Tag: London

Psalm 102, the fifth Penitential Psalm, is a lengthy lament (see its 28 verses here). The first part, verses 1-11, is the prayer of an individual who, weak and tearful, worn down in a time of great trouble, pours out his own desperate pleas to God: ‘… Do not hide your face from me … […]

The first and third of the Penitential Psalms are auguished laments, crying out for relief and salvation from the consequences of sinfulness (both begin with ‘Lord, do not punish me in your anger’). Lying between them, the second Pentitential Psalm, Psalm 32 (31 in the Latin Vulgate), contrastingly seems like an oasis of reassurance, with […]

The fashion for concertos in the Corellian tradition, reaching its height with the publications of Geminiani in the 1730s, was not something that Handel could ignore, for it challenged the prospects in London of his own public performances. It led to the publication, in April 1740, of his twelve ‘Grand Concertos’ (an anglicized form of […]

Arcangelo Corelli’s music was the first in European history to go viral. This was caused by the wide dissemination of his twelve violin sonatas—a collection first printed in 1700 and republished in more than forty editions in the eighteenth century alone—that built on the popularity of his earlier collections of trio sonatas. His concertos published […]

Music sometimes addresses music itself: our love for it, our need of it, how it affects us, and how we respond to it — pertinent issues for each of us individually. One of the best examples of this is Hail! Bright Cecilia of 1692, an ode for St Cecilia’s Day (22 November), written by the […]

Opera is often about love — its pleasures, its pain and its predicaments. Some of the most special moments are the rare duet-arias, where the solo honours are shared equally between two virtuoso singers. Typically the two characters, having fallen in love (at first sight, of course), express their happiness together and/or desire for each […]