The allegorical play The Triumph of Time and Truth is based upon a work which Handel composed at Rome about 1708, to Italian words by Cardinal Panfili. In the year 1737 he brought it before the London public, still in its Italian dress, but considerably transformed and enlarged. SATB or SSATB with SSATB Soli

The allegorical play The Triumph of Time and Truth is based upon a work which Handel composed at Rome about 1708, to Italian words by Cardinal Panfili. In the year 1737 he brought it before the London public, still in its Italian dress, but considerably transformed and enlarged. SATB or SSATB with SSATB Sol

During his lifetime, the sounds of Handel’s music reached from court to theater, echoed in cathedrals, and filled crowded taverns, but the man himself—known to most as the composer of Messiah—is a bit of a mystery. Though he took meticulous care of his musical manuscripts and even provided for their preservation on his death, very little of an intimate nature survives. One document—Handel’s will—offers us a narrow window into his personal life. In it, he remembers not only family and close colleagues but also neighborhood friends. In search of the private man behind the public figure, Ellen T. Harris has spent years tracking down the letters, diaries, personal accounts, legal cases, and other documents connected to these bequests. The result is a tightly woven tapestry of London in the first half of the eighteenth century, one that interlaces vibrant descriptions of Handel’s music with stories of loyalty, cunning, and betrayal. With this wholly new approach, Harris has achieved something greater than biography. Layering the interconnecting stories of Handel’s friends like the subjects and countersubjects of a fugue, Harris introduces us to an ambitious, shrewd, generous, brilliant, and flawed man, hiding in full view behind his public persona.

Handel was a defining figure of the late Baroque era, perhaps best known for bringing the oratorio form to an English-speaking audience. This insightful study brings to life the glory of his artistry, his elusive personality and the flavour of his time.

An international collaboration between leading scholars showcases a broad spectrum of observations on Handel and his music, covering many aspects of modern interdisciplinary and traditional philological musicology.