Скачать или смотреть "A Minuet by Mr Handel" (Publ. J. Walsh, 1757), Baroque mandolin & mandocello duet

John Walsh (pub.): "FORTY SELECT Duets, Ariettas & Minuets FOR TWO GUITARS MANDELINS or CITTARS By the best Masters", London (1757)

No. 22: "A Minuet by Mr Handel" in F major

From a 2018 urtext edition by Pieter Van Tichelen available as a free PDF from Pieter's blog. Based on an original print at the British Library (Music Collections g.928.k) and published with permission:

https://www.vantichelen.name/2018/06/...

This is a curious composition by Georg Friedrich Händel, published two years before his death in a collection of plucked string duets, probably primarily intended for the English guittar or cittern although the word "mandolin" also appears on the title page. Of the 42 duets in the collection, only four have a named composer, all of them attributed to Handel: two airs and two minuets, including this lovely piece in F major, notated in 6/8 time (unusually for a minuet).

I asked Pieter Van Tichelen a few years ago whether he had identified these pieces in Handel's catalogue (HWV) -- at the time, he had not done so. Pieter notes that John Walsh had been Handel's official publisher since 1738, and thus this is a Handel composition published during his lifetime by his official publisher!

I would be thrilled if this turns out to be an uncatalogued and previously unrecorded Handel piece, but more likely it's an adaptation of an already-known keyboard piece. If anybody recognises the piece and knows the HWV number, please let me know!

Originally notated for two identical instruments, I think it works better with the second part an octave lower, keyboard style. Hence, I have recorded it as a duet on mandolin and mandocello.

1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello