Georg Friedrich Händel
How beautiful are the feet - Blessed are they that considereth the poor HWV 266 (267), 268
Anthem on the Peace - Foundling Hospital Anthem
Georg Friedrich Händel
How beautiful are the feet - Blessed are they that considereth the poor HWV 266 (267), 268
Anthem on the Peace - Foundling Hospital Anthem
- Instrumentation Soloists (SAATB), Mixed Choir (SAATB) and Orchestra
- Composer Georg Friedrich Händel
- Series Hallische Händel-Ausgabe
- Editor Stephan Blaut
- Edition Score
- Publisher Bärenreiter Verlag
- Order no. BA10733-01
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Description:
Volume 14 of Series III (Church Music) of the Halle Handel Edition contains two anthems which Handel composed in 1749 and which are his last contributions to the genre of the English anthem. He performed the Peace Anthem, How beautiful are the feet, HWV 266, for the first time on April 25 at a thanksgiving service held in London at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, as part of the celebrations to mark the Peace of Aachen. A month later, on 27 May, Handel held his first benefit concert in the still unfinished chapel of the Foundling Hospital, founded in London in 1739, to support the completion of the church with the proceeds from the sale of tickets. The first part of the concert featured the Music for the Royal Fireworks (premiered on April 27) and the Peace Anthem, which had been composed just a few weeks earlier. The second part was followed by arias and choruses from his oratorio Solomon, first performed at Covent Garden Theatre in March 1749, and finally the Foundling Hospital Anthem, Blessed are they that considereth the poor, HWV 268, created especially for the benefit concert. The event promoted the reputation of the orphanage and was a great financial success. Handel remained associated with the hospital, donated an organ for the chapel and performed the Messiah there every year from 1750; the proceeds always benefited the orphanage.
After Handel's death, the two anthems were largely forgotten. As late as the middle of the 20th century, Otto Erich Deutsch believed that the Peace Anthem was Handel's Dettingen Anthem with a new text, and the autograph sheets of "How beautiful are the feet" (Peace Anthem No. 1 and No. F1) were assigned to the oratorio Messiah. It was only in the 1970s that it was possible to reconstruct the form of HWV 266, primarily with the help of the program printed for the concert on 27 May 1749. Nevertheless, a complete score of the Peace Anthem has not been available to date.
The Foundling Hospital Anthem was performed once again at the official opening of the orphanage chapel in April 1753. This second version is far more extensive than the first version of 1749 due to the inclusion of two arias and a duet, which appears powerful and compact as a purely choral work. The HHA volume III/14 offers both versions in complete and separate scores.
After Handel's death, the two anthems were largely forgotten. As late as the middle of the 20th century, Otto Erich Deutsch believed that the Peace Anthem was Handel's Dettingen Anthem with a new text, and the autograph sheets of "How beautiful are the feet" (Peace Anthem No. 1 and No. F1) were assigned to the oratorio Messiah. It was only in the 1970s that it was possible to reconstruct the form of HWV 266, primarily with the help of the program printed for the concert on 27 May 1749. Nevertheless, a complete score of the Peace Anthem has not been available to date.
The Foundling Hospital Anthem was performed once again at the official opening of the orphanage chapel in April 1753. This second version is far more extensive than the first version of 1749 due to the inclusion of two arias and a duet, which appears powerful and compact as a purely choral work. The HHA volume III/14 offers both versions in complete and separate scores.