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Changing cultural space: the public molding of Handel's Esther into an English Oratorio (1732)
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH
Abstract English oratorio engendered lasting changes in music history, yet the social context of its genesis remains under-explored. No convincing explanation has been offered for the Oratorio's revivals as Esther in February-March 1731/2 and the events leading to Handel's ambitious production two months lat... view more
English oratorio engendered lasting changes in music history, yet the social context of its genesis remains under-explored. No convincing explanation has been offered for the Oratorio's revivals as Esther in February-March 1731/2 and the events leading to Handel's ambitious production two months later are still obscure. Moreover, scholarly emphasis on the textual affinities between the two works threatens to reduce its birth into mere compositional updating. This essay promotes Esther's cultural autonomy by shifting attention from music text to context, and from composition to reception. It examines the oratorio's historical milieu and suggests that political and cultural tensions in 1731-32 informed Handel's molding of a piece of chamber music into a public-oriented genre. It also upgrades the press as a shaping force in the new market of musical products and finds that rhetorical and typographical choices in Esther advertisements encoded ideological tensions between progressive and antiquarian claims on the oratorio.... view less
Keywords
music; Great Britain; historical development; culture; cultural change
Classification
Cultural Sociology, Sociology of Art, Sociology of Literature
Free Keywords
Oratorium
Document language
English
Publication Year
2016
City
Berlin
Series
Discussion Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Markt und Entscheidung, Abteilung Ökonomik des Wandels, SP II 2016-310
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/148597
Status
Published Version
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications