Händel, Georg Friedrich - Works

George Frederic Handel (1685 to 1759), the great baroque composer from Halle on Saale, is internationally popular and frequently performed today primarily due to his 30 oratories and more than 40 surviving Italian operas. His immense complete works were represented for the first time according to modern source-critical edition criteria in the famous edition by the musicologist and Handel biographer Friedrich Chrysander (1826 to 1901). Chrysander compiled his complete edition of Handel on his own, which became his life's work. Between 1858 and 1902 the around 100 volumes were published in the name of the 'Deutschen Händel-Gesellschaft' (German Handel Society) which had been founded specially for this purpose. Chrysander was not only in charge of the editorial work and the funding of the edition, but was also responsible for its complete technical production in a special music engraving and printing shop. (Some posthumously published volumes were published by the editor Max Seiffert.) Chrysander's edition, which was for the first time based on a source-critical concept and for which he resorted i.a. to the original conductor's scores, is regarded as a pioneering work for the historical performance practice of baroque music, and still represents the most comprehensive complete edition of Handel's works even today. It is special that all oratory scores are provided with a piano excerpt. Friedrich Chrysander’s edition is considered as a pioneering work in musicology and is still classified as the most comprehensive collection of Handel’s works. The collection is captured by OMR (Optical Music Recognition). The musical content can be searched by using musiconn.scoresearch.