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3 - With Their Symphonies: William Babell and The Ladys Entertainment Books 3 and 4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2019

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Summary

With their Symphonys introduc'd in a Compleat man.r

Two more volumes of The Ladys Entertainment appeared in 1709 and 1711, once again focused on arrangements of songs from the latest operas (see table 3.1). Unlike their predecessors in books 1 and 2, these arrangements had not previously appeared as serial publications; presumably by this time Walsh was confident enough about his market simply to issue the entire volumes. In William Babell, he had found an arranger able to transform the arias into something closer to idiomatic keyboard music, while remaining more or less accessible to the amateur player. The keyboard versions include, as the titles suggest, the “symphonies,” or instrumental ritornellos and accompaniment, providing a fuller picture of each aria as presented on stage.

The 3d Book of the Ladys Entertainment or Banquet of Musick being A Choice Collection of the most Celebrated Aires & Duets in the Opera's of Pyrrhus & Clotilda Curiously Set and Fitted to the Harpsicord or Spinnet: With their Symphonys introduc'd in a Compleat man.r by Mr: Wm: Babel. (London: Walsh and Hare, [1709])

The 4th Book of the Ladys Entertainment or Banquet of Musick being A Choice Collection of the most Celebrated Aires & Duets in the Opera's of Hydaspes & Almahide Curiously Set and Fitted to the Harpsicord or Spinnet: With their Symphonys introduc'd in a Compleat man.r by Mr: Wm: Babel. (London: Walsh and Hare, [1711])

Each book draws from two operas: book 3 from Pyrrhus and Demetrius (opened December 14, 1708) and Clotilda (March 2, 1709), and book 4 from Almahide (January 10, 1710) and Hydaspes (May 23, 1710). A single aria from Clotilda is added to complete book 4. Like Thomyris and Love's Triumph, these four pasticcios were based upon works of several Italian composers, adapted by musicians and wordsmiths in London. Nichola Haym (1678–1729), a cellist active in the opera orchestras, had adapted arias by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) and contributed some of his own for the December 1708 production of Pyrrhus; John Jacob Heidegger (1666–1749) chose the music for Clotilda, drawing mainly from Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (ca. 1681–1732), a theorbist at the Hapsburg court whose Clotilde may have been performed there in 1706. Arias by Scarlatti and A. M. Bononcini (1677–1726) were also included in the London version.

Type
Chapter
Information
Songs without Words
Keyboard Arrangements of Vocal Music in England, 1560–1760
, pp. 93 - 118
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2016

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