Heh, heh, heh, I'm sure it was a hopeless soprano that prompted Handel to
re-cast "How beautiful are the feet" for alto, because.... it is NOT just a
transcription of the soprano aria. It's half-again as long as the soprano
version, and has all sorts of little curlicues and melismas through it.
I haven't heard in a "Messiah" context either, but I have sung it as an
anthem at church. (Yes, I can sing the soprano version too.)
Elizabeth Finkler
Sunnyvale, California
mightymezzo@h...
mightymezzo@h...
http://home.earthlink.net/~mightymezzo
"Ist auf deinem Psalter,
Vater der Liebe, ein Ton
Seinem Ohre vernehmlich,
So erquicke sein Herz!"
--J.W. von Goethe
>From: Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
>From: Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
no
>doubt at some performance, the soprano was hopeless while the alto
>(male or female - I don't know which) was much more capable, and thus
>he transposed the aria for the alto for that performance. The fact is,
>however, that the aria is seldom if ever performed by any voice but
>soprano - mainly because of tradition, and also no doubt because the alto
>already has two such great arias in Part II - "He was despised" and "Thou
>art gone up on high" (the alto transposition having been done later by
>Handel for a castrato, but for some reason it "took" as the more popular
>rendition, though the original bass version is often heard fairly often.
>
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