HANDEL AND HEALING

HANDEL AND HEALING
In 1717 King George II was experiencing what I believe would be termed today “stress overload”. He was, after all, ruling the greatest nation of the age, carrying the responsibilities and pressure that goes with that. He was not thinking clearly, sleeping well, or making good decisions. After many attempts to remedy the situation, someone in the court reminded him of the biblical story of King Saul who found himself in a similar situation in ancient Israel. One of his advisors suggested he call forth a young shepherd boy from nearby Bethlehem to play for him with his harp (lyre). He did so, and the results are recorded in the book of Samuel: “And it came to pass, when the evil spirt...was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” I Samuel 16:23 George asked if there was an equivalent in London to this “Hebrew harp healer”. It was suggested that Handel, a world renowned German/Italian Operatic composer had recently re-located in London, and might do the trick. He did indeed, composing the commissioned work to be played by small orchestra on board the King’s barge upon the Thames. Handel’s skill immortalized him with the British, even causing him to be buried in Westminster Abbey next to Kings and Queens. The element that sets Handel’s Water Music, as well as other works from the Baroque Era is the high degree of order that is used. All repetition proceeds with variation with each recurrence. Handel juxtaposed musical themes against each other and repeated thematic material using variance of instrumentation and texture with each statement. These subtle, and sometimes bold variations often stimulates the brain, which recognizes the difference, even without explanation or examination. This quality is the salient ingredient of the music of the Baroque period (1685-1750). It is marked by repetition always clothed in continual variation. Within the Water Music there are ?? movements of differing keys, tempi, and instrumentation. Within that collection, there should be something that will stimulate your personal cognitive needs. Experiment with it, and find which movements help you the most. There is a great deal of patterning in this music making it easy to evaluate. If we look at the Hornpipe movement we find that the outline or sequence is rather straightforward: a,a’(a theme repeated with slight variation) b b’(new material repeated with slight variation) a,a’ bb’c, (new material) then a bridge (new material forming connecting music) and a return to the a section. This kind of formal treatment of melodic sequence sets up expectations in the mind wherein modifications become evident and stimulating. The brain loves to juxtapose bits of information side by side and notice same and different. It is the salient quality that a computer uses to function.