{"id":2367,"date":"2018-04-25T15:07:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/?p=2367"},"modified":"2018-04-25T15:07:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T15:07:07","slug":"handel-anecdotes-and-illustrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/?p=2367","title":{"rendered":"Handel: Anecdotes and Illustrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Proposed by Marten Noorduin<\/p>\n

Here are a few amusing reflections from the contemporary musical press about George Frideric Handel.<\/p>\n

\"\"The American Musical Journal, <\/em>Vol. 1 No. 1 (1 October 1834): [1]\/1.<\/span><\/p>\n

A corpulent man, Handel\u2019s love of food and drink was a common subject of anecdotes. Some journals published accounts portraying the composer\u2019s victual indulgences as acts of gluttony and greed.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer, <\/em>Vol. 1 No. 39, (23 December 1820): 156.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, this particular anecdote from The Euterpeiad<\/em> is quite similar to one published two years later in a book entitled Anecdotes, Biographical Sketches and Memoirs<\/em> by English novelist Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins. In this version, the \u201cfriend of Handel\u201d is painter and engraver Joseph Goupy. \u201cEnraged\u201d that Handel stowed away a table of delicacies for himself, Goupy soon after created a piece of art \u201cin which Handel figures as a hog in the midst of\u00a0dainties.\u201d[1]<\/a> Known as \u201cThe charming Brute,\u201d this depiction of Handel sitting at the organ surrounded by items of personal decadence has several iterations. The London journal Concordia<\/em><\/a> (1875-1876) produced a facsimile of one of the engravings.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joseph Goupy, \u201cThe charming Brute,\u201d ca. 1750.
\nConcordia, Vol. 2 No. 38 (15 January 1876): 37<\/span><\/p>\n

Two other versions of Goupy\u2019s scathing illustration of Handel contain many similarities: the wine cask organ bench, the lavish meats hanging from the organ, and the composer\u2019s hoggish features.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joseph Goupy, \u201cThe charming Brute,\u201d ca. 1750.\u00a0 Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Joseph Goupy, \u201cThe charming Brute,\u201d ca. 1750.\u00a0 Bridgeman Art Library.<\/p>\n

Anecdotes about Handel also memorialized the composer\u2019s sharp wit, sharper tongue, and, at times, bouts of irritability. The tale below tells of what might have happened if Handel reviewed someone else\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Musical Journal, <\/em>Vol. 2 No. 36 (8 September 1840): 150.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The Musical Herald, <\/em>Vol. 6 No. 3 (March 1885): 56.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those questioning the composer\u2019s own musical decisions were subjected to perhaps worse vitriol.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer<\/em>, Vol. 1, No. 32 (4 November 1820): 128.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The Harmonicon, <\/em>Vol. 1 No. 9 (September 1823): [1p] 116\/117.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, as the anecdote below details, Handel\u2019s propensity for criticism was apparently not only limited to others, but also to himself.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Musical World<\/em>, Vol. 38 No. 27 (7 July 1860): 435.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RIPM search tip:<\/u>\u00a0Searching \u201cHandel\u201d as a keyword in RIPM\u2019s new Combined Interface reveals that his name appears at least once in an astounding 42,191 records! The RIPMPlus<\/em> Platform\u2019s Combined Interface search feature offers users fully integrated and simultaneous access to both the Preservation Series and to RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text with a single unified search results page.<\/p>\n

Click\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0to\u00a0subscribe to RIPM\u2019s\u00a0Curios, News, and Chronicles!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins, Anecdotes, Biographical Sketches and Memoirs <\/em>(London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1822), 195ff, as quoted in Ellen T. Harris, \u201cJoseph Goupy and George Frideric Handel: From Professional Triumphs to Personal Estrangement,\u201d Huntington Library Quarterly, <\/em>Vol. 71 No. 3 (September 2008): 432.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proposed by Marten Noorduin Here are a few amusing reflections from the contemporary musical press about George Frideric Handel. The American Musical Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1 (1 October 1834): [1]\/1. A corpulent man, Handel\u2019s love of food and drink was a common subject of anecdotes. Some journals published accounts portraying the composer\u2019s victual indulgences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curioschronicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2367"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2393,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions\/2393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}