Handel Keyboard Works
AN IMPORTANT REDISCOVERY
^{Preludes and Toccatas from the “Bergamo manuscript”}

Dear Handelians,

s probably some of you already know, a manuscript now held in Biblioteca Musicale Gaetano Donizetti (Bergamo, Italy) has been recently re-discovered by Graham Pont. For a full introduction to this topic I suggest to look at his article appeared one year ago in ‘The Early Keyboard Sonata in Italy and Beyond’ R. H. Stewart-MacDonald (ed.) XXI+334 p., 141 b/w ill., 210 x 260 mm, 2016, pp.177-190.

The manuscript I-BGi Ms XIV 8751 H.1 (that we call ‘Bergamo manuscript’) consists of 92 pages, as Pont stated, entirely in the hand of William Babell, famous keyboard arranger and virtuoso, who was Handel’s principal copyist from c.1711 until his death in 1723. The manuscript contains, in the order: 11 Toccatas, 7 Preludes, 1 Allemande and 2 Suites. One of these is almost identical to the Suite in G Major HWV 441. The rest of the music is not otherwise known, with the exception of the second part of Toccata No. 9, a two-parts Invention, pretty identical to the Capriccio HWV 483.

It's easy to identify Handel music in this manuscript, while it is much more difficult to do the same with Babell or other potential authors. The introductory sections of some of the Toccatas (eg. No.1, 2 and 10), consist of arpeggios and virtuoso passages that show common material found in the famous cadenza of Vo' far guerra transcription (the one published by Babell in 1717 volume) as well as in some of the Babell preludes (same volume). It is reasonable to think that Babell has added something of his own in those Toccatas (as well as in the Preludes). However, we can also argue that these Toccatas have been entirely composed, as Pont suggests, by a very young Handel, before 1706. If this is true, the cadenza and the whole Vo' far guerra transcription must be attributed to Handel, not Babell.

As Pont observed, a serious debate should be undertaken by others, but it seems there is no doubt that most of these pieces (copied and arranged by Babell himself) are based on original Handel sources (see 2nd quote below). A number of concordances with works composed between 1705 and 1715 can be easily identified. As soon as a CD recording will be available (see below), I’m sure that anyone who has some acquaintance with Handel music will recognize that. I was lucky enough to exchange opinions with Graham Pont (Handel scholar) and participate at listening sessions with Fernando De Luca (harpsichordist) to be persuaded that this is a really great discovery! The Handel footprint seems to live in almost every page, regardless of who is the real composer of the manuscript. For example, I literally love the lengthy fugue that concludes Toccata No. 6: it features a recurring division in semiquavers which also appears (at least) in the second movement (bar 31, bass line) of Handel’s Oboe Sonata in c minor HWV 366:2, dated around 1711. An authentic Handel cliche!

Here are three quotes from G. Pont (extracted from the CD booklet in preparation):

[...] “While none of the movements in this volume is attributed to any composer, internal evidence indicates that most, if not all of the music, was composed by or adapted from George Frideric Handel. If so, this volume represents the most important addition to the corpus of Handel’s keyboard works since the publication of the Aylesford manuscripts in 1928.”

[...] “The attribution of the Bergamo pieces to Handel is strongly supported by the presence of Babell’s handwriting throughout the manuscript. During his association with the composer Babell evidently had free access to Handel’s library from which he made several copies of collections he found there.”

[...] “the Bergamo manuscript reveals the young Handel at the height of his powers as a German composer and brilliant virtuoso at the keyboard.”

Just a final digression about the Handel-Babell topic: for the more skeptical ones, I invite to take a look at the more recent publications by Graham Pont. Please don't limit to read at the old article of 1995 whose hypothesis has found little support. There are at least three additional reports that shed new light on this. In the chronological order:

1. Reminiscences of Rinaldo; The Keyboard Transcriptions of 'Vo' far guerra', Ad Parnassum, Volume 9, Issue 17 (April 2011), pp.7-35.
2. Some questions concerning Handel’s early London copyists, in 'Early Music', vol. 44 no 3 (May 2016).
3. Handel's Keyboard Sonatas, in 'The Early Keyboard Sonata in Italy and Beyond', R. H. Stewart-MacDonald (ed.) (2016), pp. 145-190.

The latter one (3) covers for the first time the Bergamo manuscript, as said (pp. 177-190). Not only. It also covers another manuscript (p. 157), the Handel’s Royal Lesson Book (c1721), copied by Babell and now held in New York (US-NYp Mus. Res. Drexel 5856). The first seven pages of the royal manuscript, as Pont stated, are filled in with “the composer’s final version of Vo’ far guerra for the keyboard”. I will not digress more on this topic, as out of scope for our announcement.

A selection of the Bergamo manuscript will be performed (live concert) by Fernando De Luca in Venice, probably in the next few days; the event will be likely replicated in Rome, Naples, Cagliari and hopefully in London. The full set of preludes and toccatas will be available as a (probable) World Premiere CD recording, later in November 2017. The additional pieces not included in the CD (Two suites and single Allemande) will be published on saladelcembalo.org very soon.

The above YouTube video includes a short musical excerpt [2:23’’] from Prelude VII and Toccatas V, VI & VII.

Cheers,

Marco De Gregorio --- saladelcembalo.org
Rome, 2017 October 13th

FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE held at Ca' Rezzonico, Venezia (Italy), 21 October 2017 FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE in LONDON held at Handel House, 25 Brook Street, London, 19 February 2019 A NEW RELATED ARTICLE (Jan 2018) 36 Pieces from unpublished sources

Fernando De Luca playing a selection from the Bergamo Manuscript, in Handel House (London)

ITA

Dopo oltre otto mesi di gestazione, dovuti ad una lunga serie di scambi di opinioni con lo studioso haendeliano Graham Pont (Balmain, Australia), nonché a varie sessioni d’ascolto con il cembalista Fernando De Luca, possiamo finalmente annunciarvi quanto segue.

Nei prossimi giorni (fine Ottobre 2017), verrà eseguito dal Maestro, probabilmente a Venezia (Ca’ Rezzonico), un concerto di presentazione del manoscritto recentemente riscoperto da G. Pont, e discusso lo scorso anno in ‘The Early Keyboard Sonata in Italy and Beyond’ R. H. Stewart-MacDonald (ed.) XXI+334 p., 141 b/w ill., 210 x 260 mm, 2016, pagina 177 e seg. Altri eventi simili dovrebbero susseguirsi a Roma, Napoli, Cagliari, Londra, in date non ancora note. Il manoscritto Ms XIV 8751 H.1 è da molto tempo conservato a Bergamo, frutto del lascito testamentario del famoso violoncellista Alfredo Piatti, che visse a Londra negli ultimi decenni dell’800.

Secondo il riconoscimento della grafia effettuato dallo stesso Pont, le 92 pagine del volume risultano copiate da un’unica mano, ossia quella di William Babell, noto virtuoso ed arrangiatore di arie d’opera per tastiera e, soprattutto, principale copista di Handel dal 1711 (circa) fino alla sua morte prematura, avvenuta nel 1723. Pont aveva già scritto molto sull’argomento Handel-Babell, nei vari articoli che si sono susseguiti dagli anni ’70 fino ad oggi; la riscoperta di questo manoscritto potrebbe confermare, in modo eclatante, le sue molte ipotesi precedenti.

Il manoscritto di Bergamo, contiene nell’ordine, 11 Toccate, 7 Preludi, 1 Allemande sciolta e 2 Suite. Quasi tutte le Toccate sono in forma bipartita (Preludio-Fuga o Preludio-Allegro), eccetto la Toccata X, la più estesa, suddivisa in ben quattro sezioni. Una delle due suite corrisponde quasi interamente alla nota Suite in G Major HWV 441. La seconda parte della Toccata IX, è un movimento in forma di invenzione a due voci che corrisponde al noto Capriccio HWV 483. Tutto il resto del volume sembra invece contenere musica sconosciuta fino ad oggi!

Pont afferma, giustamente, che un serio dibattito dovrà ancora avvenire sulle origini di questi pezzi, ma sembra abbastanza ovvio che Babell abbia copiato e arrangiato musica originale di Handel oggi andata in parte perduta. L’idea avanzata dallo studioso, piuttosto verosimile, è che Babell abbia potuto liberamente attingere alla biblioteca del sassone, fatto avvenuto proprio nei primissimi anni di Londra (cioè dal 1711 in poi). Qui avrà individuato brani composti a Roma (per il De Luca ci sono tracce evidenti di stilemi propri di Alessandro Scarlatti, Arcangelo Corelli, Bernardo Pasquini e pure Francesco Durante), o come Pont suggerisce, composti addirittura in Germania (Halle/Amburgo), poco prima di approdare in Italia nel 1706.

Con Pont e De Luca abbiamo individuato una quantità importante di concordanze rispetto a passaggi tipicamente haendeliani (oltre che babelliani), presenti in composizioni databili proprio nel periodo 1705-1715. Maggiori dettagli verranno presentati più avanti, ma già è sufficiente notare lo sviluppo della seconda parte della Toccata VI: è un movimento in forma di Fuga, su soggetto di Corelli da Op.5 No.2/II. L’impronta di Handel è onnipresente, in particolare, vi ricorre una progressione in semicrome che tutti riconosceranno come un cliché tipicamente haendeliano, per intenderci lo stesso che capita nella linea del basso della Sonata per Oboe HWV 366 (secondo movimento, battuta 31 e seg.). Non è comunque da escludere una possibile rielaborazione di Babell.

Chiudiamo questa breve anteprima dicendo che uscirà un CD, nel corso di novembre 2017, con la raccolta completa delle undici toccate ed i sette preludi (che si aggiungono ai preludi integrati nelle toccate), mentre su YouTube è stato preparato un breve video di anteprima con circa [2:23’’] di registrazioni estratti dal Preludio VII e dalle Toccate V, VI & VII. Infine, i brani non inclusi nel CD, ovvero le due Suites e l'Allemande, verranno quasi sicuramente pubblicati su questo sito prossimamente.