Mendelssohn: Athalia Incidental Music, Op. 74

Earlier to-day I listened to Mendelssohn's incidental music for Athalia, Op. 74 (I recently got a three-CD set of some Mendelssohn incidental music, and this was the first time I listened to it).

The beginning of the overture sounded familiar, but I had to look up the notation before I realized why it sounded familiar:

(notation found here)

Initially, I thought it resembled the melody of Handel's "See the conqu'ring hero comes" from Judas Maccabaeus (I know it as a melody, but I've never heard Handel's oratorio).  After I lookt up the notation for "See the conqu'ring hero comes," I realized that Mendelssohn's overture sounds familiar because it starts with the same rhythm, not the same melody:

(notation found here)

Both have a half note, a dotted quarter note, an eighth note, and then two half notes.

After I discovered this similarity, I did some research to see if this was actually Handel's influence or whether it was just a coincidence.  I referenced R. Larry Todd's Mendelssohn: A Life in Music, which I read last year.  In the index, there are a dozen entries for "Handel influences."  I lookt up Judas Maccabaeus specifically, and - while I couldn't find anything about its influence on the Athalia overture - I did find some things that evidence Mendelssohn's familiarity with it.  In Chapter 5 (1825-1826), Todd writes that "Felix extracted themes from the oratorio and dexterously wove them into an improvisation, 'thoroughly Handelian' yet with 'no pretension to display.'"  Later, Todd mentions Judas Maccabaeus among other Handel works that Mendelssohn conducted in Düsseldorf in the 1830s.  So it seems that the rhythm from "See the conqu'ring hero comes" could very well have influenced the rhythm in the overture to the Athalia incidental music.

Handel: Messiah, HWV 56

I just listened to Handel's Messiah.  Last summer, I listened to it fairly regularly as part of an-other project, and I ended up writing a lengthy post about it, but listening to it this time, I found something new... sort of.

I'd noticed before that in Part II, No. 23, Handel puts in a cross-shaped figure in the vocal melody for the first "He was despised":

(notation found here)

A few years ago, I read John Eliot Gardiner's Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, and he illustrates how Bach does this in Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4:

I've been fascinated by this feature since then.

Listening to the Messiah this time, I heard (and then confirmed via the score) a cross-shape for "acquainted" later in "He was despised":

Back in June, I wrote how that first cross figure (for "He was despised") "provide[s] an example of one of the forms in which Christ was despised - the crucifixion."  Similarly, the cross-inscription for "acquainted" links what's described in the text ("a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief") with its cause.

Handel: Recorder Sonata in B flat major, HWV 377

Over the last week, I've been listening to a six-CD set of Handel's chamber music that I got for Christmas.  I was surprised to find that I already knew one of the melodies in a Violin Sonata (from a CD my dad often plays in his car), but when I listened to the last disc this evening, I found that same melody again.  So I looked up the notation for both pieces and found that - aside from a handful of measures - they differ only by the key they're in and the instrument they're played on.

To-day I found it in the third movement of Handel's Recorder Sonata in B flat major, HWV 377:

(notation found here)

It was a bit difficult to compare this to the other piece in which I found that melody - the fourth movement of Handel's Violin Sonata in A major, HWV 361 - not only because I'm not that good at reading notation but also because the only notation available is Handel's manuscript, which wasn't as easy to read as printed notation would be:

(notation found here)

I found differences in the end of the fourth measure, the fifth measure, the end of the tenth measure, the end of the thirteen measure, and the fourteenth measure.  The differences between the respective thirteenth and fourteenth measures is one of rhythm, not of pitch, so I think that change might be because of certain qualities of the instrument in question.  Longer notes seem more appropriate for recorder; shorter notes for violin.

It wasn't until after discovering all of this and doing my research that I looked in the extensive liner notes (which I haven't read yet) and found that this borrowing is noted.  As usual, I had my order backwards though; the recorder sonata (the second thing I found that phrase in) pre-dates the violin sonata (where I first found it).