Messiah: Full score (Classic Choral Works)

ISBN 10: 0193366673 ISBN 13: 9780193366671

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1998

Synopsis

for SATB soloists, SATB choir, and orchestra
There is no single definitive version of Messiah. Handel continued to make revisions to the score throughout his life either to improve it or to suit the abilities of individual performers or the needs of an occasion. This edition presents the standard version (with which most people are familiar) complete with a new, practical piano reduction. The appendix contains most of Handel's alternative movements and transpositions. The full score includes all the alternative movements and transpositions in their correct sequence and all material is signposted clearly and cross-referenced with the vocal score.
Clifford Bartlett provides a text that is as close as possible to the sources, yet is presented with performers' needs in mind. Both full and vocal scores provide guidance on performance practice, and the vocal score includes ance piano/organ reduction suitable for both rehearsal purposes and performance without orchestra.
Complete orchestral material and vocal scores are available on hire/rental,

About this title

Review:

Bartlett's line on performance practice is sensible and non-didactic . . . The result is an edition that's clean and unfussy, refreshingly uncluttered by superfluous grace-notes or odd-looking demi-semiquaver ornaments . . . Bartlett's edition, however, makes it perfectly possible to reconstruct the 1742 Dublin, 1743 London, or 1750 revised Messiah, according to taste, which should afford music directors hours of innocent fun. (The Singer December 98)

The players loved the parts - clear and clean, and I loved the edition; almost everyone in the Hall (the sell-out audience of 1200+ and all the performers) had a marvellous evening . . . Please convey my congratulations to [Clifford Bartlett] and the setters and printers, and yourselves, of course, as publishers, for doing everyone such a great favour in producing this wonderful new edition - it's the one for me!! (Colin Touchin (Director of Music, University of Warwick))

In the succinct comentary to the full score, there is a useful guidance over rhythmic conventions and a heartening open-mindedness about the validity of a wide variety of interpretations . . . The printing and layout are examplary, and the vocal score is very competitive in price. The full score is exceptional value and is extremely practical. (Martin Neary, Early Music Review Dec 98)

Indeed the OUP version is notable for its economy. It is clear, uncluttered and as near as possible to what Handel wrote . . . All users will find the Introduction to the vocal score interesting. The choral conductor will find additional information and helpful, practical guidance in the full score . . . Mention of orchestral parts brings me to an important characteristic of the whole of this edition - clarity, and a feeling of spaciousness. Players welcome this, and for the orchestral librarian of the Northern Sinfonia, the orchestra in the Huddersfield launch the parts are the clearest he has worked with in 35 years experience . . . This is undoubtedly a quality production. If a choir is contemplating a new set of Messiah (and the scores and parts are readily compatiible with other editions) this one must be at the top of the short list. (Howard Layfield, Mastersinger Spring 99)

What is impressive is the breadth of information that is presented in user-friendly terms . . . This is certainly an extremely helpful and practical edition which will serve as a very useful resource for performer and scholar alike. (Early Music May 99)

This new edition of Handel's Messiah . . . scores high marks for the care taken to present what Bartlett describes as a 'standard version of the work'. . . The practical advantages of the full score derive mainly from the clarity of its typography, the economy of sides occupied by what elsewhere often involves a succession of irritating page turns, and a sense that the whole enterprise has been coaxed through the press with maximum care. Likewise, the vocal score is uncluttered and easy to use. (Early Music Today Aug 99)

From the Back Cover:

The best-known and most beloved large-scale musical work in the English-speaking world, Messiah was first performed in Dublin over 200 years ago to benefit local charities. Since that time, it has given millions of performers their primary experience in singing classical music. Today it is the supreme example of the English oratorio. A meditation on the life of Christ, the work is a brilliant amalgam of traditional Italian opera, English anthem, and German Passion.
Reprinted from the authoritative edition prepared by noted musical scholar Alfred Mann, this inexpensive, full-score edition will be welcomed by students, musicians, singers, and music lovers who will want to study and savor every detail of this glorious masterpiece.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0193366673
• ISBN 13: 9780193366671
• Binding: Sheet music
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Bartlett Clifford