Handel, GF :: Neun deutsche Arien [Nine German Arias] HWV 202-210

Handel's Neun deutsche Arien (for melody instrument, soprano, and keyboard), as they have been called ever since they were first published by Herman Roth in the Musikalische Stundenbucher (1921), are a jewel of Handel's art. It is hard to believe that they had to wait nearly two centuries before appearing in print for the first time and thus being presented to a wider public. We know from contemporary accounts, however, that they had previously circulated in handwritten copies and were frequently sung. Indeed, the poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes who supplied the original words of the arias in Part 1 of his celerbated poetry collection Irdisches Vergnugen in Gott, specifically mentions the popularity of Handel's settings as his reason for combining them into a three-part 'Spring Cantata' in Part 2.

Stylistically the arias belong to the 1720s; there is little chance of dating them more precisely than that, whether from the evidence of the manuscripts or from allusions to his other music, for the arias both reflect earlier works and anticipate later ones. The most we can say is that the terminus ante quem is 1727. This little cycle, no matter its dating, is distinguished by a consummate mastery all its own. The nine pieces seem firmly to cohere, and all the pieces except In den angenehmen Buschen are written in da capo form.

This Barenreiter Urtext edition includes the realization of the figured bass in the score for keyboardists, though a separate basso continuo part is included in addition to the separate solo melodic part (for flauto traverso, violino, or oboe).