word-books for Handel's performances of Samson, The

Musical Times, Spring 2005 by Burrows, Donald

What is certain, however, is that a general pattern towards a shorter version of Samson is indicated by the third and fourth issues. This pattern seems best explained by the operation of two complementary forces: Handel's desire to produce a more compact form of the oratorio (particularly in Act One), and a reduction in the number of soloists. Either or both of these factors may have been associated with the later performances in 1743 (when the initial novelty of the oratorio had worn off, and some of the soloists may have been obliged to return to commitments elsewhere during Handel's second subscription) as plausibly as with the revival in 1744. The first possibility receives some support from a close examination of the type-setting in the sequence of issues. The pages of the second half of the second and third issues (pp. 17-32) are identical: the third issue is in fact a hybrid, wherein Part One has newly-set text incorporating substantial cuts, while the later section does not include any revisions because it re-uses the old text-pages. Since it is unlikely that any text was left set up from season to season, the third issue therefore seems most likely to have originated in 1743. It is of course possible that this third issue represents a stage in the print-history (rather than the musical history) of Samson: only one exemplar is known to exist, and it may have been a transitional printer's proof copy that never went to publication.20 Unfortunately the third and fourth issues do not present a simple sequence in the process of cutting Samson down in length, for some of the omitted passages in the third issue were restored in the fourth; however, since many of these apparently-restored sections were not included in the subsequent word-books for Handel's performances from 1749 onwards, there is also the possibility of some accidental inaccuracy in the text of the fourth issue.21 In terms of print presentation the fourth edition nevertheless appears tidy and well-organised in comparison to the third, as a fresh approach in which the surplus areas of unset literary text from the first issue have at last been removed.

Subsequent word-books show that the basic outline of the slimmer Samson that evolved in the later issues of the '1743' word-book became the standard form that Handel gave, with variations, in his subsequent revivals: most of the cut passages, especially in the recitatives, were never restored and there is nothing to suggest that the composer regarded the shorter version as inherently unsatisfactory. The original performing version of Samson had related to particular circumstances in the number and type of soloists in Handel's cast, and these circumstances were not matched in the seasons of his subsequent revivals, so that the original version was for him literally unrepeatable. In consequence, for example, the air 'With plaintive notes', which was originally performed by the second soprano soloist, became permanently incorporated into the role of Dalila as sung by the first (usually the only) soprano soloist.22 For most performances after 1743 Handel had only one bass soloist to cover the roles of Manoa and Harapha. Nevertheless, he was understandably reluctant to give to the singer for the role of Samson those arias for the Philistine that had originally been sung by the second tenor, and so some of the 'Philistine ' music was taken by a soprano. Only in those years when his team had two soprano soloists was the air 'Then free from sorrow' included and the soprano-voice version of 'It is not virtue' restored. In 1750, as with the revival of Messiah in that year, Handel provided suitable opportunities for his new castrate singer Guadagni to shine, in the role of Micah: his contribution included Mrs Robinson's aria 'Fly from the cleaving mischief, suitably transposed, in place of 'It is not virtue'.