted to Handel, is
particularly suggestive in view of the original owner of the MS.
Nearly all of the early MSS in the RAM come from the library of R. J. S. Stevens
(1757-1837), now remembered (if at all) for his glee Ye spotted snakes. His MSS
have his signature, mostly (as far as I can remember) with the date 1817. A considerable
number of these were previously owned by William Savage (c.1720-89), who had sung for
Handel as a boy treble and as a bass. My recollection of the collection is that the Savage
MSS were library volumes rather than working copies of music that he would have sung from;
his Messiah score, for instance, is interesting for being an early version, but
has no individual signs of use or ownership; when he sang in the first London performance,
he probably used a voice part (such as survives at the Foundling Hospital from later
performances). There is no reason to assume that he copied the Gloria himself. It
is, however, odd that a copy should survive in the library of someone from Handel's circle
without the composer himself having a copy, since he seems to have kept firm control over
his MSS.
I suspect that I didn't take the possibility of an attribution to Handel seriously when
I catalogued the work because I did not immediately recognise any cross-relationship with
music known to be by him. Handel was such a self-borrower, that any newly-discovered work
that does not pass that test is immediately suspect. That in itself, however, is no
guarantee of authenticity, since throughout his career Handel borrowed liberally from
other composers. Confirmation of authenticity will not come until experts in Handel's
borrowings have produced and studied a full list of similarities. One suspicious feature
is the full figuring of the bass. That is not normal in Handel's autographs, so suggests
that the scribe of MS 139 was not working from Handel's own score or one derived directly
from it. But the assumption that the work is by Handel seems is confirmed by its quality
and style.
The work, assuming it is by Handel, seems most likely to have been written in Rome,
although the possibility of it dating from his early years at Hamburg is not impossible
— or it might have been written in London, like Silete venti. The score
itself does not require more than one instrument per part — the tutti in 3.31 need
only be to warn the player that his exposed solo is over; the contrary evidence of the
doubled parts is several decades later. It is also significant that none of the movements
is scored for violini unisoni, which one would expect in at least one if the work were
orchestral. Roman pitch was about a tone lower than A=440 (and a semitone below convention
'baroque pitch'), so the tessitura (and top note of B flat) would have been less high than
it looks.
The MS is carefully copied with very few mistakes. The edition retains the original
inconsistent use of accidentals, but we have modernised beaming: the scribe generally
beams quavers in fours and three quavers following a quaver rest as a single group.
Dynamics notated as Pia. are changed to p, Pianiss.o to pp. There are no indications to
cancel these dynamics; where this happens should be as obvious to players now as then, so
have not been added editorially. Abbreviations such as Adago have been expanded without
comment. All titles and the indication of the composer at the head of the score are
editorial. Light punctuation has been added to the text.
The work was rediscovered by Dr. Hans Joachim Marx. A recording was made by Emma Kirkby
on 3 May 2001 with the Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra directed by Laurence
Cummings for release on 4 June by BIS. The official premiere performance is at the
Göttingen Festival on 3 June 2001. These are from the Bärenreiter edition. The first
performance of this edition (and first modern public performance of the work) was on 18
May 2001 at the Hinchingbrooke Performing Arts Centre, Huntingdon, by Patrizia Kwella and
Fiori Musicali.
© Clifford Bartlett, May 2001
