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Tall folio. Half dark brown calf with brown cloth boards, spine in decorative compartments gilt with titling gilt. 1f. (recto blank, verso fine engraved half-length portrait of Handel by J. Houbraken incorporating a violin and bow, horns, sheet music, and an illustration of musicians in Greco-Roman dress playing harp, aulos, lyre, and triangle, serenading a king and queen), 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (list of subscribers), 1f. (recto index, verso blank), 208 pp. List of subscribers and index typeset, title and music engraved. Subscribers included the King and Queen, Samuel Arnold, [Thomas] Attwood, Charles Burney, Thomas Greene, Dr. Hayes, Charles Jennens, and Thomas Linley. Ownership inscription of "Henry Baker Battersea 1849" to front pastedown. Occasional annotations in ink. Binding worn, rubbed, and bumped; upper board partially detached; some loss to spine; front free endpaper with minor offsetting from inscription to front pastedown. Light soiling to margins; occasional stains, none affecting music; verso of final leaf soiled. First complete edition. Smith p. 114, no. 4. BUC p. 435. RISM H637. "Many of the pages are from the plates as issued in Walsh's [earlier] editions, but with extra bass figurings, and with the original pagination and singers' names cleaned off. The earliest copies of Randall's 'Judas Maccabaeus' contain the Houbraken portrait in untouched condition such as it was originally issued by Walsh with 'Alexander's Feast', the plate not being used for Randall and Abell's 'Messiah' (1767) but in later issues of that work and other Randall scores after 'Judas Maccabaeus'." Smith p. 114. First performed, to a libretto by Thomas Morell, in London at Covent Garden on 1 April 1747. Composed to celebrate the English victory at Culloden and the return to London of the victorious general, the Duke of Cumberland, in celebration of his suppression of the 1745 rebellion, the oratorio contains the noted chorus "See, the conquering hero comes." "[Judas Macchabaeus] was highly successful and proved to be one of the most enduringly popular of the oratorios, though the alterations made for later revivals tended to emphasize its jubilant and military elements rather than the pleas for reconciliation and peace which Morell had thoughtfully incorporated and Handel had carefully set. The early performances also included a concerto for orchestra with two wind groups, the first of three such works partly but very effectively arranged from earlier music (especially choruses). The season seemed to mark the end of all opposition to Handel. Lord Middlesex s company returned to the King s Theatre and opened their season on 14 November 1747 with Lucio Vero, an all-Handel pasticcio, now more in tribute to the composer than in rivalry."Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online With the attractive Houbraken portrait of the composer. Seller Inventory # 39643
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Judas Macchabaeus an Oratorio in Score As it...
Publisher: Printed for William Randall Successor to the late Mr. J. Walsh in Catharine Street in the Strand of whom may be had the compleat Scores of Messiah, Samson, Alexanders Feast, Acis and Galatea, &c, London
Publication Date: 1769
Binding: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Edition
