American Choral Review Archive

It was a member of Haydn's London orchestra, Johann Christoph...

It was a member of Haydn's London orchestra, Johann Christoph Gottlieb Graupner, who helped to bring about the establishment of the Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest American choral organization, which has made it its task to perpetuate this dual legacy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Generally, Batten's fame has rested upon the "Batten Organ Book,"...

Generally, Batten's fame has rested upon the "Batten Organ Book," a voluminous collection of organ scores for church music by sixteenth-century composers, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It is unfortunate that only a limited amount of Batten's own music has been published since what we have reveals a composer of individual quality - one might consider him a Renaissance counterpart of Samuel Sebastian Wesley. In certain ways Batten foreshadowed composers of the Restoration period who accepted secular elements already in common use in sacred music on the Continent. Yet he also assimilated the Venetian polychoral style and elements of the madrigal and the chanson. No doubt his versatility was influenced by his work as a copyist. His output of services and anthems was one of the largest among his contemporaries.

In Handel's music we face certain problems of rhythm but...

In Handel's music we face certain problems of rhythm but tbey are neither as numerous nor as complex as some modern interpreters believe them to be. Thus, in the chorus "Behold the Lamb of God" from Messiah, we meet problems of tempo, articulation, ornamentation, dynamics, phrasing, balance - but not of rhythm.

Over the past few years so-called "original instrument" performances have...

Over the past few years so-called "original instrument" performances have become the norm in Baroque music, and there is an increasing trend towards similar interpretations of the classical repertoire. Have we finally awakened to the necessity of hearing the music as the composers did? Such is the claim. Like most claims, it deserves investigation.