Twomey, Cathal
(2020)
‘To Catch the Song’:
Word-Setting, Creative Collaboration,
and the Reader-Listener
in Handel’s English-Language Works.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
George Frideric Handel’s English-language works were immensely popular with the
eighteenth-century public, and many remain staples of concert repertoire today.
Important research exists on the philosophical import of the texts for these works, and
on the oratorio-listener as reader, but it focusses on a small part of the composer’s
English output, while musico-linguistic analysts have neglected eighteenth-century
English music in general. Addressing these understudied areas, the aim of this thesis is
two-fold. First, to apply recent models of musico-linguistic analysis to Handel’s English
output as a whole, in combination with aesthetic commentary of the period. Secondly,
to investigate the dissemination of these libretti as wordbooks without music, published
copies independent of musical scores, and other sources offering the text a potential for
appreciation parallel to (or separate from) music.
When writing texts for Handel, what decisions did poets make regarding verse
form, rhyme scheme, and metre? What input did the composer have in this process?
How did his music reflect the formal nuances of the finished libretto? Musico-linguistic
analysis offers new perspectives on such issues, illuminating the deeply collaborative
nature of these works. Furthermore, while Handel’s English word-setting is often
criticised for unidiomatic prosody, I explore counterintuitive stressing as a fruitful
tension between musical and verbal communication. Handel’s librettists are frequently
dismissed as mediocre poets, merely providing frameworks for music. I argue that
audiences’ engagement with the published texts of Handel’s English works formed a
more integral part of their musical experience than has previously been acknowledged.
Through the concept of reader-listenership, I explore the literate nature of eighteenthcentury
music-consumption, including the reading of a libretto before and during its
performance, of stage directions for a music-drama always intended to be unstaged, and
of a poetic text whose formal and semantic implications could conflict with those
realized in performance.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
To Catch the Song;
Word-Setting; Creative Collaboration;
Reader-Listener;
Handel; English-Language Works; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts & Humanities > Music |
| Item ID: |
18025 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
11 Jan 2024 16:16 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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