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At 7:24 PM +0200 6/23/05, Sybrand Bakker wrote:
Haendel, according to Bukofzer Music in the Baroque Era, never wrote
down any embellishments he obviously intended.
He has a very nice example of the Aria of the GV, as Haendel would
have composed it.
What's GV?
One rather large difference between Handel and Bach is that Handel
was working with top notch professional singers and Bach, at least in
Leipzig, was working with students. Handel simply hired the singers
who could and would do the embelishments he expected. In a study of
Bach's St. John Passion I did in graduate school, I discovered that
there was a very significant difference between the number of notated
ornaments in soprano and alto arias and those in tenor and bass
arias. Bach was giving the younger boys examples from which to
learn. The older boys singing tenor and bass, presumably university
students, would have more experience and be able to do their own
ornamentation.
Or, if you prefer a different interpretation of the observed facts,
Bach thought his tenors and basses should use less ornamentation!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:John.Howell@xxxxxx)
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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