Handel as Orpheus : voice and desire in the chamber cantatas / Ellen T. Harris.
| Author/creator |
Harris, Ellen T. |
| Format | Book and Print |
| Publication Info | Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2001. |
| Description | xi, 430 pages : illustrations, music ; 26 cm |
| Subject(s) |
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| Contents | Prologue: "The ways of the world" -- Code names and assumed identities -- Women's voices/Men's voices -- Pastoral lovers -- Cantata couples and love triangles -- Silence and secrecy -- Culmination of the private -- Epilogue: "True representation" -- Cantata chronology -- Texts and translations of the continuo cantatas. |
| Abstract | Handel wrote over 100 cantatas, compositions for voice and instruments that describe the joy and pain of love. In this book, the first comprehensive study of the cantatas, the author investigates their place in Handel's life as well as their extraordinary beauty. The cantatas were written between 1706 and 1723--from the time Handel left his home in Germany, through the years he spent in Florence and Rome, and into the early part of his London career. In this period he lived as a guest in aristocratic homes, and composed these chamber works for his patrons and hosts, primarily for private entertainments. In both Italy and England his patrons moved in circles in which same-sex desire was commonplace, a fact that is not without significance, Harris reveals, for the cantatas exhibit a clear homosexual subtext. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 367-415) and indexes. |
| LCCN | 2001039075 |
| ISBN | 0674006178 (alk. paper) |
Available Items
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.H13 H283 2001 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |