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VIL ItJIsectItshy-

TRAVERSO Volume 14 Num ber 2

Published Quarterlymiddotmiddot ISSN 1041-7494

The flute in Handels vocal works David Lasocki

N HIS VOCAL WORKS-OPERAS cantatas oratorios and other sacred music-Handel wrote about eighty

arias and other movements that included the flute This treasure trove is largely unshy

Imiddot

known to flutists today I

Handels opera orchestras always included oboists-at first two and after 1720 four-who were occasionshyally called upon to double on recorder or flute2 The flutes and oboes generally do not play together alshythough the aria Will the Sun Forget to Streak from Solomon (1749) is scored with Oboe solo Traversishyeri tutti on the top line to suggest an Oriental dawn With a few notable excepshytions later in life Handel did not give the flute virtuoso music and on paper it can appear dull But consider the context the orchestral sound was predominantly strings often doubled by oboes and bassoons For one or more special arias depicting certain affects or situations the oboists pulled out their flutes and created a haunting tone color alone or doubling the violins Magic

The main association ofthe flute is grief bereavement and pain (especially that of parting from a loved one) Handel often sets the mood through the simplest of means In Troppo sofferse gia questo mio petto

LarKO

Editor Ardal Powell Publisher Folkers amp Powell Makers of Historical Flutes

from Radamisto the first opera produced by the new Royal Academy of Music in 1720 there are direct references to suffering and pain The flute doubling violin II fills in rests in the vocal part with two-note figures suggesting sobbing In the entire aria the instrument has only 66 notes but the effect is spellbinding [See Example 1) In Cleopatras ariaPianger6la sorte mia from one of Handels most critically acclaimed operas Giulio Cesare (1724) the flute doushybling violin I furnishes a modified echo of

- I II

Violin I

Violin II

Viola 1~amp-==3j~ijlF

p

FI rhfr~r-c ft-=--=-~yen4~~]--------C-lcf-~Ct

---- =A- ++-+- ~ ~ shy-- -~--- - =11Voice -__~~~JL7middot -- ~bull- iJ c c ~iJ-~-- - B

her cry I will lament my fate Over a chaconne-like descending bass line she sings G-B-Bfluteviolin I play F-B-B she conshytinues down the scale with E-B-B balanced by the answering low B-B in violin II then she cadences on low E overlappingwith the three-note motive with an octave leap (low E-E-E) in fluteviolin I answered at once in

violin II The flute has played only six notes in a seven-measure phrase but its contrishybution to the effect (or even affect) is imshymeasurable [See Example 2 overleaf)

Another aria ofgriefand despair the brief Morte vieni ma in van ti chiamo oh morte from Riccardo I (1727) features a traversa bassa apparently only a flute in C rather than the customary D perhaps emshyployed for its special tone color Lia Levin who believes that the instrument was pitched in Bb suggests that itwas employed in order to avoid the technical difficulties that the tonality of the movement [F mishynor) would have caused on the standard flute3 But another aria with flute obbligato written the same year Luci care addio posate from Admeto (1727) is in the same key

Levin has observed that Ten songs deal with the subject of love but with a view of its difficult aspects or bemoaning the crushyelty of a beloved4 In the aria Caro amor from Il Pastor Fido (1712) the shepherd Mirtillo sings Dear love onlyfor moments is my soul left in peace Flute lIviolin I and fl ute 2violin II (the violins both piano) play a beautiful pastoral canon over a drone endshying with some sighing figures in thirds and sixths before the voice comes in with some similar material An aria ofmixed emotions Par che mi nasca in send from Tamerlano (1724) is a pastoral siciliana in 128 with some striking syncopations in the opening and closing phrases played by the flute with unison violins perhaps representing love as well as some contrasting dotted figures inishytiallypresented as echoes perhaps representshying pain In the bright Nobil core che ben ama from Partenope (1730) the flute first doubles violin I then the voice in lively violinistic broken-chord figuration The refshyerences to noble heart and fidelity are both intended ironically

Three times the flute is associated with eternity In an aria from the 1713 Te Deum We Believe That Thou Shalt Come to be

PageS

Our Judge against steady eighth notes in the upper strings the flute is given an openshying phrase reminiscent of that in the B mishynor sonata and a truncated version of the phrase ends the aria In between the flute plays some disjointed angular phrases The text of the aria includes references to saints ever lasting heritage and for ever In another setting of the same aria in the Te Deum in A major (1724) the voices are accompanied largely by a duet for flute and bassoon in many arch-shaped phrases presumably representing heaven In an aria from the Te Deum in D major (1714) the violins open with jerky figuration perhaps referring to the sharpness of death over which the flute plays a smooth ascending melody immediately afterwards given to the opening vocal line When Thou Lookest Upon Thee to Deliver Man These roles are generally maintained throughshyout the aria with the notable exception of the ending where the flute and bass in parallel motion exchange dotted figures with the violins

The plain word flute in England still meant the recorder during Handels lifetime Yet when he set the word in three late arias he chose the transverse flute to depict the instrument In the first instance the choice is understandable The Soft Complaining Flute in Drydens Ode for St Cecilias Day From Harmony from Heavnly Harmony (HWV 76 1739) with its references to dyshying notes woes hopeless lovers dirge and whispered brings to mind the charshyacterization of the instrument by the Frenchman Raguenet in 1702 the flute which so many of our great Artists have taught to groan after so moving a manner in our moanful airs and sigh so amorously in those that are tender5 Handel allows the flute to emerge from the muted violins mezzo piano accompanied only by a lute (later with organ added) He does not give the word warbling to the flute as he would have done to the recorder but rather to the lute The complaints and whispers are renshydered by the flutes distinctive figuration of slides and trills In Jephtha (1752) however there is no lute only Iphiss injunction to laquoTune the soft melodious lute and the warbling flute is one of the other instrushyments to be tuned to sounds of raptrous joy playing an answering three-measure

TRA VERSC)

TnwCl1l8 bass have the obblishygato in the precedshying Blessed is the

CI~~ PI~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Man that has a Virshytuous Wife) Pershyhaps the switch inVWlmII~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I~~~~~~~ gender was simply because the flute

V~I~l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ parts were origishynally written for the

I recorder in the passhytoral Through the Land So Lovely Blooming from Athalia (1733) and

c tan - to ri - a fin-ehe n - ta in pet -t08 vro Handel was not sure which flutes would be available When he used the material again for

phrase in the high register The celebrated chorus See the Conquring Hero Comes from Joshua (1748) in which flutes play the top line in the dense orchestration is imshymediately preceded by the Chorus of Virshygins singing the same music set to the words See the godlike youth advance This is scored for only two flutes and organ with the two sopranos in deference to the phrase laquobreathe the flute Both choruses found their way into the 1750 revival of Judas Maccabaeus (first performed in 1747)

In two arias the flute is associated with the masculine principle Caro padre a me no dei from Ezio (1732) is about Fulvias fears for the life of her dear father This Manly Youths Exalted Mind in The Choice ofHercules (1751) draws on material from another aria with flute obbligato Gentle Morpheus from the incidental music to Akeste (HWV 451749-50) where the static phrases represent Morpheuss weariness Perhaps drawing on the military associations of its cousin the fife Handel scored for the flute in the marches from Saul (1739)-reshyused in Samson (1743) and Joseph and his Brethren (1744)-and Judas Maccabaeus (1747)

On the other hand in an aria from the wedding anthem This is the Day Which the Lord Hath Made (HWV 2621734) the flute symbolizes the female principle in A Good Wife is a Good Portion while the cello and

the bird song Nel spiegar sua voce al

canto in II parnasso in Jesta (1734) he marked the top lines for flauto ou trav (recorder or flute)

Handel wrote four depictions of birdsong for the recorder between 1711 and 1734 Augelletti che cantate zefiretti from Rinaldo (1711) Hush Ye Pretty Warbling Quire from Acis and Galatea (1718) II volo cosl fido al dolce amato nido from Riccardo 1 (1727) and Nel spiegar sua voce al canto from II parnasso in Jesta (1734) Before and after that period he used the flute In the first aria he ever wrote with flute obbligato Cosi la tortorella in La resurrezione (Rome 1708) the first section is a siciliana in G minor scored for flute and viola dagamba (accompanied bytheorbo) While they are exchanging cooing motives for the turtledove who may weep and lashyment believing that her mate has been snatched from the nest by a fierce bird of prey they are interrupted with rapid descending scales by tutti bassi e violini all ottava to represent the imagined intruder

The most spectacular aria with flute obbligato also depicts birdsong Sweet Bird That Shunst the Noise of Folly from LAllegro it Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740) On the choice ofinstrument Levin remarks The key association may well be melanshycholy evoked best by the flute also evening suggests a quiet mood which would be

Page 6

disturbed by the shrill little sopranino [recorder] or flageolet6 Over a tonic pedal in D major the first flute plays a cadenza (marked ad libitum) ofvirtuoso trills and thirty-second -note arpeggios reminiscent of the one that interrupts the first ritornello in Antonio Vivaldis flute concerto in the same key Op 10 No3 (RV 428 II gardellino) Handel could well have known the Vivaldi concerto which had been published in Amsterdam twelve years earlier Here the flute continues its cadenza over a dominant pedal then after a quick shift to the relative minor plays unacshy

R A V E R ) ()

In Celestial Virgin Godlike Youth from Joshyseph and his Brethren (1744) the flutes imishytate little vocal phrases with references to celestial godlike and heaven The zephyrs in the chorus May No Rash Inshytruder Disturb their Soft Hours from Solomon (1749) waft their way over the nuptual bed of Solomon and his Queen by means ofa little triadic canon between flute lIviolin 1 and flute 2violin 2 The pastoral scene in Oh Lovely Peace with Plenty

companied until ~~ ~ ~ just before the cashydence Its final ~u~~~=veflourish of fast turning-figures is taken up by the second flute and strings [See Exshyample 3] After the voice enters with the call Sweet bird the first flute responds to each phrase in turn with complex anshyswering figures some new some based on the mashyterial heard previously alternating with more rapid figuration from the orchestra Presumably it is no accident that the flute is absent from the B section of the da capo aria Or missing thee I walk unseen The difficulty of this flute part and others from 1740 onwards suggests that Handel now had a real virtuoso at his disposal In Achsahs air Hark Hark Tis the Linnet and the Thrush from Joshua (1748) the linnet is represented by a solo violin and the thrush by a solo flute Although the flute part again in D major is not as virtuosic or extended as in Sweet Bird the instrument is given a good assortment of again rather Vivaldian arpeggios and returning-figures

In 1732 Handel began giving to the flute not only bird arias but other situations that would earlier have called for the recorder

6 4gt ~ 2

Crownd from Judas Maccabaeus (1747) is rendered by a kind of musette with flutes and violins moving homophonically over static bass lines Purely instrumental mushysettes for the flute occur in Il pastor fido (1734) and Ariodante (1735) Finally in Hark Hark Hark He Strikes the Golden Lyre a richly orchestrated aria from Alexander Balus (1748) that includes parts for the harp and mandolin the references to hark echoes and sweet call forth some virtuoso passagework for the two flutes involving sequences of turned trills

David Lasocki is Head ofReference Services at Indiana Universitys Music Library and aproshylific writer on historicalwoodwind instruments

Notes 1 Handels use of the flute in his vocal music is disshy

cussed comprehensively in Lia Starer Levin The Reshy

corder in the Music of Purcell and Handel (PhD disshy

sertation International Colege Los Angeles 1981) and

Amy Cornsweet Handers Use of Flute and Recorder

in Opera and Oratorio (MM thesis The University of

en ce qui regarde Ia musique et les opera (Paris 1702)

18-19 English translation attributed to Johann Ernst

Galliard as A Comparison Between the French and Italshy

ian Musick and Operas (London 1709) 10

2 On the size of Handels orchestras see Donald

Burrows Handels London Theatre Orchestra Early

Music 13 no 3 (August 1985) 349-57

3 pp 180-82

4 p 378

5 laquoamp les flutes que tant dillustres scavent wre gemir

dune maniere si touchante dans nos airs plaintifs amp

soupirer si amoureusement dans nos airs tendresLabbe

Franrois Raguenet Paralele des italiens et des francois

en ce qui regarde Ia musique et res opera (Paris 1702)

18-19 English translation attributed to Johann Ernst

Galliard as A Comparison Between the French and Italshy

ian Musick and Operas (London 1709) 10

6p254

A nne Smith and Liane Ehlich are orgashylnizing a Renaissance Flute weekend in September at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel Switzerland Events will include performances by consorts and enshysembles short papers concerning instrushyments and perfonnance-related questions readings of multiple choir works renaisshysance dancing and an instrument-makers forum See Bulletin Board for dates and further information

Barthold Kuijken famous Belgian exposhynent of the baroque and classical flute

will appear in Indianapolis in November under the sponsorship of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and the University of Inshydianapolis Mr Kuijken will play an unacshycompanied flute recital on November 12 using a one -keyed flute a keyed flute and a Boehm flute 1Wo days of master classes will follow for which performers will be chosen by taped auditionMr Kuijken apshypears in concert with the Indianapolis Bashyroque Orchestra on November 18 playing flute concertos by Vivaldi and Benda as well as works by Corelli and Bach See Bulleshyt in Board for further information

Page 7

Our Judge against steady eighth notes in the upper strings the flute is given an openshying phrase reminiscent of that in the B mishynor sonata and a truncated version of the phrase ends the aria In between the flute plays some disjointed angular phrases The text of the aria includes references to saints ever lasting heritage and for ever In another setting of the same aria in the Te Deum in A major (1724) the voices are accompanied largely by a duet for flute and bassoon in many arch-shaped phrases presumably representing heaven In an aria from the Te Deum in D major (1714) the violins open with jerky figuration perhaps referring to the sharpness of death over which the flute plays a smooth ascending melody immediately afterwards given to the opening vocal line When Thou Lookest Upon Thee to Deliver Man These roles are generally maintained throughshyout the aria with the notable exception of the ending where the flute and bass in parallel motion exchange dotted figures with the violins

The plain word flute in England still meant the recorder during Handels lifetime Yet when he set the word in three late arias he chose the transverse flute to depict the instrument In the first instance the choice is understandable The Soft Complaining Flute in Drydens Ode for St Cecilias Day From Harmony from Heavnly Harmony (HWV 76 1739) with its references to dyshying notes woes hopeless lovers dirge and whispered brings to mind the charshyacterization of the instrument by the Frenchman Raguenet in 1702 the flute which so many of our great Artists have taught to groan after so moving a manner in our moanful airs and sigh so amorously in those that are tender5 Handel allows the flute to emerge from the muted violins mezzo piano accompanied only by a lute (later with organ added) He does not give the word warbling to the flute as he would have done to the recorder but rather to the lute The complaints and whispers are renshydered by the flutes distinctive figuration of slides and trills In Jephtha (1752) however there is no lute only Iphiss injunction to laquoTune the soft melodious lute and the warbling flute is one of the other instrushyments to be tuned to sounds of raptrous joy playing an answering three-measure

TRA VERSC)

TnwCl1l8 bass have the obblishygato in the precedshying Blessed is the

CI~~ PI~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Man that has a Virshytuous Wife) Pershyhaps the switch inVWlmII~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I~~~~~~~ gender was simply because the flute

V~I~l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ parts were origishynally written for the

I recorder in the passhytoral Through the Land So Lovely Blooming from Athalia (1733) and

c tan - to ri - a fin-ehe n - ta in pet -t08 vro Handel was not sure which flutes would be available When he used the material again for

phrase in the high register The celebrated chorus See the Conquring Hero Comes from Joshua (1748) in which flutes play the top line in the dense orchestration is imshymediately preceded by the Chorus of Virshygins singing the same music set to the words See the godlike youth advance This is scored for only two flutes and organ with the two sopranos in deference to the phrase laquobreathe the flute Both choruses found their way into the 1750 revival of Judas Maccabaeus (first performed in 1747)

In two arias the flute is associated with the masculine principle Caro padre a me no dei from Ezio (1732) is about Fulvias fears for the life of her dear father This Manly Youths Exalted Mind in The Choice ofHercules (1751) draws on material from another aria with flute obbligato Gentle Morpheus from the incidental music to Akeste (HWV 451749-50) where the static phrases represent Morpheuss weariness Perhaps drawing on the military associations of its cousin the fife Handel scored for the flute in the marches from Saul (1739)-reshyused in Samson (1743) and Joseph and his Brethren (1744)-and Judas Maccabaeus (1747)

On the other hand in an aria from the wedding anthem This is the Day Which the Lord Hath Made (HWV 2621734) the flute symbolizes the female principle in A Good Wife is a Good Portion while the cello and

the bird song Nel spiegar sua voce al

canto in II parnasso in Jesta (1734) he marked the top lines for flauto ou trav (recorder or flute)

Handel wrote four depictions of birdsong for the recorder between 1711 and 1734 Augelletti che cantate zefiretti from Rinaldo (1711) Hush Ye Pretty Warbling Quire from Acis and Galatea (1718) II volo cosl fido al dolce amato nido from Riccardo 1 (1727) and Nel spiegar sua voce al canto from II parnasso in Jesta (1734) Before and after that period he used the flute In the first aria he ever wrote with flute obbligato Cosi la tortorella in La resurrezione (Rome 1708) the first section is a siciliana in G minor scored for flute and viola dagamba (accompanied bytheorbo) While they are exchanging cooing motives for the turtledove who may weep and lashyment believing that her mate has been snatched from the nest by a fierce bird of prey they are interrupted with rapid descending scales by tutti bassi e violini all ottava to represent the imagined intruder

The most spectacular aria with flute obbligato also depicts birdsong Sweet Bird That Shunst the Noise of Folly from LAllegro it Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740) On the choice ofinstrument Levin remarks The key association may well be melanshycholy evoked best by the flute also evening suggests a quiet mood which would be

Page 6

disturbed by the shrill little sopranino [recorder] or flageolet6 Over a tonic pedal in D major the first flute plays a cadenza (marked ad libitum) ofvirtuoso trills and thirty-second -note arpeggios reminiscent of the one that interrupts the first ritornello in Antonio Vivaldis flute concerto in the same key Op 10 No3 (RV 428 II gardellino) Handel could well have known the Vivaldi concerto which had been published in Amsterdam twelve years earlier Here the flute continues its cadenza over a dominant pedal then after a quick shift to the relative minor plays unacshy

R A V E R ) ()

In Celestial Virgin Godlike Youth from Joshyseph and his Brethren (1744) the flutes imishytate little vocal phrases with references to celestial godlike and heaven The zephyrs in the chorus May No Rash Inshytruder Disturb their Soft Hours from Solomon (1749) waft their way over the nuptual bed of Solomon and his Queen by means ofa little triadic canon between flute lIviolin 1 and flute 2violin 2 The pastoral scene in Oh Lovely Peace with Plenty

companied until ~~ ~ ~ just before the cashydence Its final ~u~~~=veflourish of fast turning-figures is taken up by the second flute and strings [See Exshyample 3] After the voice enters with the call Sweet bird the first flute responds to each phrase in turn with complex anshyswering figures some new some based on the mashyterial heard previously alternating with more rapid figuration from the orchestra Presumably it is no accident that the flute is absent from the B section of the da capo aria Or missing thee I walk unseen The difficulty of this flute part and others from 1740 onwards suggests that Handel now had a real virtuoso at his disposal In Achsahs air Hark Hark Tis the Linnet and the Thrush from Joshua (1748) the linnet is represented by a solo violin and the thrush by a solo flute Although the flute part again in D major is not as virtuosic or extended as in Sweet Bird the instrument is given a good assortment of again rather Vivaldian arpeggios and returning-figures

In 1732 Handel began giving to the flute not only bird arias but other situations that would earlier have called for the recorder

6 4gt ~ 2

Crownd from Judas Maccabaeus (1747) is rendered by a kind of musette with flutes and violins moving homophonically over static bass lines Purely instrumental mushysettes for the flute occur in Il pastor fido (1734) and Ariodante (1735) Finally in Hark Hark Hark He Strikes the Golden Lyre a richly orchestrated aria from Alexander Balus (1748) that includes parts for the harp and mandolin the references to hark echoes and sweet call forth some virtuoso passagework for the two flutes involving sequences of turned trills

David Lasocki is Head ofReference Services at Indiana Universitys Music Library and aproshylific writer on historicalwoodwind instruments

Notes 1 Handels use of the flute in his vocal music is disshy

cussed comprehensively in Lia Starer Levin The Reshy

corder in the Music of Purcell and Handel (PhD disshy

sertation International Colege Los Angeles 1981) and

Amy Cornsweet Handers Use of Flute and Recorder

in Opera and Oratorio (MM thesis The University of

en ce qui regarde Ia musique et les opera (Paris 1702)

18-19 English translation attributed to Johann Ernst

Galliard as A Comparison Between the French and Italshy

ian Musick and Operas (London 1709) 10

2 On the size of Handels orchestras see Donald

Burrows Handels London Theatre Orchestra Early

Music 13 no 3 (August 1985) 349-57

3 pp 180-82

4 p 378

5 laquoamp les flutes que tant dillustres scavent wre gemir

dune maniere si touchante dans nos airs plaintifs amp

soupirer si amoureusement dans nos airs tendresLabbe

Franrois Raguenet Paralele des italiens et des francois

en ce qui regarde Ia musique et res opera (Paris 1702)

18-19 English translation attributed to Johann Ernst

Galliard as A Comparison Between the French and Italshy

ian Musick and Operas (London 1709) 10

6p254

A nne Smith and Liane Ehlich are orgashylnizing a Renaissance Flute weekend in September at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel Switzerland Events will include performances by consorts and enshysembles short papers concerning instrushyments and perfonnance-related questions readings of multiple choir works renaisshysance dancing and an instrument-makers forum See Bulletin Board for dates and further information

Barthold Kuijken famous Belgian exposhynent of the baroque and classical flute

will appear in Indianapolis in November under the sponsorship of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and the University of Inshydianapolis Mr Kuijken will play an unacshycompanied flute recital on November 12 using a one -keyed flute a keyed flute and a Boehm flute 1Wo days of master classes will follow for which performers will be chosen by taped auditionMr Kuijken apshypears in concert with the Indianapolis Bashyroque Orchestra on November 18 playing flute concertos by Vivaldi and Benda as well as works by Corelli and Bach See Bulleshyt in Board for further information

Page 7

disturbed by the shrill little sopranino [recorder] or flageolet6 Over a tonic pedal in D major the first flute plays a cadenza (marked ad libitum) ofvirtuoso trills and thirty-second -note arpeggios reminiscent of the one that interrupts the first ritornello in Antonio Vivaldis flute concerto in the same key Op 10 No3 (RV 428 II gardellino) Handel could well have known the Vivaldi concerto which had been published in Amsterdam twelve years earlier Here the flute continues its cadenza over a dominant pedal then after a quick shift to the relative minor plays unacshy

R A V E R ) ()

In Celestial Virgin Godlike Youth from Joshyseph and his Brethren (1744) the flutes imishytate little vocal phrases with references to celestial godlike and heaven The zephyrs in the chorus May No Rash Inshytruder Disturb their Soft Hours from Solomon (1749) waft their way over the nuptual bed of Solomon and his Queen by means ofa little triadic canon between flute lIviolin 1 and flute 2violin 2 The pastoral scene in Oh Lovely Peace with Plenty

companied until ~~ ~ ~ just before the cashydence Its final ~u~~~=veflourish of fast turning-figures is taken up by the second flute and strings [See Exshyample 3] After the voice enters with the call Sweet bird the first flute responds to each phrase in turn with complex anshyswering figures some new some based on the mashyterial heard previously alternating with more rapid figuration from the orchestra Presumably it is no accident that the flute is absent from the B section of the da capo aria Or missing thee I walk unseen The difficulty of this flute part and others from 1740 onwards suggests that Handel now had a real virtuoso at his disposal In Achsahs air Hark Hark Tis the Linnet and the Thrush from Joshua (1748) the linnet is represented by a solo violin and the thrush by a solo flute Although the flute part again in D major is not as virtuosic or extended as in Sweet Bird the instrument is given a good assortment of again rather Vivaldian arpeggios and returning-figures

In 1732 Handel began giving to the flute not only bird arias but other situations that would earlier have called for the recorder

6 4gt ~ 2

Crownd from Judas Maccabaeus (1747) is rendered by a kind of musette with flutes and violins moving homophonically over static bass lines Purely instrumental mushysettes for the flute occur in Il pastor fido (1734) and Ariodante (1735) Finally in Hark Hark Hark He Strikes the Golden Lyre a richly orchestrated aria from Alexander Balus (1748) that includes parts for the harp and mandolin the references to hark echoes and sweet call forth some virtuoso passagework for the two flutes involving sequences of turned trills

David Lasocki is Head ofReference Services at Indiana Universitys Music Library and aproshylific writer on historicalwoodwind instruments

Notes 1 Handels use of the flute in his vocal music is disshy

cussed comprehensively in Lia Starer Levin The Reshy

corder in the Music of Purcell and Handel (PhD disshy

sertation International Colege Los Angeles 1981) and

Amy Cornsweet Handers Use of Flute and Recorder

in Opera and Oratorio (MM thesis The University of

en ce qui regarde Ia musique et les opera (Paris 1702)

18-19 English translation attributed to Johann Ernst

Galliard as A Comparison Between the French and Italshy

ian Musick and Operas (London 1709) 10

2 On the size of Handels orchestras see Donald

Burrows Handels London Theatre Orchestra Early

Music 13 no 3 (August 1985) 349-57

3 pp 180-82

4 p 378

5 laquoamp les flutes que tant dillustres scavent wre gemir

dune maniere si touchante dans nos airs plaintifs amp

soupirer si amoureusement dans nos airs tendresLabbe

Franrois Raguenet Paralele des italiens et des francois

en ce qui regarde Ia musique et res opera (Paris 1702)

18-19 English translation attributed to Johann Ernst

Galliard as A Comparison Between the French and Italshy

ian Musick and Operas (London 1709) 10

6p254

A nne Smith and Liane Ehlich are orgashylnizing a Renaissance Flute weekend in September at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel Switzerland Events will include performances by consorts and enshysembles short papers concerning instrushyments and perfonnance-related questions readings of multiple choir works renaisshysance dancing and an instrument-makers forum See Bulletin Board for dates and further information

Barthold Kuijken famous Belgian exposhynent of the baroque and classical flute

will appear in Indianapolis in November under the sponsorship of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and the University of Inshydianapolis Mr Kuijken will play an unacshycompanied flute recital on November 12 using a one -keyed flute a keyed flute and a Boehm flute 1Wo days of master classes will follow for which performers will be chosen by taped auditionMr Kuijken apshypears in concert with the Indianapolis Bashyroque Orchestra on November 18 playing flute concertos by Vivaldi and Benda as well as works by Corelli and Bach See Bulleshyt in Board for further information

Page 7