Music Set #232 - Händel

Georg Friedrich Händel 

[ˈhɛndəl]  (1685 – 1759)

Handel/Halvorsen's Passacaglia for Cello and Violin

* A violin between 2 knees!

    

  

Sarabande

A dance melody in triple metre (3/4 or  9/8) 

* Adapted in Barry Lyndon (1975)

* Maksim on piano

* Levi’s ads 

Largo

* Largo (slow/stately tempo) is the first aria of opera Xerxes (or Serse). The Italian name of the aria is "Ombra mai fù", meaning “Never has there been a shade”. It is sung by the main character, King Xerxes, in praise of a tree's shade as he sits underneath it.  The lyrics are simple and repetitive:

Ombra mai fù --- di vegetabile, --- cara ed amabile, --- soave più.

[Never has there been a shade --- of a plant 
--- more dear and lovely --- or more gentle.]

The score for King Xerxes was originally composed to be sung by a soprano castrato, but is now rearranged for other voice types (e.g. soprano or mezzo-soprano) and instruments.  

     A castrato was a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of (female) soprano; he was castrated before puberty (i.e. before his voice change/break/crack), so that no testosterone would change his larynx to a man's, but his lungs developed to a man's lungs (a bigger resonance box).

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Extra:
* Lascia ch'io pianga / Let me weep
* Cara Sposa / Dear bride