Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel
John Mainwaring
A year after Handel’s death the Cambridge clergyman John Mainwaring published, anonymously, the first book-length life of any composer, written from the recollections of Handel’s assistant John Christopher Smith: the child who practised the clavichord secretly in the attic, the pupil of Zachow, the duel at the Hamburg opera, the triumphs in Florence, Venice and Rome, Hanover, Rinaldo, the Royal Academy and its prima donnas, the oratorios and the last years – followed by a catalogue of the works and «Observations» on Handel’s music. Newly transcribed from the first edition of 1760 (two copies and several further text witnesses compared), with the frontispiece portrait, links from every work in the catalogue to Chrysander’s Handel edition and 138 notes that correct Mainwaring where he errs. Edited by Bernhard Trebuch. Reading sample: the life up to Handel’s departure for England, with the notes.
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