A Study in Handelian Thought

Extract

This paper has its origin in the affection of the author for his subject on the one hand: on the other in a conviction that the philosophy of Handel has current significance. In our part of the country music is synonymous with Handel. Since Elijah declined in popular favour Messiah has been left as virtually the sole musical experience in which thousands of our neighbours in the Black Country may, once or twice a year, participate. Therefore our consideration, which must in any case be limited, will be principally with the oratorios. In our particular environment musical scholarship must develop—if at all—purposefully and with practical intention. We may analyse but we also attempt to synthesise. In so doing we observe the principal tenets of Handelian thought. Handel viewed his contemporaries critically, but sympathetically, and incorporated his findings within his music which, in turn, not infrequently took the form of more or less direct personal communication. In an indeterminate way art is often referred to as a reflection of society. That branch of art with which we are immediately concerned is more definite. It is not a remove from reality: it is, in a Platonic sense, reality. The ideas from which it is formed are the ideas which are otherwise shaped into personalities. The people with whom Handel had contact still live. If this is so the moral for interpretation is clear. The music must, by sensitive handling, be brought to life. This is only possible with a realisation of its original function and a regard for the immutable character of human emotions.