Style and Politics in the Philips-Handel Ode for Queen Anne's Birthday, 1713

Abstract

Handel's ‘Serenata’ for the Birthday of Queen Anne (1713) poses serious challenges to historical scholarship. We are not certain that it was performed for the Queen, and the attribution of the text to the Whig poet Ambrose Philips rests on a marginal note written after Handel and Philips were both dead. The piece celebrates the Peace of Utrecht, and thus participates in various political discourses, but the motives of everyone involved—poet, composer, performers, patrons, and dedicatee—cannot be adequately described in merely partisan terms. Poets of all stripes were eager to celebrate the Peace at this time, and Handel, though aware that his German employer (later George I) opposed the Peace, celebrated it not only in this work but in the Utrecht Te Deum. Internal and external evidence supports the attribution of the text to Philips; the careful avoidance of mythological terms suggests that the Pastoral War involving Philips, Thomas Tickell, Joseph Addison, and Alexander Pope is a relevant context for this ode. For his own part, Handel took care to write music showcasing the English singers of the Chapel Royal and displaying his knowledge of English vocal traditions, though he also used female singers and some musical forms derived from his work in the Italian opera.

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