Proposed by Marten Noorduin

Here are a few amusing reflections from the contemporary musical press about George Frideric Handel.

The American Musical Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1 (1 October 1834): [1]/1.

A corpulent man, Handel’s love of food and drink was a common subject of anecdotes. Some journals published accounts portraying the composer’s victual indulgences as acts of gluttony and greed.

The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer, Vol. 1 No. 39, (23 December 1820): 156.

Interestingly, this particular anecdote from The Euterpeiad is quite similar to one published two years later in a book entitled Anecdotes, Biographical Sketches and Memoirs by English novelist Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins. In this version, the “friend of Handel” is painter and engraver Joseph Goupy. “Enraged” that Handel stowed away a table of delicacies for himself, Goupy soon after created a piece of art “in which Handel figures as a hog in the midst of dainties.”[1] Known as “The charming Brute,” this depiction of Handel sitting at the organ surrounded by items of personal decadence has several iterations. The London journal Concordia (1875-1876) produced a facsimile of one of the engravings.

Joseph Goupy, “The charming Brute,” ca. 1750. Concordia, Vol. 2 No. 38 (15 January 1876): 37

Two other versions of Goupy’s scathing illustration of Handel contain many similarities: the wine cask organ bench, the lavish meats hanging from the organ, and the composer’s hoggish features.

Joseph Goupy, “The charming Brute,” ca. 1750. Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.

Joseph Goupy, “The charming Brute,” ca. 1750. Bridgeman Art Library.

Anecdotes about Handel also memorialized the composer’s sharp wit, sharper tongue, and, at times, bouts of irritability. The tale below tells of what might have happened if Handel reviewed someone else’s composition.

The Musical Journal, Vol. 2 No. 36 (8 September 1840): 150.

The Musical Herald, Vol. 6 No. 3 (March 1885): 56.

Those questioning the composer’s own musical decisions were subjected to perhaps worse vitriol.

The Euterpeiad, or Musical Intelligencer, Vol. 1, No. 32 (4 November 1820): 128.

The Harmonicon, Vol. 1 No. 9 (September 1823): [1p] 116/117.

Finally, as the anecdote below details, Handel’s propensity for criticism was apparently not only limited to others, but also to himself.

The Musical World, Vol. 38 No. 27 (7 July 1860): 435.

RIPM search tip: Searching “Handel” as a keyword in RIPM’s new Combined Interface reveals that his name appears at least once in an astounding 42,191 records! The RIPMPlus Platform’s Combined Interface search feature offers users fully integrated and simultaneous access to both the Preservation Series and to RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text with a single unified search results page.

[1] Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins, Anecdotes, Biographical Sketches and Memoirs (London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1822), 195ff, as quoted in Ellen T. Harris, “Joseph Goupy and George Frideric Handel: From Professional Triumphs to Personal Estrangement,” Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 71 No. 3 (September 2008): 432.

The French journal Musica (1902-1914) was published in Paris by the influential journalist and publisher Pierre Lafitte. Perhaps better known for his illustrated sports magazine La Vie au grand air (1898-1914; 1916-22), Lafitte's affinity for illustrations is also evident in Musica, which regularly incorporated images of well-known composers and performers with accompanying articles. The journal’s editor, Xavier Leroux, was a composer and longtime teacher of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire.

Today, we present just a sampling of the many attractive illustrated covers of Musica.

Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn Vol. 8 No. 84 (September 1909); Vol. 13 No. 143 (August 1914).

Richard Strauss and Gabriel Fauré Vol. 9 No. 97 (October 1910); Vol. 4 No. 34 (July 1905).

Bedřich Smetana and Edvard Grieg Vol. 12 No. 127 (April 1913); Vol. 6 No. 62 (November 1907).

Jules Massenet and Charles Gounod Vol. 5 No 50 (November 1906); Vol. 5 No. 46 (July 1906).

Richard Wagner and a singer wearing the iconic helmet of Wagner's Der Ring des NibelungenVol. 2 No. 13 (October 1903); Vol. 3 No. 23 (August 1904).

RIPM search tip: Musica (Paris, 1902-1914) is available in full-text in RIPM’s Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals. Select the journal in Browse Mode to view its contents according to a specific year of publication, volume number, and issue number. Select the journal in Advance Search Mode to search any keyword within its entire run of publication.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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April 6th was the 47th anniversary of the death of the composer Igor Stravinsky, who first achieved international recognition for his three ballets commissioned by impresario Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913).

The illustration below appeared in the Harvard Musical Review less than one year after the first performance of The Rite of Spring.

Harvard Musical Review, Vol. 2 No. 7 (April 1914): 2.

The French journal Musica published these comments after the premiere of The Firebird.

The new work was, ultimately, the Firebird; which was the most important artistic event of this Ballet Russe season. It is an admirable spectacle … this tale danced in one act has exceptional musical value. For that very reason, and especially for that reason, it deserves special mention. A true dance music that remains nevertheless real music! … that is well worth being especially praised. It reveals a young Russian composer of the greatest talent: Mr. Igor Stravinsky.

Musica, Vol. 9 No. 95 (1 August 1910): 119.

Nearly three years later, news of the raucous premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was reported widely in the musical press. Many reports remarked on the composer's dissonant score, including the following comments, published in Musical America.

Musical America, Vol. 18 No. 12 (26 July 1913): 10.

This photo of an intense young Stravinsky in his studio in Petrograd, appeared three years later.

Musical America, Vol. 23 No. 9 (1 January 1916): 17.

In the same year, 1916, the following two short reviews of Stravinsky's Petrushka demonstrate the reception of this work in the United States.

Musical America, Vol. 23 No. 13 (29 January 1916): 4.

By 1918, Stravinsky had already composed a seminal work in what is referred to as his “Neoclassical Period,” utilizing a small chamber ensemble. Entitled The Soldier’s Tale (1918), it was described in the following report as being unlike anything Stravinsky had previously composed.

Musical America, Vol. 29 No. 5 (30 November 1918): 27.

One of the artists with whom Stravinsky maintained a long term relationship was Pablo Picasso, who on several occasions, produced sketches of the composer.

Stravinsky, sketched by Pablo PicassoPro-Musica Quarterly, Vol.3 No. 1 (March 1924): 4.

Russian avant-garde painter Michel Larionov also sketched Stravinsky along with a few of his Ballets Russes colleagues, including the impresario Serge Diaghilev, French writer, playwright, artist and film maker Jean Cocteau, and French composer Erik Satie.

Modern Music, Vol. 3 No. 1 (November-December 1925): [2].

Nine years after Larionov's sketch was published in Modern Music, the journal published yet another sketch of the composer by Picasso, in 1934.

Modern Music, Vol. 12 No. 1 (November-December 1934): [2].

RIPM search tip: For more on Stravinsky, use RIPM’s Combined Interface and search “Stravinsky” as a keyword.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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Today, opera conductors are positioned between the audience and the orchestra, so as to visually lead both those singing on stage and the instrumentalists accompanying them. In the 19th century, however, engravings frequently depict conductors in what would be viewed today as a most unusual position—right in front of the stage, with their backs to the orchestra! See if you can spot the conductor in the following series of images.

A production of Fromental Halévy’s Charles VI at the Théâtre de l’Opéra.L'Illustration, Vol. I (18 March 1843): 41.

A scene from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Théâtre-ItalienL'Illustration, Vol. I (1 April 1843): 72.

An engraving from an 1848 production at the Théâtre de TrianonL'Illustration, Vol. XI (22 April 1848): 128.

Another image of a Fromental Halévy opera production, this time of La JuiveL'Illustration, Vol. X (18 September 1847): 37.

A view from the stage at the Théâtre royal de BerlinL'Illustration, Vol. IX (21 August 1847): 388.

A similar view, this time from the Grand-Théâtre in St. Petersburg Ibid.

A horse race scene from Monréal and Blondeau’s Paris port de mer at the Parisian Théâtre des VariétésL'Illustration, Vol. XCVII (14 March 1891): 236.

This collection of iconography captures a particular performance practice at a specific time in musical history. And as in the case of the final image above, which was featured in a recent post about the use of machinery to create scenic illusions at the opera, these illustrations also demonstrate the many different research inquiries that can be formulated from a single piece of iconography.

RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).

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