When in Rome: Handel steps up the power

The second half of Portsmouth Baroque Choir’s Autumn 2025 concert at St Paul’s Chichester is taken up by Handel’s Dixit Dominus, a firm favourite with choirs and audiences, renowned for its technical difficulty and demands on vocal stamina. It’s an early Handel masterpiece written during his time in Italy, 1706-1710.

How this brilliant piece came to be written and how it was first received are matters of continuing speculation as Handel’s time in Italy is not at all well-documented: musicologist Ursula Kirkendale wrote that Few chapters in the lives of 18th-century composers are still as dark as this one. Few also are as fascinating. ¹ Handel’s Italian chronology is “distressingly vague”, wrote Robert Streatfield over a century ago, ² apart from the sequence of compositions he wrote there, which has been filled out substantially over the years since the sparse list made by Handel’s first biographer, John Mainwaring:
While he was in Rome he made a kind of Oratorio entitled, RESURRECTIONE [sic], and one hundred and fifty Cantatas, besides Sonatas and other Music. ³

But we still do not know exactly when many of Handel’s Italian compositions were performed or if, in the case of Dixit Dominus, they were even performed at all other than to a private audience. Dixit Dominus was completed in Rome on 4th of April 1707 (not on Easter Sunday as some sources claim – that was the 24th), but it was not published until 1867, more than 100 years after Handel’s death, and only since the Halle Edition of 1960 has the piece held a regular place in the repertoire. Details, or rather, more questions, continue to be added with each subsequent edition. The preface to the 2013 revised edition by Hans Joachim Marx, for instance, speculates that the writing of Dixit was begun, or even near-completed in 1706 while Handel was in Venice. The evidence for this is in the watermarks of Venetian paper makers that are visible in a proportion of the pages of the autograph manuscript held by the British Library. Which might explain the date alteration from 1706 to 1707 on the autograph’s final page.

Handel was well looked after in Rome by several wealthy and influential patrons. As to who commissioned Dixit Dominus, most sources identify Cardinal Carlo Colonna whose main interest was sacred music. Hans Joachim Marx, however, leans towards Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni as it is certain that Handel often played at the Cardinal’s residence, the Palazzo della Cancelleria. While a Colonna commission lines up with a Vespers performance of other psalm settings by Handel that year, Nisi Dominus and Laudate Pueri (the later choral setting) at the Carmelite church of Santa Maria di Monte Santo on July 16th, if it were Ottoboni commissioning then it would more likely have been performed at Ottoboni’s titular church, San Lorenzo in Damaso, where, Marx tells us, “liturgical works with very similar scoring to that of Dixit Dominus were given on major festivals”.

The early decades of the 18th century were troubled times for people living in Rome: three Apennine earthquakes in 1703 killed thousands and caused widespread damage across the region engendering, in the absence of any scientific explanation, panic and an outpouring of religious fervour; since 1701 the War of the Spanish succession saw hostile armies roaming the peninsula; plagues and floods were a constant threat; and nobody could claim that the city was well governed. Rome thrived, just as much then as now, on its Eternal City brand but the streets stank and a visitor later that century wrote that Rome’s government was “the worst possible: of the population, a quarter are priests, a quarter are statues, a quarter are people who do nothing”. ⁴. The aristocratic and religious circles into which Handel was introduced were fabulously wealthy, predominantly homo-social, most of them members of the Academy of Arcadia, an institution founded in 1690 to further a programme of literary reform with special regard for truth, taste, style, and representation in Italian poetry, drama, and opera. They were also generous patrons of the arts, especially music. Italian music at that time was reputed to be at the cutting edge and the 21-year-old Händel (or Hendel as he then signed) set out from Hamburg to test that reputation, learn from it and make a difference. 

What follows is a sketch in three scenes taking place between June 1706 and April 1707 in Rome, impressions drawing on information from various published sources, some of it backed by evidence, some of it speculative. The sketch features the composer himself and key figures from the clergy and aristocracy who served as his patrons and hosts, namely Cardinals Ottoboni, Pamphilj and Colonna and the Marquis Ruspoli. Unnamed singers and instrumentalists led by Corelli take part in an assessment of an imagined first run-through of Dixit Dominus.

 

 

When in Rome: a sketch in 3 short scenes

Cast

Giorgio Friderico Hendel age 21 when invited to Italy, birthday 23 Feb. Händel adopted this Italian form of his full name while still in Hamburg, ahead of his visit to Italy and this spelling is used for this sketch.

Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni age 40. Grandnephew of Pope Alexander VIII. Patron of Alessandro Scarlatti, collector of harpsichords and chamber organs. Hosted weekday concerts featuring an orchestra led by Corelli in his main residence, the Palazzo della Cancelleria.

Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj age 54? Librarian and archivist at the Vatican, sometime librettist and patron of Corelli.

Cardinal Carlo Colonna, age 42, patron, especially of sacred music, likely commissioner of Handel’s 1707 psalm settings.

Marquis Francesco Ruspoli, later first prince of Cerveteri, age 35. Hosted Arcadian Academy conversazioni (all the above named cardinals were members) and most likely provided accommodation for Handel in 1707 plus employment in 1708 after his return to Rome.

Arcangelo Corelli age 54 (d. 1713) acclaimed composer, leader of an orchestra at the Palazzo della Cancelleria.

Other people mentioned

Valentino Urbani (aka Valentini) age 17, moved to London in 1707, first castrato to sing there regularly, eventually starring in 3 Handel operas

Margharita Durastanti soprano fl. 1700-1734. Long association with Handel, Mary Magdalene in La Resurrezione, 1708.

Alessandro Scarlatti age 47, unlikely to have met Handel in Rome but plenty of opportunity to have done so in Venice or Naples.

Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow  d. 1712. Handel’s only music and composition teacher in Halle, introduced him to German and Italian music

Fernando de’ Medici, royal patron “the most musical prince in all the world”, age 43 when he met Handel.

Gian Gastone de’ Medici 33 when he met Handel in Hamburg in 1703 or 4 and may have been the one to invite Handel to come to Italy.

Clement XI Pope 1700-1721 championed urban renewal to boost confidence after quakes and floods.

Innocent XII Pope banned opera in Italian cities, except for Venice in1697, ban lasted to 1709.

Giovanni Bononcini, Italian composer who had been in Berlin in1698.

Joseph Goupy, English painter who lived and studied in Rome at the same time as Handel and who became a close friend. They conversed in French.

Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg (later Frederick I King of Prussia) offered to send Handel to Italy in 1702 or 3. Offer rejected as Handel preferred to be free from exclusive patronage.

Dietrich Buxtehude – Handel visited Buxtehude in 1703 with Johann Mattheson with a view to succeeding him. They were scared off after being informed that the job included marriage to Buxtehude’s daughter.

Giovanni Colonna – admired in his day by Mattheson, and later by Boyce who saw Colonna as an influence on Handel’s music. He wrote a Mass for 5 voices that some see as an influence on Handel’s Dixit Dominus.

Reinhard Keiser (1674 – 1739), German opera composer based in Hamburg, another source for Handel’s musical borrowings.

Events mentioned.

War of the Spanish Succession 1701-1714. This was a European conflict mainly concerned with limiting the power of France following the death of Charles II of Spain without an heir. Some of the conflict took place in Italy. The Convention of Milan signed in March 1707 was an agreement between France and Austria that ended the fighting temporarily in Northern Italy. In 1708, Marquis Ruspoli led the defence of the Papal States against the Austrians, forcing them to retreat, for which Pope Clement XI made him a Prince.

Apennine earthquakes 1703, three powerful earthquakes that hit the mountainous region to the east of Rome. The number of casualties from all three is estimated at between 6,000 and 10,000. There was no knowledge of seismic activity, therefore they were attributed to a punitive act of God.

Scene 1

Evening of June 7th 1706, The Vatican

Cardinals Ottoboni, Pamphilj and Colonna are seated at a table taking refreshments following the Consistory to make Michelangelo dei Conti (the future Pope Innocent XIII) a cardinal and discuss a certain invitation.

—ooo000ooo—

Colonna: So, it’s all been agreed, then?

Pamphilj: The Pope is going to annul the ban on opera in Rome?

Ottoboni: No, if only. All these natural disasters, the earthquakes, the floods, the plague outbreaks, I think Clement and the authorities are convinced they’re God’s punishment for our sinful behaviour – those operatic stagings of murders, seductions and divorces, so much bread and circuses, were not helping. But I do miss the spectacle of opera and I hear that old Scarlatti is planning to leave for Venice soon so he can write his 48th opera. He says he needs a break from writing chamber cantatas for us…

Colonna: Hundreds of them, but so dependable, always a different take on those winsome nymphs and shepherds. But he’s right. We do spend too much time at that Arcadian Academy of ours indulging in Golden Age pastoral fantasy. But if we can’t have opera then it’s good church music we need: psalm settings and more oratorios in the manner of Carissimi. That way there might even be hope of a Resurrection.

Ottoboni: You’re getting ahead of yourself, Colonna. I’m sure I’ve never seen you disenchanted by our weekend Academy sessions, but I take your point that when it comes to classical ideas of progress, we are a long way from that Golden Age of peaceful, pastoral abundance and well into the Iron Age of blood, war and burning, this wretched, prolonged European war over who should be on the Spanish throne that occasionally breaks out in our neighbourhood!
But let’s return to the matter in hand, what’s been agreed with Medici…

Pamphilj: Fernando or Gian Gastone?

Ottoboni: That’s not clear: both have been travelling around northern Europe recently on banking business. Anyway, I gather the agreement involves a young Saxon from Hamburg, a Lutheran, God help us!

Colonna: Is being a Lutheran going to be an issue for us? I know we used to burn them but deep down, despite the schism we’re all the same us Catholics and Lutherans. We’d still be worshipping in the same way if weren’t for the folly of past Popes, especially that Battle Pope, Julius II and his successor Leo X, another Medici,  whose – what’s the word – simony led to hoodwinking believers into buying their way out of purgatory for an indulgence.

Pamphilj: Oh, lignum crucis! A smart con. Enough wood fragments in circulation to make a forest of crosses! We all know it had nothing to do with purgatory reduction, of course, everything to do with covering the astronomical cost of rebuilding St Peter’s basilica, not that there was anything wrong with the old one, revered as it was by the whole world. (Looks around nervously) – strictly between ourselves!

Ottoboni: To be fair, Leo did get the Sistine Chapel a wonderful painted ceiling. 

Pamphilj: (sounding agonised) Ah, Michelangelo, the ecstasy….

Ottoboni:  er, yes, and invited some of the best musicians in Europe to Rome. Something of a worthwhile legacy, wouldn’t you agree?

Colonna: Didn’t Leo try to get that Burgundian composer Josquin to pay us another visit?

Ottoboni:  I don’t think that was ever going to happen. He was the kind of composer who needed inspiration when his patrons demanded perspiration, getting the music out on time. There’s a story that a tour of the d’Este dungeons in Ferrara was enough to scare him back to Burgundy. Also Rome, while he was here, under the Borgia popes must have been terrifying, all those poisonings, night-time assassinations, murdered cardinals and confiscations. I’m not surprised he stayed well away, printing off his musical legacy. But latterly the Medicis, Fernando in particular, have introduced plenty of supreme talent to Rome: Scarlatti father and son, Perti, Marcello, Pasquini…

Colonna. And let’s face it, without all this wonderful music to commission, questions might well be asked about the way we carry on in our palaces. All that luxury and extravagance, beauty and pleasure that the scriptures say are to be denied. It’s useful, I think, to have an art form that can mediate between fulfilment and denial and to have composers who can embody that in spectacular sounds that represent the glory of God.

Pamphilj: Amen to that. And what, pray, is the name of this latest Orpheus from the north?

Ottoboni: He goes by the name of Endel, Endel with an H. Christian name’s Giorgio.

Pamphilj: What has he written so far?

Colonna: I believe he spends a lot of time improvising on the organ…

Pamphilj: Oh, splendid!

Ottoboni: .. and writing operas, ever a profitable business compared to writing for the church, and that’s important when one has mouths to feed.

Pamphilj: Ah, yes. How many Ottoboni children is it now: 60, 70? And so many mistresses all portrayed as saints on your bedroom wall we hear. For a man having taken an oath of celibacy, that’s some tally, don’t you think?

Colonna: As Ottoboni was saying, Hendel has written four successful operas for Hamburg – let’s see – I had a list (fumbles in robes) – Almira, Nero, Florindo and Daphne – all in classic or pastoral settings. I have no doubt that he is well-acquainted already with music by Italian composers. His teacher Zachow has a good library and made sure his pupil was as versed in the Italian as well as the German style. Such an abundance of overseas talent coupled with plentiful opportunity here has to make a difference, a change for the better.

Ottoboni: Where’s he going to stay, this Saxon prodigy? My palace or yours?

Pamphilj: I’m looking at building a new palace out in Albano. Things are bit upside-down at mine right now.

Colonna: Where he stays is not decided yet. I gather he’s a prickly character, doesn’t like being considered subservient to anyone, which is why he rejected an earlier Italian job opportunity set up by the Elector of Brandenburg a few years back.

Pamphilj: I heard he went off to Luhbeck to visit Buxtehude with a view to succeeding him. He hot-footed it when it was revealed that Buxtehude’s daughter was part of the package. He’s nobody’s fool, that’s clear.

Ottoboni: Not especially friendly either if the story is true about him and Mattheson who accompanied Hendel on that trip to Lübeck. They fell out during an opera performance and fought a duel in the street afterwards. Hendel was saved by a score stuffed under his coat. We’d better watch our step.

Colonna: Well, Hendel can’t stay with me as I’ve only just moved into my palace since I was made Cardinal last year, so….

Ottoboni: He’ll probably want to spend most of his time at Cancelleria, playing on my collection of organs and harpsichords and talking to Corelli who’s there with his orchestra most weekdays. And he’ll probably want to come along to Arcadian sessions at mine most Saturdays and to conversazione at Ruspoli’s. Actually, Ruspoli’s palace might be a better bet for his digs.

Pamphilj: How is he intending to travel from Hamburg? I’ve heard the currency changes alone can add hours to the journey, let alone crossing the Alps and avoiding armies on the march. Might he be better off coming by sea?

Ottoboni: And face the Bay of Biscay and our own seas in early Autumn? I imagine Medici will have finessed the worst of the land barriers. After all, those Grand Tourists from England find it easy enough to get here. Money speaks.

Colonna: Well, I’ve heard that he’s already in Italy, in Venice in fact, so he’s avoided travelling in the worst weathers.

Pamphilj: We should give him a grand reception. When does he arrive?

Ottoboni: Medici says he’s going to be in Florence this summer and autumn and will be moving on to Rome in December..

Pamphilj: How’s his Italian?

Ottobone: I’m told he can get by in our language and has good French. Just as well as I doubt our German is up to much?

(They get up from the table to leave, still in conversation)

Colonna: As for the new cardinal, Conti, he seems very dutiful, unlikely to want to join in with our Arcadian escapades. I also thought he looked rather unwell.

Pamphilj: As my physician is always telling me – we’re all eating the wrong kinds of food and too much of it. Kidney stones or a hernia are his problem, I reckon.

Ottobone: In that case, buona salute a tutti – Gesundheit – Good health, everyone! Let’s get together again after the summer to organise a welcoming for Signor Hendel.

Exeunt

Scene 2

Mid-December 1706, a reception room in the Palazzo della Cancelleria, Cardinal Ottoboni’s residence

Hendel has arrived at the Palazzo Della Cancelleria with the Marquis Ruspoli with whom he is staying for a reception held by the three cardinals from Scene 1. The Marquis introduces Hendel to the cardinals in an ante-room before heading to the reception where Hendel will meet other musicians and artists, including Arcangelo Corelli, the singer Margharita Durastanti and the English painter Joseph Goupy. 

—ooo000ooo—

Ruspoli: (to the three cardinals) Your eminences, please allow me to introduce to you, Signor Hendel!

Ottoboni: Signor Hendel – welcome to my humble palace. We’ll speak here awhile before joining the reception.

Hendel: (bowing)  Your eminences. Please call me Giorgio.

Ottoboni:  Let’s take a seat. Tell us, what do you make of our eternal city?

Hendel: I’ve not seen much since being met at the Piazza dei Popolo – splendid churches, so many statues – almost as many as clergy, I’m told!

Ruspoli: Don’t mock the statues. We value sculpture almost above everything else. You can walk all the way around a good statue and the same smile that seems sweet from one angle seems callous from another. Music is a bit like that too, depending on the interpretation, don’t you think?

Hendel: I couldn’t agree more. Music should not be set in stone. I like to be free to alter my work to suit an occasion or a particular performer. It’s what actually works that’s important, not what should work or could work if only the conditions were right,

Pamphilj: We’ll make sure you have plenty of opportunity to tour the city and see the ancient ruins.

Hendel: There appear to be less of those than I was anticipating.

Pamphilj: More are being discovered since Sixtus V commissioned Domenico Fontana to roll out his new street plan for the city. It’s easier to get around and the air is a little fresher. But we’re dying to know what you think about our wonderful Italian music.

Hendel: It certainly lives up to its reputation and I’ve enjoyed picking up ideas from it over the last two years. I’m especially impressed by your singers!

Ruspoli: You just missed one of the best, Valentini, who’s gone off to London.

Hendel: London? I’ve thought about that too. In Hamburg I was teaching music to an English diplomat’s son. There’s a strong music scene evolving there despite the absence of patronage although I hear that four years ago they held an opera competition where the worst opera won!

Colonna: You were saying that the music you’ve heard impressed you? How about maestro Corelli?

Hendel: His music has a wonderful clarity and agility but I do wonder why your composers are so reluctant to open up the higher register. Also the writing lacks, how shall I say, rigour, thoroughness. There is so much more energy that could be invested in this music, energy that comes from contrapuntal density not just velocity and tasteful line.

Ruspoli: You have, presumably, brought some of your work with you?

Hendel: I had to leave a couple of trunks full of music back in Hamburg but the one I’ve brought with me contains a decent sample, some psalms settings, two of my operas and works by Keiser, my associate in Hamburg who’s written more than a dozen operas, and also Bononcini who I’ve been studying. Cardinal Colonna, I believe your relative Filippo was very simpático to Bononcini while he was in Rome.

Colonna: Yes, that was just over ten years ago. He managed to write 300 cantatas while he was here, so about half the number we got from old Scarlatti! He went off to Venice but came back last year and some arias of his were performed in the Venetian embassy here in Rome, one of the only places here where you can get away with putting on operatic performances while this wretched ban remains in force. 

Hendel: I met Bononcini while I was in Berlin five years ago. Two of his one-act operas, Cefalo and Polifemo, were produced there. He actually dared to test my sight-reading once with what he claimed to be a “fiendishly difficult cantata” – I soon showed him! And he knows that I like to borrow from his music, especially from those two operas, fine pieces but their limits are rather narrow: I like to think I can improve on their range and expression.

Colonna: I expect you know that Bononcini came here from Bologna where there’s also been a thriving music scene.

Hendel: Ah, yes, featuring another Colonna – Giovanni. I’ve been studying a Mass and a Dixit Dominus setting of his, both for five voices and I’ve been very interested to note that when he writes parts for instruments they’re no longer colla parte but independent, complementing the voices in a concertante style. My dear friend, also from Hamburg, Johann Mattheson is a fan of Colonna and that, together with what I saw in the Colonna mass, influenced my thinking about setting the psalm Dixit dominus. Initially I’d viewed it as a companion piece to my virtuoso solo soprano setting of Psalm 113, Laudate Pueri, that I completed last year back home, but then the text suggested it should be expanded into a choral piece with solo movements and serve as a demonstration piece stretching not just my compositional skills and attention to detail but the technique and endurance of the performers. I have not composed much these last two years but I have been studying hard, as I have said. You might say that Dixit Dominus is a vessel into which I have poured all that study.  It’s a fantastic text, Psalm 110, more than just liturgy, it’s Christianity’s boldest claim about the world-changing coming of the Messiah: strong words too, all about power..

Colonna: This we have to hear! We have in Rome some of the best signori virtuosi in Europe. And I like what you were just saying about ‘thoroughness’ – we could all do with a reminder about thinking and acting dutifully in the name of the Lord, eh, Pamphilj? Could this psalm setting of yours be ready by Easter?

Hendel: Detto fatto, I think you Italians say – no sooner said than done, provided you have enough paper and copyists. Psalm 110, by the way, was one of Luther’s favourite texts…

(Cardinals cover their ears)
Colonna: That’s quite enough of that, Signor Hendel.

Ruspoli: Actually, I’ve heard that you spent some time last year in Venice. Did you meet Vivaldi?

Hendel: I, er, where did you hear that?

Ruspoli: Some other time. Let’s move on. We’d also like you to write chamber cantatas for the Arcadia Academy on a weekly basis, just as Alessandro used to provide. I’m sure you’re aware of his output in this genre?

Hendel: Hundreds, aren’t there? I’ll match that: between the ages of nine and twelve I already wrote a concerted sacred cantata every week – for three years.

Ottoboni: I have libretto in anticipation based on a Greek myth: Ero e Leandro.

Hendel: Wunderbar!

Ruspoli: And here’s one to be going on with for the end of this month – Arresta il passo. It’s the story of a shepherd…

Hendel: .. don’t tell me, who eventually wins the love of a reluctant nymph?

Pamphilj: As you know, we’re not allowed to do opera in Rome, but oratorios are fine. I’ve taken the liberty of writing a libretto for one – Il trionfo del tempo e del desenganno.

Hendel: Molto gentile – you are most kind! I collected many libretti in Florence so there are many possibilities for new operas. And all of what you ask for can be provided, as I say, as long as you have reams of paper and copyists able to keep up. As I’ve said before, I compose like the Devil!

(Nervous laughter as they all move off towards the banqueting suite)

Ottoboni: Well, that’s enough talk — let’s go through and meet the others and then eat. The palace chef has prepared some special dishes for you: macaroni brandeburghesi and baccalà Almira in honour of your homeland and first opera.

Hendel: Sausage, cod? Marvellous –  accompanied by some of that San Giovese wine too?

Pamphilj: (aside to Colonna) This is some Orpheus we have in our midst. Such charm. Such charisma. I think I just fell in love again!

Exeunt

Scene 3

An April morning 1707, a performance space in the Palazzo della Cancelleria

Note to reader: you are advised to have the score in front of you for this scene.

A small group of singers including five soloists and a small string orchestra led by Corelli with Hendel directing from the keyboard, have just performed Dixit Dominus in front of a small audience including Cardinals Colonna, Ottoboni and Marquis Ruspoli. Hendel gets up from the keyboard and asks performers and audience for their views. 

—ooo000ooo—

Hendel: (getting up from the keyboard) I know we had to stop a few times but overall that sounded rather splendid. Thank you for spending the time looking through your individual parts this week, especially the soloists. Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen?

Corelli: It’s certainly elaborate, in a very German, fugal manner  – a bit too elaborate towards the end, don’t you think? It seems you were reluctant to reach the final cadence. But as for that instrumental introduction in G minor, I don’t think I’ve ever played anything that sets a scene better, as if for a coronation. It starts formulaically but then, total surprise, a single D flat minim intrudes and breaks the flow.

Hendel: I’ll explain that D flat in due course.

Alto: You gave the first sung words to the altos that sets up a kind of call and response pattern for the choral entries.

Ruspoli: I hear a military frenzy in donec ponam inimicos. I’m all for subjugating our enemies!

Colonna: But you’ve combined that temporal preoccupation with something that sounds like old plainchant, tonus peregrinus in slow motion, giving the music a timeless dimension.

Hendel: I couldn’t help introducing something from my Lutheran homeland! I’m interested in how music written at different speeds can be combined, offering different perspectives simultaneously.

Tenor: Only three bars for my solo?

Hendel: Expectations can be fulfilled and dramatically denied. I am sorry, but in the interest of moving the drama on, the Lord’s right hand – a dextris Meis – demanded the weight of the full chorus.

Colonna: This opening movement is remarkable in many ways- the word painting, the vocal gymnastics – Italian exuberance bursting through the German control.

Hendel: Thoughts on No. 2,  Virgam virtutis?

Corelli: Relative major, I see, switching to a single voice and continuo: good contrast. And while the text continues the theme of domination over our enemies the music remains calm, intimate, closer to a chamber cantata.

Alto: I love those melisma at ‘Dominare’ and ‘Inimicorum’, but that leap through more than an octave in bar 27 took me by surprise.

Cellist: I’m playing semiquavers throughout this movement. You’d think my bow was meant to be the rod of power.

Hendel: Aha! Third movement?

Corelli: Tecum principium – a minuet ,full of splendour and I think you’re even paying tribute to my string writing here. Just my kind of languid melody!

Soprano: Where do you suggest I breath after bars 45 and 66?

Hendel: You’re a virtuoso, I can hear that. You’ll find a way.

Ottoboni: I bet she’ll be taking this movement around with her for show! Any singer would!

Hendel: Movements 4 and 5, both choruses.

Bass: I love those tense, unstable chords above my chromatic descent.

Soprano 2: Then a remarkable release of tension on the word ‘Non’

Corelli: The music evaporates into silence at bar 19: I’ve seldom seen markings like this – quiet, quieter, very quiet, extremely quiet!

Sopranos 2: The sopranos are singing that they are unrepentant but at the top of our range!

Hendel: I really like that effect, don’t you?  Sopranos hovering while the rest are in motion.

Corelli: I’m impressed by No.5 Tu es sacerdos, the basses quietly stating the phrase while the other parts follow each other around ceremoniously on the words ‘Secundum ordinem Melchisedech’, secundum meaning following, isn’t that so?

Tenor: Those words must be awkward to set but one syllable to every semi-quaver? No wonder we momentarily broke down at that point

Hendel: You’re all trained – don’t disappoint me! Six?

Corelli: Again, I can recognise my own music in this chopping quaver figure and the sequence of suspensions.

Soprano 1: We’re singing along smoothly until the word ‘Confregit’ – break.

Bass: I’ve got that too.

Tenor: Then we all break in chorus!

Corelli: Dies irae you’ve marked with a pile-up of suspensions, very eerie and menacing and starting low in the voices, for a change.

Hendel: Movement 7 needs to follow on quickly, like a second part to 6.

Corelli: An unassuming start until the strings pass judgement. ‘Implebit ruinas’, the nations are filled with ruin – more of your astonishing dynamic markings, that sudden switch from loud to soft at bar 33.

Alto: If we thought we’d already been stretched, the passage that follows is a real choral work-out.

Bass: Silence: then another deliberate breakage – ‘Conqua-a-a-a-sabit’ He will break their heads, that section’s almost comical in its dramatic violence.

Corelli: Then there’s a well-deserved break from all that commotion in Movement 8 De torrente in via bibet. Are you sure you didn’t meet Vivaldi in Venice? That’s just his kind of introduction using ostiinato rhythm.

Hendel: Hmm!

Soprano 2: Our most sublime moment as the waters seem to ebb and the men sing a litany in unison – propter exaltabit caput – he shall raise his head, as in victory.

Corelli: More disappearing dynamics at the movement’s conclusion. A bit weaker on repetition, I’d say.

Hendel: Now, the final movement, the doxology, what do you think about that?

Corelli: It’s very long! Vivaldi would approve of that fugue, although we’re not used to this kind of writing.

Soprano 1: More semiquaver work-outs for us.

Hendel: Start gently or you’ll collapse by the end!

Bass: More musical humour as the plainchant idea from Movement 1 reappears at ‘Sicut erat in principio’ – as it was in the beginning! And there never was such a bass line as you’ve given us at bar 43.

Hendel: I’ve done my best to challenge all parts.

Colonna: Then a new idea, a fugue on one note announcing the grand finale and generating even greater forward momentum.

Soprano 1: Spare a thought for the first soprano. That Amen towards the end of the Gloria, all those octave leaps. They don’t lie comfortably in the voice, do they. What were you thinking?

Hendel: You’re presumably not acquainted with my solo soprano setting of Psalm 113, Laudate Pueri that I completed last year. It makes similar, if not greater, demands on the voice, long sequences of triplet semiquavers, long, high notes, you name it. You singers spend years perfecting your craft, I like to prove it was all worthwhile, give you something to think about.

Corelli: I’m fascinated by that new idea at bar 126 where you make the sopranos and basses sing a repeated rising sixth interval up to the note D flat – except it’s not a new idea is it? It’s that same D flat that caught us all by surprise at the start of the piece.

Hendel: I said I was thorough. Nothing wasted, nothing arbitrary. At the final statement of the fugue subject over a pedal dominant, I combine all the material from this last movement. I like to think I do counterpoint as well as anyone.

Ottoboni: Signor Hendel, in so many ways this Dixit of yours seems just perfect – a complete representation of the powerful sentiments expressed in the Psalm.

Colonna: It has great humanity, speaking directly to the listener. Just the kind of music Rome needs right now.

Hendel: That’s very flattering, from both of you, but it’s not too perfect I hope –  that’s God’s businesss. In German we use the word Vollständigkeit to mean completeness and perfection – I don’t know what word you would use in Italian. I was certainly aiming for that, and I think I would agree about the ending being too drawn out – but what to cut?

Corelli: Forgive me for saying so, it’s brilliant but isn’t it just a little over-elaborate, this mania for throwing in everything you’ve learned about composition so far? It’s like a concerto for five voices and strings, almost impossible to sing in places, a huge challenge for us string players too. Where do you go as a composer of sacred music after this? Isn’t this is a compositional dead end for you, a mistake even?

Hendel: You may have a point and even now I’m thinking this piece could be like a reservoir of ideas for my future work – those first movement rhythms could work well for a chorus of ‘Hallelujahs’, for example. As for your performance, your training in fast singing has certainly paid off and your articulation and contrapuntal awareness is better than anything I’ve heard back home. However, I’m afraid nothing short of excellence will do else the whole thing is ruined. I don’t think I’ve overestimated your capabilities but I can see and hear that you’re all out of breath. Maybe the Sistine Chapel Choir will have some time off to join us in future. I like to write for particular performers and occasions. Maybe I could write some easier companion pieces for a Vespers, a choral version of Laudate Pueri, for instance. Cardinal Colonna, I believe you mentioned something special happening in July….

Colonna: You’re referring to the Festival of Our Lady of Carmel on the 16th July at Santa Maria de Montesanto – you will have seen that church when you first arrived in Rome – two identical churches at the top of the Piazza dei Poppolo. This year’s festival will give thanks for deliverance from the earthquakes. They shook Rome badly and the citizens have been in something of a religious frenzy ever since. Your Dixit is certainly an earth shaker too but reassuring in its message that the Lord’s might is right and that it’s on our side! So, yes, we could plan to perform it then as the opening vespers psalm.

Hendel: Fine – I can tailor the other music to suit the occasion and resources.  And accommodate the earthquake angle. That cantata I wrote soon after I arrived, Donna che in ciel, was also connected with the anniversary of the worst of those 1703 earthquakes.

Ruspoli: At least, for the moment we can enjoy a peaceful run-in to the summer now that the French armies have withdrawn following the signing of the Milan Convention back in March. At one stage last year it seemed we would not be considering anything here in Rome other than defence against another sacking.

Ottoboni: And on that note I propose that we give this wonderful work another run-through before lunch.

All: Amen to that and a toast to good fortune in all future performances of Hendel’s Dixit Dominus.

FINIS

Postscript

If Dixit Dominus was performed during Handel’s time in Rome, then the common belief is that it took place on July 16th as part of the Vespers for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the church of Santa Maria de Montesanto. Two other psalm settings by Handel, Laudate Pueri Dominum and Nisi Dominus would have been performed at the same occasion, and this is the assumption behind the Watkins Shaw edition for the Novello Handel Edition where they were given the umbrella title of Three Vesper Psalms. If that performance did take place, alongside music by others, then the congregation must have been hugely impressed, especially by Dixit Dominus. The other two settings have their moments, especially in the solo sections, but they are much shorter, less contrapuntal and operate at far below the sustained boiling point of Dixit. Was it ever performed again in Handel’s lifetime? Did it just get hidden away among all the other settings of this psalm, of which there are dozens including one of the best-known that sits within Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610? Few that I’ve heard approach the energy levels of Handel’s, although a recent recording of the 1644 setting by Bonaventura Rubino  reveals a similar level of inspiration at play during the time between Monteverdi and Handel. There is no indication that Handel knew this setting or even knew who Rubino was unless one of the Scarlattis, fellow Sicilians, mentioned him.

Other major works by Handel from his Italian period include the cantata Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno to a text by Cardinal Pamphilj (Rome, Spring 1707), the opera Rodrigo, (Florence, Autumn 1707), the oratorio La Resurrezione (Rome, April 1708), the opera Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Naples, July 1708), the opera Agrippina (Venice, December 1709). From this we can see that Handel’s time in Rome was quite brief and within two similar periods during 1707 and 1708. I’ll let Ellen Harris sum up ⁵:

Handel left Rome in the autumn of 1708 and did not return to the city during the remainder of his Italian journey. He traveled north, probably to Florence and Venice. The culmination of his Italian sojourn was the triumphant production of his opera Agrippina at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, the largest and most elite opera house in Venice, at the very end of 1709. Mainwaring wrote that “the theatre, at almost every pause, resounded with shouts and acclamations of viva il caro Sassone! – that is, Long live our favorite Saxon!

Did similar shouts and acclamations greet the first performance of Dixit Dominus?Presumably not if presented in a liturgical setting. We may never know for sure, but they were in Rome!

Sources

Scene 2’s musical references are drawn from John H. Roberts ‘Giovanni Bononcini and Handel’s early Roman music’ Schriftenreihe Analecta musicologica, 2010, place, people and event references from Roger Sydenham Handel in Italy 1706-1710, a report on the author’s Churchill Fellowship research following in Handel’s Italian footprints.

Scene 3 is loosely based on an analysis of Handel’s Dixit Dominus by Robert Hollingworth for the BBC Discovering Music, May 1 2014 and a lecture on the work given in 2011 by John Butt (Dunedin Consort).

Scene 1 was completely made up!