Richard Vallance
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Vallance Review 40
December 2004
George Frederic Handel, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" (1740)
after John Milton's, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" (1645)
Lap me in soft Lydian airs
Married to immortal verse,
[Parte Seconda, 32, Air, L'Allegro]
A Poet Interviews a Musician
INTRODUCTION
I am quite sure everyone who reads the monthly Vallance Review is thoroughly familiar with George Frederic Handel's masterpiece, his great Christmas Oratorio, "The Messiah" (1742). But how many of us have ever even heard of his lesser known choral Ode, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato", which he composed in 1740, just two years before the "Messiah" ? [1] I would wager, very few of us indeed. Well, I wouldn't let that disappoint any of you, as I myself had never even heard of the latter work until I just happened to fortuitously stumble on it while googling the text of John Milton's twin lyrical poems, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" (1645) [2]. To my astonishment, on my laptop's screen there splashed before my eyes several hits on Handel's 1740 choral adaptation of Milton's two poems. I was dumbfounded. It had never dawned on me that, prior to at least the twentieth century, anyone would have attempted a foray into a musical adaptation of lyrical poetry as long as these two pastorals of Milton's. But there it was, staring me in the face. George Frederic Handel had gone "multimedia" in the eighteenth century, well before most other composers or artists would ever again dream of thinking of adapting long poems like Milton's two lyrical odes we cited here to any other media. As you shall shortly see, it turns out we'll have to wait for the turn of the Third Millennium for Milton's lyrics to be adapted again to another artistic medium. Intrigued? Read on.
In the past few centuries, several composers have indeed adapted numerous sonnets to music, as we have witnessed in previous Vallance Reviews [3]. But setting short poems such as sonnets to musical scores is not the same thing as musically adapting lengthy lyric poems like Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" to a choral work. This poses far tougher logistical problems and challenges, which are considerably more difficult to overcome. As we shall see, however, Handel and his librettist, Charles Jennens, were able to adroitly address these very problems and to surmount them in a surprisingly refreshing way, by cleverly interleaving extracts of Milton's two lyrics poems together in one seamless libretto.
Jennens alternates carefully culled passages with similar or complimentary themes from "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" in a libretto which Handel is able to fashion into an inspirational choral anthem truly emblematic of Baroque music at its best.
"L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato" in performance as a new ballet, 2000
But there is more. From March 1-5 2000, The Mark Morris Dance Group gave a buoyant performance of an all-new ballet based on Handel's score for "L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato" in the Zellerback Auditorium in Berkeley, California [4]. It is quite a revelation to read some of the reviewer's telling comments on this truly unique ballet. Here are just a few excerpts from Susan Weiss' review of the ballet, which make it quite clear how much its delightful choreography took her aback:
[In]... L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato there is a marriage of movement to music that feels positively organic... And such unlikely music! This writer is no fan of the Baroque in general or Handel in particular but I could listen to Handel’s settings of John Milton’s verse all night... There is a verse in Milton’s L’Allegro that may have inspired Morris to craft this highly innovative dance: "Come, and trip it as you go, on the light fantastic toe."... Other times, movement echoes the music. A dancer flutters her fingers in time to a soprano’s trill and the entire company will prance across the stage in time to a measured figure.... "L’Allegro" may be long (90 minutes) but it is never boring.
Beginning with what can only be described as a flurry of dancers, crisscrossing the stage, the evening ends in an explosion of joy, again reflecting the closing verse: "These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee we mean to live." (italics mine)
Frankly, though I myself have never seen the ballet, I could not have better characterized my own aural and emotional responsiveness to Handel's music in and of itself, even without the added stimulus of dance to pique my imagination. As we shall see in our interview with Peter Zanette, a local Ottawa musician of considerable talent, Handel's Ode is indeed the giddy stuff of imagination. Is it any wonder it was eventually adapted for the ballet on stage? Coincidentally, both of John Milton's original pastoral poems explicitly mention the stage, twice, as seen in Charles Jennens' libretto, Il Penseroso # 24, Air (soprano), "Sometimes let gorgeous Tragedy" and L'Allegro # 31 (tenor), "I'll to the well-trod stage anon". These two passages from Jennens' libretto are meant to be complementary, and indeed they offset one another beautifully in Handel's score. Handel was up to the challenge of setting Milton's "stage directions" to music; and the Mark Morris Dance Group eagerly took up the challenge once again in 2000. It is devoutly to be hoped that this Vallance Review will shed even more light on the ineffable musical qualities of John Milton's original poems, Handel's Ode and the ballet together. After all, if we can take poetry and make it a multimedia experience par excellence, why not?
Yes, Poetry's going multimedia again!
In several previous Vallance Reviews, I laid particular emphasis on the very real potential for multimedia adaptations of poetry in the twenty-first century [3, bis]. And yet, as early as the eighteenth century, George Frederic Handel, being the musical genius he was, anticipated the real possibilities of enhancing poetry with music long before our day and age. Today, however, there is even more compelling evidence that, with the rapid spread of graphics and sound software and the universality of the Internet, more and more multimedia approaches to the adaptation of poetry, at both the theoretical and practical levels, are really catching on and powerfully gaining momentum. If as we have just pointed out, John Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" have been adapted not only to a choral anthem by Handel himself, but also to a really successful ballet performance by the Mark Morris Dance Group, should we be in the least surprised if more and more musicians, dancers, film makers, painters, computer animation experts, and multimedia artists of all stripes produce ever more imaginative and original works of art as multimedia spin-offs from original poetry in the twenty-first century? I think not.
Previous Forays into Poetry as multimedia
In more than a few Vallance Reviews, we have already experimented gainfully with this now tried-and-tested approach to poetry. Many of you may recall:
1. Our first ever multimedia Vallance Review in July 2002, when we discussed at length the relationship, implicit and explicit, between Sara Russell's musically inspired sonnet "Pianissimo" and several examples we cited of historical attempts to adapt the sonnet to the medium of music. [3.1]
2. William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, "bare ruin'd choirs". In this Vallance Review (no. 26), we took a particularly bold step by critiquing one of Shakespeare's justly most famous sonnets, not merely from a musical point of view, but from every possible sensorial angle we could imagine, including visual and tactile. [3.2]
3. Once again, in the December 2003 Vallance Review, we introduced the world to a brand-new twenty-first century choral anthem by the Canadian composer, Peter Zanette, based on William Lisle Bowles' lovely sonnet, "On Listening to Handel's 'Messiah' in Gloucester Cathedral". [3.3] Note that Lisle Bowle's sonnet is also centred on Handel's music, and that Peter Zanette's own modern anthem is in turn also directly inspired by Handel's "Messiah" as reflected in his lyrics, which are Lisle Bowles' sonnet word for word. Readers who would like to listen to Peter's Anthem again, as a point of comparison with Handel's "L'Allegro, Il Moderato and Il Penseroso", can do so by clicking on this link: SONNETTO POESIA, Vol. 3, no. 1, Winter 2003-2004, Peter Zanette, "Brighter Orbs on High". Here you may listen to Peter Zanette's anthem played on any of these instruments: tubular bells, electric piano, music box or harpsichord.
So if we have already been bold to venture into multimedia "realms of gold", as have readers of Keats' poetry on a recently released CD [5], is it any wonder we should want to do so again in this very review? While Handel's 1740 Ode, an adaptation of John Milton's two pastoral lyrics almost a century earlier (1645), and the Mark Morris Dance Group's ballet of the same, fall outside the more established tradition of setting sonnets to music, it is quite apparent that Handel's music stands out as a truly bold and remarkable achievement in the annals of poetry set to music in any age.
Backgrounder: John Milton's lyric pastorals, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"
John Milton (1608-1674) is justly renowned in the annals of English literature for being one of the most versatile and inspired of poets our language has ever produced. So it is scarcely any wonder that, even in his youth, his genius would have lit on the altogether delightful idea of composing twin lyric pastoral poems, which we now know as "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso", published in 1645 [1, bis]. Milton had actually written these twin pieces long before, while he was still a young man. It is not our intention to attempt any critical analysis of Milton's two pastoral odes in this review. Instead, we'll just go right ahead and highlight his youthful spirit and ardour, which fairly shines through every single verse of the ebullient and cheerful "L'Allegro", while illustrating how his sombre, meditative "Il Penseroso" augurs well for his later masterpieces, "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained".
Now, both of these earlier poems are cut from an altogether different cloth than his later blank verse epics. Both pastorals are composed almost exclusively in iambic tetrameter with plenty of innovative variations. The notable thing about iambic tetrameter as opposed to the much more commonplace iambic pentameter in English verse is that it makes for fast-paced reading and a light, airy, skipping rhythmic feel. This vivacity is everywhere apparent throughout John Milton's "L'Allegro", which fairly bounces along, carrying the reader away on a tide of rhythm that is bound to excite anyone with a musical ear. And there is little doubt that is precisely what the poem did for Charles Jennens and George Frederic Handel. It excited them, just as it thrilled me the very first time I read Milton's Odes. Even "Il Penseroso" is also entirely fashioned in iambic tetrameter, in spite of its solemnity and rarefied atmosphere. It is precisely the tetrameter metre which lends the latter poem its aetherial quality, as we shall witness every step of the way in Handel's brilliant musical score for both of these Odes, which he and his librettist, Jennens, have so cleverly interlaced into one continual Ode. Let us then focus our entire attention on how brilliantly George Frederic Handel has adapted John Milton's "tripping" iambic tetrameters to the exalted medium of music in his wondrous Ode. And what better way to do this than for a poet to interview a musician on the genesis of Handel's adaptation of Milton's poetry to music?
And missing thee, I walk unseen...
An illustration from John Milton's "L'Allegro and Il Penseroso" [6]
George Frederic Handel's, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato"
Has the great composer successfully exploited the genius of Milton?
In order to adapt the texts of John Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" to a carefully choreographed choral piece, Handel's Librettist, Charles Jennens, leapt at a novel idea, an idea which, as we shall momentarily see, was to prove entirely felicitous, resulting in Handel's truly brilliant score, which does more than mere justice to the genius of Milton and of Handel alike. [7]
Before Richard Vallance actually interviews Peter Zanette on listening to George Frederic Handel's "L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato", allow us to introduce you to the music itself, by linking you to the site where John Eliot Gardiner's recording of the same is featured. Here you may wish to listen at your leisure to solo excerpts from Handel's Ode, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" (1740) to better familiarize yourself with it, before you take to reading the interview itself. So without further ado, here is the link to John Eliot Gardiner's and The English Baroque Soloists' stellar performance of Handel's "L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato", an Ode (1740) [8. See References & Notes below for listening details].
A Poet Interviews a Musician on Handel's Ode
Preliminary notes:
Note that for every soloist or choral passage we reference in our interview, for which an excerpt is also played on amazon.com's site where John Eliot Gardiner's stellar recording is reviewed, for your listening convenience, Peter Zanette's interview answer for that particular piece is prefaced with the key [P] = "played", followed by the number of the air or chorus, thus, [P.1]. In our interview, we have endeavoured just to highlight those salient features of Handel's Ode which characterize it as a truly memorable rendition of John Milton's two pastoral lyrics, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" (1645). On a note in passing, our interview does not refer in any way to the Third Part (Parte Terza), "Il Moderato", since it has nothing whatsoever to do with Milton's original pastoral odes. Moreover, "Il Moderato" makes a distinct break from the taut thematic and musical harmony which is everywhere present throughout Jennen's interwoven, "L'Allegro, Il Penseroso" libretto. So, without further ado, here is Richard's interview of Peter Zanette on George Frederic Handel's Ode, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" (1740). [9]
PARTE PRIMA:
| Richard: |
Well, Peter, now that we've both had ample opportunity to listen to Handel's Ode, "L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato", many times, I suppose we can offer our listener-readers a synopsis that will hopefully entice them to want to listen to this lovely choral piece, just as we did. |
| Peter: |
Yes, let's hope so. I must admit that, as a musician familiar with a great range of classical composers and certainly with the music of Handel, I was rather surprised to hear this Ode for the first time this summer in the car on our way to Toronto. I had never actually listened to it before, however familiar I may have been with most of Handel's repertoire. |
| Richard: |
Yes, it does come as somewhat of a surprise. In his liner notes, John Eliot Gardiner, the conductor of the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, himself notes that this lesser known "work is unique in Handel's output: neither opera nor oratorio, it is an extended pastoral ode..." Do you think that's a fair characterization of it? |
| Peter: |
Yes, I do. It is also remarkable how Handel has managed to take what superficially is a most undramatic subject, with no real action to it, and adapt it to an Ode, which he and his librettist Jennens, have managed to fashion into a truly original and inspired choral piece. This they did by interweaving carefully selected extracts from Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" into one deceptively seamless whole. It is really quite a tour de force, if you ask me. |
| Richard: |
Yes, I too could not help but notice that Jennens and Handel did not set the whole of Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" to music. Can you tell us why you think Handel would not have wanted to set the entire poems to music, and separately for that matter? |
| Peter: |
It seems to me Jennens and Handel do not at all wish to bring all of Milton's poetry to bear on the score, just enough to set the mood. They've done this already in the introduction (air 1., L'Allegro) and in air 2. Accompagnato, where they allow just enough of Milton's poetry to come into play to set a narrative musical line. The effect is expansive. The second air, like the first, is also a recitative. You see a lot of this throughout the Ode. This is standard practice for Handel, but he always uses it deftly, and clearly to his advantage. |
| Richard: |
Yes, let's briefly return to the opening part, "Hence loathed Melancholy." I found this rather too grim for my taste, but maybe I missed something. |
| Peter: |
[P.1] Well, I very much like the prelude to L'Allegro, as it sets the tone for the entire Ode. It is moody and haunting. To my mind at least, the opening passage is entirely memorable. Handel begins by having the tenor beseech Melancholy to depart, strongly stressing the fact that he (the singer and our interlocutor) perhaps not surprisingly loathes Melancholy. When the orchestra enters, it reflects and augments the tenor's solemnity. The singing is neither loud nor fearful; rather it seems to me to be more introspective, looking inwards on oneself. There is searching and longing here in his singing, but for what, beyond Melancholy which he loathes, we cannot yet precisely tell. We note for instance how beautifully the tenor embellishes the word "ragged". His accent verges on being Scottish here. He literally trills the "r". Such lavish ornamental embellishment recurs frequently throughout Handel's Ode. It is the hallmark not only of Baroque music as such, but is a trademark of Handel's style. The whole passage ends on a mystical pianissimo note, almost whispered, "In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell." This is what I meant by the introit being "haunting". But this invocation will undergo a striking metamorphosis by the end of the Second Part of Handel's Ode, as we shall see in "Il Penseroso's" triumphant conclusion in Chorus 38, where Melancholy actually gains the upper hand. |
| Richard: |
Regrettably, it is impossible for us to dwell on the many entirely felicitous airs and choruses peppered throughout Handel's Ode. Instead, let's highlight a few of the more memorable of these. Turning our attention first to Parte Prima, are there any airs or choruses that readily leap to mind? As for myself, if part 4 of Handel's Ode left me feeling rather cool, I must say I was almost swept away by the vivacious merriment expressed in L'Allegro 5. |
| Peter: |
[P.5] Yes, the tenor air and chorus 5. from L'Allegro, "Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee...", is really fun-loving. This entire passage finely counterbalances the meditative, religious tone of the previous. The use of staccato reinforces the light, fanciful quality of this passage. Starting with "Haste thee, nymph", the beat is in 3/4 time. The music fairly flows. Notice how marvelously the singers imitate laughter. As they sing, "ha, ha, ha", they pronounce only the first "h", leaving all subsequent occurrences of it unaspirated. This is common practice in choral music. The letter "h" imposes a breathing stop, which would have sounded unnatural in such a joyous chorus. All this, of course, lends credence to the light, Italianate air surrounding this passage. It's all sheer delightful fun! |
| Richard: |
Well, if there is one passage which really stands out as tuneful and memorable to me, it's got to be the next one, no. 6. This just has me wanting to get up and dance around the room. And that's what it did for the Mark Morris Dance Group in their Berkeley ballet performance in 2000. Apparently, this passage had the audience and the reviewers alike on their toes! |
| Peter: |
[P.6] In the tenor air and chorus from l'Allegro, "Come, and trip it as you go,/On the light fantastic toe", tenor and chorus pipe in at a nice, moderato pace, with plenty of embellishment. The music does actually "trip" skippingly along. But notice he (the tenor) does not sing this part too loudly. It's all very civilized. He is having simple fun. He is not insisting on anything. That's what makes this passage so wonderful a listening experience.
On another note, we notice here that the tenor seems to be inviting the country folk to join in on the fun, to dance with him. The whole setting is rural. We can imagine a village fair or fest in which everyone is invited to participate merrily. The tenor calls out, "Let's dance!" And the people gathering around him all reply in one voice, "Yes, let's dance!" And do they ever! And to make sure we get the point, Handel repeats the whole passage. This is standard Baroque technique. It works well, doesn't it? |
| Richard: |
"Hence, loathed Melancholy!" Well, this is certainly familiar enough. This is the passage the tenor opened the Ode with. |
| Peter: |
[P.10a] Yes, this is a notable example of Handel's strong reliance on recitative, one of his real hallmarks as a Baroque composer. This particular recitative is one of the few common threads that carries right through the entire Ode from end to end. Its purpose is to lay particular emphasis on the strong claims of Melancholy, which in the final analysis, will carry the day, as Handel's climax to Milton's interleaved poems ends, not the lighter note of Mirth, but on the profounder note of Melancholy. |
| Richard: |
Well, I dare say I love the boy soprano part in l'Allegro here, "Mirth, admit me of thy crew!" But, Peter, why do you think a boy soprano takes up the challenge here, rather than the adult female soprano? |
| Peter: |
[P.10b] We've noticed how the tenor and soprano adult singers (male and female, husband and wife) have invited the chorus to participate at every step of the way so far, and how the chorus has always countered. Well, here, it seems to me, the adults and the villagers, the people, represented by the chorus, are inviting their children to be part of their celebrations. And so it is. Also, Handel infuses the music with carefree joy and innocence here. He seems to be saying, "OK, everyone, country folk, parents and children, all alike, let's have a lark. And having a lark is what it's all about, as we can see in the next passage. |
| Richard: |
Here's another spritely little air from our boy soprano, I dare say. It's actually the same air as we've just heard. |
| Peter: |
[P.11] Yes, it's typically Handelian. The violins alternate the melody with the boy soprano's air. Here again we notice how Handel places particular emphasis on the main melodic line, "Mirth, admit me of thy crew!" by having both the boy and the choir repeat it. Note also how the violins imitate the sounds of birds, presumably larks, flitting through the trees. This sounds a lot like some of Vivaldi's concertos. |
| Richard: |
In 13. Air, Il Penseroso (soprano), I noticed the musical phrase at the end "da capo". What does "da capo" mean, Peter? I've noticed that phrase often in anthems and oratorios, but I've never understood it. |
| Peter: |
It's Italian for "from the heading" or "from the beginning". In other words, the soloist is asked to sing the passage right through, then go back to the beginning and sing it again, although not necessarily in its entirety the second time round. I can see from your enthusiastic reaction to this air, Richard, that you really enjoy it. And I do too. The soprano embellishes her singing with trills, while the orchestral accompaniment is evidently imitating the plaintive love song of the nightingale. Notice how again Jennens and Handel have adroitly used just so much of Milton's original text as to suggest a link between this passage and the previous two, 12. where larks are suggested and 13. where the music centred on the cherub "on golden wings". Consecutively, the 3 passages make for a very lovely melodic effect which cannot fail to impress the sensitive listener.
And there's more. Why have Jennens and Handel chosen to imitate the nightingale? One reason seems clear enough to me. Recall the line, "I woo to hear thy even-song." Now we know that in the Anglican liturgy, the even-song plays a key role. And so it does here. Both the gradual increase in the soprano's pitch and her orchestral accompaniment make for a prayerful mood which pervades the whole passage and invests it with a lovely solemnity befitting the mood set by dusk. The largo pace reinforces this mood. |
| Richard: |
I must say I was a little surprised by the passage from Il Penseroso, 17, air, "Far from all resort of mirth". It seems unusually bright for a song of Melancholy. It actually reminds me of some of the more exalted, angelic passages from Handel's later "Messiah". |
| Peter: |
Yes, it makes me think of "He shall feed his flock" from "Messiah". Notice the phrase "To bless the doors from nightly harm". The soloist is singing of warding off evil. One gets the sense the silvery moon is everywhere present in this passage, hence its presumed melodic brightness. Handel seems to be implicitly telling us that true honour is due to Melancholy rather than to mere Mirth. We seem to have to "resort" to Mirth. Not so with Melancholoy. It is, as it were, natural for us to honour Melancholy, as she is a wellspring of our psyche. Jennens and Handel are beginning here to effect a subtle transition from the ascendency of Mirth to that of Melancholy. |
| Richard: |
Well, if Air 17 above honouring Melancholy seems oddly bright, this one from "L'Allegro" (19) seems strangely muted. What's happening here, Peter? |
| Peter: |
In L'Allegro, "Let me wander, not unseen/By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green...", the link is more melodic than verbal. Remember I said that Jennens and Handel melodically interlaced "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" throughout. Recall too those implicit links. They are not necessarily all verbal. They can also be melodic. Such is the case here.
The soloists sings partially "a cappella" i.e. unaccompanied, and partially with an orchestral accompaniment. The pace is largo throughout. And note that with the phrase, "And every shepherd tells his tale", we are invited yet again to focus ourselves on the central theme of nature here, and in a rural setting. I wish to emphasize the rural setting here because, as we shall shortly see, the Second Part of Handel's Air is set in an urban milieu, in sharp contrast to The First Part. And, returning to our impressions of this passage, we find that it echoes the quiet rural serenity of some of the previous airs we have heard from "Il Penseroso". Implicit in this resonance is the notion that it is more natural to enjoy the peacefulness of the countryside than to go off on a rollicking hunt. The melodic line in this passage is a convincing portrayal of such serenity. |
| Richard: |
Moving on to 22. Air and Chorus:
Or let the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks sound
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the checquer'd shade.
I have simply got to ask you, what are those instruments playing the bell sounds, Peter? Curiosity kills the cat! |
| Peter: |
Oh, that's just one instrument, a glockenspiel. This passage is a vivid allegro, appropriately sung by the boy soprano, who seems to be asking us in his innocent, child-like way, to forget our worries. "Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin", he seems to be telling us in his simple way (isn't that from Matthew?). Well, anyway, we certainly get the picture. Why worry, when we can have so much fun. This is Mirth at her best.
Then, just to be sure we get the message, Handel introduces the chorus, "And young and old come forth to play/On a sunshine holiday," that is, the people, the villagers, who all echo the boy's refrain, "let's have fun", but not without eventually returning to a more subdued, quieter note as the passage goes from ebullient dancing, from allegro to largo, to a more reflective, meditative, prayerful atmosphere. Once again, we are reminded of even song. Echoes of "Il Penseroso" surface right at the very end of Parte Prima, and not merely by accident. For, as we shall see in Parte Seconda, it is "Il Penseroso" and not "L'Allegro" that will have the upper hand in the final analysis. There are foreshadowings of future passages in the Messiah here as well. | |
PARTE SECONDA:
Il Penseroso
|
Richard: |
So, tell us, Peter, how does Handel effect the subtle transition from emphasis on Mirth in L'Allegro in Parte Prima to that on Melancholy in Il Penseroso here in Parte Seconda? |
|
Peter: |
Actually, he does so in several ways, some implicit, some explicit. Melancholy is no longer "loathed". She is accepted with grace and equanimity. While Parte Prima ends on a high note of L'Allegro, here in Parte Seconda, our business is finished with L'Allegro as early on as Ode 34, while the closing passages, from 35 through to 38 inclusive, are all successively drawn from "Il Penseroso", with not a pause or break. Last but far from least, the orchestral and singing parts in Parte Seconda, and most notably those from il Penseroso, are much longer than those in Parte Prima. |
|
Richard: |
Beginning with the Accompagnato introit to Parte Seconda, "Hence, vain deluding joys," which seems a perfect foil to me to the opening line of Parte Prima above, "Hence, loathed Melancholy", did you notice that this soprano air (no. 23) is directly linked to no. 25, also a soprano solo? They both centre on the same theme, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Are you familiar with this myth, Peter? Orpheus with his lyre leads Eurydice back from Hades at the vernal equinox, but he must relinquish her to Hades when Autumn arrives. |
| Peter: |
[P.23] Well, no actually, I am not. But it certainly fits the mood of the opening air to the Second Part of Handel's Ode. Here we see Jennens and Handel recalling even song yet again, only this time, we note, "at midnight hour", rather than at dusk, as in the previous passage where even song was celebrated. And again, this passage opening Parte Seconda is clearly reminiscent of the introit to Parte Prima. While the music is dark and brooding, it is also deeply moving. Instead of opening and closing with "L'Allegro", as Parte Prima does, the Second Part of the Ode opens with "Il Penseroso", although on a similar musical note. And, as we shall see, the Second Part will also end with "Il Penseroso". So Jennens and Handel have achieved an exquisite balance between the First and Second Parts of the Ode, where the First is framed by "L'Allegro" and the Second by "Il Penseroso". This delicate balance is not immediately evident in Milton's original poems, which are separate pieces. That's the beauty of Handel's Ode, it seems to me. |
|
Richard: |
With 28. Air, "There let Hymen oft appear/In saffron robe, with taper clear,...", we're not only in the city now, it seems, but actually present at a wedding in church. That's what the allusion to "Hymen" means. This is what the poet Edmund Spenser would have called an Epithalamium, or wedding song. In fact, he wrote one by that very title in 1595. |
|
Peter: |
[P.28] Yes, I see what you mean. I suppose the "store of ladies" really are raining their maidenly influence now. Truly, this wedding song sanctifies the proceedings as the Ode unfolds more and more majestically before our eyes. |
|
Richard: |
Oh, I truly adore the soprano solo, 32. Air, from L'Allegro, "Lap me in soft Lydian airs/Married to immortal verse,". The reference to "soft Lydian airs" makes me think right away of the ancient Greek wind lyre, and even recalls to mind the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Isn't it lovely, Peter? |
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Peter: |
[P.32] Indeed it is. The music flows at a slow or andante pace, and is very appealing. We see that here that poetry, on an abstract plane, is married to music at last, as presumably the lady is married to her debonair in the previous Hymen passage. The poet echoes the musician, who in turn echoes the poet. It's quite a tour de force! |
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Richard: |
How ironic and strangely sad that here, of all places, in a soprano air from "L'Allegro", no. 33, "Orpheus' self may heave his head", celebrating Orpheus' redemption of Eurydice from the clutch of Hades, she is set free, and yet she is not. |
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Peter: |
[P.33] Yes. The music is superficially joyous, swift-paced and celebratory. Spring is arrived. Perhaps here we witness the allegorical marriage of "L'Allegro" with "Il Penseroso". That's one interpretation, at least. On a technical level, the use of the harpsichord base line continuo throughout this air is standard Handelian practice, and also a hallmark of Baroque choral music. It's really lovely. |
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Richard: |
Now, let's see. If I'm not mistaken, no. 34, Air and Chorus, "These delights if thou canst give,/Mirth, with thee I mean to live....", is the very last passage to be sung from "L'Allegro". From here on in, every solo and chorus is derived from "Il Penseroso". But this recitative — that's the right word, isn't it? — is quite the sparkling send off for "L'Allegro", if you don't mind my saying. |
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Peter: |
Well, it certainly is a fitting conclusion to the festivities "L'Allegro" epitomizes. Did you notice, Richard, Handel's strong emphasis on the word "give", which the tenor repeats in several reprises? Not only that, "give" is taken up in "live". Then the chorus pipes in, accompanied by the orchestra and tympani. The tympani or drums leave us feeling ever so slightly uneasy with this parting allegro from "L'Allegro". Somehow the musical merriment seems slightly forced and artificial. Is this deliberate? Yes, I think so. Handel wishes us to realize that the claims of Mirth are rather superficial, in the final analysis. |
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Richard: |
Well then, leaping right ahead to the very end of Handel's Ode on Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso", to no. 38. Solo and Chorus, "These pleasures, Melancholy, give,/And I with thee will choose to live.", I'd really like to conclude by asking you, Peter, how effective do you think the concluding solo and chorus actually is? |
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Peter: |
Very effective. The solemnity of the previous passage simply carries right on through in this concluding passage. The music unfolds at a slow, largo pace entirely befitting the religious atmosphere Handel is establishing here. The cellos play moderato, first along with the glorious soprano air, then in accompaniment with the exultate the chorus sings. It finally dawns on us that with "old experience", that is, with old age and a good life, we are finally able to attain "something like prophetic strain". As our life draws to an end, we can rest on our laurels, in the calm assurance that after all, we can "choose to live" with Melancholy, and not drive her impatiently off, as some loathed thing we despise. It is not the childlike "L'Allegro" of Parte Prima, Mirth, but rather Melancholy, "Il Penseroso" in Parte Seconda of Handel's Ode, who has the deepest claims on the human psyche. |
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A summary appraisal of the musical merits of "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato"
To round out our interview, here is Richard Vallance's and Peter Zanette's summary appraisal of the several merits of Handel's Ode, "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato".
Both Peter and I noticed right away that Handel begins his Ode on an emphatic pensive note, clearly reflected in the music's tonality. Handel, like Milton before him, seems to be harbouring serious reservations about Melancholy at the outset of the Ode, yet by the time he reaches its climax (Parte Seconda, passage 38), he seems more than just resigned, actually even willing to live with her (Melancholy). Her redemptive powers override Mirth's capacity to keep a strong hold on us for very long.
We find that Jennen's libretto, which skillfully interleaves "Il Penseroso" with "L'Allegro" every step of the way, comes to a climax only with "Il Penseroso" in passages 35 to 38 (the closing Chorus). The closing chorus effectively eclipses the less humane claims of "L'Allegro", however vivacious she may have been. While Handel opens with fear and loathing of Melancholy, ironically, he wraps his Ode up by viewing it as a necessary, indeed, redeeming elemental force in our lives. For behind every joy, however loudly we profess it, there lurk the deeper claims of Melancholy.
Jennen's libretto has cleverly, indeed successfully, juxtaposed throughout the happy and the sad in our lives. If you listen closely to the music, to the soloists and the choruses, you can see how the musical sequences Jennens has excerpted from Milton's "l'Allegro" inexorably lead into those from "Il Penseroso". Each sequence suggests the next, and is directly linked to it, even in the librettist's choice of repeated phrases and recitatives. In fact, in some passages repeated from "L'Allegro" in "Il Penseroso", the opening words of "Il Penseroso" passages take up the theme of the previous "L'Allegro" passage, philosophically and musically expanding on it. Jennens was scrupulously careful in establishing the subtle intertextual interplay between Milton's two magnificent lyric poems, which clearly complement one another.
We sincerely trust that listening to Handel's Ode will be for you, as it has surely been for us, a most pleasurable experience you will not want to forego. Handel's Ode is a Baroque musical experience par excellence. The music is by turns quintessentially Handelian, light yet engaging; at other times, it just so much reminds us of Antonio Vivaldi's, "Gloria", airy and brilliant; while at others, we are under the distinct impression that we are listening rather to the more sombre religious choral music of Johann Sebastian Bach, so solemn and awe-inspiring is the music. But mere words, not even Milton's exalted poetry, can do real justice to the music. You simply have to experience this splendid Ode for yourself. You may just find yourself returning to this delightful Ode over and over, at such exalted moments as Advent and Christmas, Easter, the Spring equinox and pretty much any other time you wish to give your spirits a jaunty lift. And on that joyous note, we wish you all A Merry Christmas 2004 and a very Happy New Year 2005!
January 2005: Samuel Daniel (1562-1619), "Care-charmer Sleep"
For all you winter hibernators, coming in Vallance Review 41, January 2005, is our comparative analysis of Samuel Daniel's "Care-charmer Sleep" and Pontus de Tyard's, "Père du doux repos, Sommeil, père du songe". It's bound to wake you from your peaceful winter slumber for a little while at least or, if not that, to help you snooze comfortably right through the long winter months.
© by Richard Vallance (poet-critic) and Peter Zanette (musician-composer), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with the editorial assistance of Debra Ann Begg, Music Librarian, University of Ottawa, Helga Ross, poet (Canada) and Jim Dunlap, poet (USA)
© Richard Vallance and Peter Zanette, November 26 2004
REFERENCES & NOTES:
[1] BIOGRAPHY: X. George Frederick Handel (1685-1759). From this biography we read the following excerpt:
The oratorios Saul and Israel in Egypt had been performed in 1739, also another important work, the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, and, in 1740, the ode “L'allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato.” In 1741, at the invitation of the viceroy of Ireland, Handel visited Dublin, and there produced his immortal Messiah on April 13th, 1742.
[2] RPO. John Milton (1608-1674).
L'Allegro (1645) and RPO. John Milton (1608-1674). Il Penseroso (1645)
[3] While this is the first Vallance Review ever to examine the adaptation of longer poetic forms, notably, John Milton's two pastoral poems, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" to music in Handel's ode and to ballet in the Mark Morris performance of Handel's music in 2000, more than a few earlier Vallance Reviews have delved at length into the relationship between the sonnet and music, as well as into multimedia adaptations of sonnets to music. Previous Vallance Reviews addressing the intriguing relationship between the sonnet and music are:
[3.1] Vallance Review 11, July 2002. When is a Sonnet a Song? Sara Russell's "Pianissimo"
[3.2] Vallance Review 26, October 2003. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73, "bare ruin'd choirs". Let's really experience it like we never have! (a multimedia approach to criticism)
[3.3] Vallance Review 28, December 2003. All Glory, Laud and Honour to Thee, Redeemer King: featuring contemporary sonnets on Christmas, Peace and Winter and the final musical score of Peter Zanette's "Brighter Orbs on High"
[4] Mark Morris Dance Group, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato. March 1 - 5, 2000, Berkeley, CA, Zellerbach Auditorium (review by Susan Weiss)
[5] John Keats. Realms of Gold [Audiobook] amazon.com
[6] FROM the private collection of Richard Vallance. Milton, John. Milton's L'Allegro and il Penseroso. Illustrated with Etchings on Steel, by Birket Foster. London: The Scholar Press, © MDCCCCLXXV = 1975. [Reprinted by The Scholar Press, Ilkley, Yorkshire from the edition of 1860...] 24 pp., leaves. This illustration is from pg. 18.
[7] Georg Friedrich Händel. L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO ED IL MODERATO (1740) An Ode Words by Charles Jennens DRAMATIS PERSONAE L'Allegro Il Penseroso Il Moderato Chorus
[8] To listen to solo and choral excerpts from Handel's "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" (1740), go here: Handel - L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato / Smith, McLaughlin, Kwella, Ginn, M. Davies, M. Hill, Varcoe, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner You may open the choral excerpts using amazon.com's music sampler, Windows Media Player or Real Player. Note that Amazon's customer reviews rate John Eliot Gardiner's and the English Baroque Soloists' performance of "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" as EXCELLENT (5 stars). Here are some excerpts from their commentaries on Gardiner's performance of Handel's Ode (1740):
Sir John Elliot Gardiner and the musicians he hires succeed (again) in producing Handel of outstanding interpretive quality and beauty.... passim... The penultimate track, the duet "As steals the morn..." is ineffably beautiful and joyous.
Gardiner's "Allegro" is excellent. Recorded in January 1980, this performance shines with uniformly good soloists and playing... passim... delightful music that is worth hearing. Recommended to all lovers of the great Georg Frideric.
[9] We have decided to reproduce here in the November 2004 Vallance Review only the main highlights of an in-depth interview which Richard Vallance held with Peter Zanette on Handel's Ode in November 2004. Readers who would like to read the entire transcript of the interview may do so by contacting us by e-mail, requesting the transcript here: Richard Vallance coolgoose.ca
Richard Vallance is the author of:
Canadian Federation of Poets: Poetry Lessons: Lesson & Exercise - Week 18 SONNETS
in The Canadian Federation of Poets weekly Poetry Progress Lessons & Exercises series
The Vallance Review is frequently cited in our Canadian sonnet journal, SONNETTO POESIA ISSN 1706-4524. To read the current issue or any back issues, you may visit the sonnet journal's Home Page here:
SONNETTO POESIA ISSN 1705-4524
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