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Daily classes August 2-6 from 9:30 am - 12:00 noon
$85/($80 SFEMS members) for the full course; $20 per day
Crowden Center for Music in the Community
1475 Rose Street (at Sacramento), Berkeley, CA 94702

The course

Handel spent his formative years in the cosmopolitan German city of Hamburg and also toured the city states of Italy. We will sample the musical creations of Handel's youthful period as he absorbed and refined the musical language of the time.

When Handel arrived in England, he brought with him his musical experience from Italy and helped create the heyday of Italian opera in London. We will revel in Handel's Italian operas, with which he delighted the English public for over two decades.

From keyboard suites to organ concerti, from Water Music to chamber music, Handel had the same mastery of instrumental music as he did of music for voices. The class will explore Handel's role as both composer and performer of instrumental music.

Handel is most widely remembered in music history for his development of a new form, the English oratorio. We will trace the roots of the oratorio to Italian opera, English choral tradition, French drama and the German Passion.

Lastly, we will look at Handel's place in music history. We will discuss changing performance practice of Handel's music across the past two and a half centuries, explore how perceptions of Handel have changed and look at the considerable influence Handel had on later music.

We will also explore the social, cultural, political and religious contexts in which Handel created his music. Each day will include time for guided detailed listening. Discussions will touch on the aspects of form, harmony, rhythm, text setting and orchestration that give Handel's music its unique character.

The ability to read music is not necessary for this class. Come with open ears and an open mind and fall in love with Handel all over again.

Registration is available for the full course ($85/80 SFEMS members) or for individual days ($20 each).

For more detail about the daily schedule, see the flier.

To register, please download, print and fill out the registration form.

Questions? Contact Britt Ascher at brittascher@comcast.net or (925) 283-7134.

This course supports the Music Discovery Workshop, a day camp that introduces children to early music and Renaissance social history through music instruction and theater projects.

About the instructor

Mr. Prescott has written extensively on the music of G.F. Handel and is completing his doctoral thesis on John Stanley, the 18th-century blind organist, conductor, violinist and impresario.

Mr. Prescott has taught music courses at U.C. Berkeley and music theory at the Crowden Center for Music in the Community (Berkeley, CA) and is currently the musicologist for the San Francisco Elderhostel Arts and Humanities Program. He is also the resident preconcert lecturer for Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Last updated 04/04/2010.