Corruption of Handel

I'm down at my sister's house right now, and she's teaching a piano lesson soon. One of her students bought a piano book of all Handel and she wanted me to go through it to find something in the book within the capabilities of the students. Most of it is far beyond her and so I went through all 160 pages of it and found about 4 pieces she could handel. One of them is from Suite No. 11. It's perhaps one of his most popular piano works. At least it's one I'm completely familiar with, or thought so anyway. It's Sarabande. I'm sure you'd recognize it, the thing is is that I've heard so many variations on it that I never have actually heard a correct version of it. This book seems to be the most reliable source so far that I have seen, and the only correct version I've seen of the piece. You've got the Sarabande, Variation 1, and Variation 2. Most often you'll here the Sarabande done, skip Variation 1, then Variation 2, followed by a repeat of variation 2 in octaves in the left hand. Most corrupted versions also have quite a few rhythmic changes to make it sound better in the center and also change the end of the piece to make it more playable and lose some of the awkardness in the rhythm.

This is annoying for me in several ways. Part of me enjoys the authenticity of the original pieces and knowing exactly what the composer wanted. Another part of me says that the rehashed version actually does sound better, but it's also the version I've grown up listening to and playing, making it more sedimental in nature, and that could be the reason that I like it better.

This makes me wish I had grown up playing the uncorrupted versions of all these pieces so then I could listen to arr. by other people and decide if I like it better or not. Too often I think things are picked apart way to much and the parts that people like are overplayed while the rest of the work is never played.

I recently had a chance to go through all of my mom's tapes and CD's and trash some and keep others. I found myself getting angry when peices would be hacked and shredded and only certain movements played. The composers intended these works to be played in one setting and really it needs to be to get the full effect. You should experience the full range of emotions the composer has prepared for you, not just your select interest. Case in point, half of the classical CD's were romatic moments in classical music. I don't mean from the romantic period, but all music that sounds romantic and that certain style are all on one CD. Please. The absolute worst one I found and I laughed quite a bit at it was something to the effect of "The Best Romantic Music by Bach" This is usually what I ran into, but there were also occassions where I would find works that would completely interest me, until I found out the decided to do the main theme for three minutes, and include nothing of a second theme, development, recap, key changes, nothing.

Okay, now that I got my thoughts out, it seems I'm more of a purist when it comes to my music than for the arrangements. I'm sure there are exceptions, but there are so many things I would like the original. I really, really, really wish I had a copy of this Bach Chaconne for solo violin in it's originality. It was an absolutely amazing piece. A modern violin doesn't do it justice. Granted, my professor's copy isn't available in any place and I doubt it will ever be. It was a live performance on authentic instruments, which he somehow managed to get ahold of. We studied that piece about half a semester. What makes it such an immense work were the restrictions Bach place on himself, and still managed to keep the piece interesting for 15 minutes. For those who don't know what a Chaconne is, its form is just a repeated chord progression. Add that to the fact that he wrote it for solo violin, which has its limits at chord structures anyway. It takes a bear of a player to play it as well. Wow, I've totally gone off tangent at this point, oh well. Just enjoy music and the full experience peoples.