George Frideric Handel Archives

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Culture-Keeping

It’s a popular pastime. There is no shortage of those who will tell us what is wrong with our culture. And some who do this want to rid us of the things they think wrong. It might be an academic program, a book, a public health measure, or simply investment in the arts.

I want to think about culture-keeping. What is the good, the true, and the beautiful that we want to preserve and extend? It seems to me that if we don’t answer this question there are many good and precious things we will sacrifice to a banal mass culture whose main object is simply to keep us happy and well-fed.

If you were to ask me the mission of this blog over the past eleven-plus years, it comes down to culture-keeping. Books are one of the means by which we may purvey the good, the true, and the beautiful. Books that lift our eyes to heaven. Texts that instruct us in the intricacies of our world. Books that rouse us to action for the common good. Stories that capture our imagination and inspire us to live with courage, integrity, and compassion.

I’ve written and conversed with you about all of these. It’s the small contribution I feel I can make to the culture-keeping work that needs many hands. In the world of books, I think there are several important culture-keeping priorities. One is to protect our speech freedoms, which give people the right to say things we don’t agree with. Another is to protect our libraries. Access to books and other information sources for all people, especially those with limited resources is an important act of culture-keeping. Finally, we need to protect intellectual property in an AI age where it is free for the scraping.

I recognize there is much more I could write about culture-keeping. What I really hope, however, is to enlist us all in this important work.

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of my regrets in life is that I never learned Latin. In “LatinGate: A Teacher’s Lament,” J.S. Ubhi asserts, “Latin teaches an acuity of language unparalleled anywhere else in the secondary-school curriculum; institutions that offer it do so at a time when the brain’s neuroplasticity is highest.” His lament is that the new government in the UK has cut funding for Latin programs and that this is a great loss.

One of my Christmas traditions is to listen to one of my recordings of Handel’s Messiah, sometimes with musical score in hand. In “The Glorious History of Handel’s Messiah,” Jonathan Kandell recounts the history of this famous composition, a part of Christmas for so many of us.

Forgiveness is hard, yet necessary, if, as Jesus says, we are to live in God’s forgiveness. “On Literary Forgiveness” explores the difficult work of forgiveness in literature.

One of the delicious things of long, cold winter nights is to curl up in our favorite chair with a warm drink and a good books. We may not have a fireplace, but we can still enjoy the “Six Books to Read by the Fire” recommended by Amanda Parrish Morgan.

But if those recommendations don’t excite you, you might look over “The Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries 2024.”

Quote of the Week

My quote of the week is from fellow Ohioan, Louis Bromfield, a popular novelist in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a pioneer in sustainable agriculture, ahead of his time, as reflected in this comment:

“As soils are depleted, human health, vitality and intelligence go with them.”

Bromfield was born December 27, 1896.

Miscellaneous Musings

We recently visited Wild Birds Unlimited’s store near us for gifts for a bird-loving friend. I’ve been reading Amy Tan’s Backyard Bird Chronicles and it is a walking endorsement for the store. I can’t believe how much this woman spends on feeding the birds in her backyard. But it has resulted in an exquisite birding journal of observations written and drawn over several years.

Earlier, I mentioned stories of courage, integrity, and compassion. Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures was an utter delight to read for this reason. It is written for middle grade readers but this much older reader thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m coming to the end of The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael after a year and a half of discovering this wonderful series from the 1980’s. In this, we consider Father Cadfael, an the extraordinary offer he makes to give his life for that of the son he had unknowingly fathered before he entered the Benedictines. Peters offers a powerful exploration of the dynamic of the relations of fathers and sons, and of other loyalties, not of blood.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Caroline Fausel, A Simply Healthy Life

Tuesday: Katherine Rundell, Impossible creatures

Wednesday: The Month in Reviews: December 2024

Thursday: Mary Stockwell, Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America

Friday: Sister Prudence Allen, RSM, The Concept of Woman

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for December 22-28, 2024!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Handel: The Man & His Music, Jonathan Keates. New York: Random House, 2009.

Summary: A biography of George Frideric Handel, tracing his life through his music, from his training in Halle, his time in Italy, and his long career in England, following George I’s ascent to the English throne, through the formation of three opera companies, and the composition of the oratorios for which he is most famous.

For most of us, when you mention Handel, we think primarily of his most famous works: The Royal Fireworks Music,The Water Music, Judas Maccabeus, The Concerti Grossi, and most of all Messiah. For a long time these were about the only works of Handel in my music collection. In recent years, I’ve discovered that Handel composed numerous other operas and oratorios on biblical and classical themes. But until I read this book, I had no idea of how much music Handel composed, particularly in the genre of opera.

The Queens Theatre in the Haymarket in London where many of Handel’s operas were first performed, by William Capon

Keates biography really is just as much musicography as it is biography. Part of the reason is that Handel, apart from his music, lived a very private life, never marrying. We do learn about his family including his physician father. We learn about his training in Halle, his time in Italy learning from Corelli and Scarlatti, and most fatefully, how he became kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover in 1710, and moved to London in 1712 when the Elector ascended to the English throne as George I. Handel never depended exclusively on the Royal Family for patronage, enjoying the patronage of other wealthy houses. He also helped launch, over the years, three opera companies. When, in the 1730’s interest in his operas waned, he began writing oratorios, leading to Samson, Alexander Balus, and above all, Messiah and Judas Maccabeus. We learn of Handel’s temporary paralysis (perhaps from stroke?) and the eventual loss of his sight, the use of the proceeds of Messiah performances for the Foundling Hospital, and his passing in 1757.

What we learn most from Keates is about the music itself–the libretti and the librettists Handel worked with, the scenes and movements, music drawn from earlier work and the performers who first performed these works. We are introduced to ‘il Senesino,’ Handel’s star castrato (a role likely not to be filled in this way in our more humane age) and Susannah Cibber, who sang “He was despised” in Messiah. She did not have a great voice but was unmatched in her expressiveness, as an actor. We also trace the career of Handel, the music impresario, and the struggles hardly unique to his age to make musical performances and companies financially viable, as well as profitable to himself. He was perhaps more successful than most, due particularly to his oratorios, leaving an estate of 20,000 pounds, distributing bequests to a number of causes and friends.

Some might consider his account of the works and their first performances too much. But for the musicophile who wants to discover Handel’s lesser known works, many of which have been recorded in the last thirty years, the book makes a great adjunct to the discovery of these works. One of the indexes Keates includes is one by category and alphabet to all the works referenced in his book, with page numbers. I would also have appreciated a chronological listing, and perhaps a discography of recordings of these works.

After a period when Handel’s reputation was in eclipse, he once again has grown in regard. Keates work instructs us on many of the lesser known aspects of his life and work, and the prolific body of work that remains for many of us to discover.