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The Double Reed Archaeologist
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Chamber Music and Concertos for
Oboists and Bassoonists
Charles-David Lehrer, General
Editor
No. 70. George Frideric Handel: Sonata
in G Minor:
Oboe, Bassoon & Harpsichord
Around the year 1726, John Walsh, a London music publisher, created a wonderful
forgery in order to run around the copyright laws of the day: he pretended
to pirate an edition supposedly published by the House of Roger in Amsterdam.
This forgery included 12 Sonatas for solo instrument and continuo which had
been composed by one George Frideric Handel
(1685-1759). Around 1793 the House of Arnold published the same set, omitting
two of the original 12 and replacing them with two others by Handel. So at
this point there were a total of 14 solo sonatas available to the public.
In the year 1879 Friedrich Chrysander issued these 14 works and several
others in volume 27 of the German Handel Society’s Gesamtausgabe of
Handel’s works. Since then they have been edited from this scholarly
work many times, and afflicted by all sorts of permutations which reflect
the various styles of performance in vogue over the years. One finds editions
stripped of ornamentation but loaded with articulation and dynamic markings
at one end of the spectrum, and editions with modest stenographic and florid
ornamentation at the other.
The Sonata in G Minor (London: c. 1724) was assigned by John Walsh to the
oboe, although it was originally intended for the violin. Chrysander’s
edition reflects this changeover within the body of the finale by correcting
the tessitura in two places where it descends below the range of the 18th-century
oboe.
The work is a pure example of the middle phase of the solo sonata da chiesa
[church sonata]. The first three movements are indicative of the style found
in sonatas derived from the disruptive canzona of the early 17th century.
An initial slow movement with walking bass is followed by an imitative movement
(in this case, a fugue with a ricercare-like subject), which in turn leads
to a rather short Adagio. The 3rd relationship of the latter (G minor-Eb major)
is a real surprise. The finale is a spirited binary-form gigue, an item taken
over from the French ordre or dance suite.
For the performer who is interested in further exploring the violin sonatas
of Handel, I recommend the excellent edition made by Michael Pilkington: Handel
- Eight Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard; London: Stainer & Bell LTD,
1982.
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