著者

高際 澄雄

出版者

宇都宮大学

雑誌

宇都宮大学国際学部研究論集 (ISSN:13420364)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, pp.123-140, 2003-03-01

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Milton's poems, L'Allegro and Ill Penseroso, and Dryden's A Song for St Cecilia's Day and Alexander's Feast were essentially important for Handel's career in that they showed him how rich the English literary tradition was so that he completely abandoned writing Italian opera for the composition of oratorio in English after the setting of music to these poems. Not only the English literary tradition, but also the musical one was important for him, though the precise influence of the late seventeeth-century English music on Handel's career has never been fully described. This paper analyses the six predecessors of Handel's Odes for St Cecilia's Day, i.e. the odes by Henry Purcell, Giovanni Baptista Draghi and John Blow, showing how quickly English music developed after the restoration of monarchy in 1660. It also tries to prove how rich the English musical activities had already been before Handel's arrival in London in 1710.