Status of the Handel House Museum (London)
The establishment of a London museum to honor the life and works of George Frideric Handel has been subject to a rollercoaster series of advances and setbacks since the establishment of The Handel House Trust in 1991. Plans to purchase the early 18th-century terrace house at 25 Brook Street, Handel's home from 1723 until his death in 1759, fell through when an anticipated grant from the British Heritage Lottery Fund was withdrawn because a large matching endowment could not be raised within the required time period.
To rescue a part of the project the Co-operative Insurance Society, owners of the property, proposed that the Trust should create and run a musuem limited to the upper stories of 25 Brook Street and its neighboring house, allowing the ground floor to be used for commercial ventures. This solution would provide space not only for the historical recreation of Handel's main room on the first floor, but also allow an area for the exhibition of the ever-expanding Trust collection, a temporary exhibition space, and an area in which to perform music.
To prepare for the museum, construction work has begun: installation of an elevator, strengthening the main floors, and soundproofing the rooms. The owners have also offered significant future financial support.
The Handel House Trust has acquired the Byrne Handel Collection, consisting of several hundred objects. These include a letter from Handel to Messiah librettist Charles Jennens, a Thomas Hudson portrait of Jennens, an autograph leaf from the oratorio Esther, Mozart's handwritten arrangement of a Handel fugue, Mainwaring's 1760 Handel biography with annotations by Jennens, and many other books, scores, and works of art.
Modern replicas of Handel's harpsichords by William Smith and Ruckers have been delivered to the Trust by harpsichord makers Michael Cole and Bruce Kennedy.
A capital campaign to ensure the opening of this museum (projected for the fall of 2000) has been reinstituted. I invite our readers to join in this effort by sending contributions to The Handel House Foundation of America, Inc. c/o James B. Sitrick, Coudert Brothers, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-7703. Gifts are tax deductible under IRS code 501(c)3.
A surprise in the news
Dominique Alice Browning, editor of House and Garden Magazine, was profiled in the Dallas Morning News (May 17, 1998). Browning's recipe for her ideal vacation caught my eye: "A combination of hiking, reading and doing a new skill like playing the HARPSICHORD . . . by the water." Her regret: "Not having become the conductor of an orchestra."
Some spring recital programs:
George Lucktenberg played the dedication concert for the Philip Tyre double harpsichord at Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, HI (March 12, 1999). His program: Passacaille in C, L. Couperin; Suite in A minor, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre; La Couperin, La Régente, La Leclair, La Sylva, and La Mandoline, Forqueray; La Felix, La Cazamajor, La Forqueray, Medée, Duphly; Sonata in E, BWV 1016, for violin and harpsichord, and "Brandenburg" Concerto 5, J. S. Bach.
Ian Pritchard, Senior Recital, Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin Conservatory (April 3, 1999): Toccata, Picchi; Capriccio sopra Il Cucho, Toccata Nona [1637], Frescobaldi; Suite XIX in C minor and Tombeau Blancrocher, Froberger; On the Cut [1999], Manu Vimalassery; Ubik [1997], David Pritchard; Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, J. S. Bach.
Larry Palmer, presented by Dallas Goethe Center at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation (April 9, 1999), playing his Franco-Flemish double harpsichord by Richard Kingston. Preludes and Fugues in D, BWV 874, and B-flat, BWV 890, J. S. Bach; Seven Innocent Dances [1996], Rudy Davenport; La Couperin, F. Couperin; La Rameau, J-P Rameau; Passacaille in G minor, Georg Muffat; Menuet (Thérèse), Massenet; Dance, Delius; Gavotte from Capriccio, Richard Strauss; Concerto in D Major, BWV 972, Vivaldi-Bach.
Harpsichord Technique: A Guide to Expressivity
When Nancy Metzger's harpsichord method was published in 1989 it quickly became the tutor of choice for many of us who attempt to instruct "other" keyboardists in the subtleties of the harpsichord. It is a pleasure to report that the second edition of this fine instruction book is even better than the first! At exactly the same number of pages, it has, nonetheless, a completely different, easier-to-read type, frequent revisions of the text to aid in clarifying various matters, and a much-reduced complement of pieces to play (three, as opposed to eleven in the first edition).
To compensate for the smaller number of harpsichord pieces, an added Appendix lists recommended pieces and editions.
The heart of Metzger's method remains the thirty pieces originally published in Méthode ou Receuil de Connaissances elementaires pour le piano forte ou clavecin attributed to J. C. Bach and F. Pasquale Ricci (Paris, 1786). As the author writes, "Because these works blend absolute simplicity with thorough musicality, they are . . . ideal vehicles for the application of the principles presented . . ."
Topics covered in Harpsichord Technique include harpsichord touch (beginning with proper hand position and super-legato), style brisé, articulation, the differentiation of good and bad notes, and an excellent discussion of the elements of rhetorical playing, dance rhythms, and rhythmic alterations such as inequality and variable dotting. As conclusion Metzger offers a chapter concerned with musical expression: "prose and verse in baroque music: in which we beat time at the harpsichord (verse), in which we rhapsodize at the harpsichord (prose), and the stylus phantasticus."
Whether one proceeds from beginning to end of this well-organized method, or picks and chooses from the pedagogically-sound examples, Nancy Metzger's book will aid immensely in the journey toward artistic expression at the harpsichord. Published by Musica Dulce, orders may be addressed to 6827 Coachlite Way, Sacramento CA 95831. Information is available via email from [email protected]
Features and news items, as well as suggestions for topics to be featured in these columns, are welcome. Address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 or, via email, [email protected]
