Summary
Overview
James S. Hall Collection of George Frideric
Handel
1714-1968 (mostly 1946-1968)
7 linear feet, 11 boxes, 28 volumes, one oversize folder
Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare
Books and Special Collections
Manuscripts Division
One Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Abstract
Consists (primarily) of manuscripts of works by Handel and his contemporaries
but also of correspondence and subject files gathered by James S. Hall, the English
surgeon who collected the manuscripts.
Description
Description
The James S. Hall Collection of George Frideric Handel includes twenty-eight
volumes of musical manuscripts of Handel by various 18th-century copyists,
mainly anonymous but some identified, most of them collected by James S. Hall, a
surgeon by profession and a Handel scholar and collector by avocation. Included
are manuscripts of Belshazzar (circa 1744), the
nearest in relation to Handel since it is entirely in the hand of John
Christopher Smith, Sr., Handel's chief copyist and amanuensis; Alexander Balus (circa 1748) by the copyist “S5”, so
called by scholar Jens Peter Larson; Joseph, also
written by S5; Israel in Egypt (circa 1760) in
various hands; Odes for St. Cecilia's Day (1739)
and Queen Anne's Birthday (1714), one volume in the
hand of several copyists; Te Deum (before 1780), in
unidentified hand; the Ayelsford Collection, a set of miscellaneous manuscripts;
Messiah and Coronation
Anthems, part-book for a bass; a fair copy of Alexanders-Fest, oder, Die Gewalt der Musik . . . (1766-1770); and
an English manuscript of the opera Berenice, in the
hand of Handel's copyist S2, from the library of Charles Jennens, Handel's
patron and librettist of Messiah, and annotated by him.
Other manuscripts include a volume of operatic arias (circa 1738-1743) containing
music of Handel and other composers; a folio manuscript book including two
Handel pieces; and a photostat of a printed version of Israel in Babylon (1765), a potpourri of Handel's works and some
unidentified music. The collection also contains festival medals, portraits of
Handel, and prints of city views and churches associated with the composer, as
well as an original issue of the London Chronicle,
an 18th-century newspaper that reported Handel's burial in Westminster Abbey,
and an original watercolor by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, showing a performance of a
Handel oratorio at Convent Garden before its 1808 fire. In addition, the papers
of James S. Hall are comprised of correspondence, including letters by Benjamin
Britten, counter-tenor Alfred Deller, harpsichordist Thurston Dart, Handel
collectors Sir Newman Flower and William Charles Smith, and various other
composers, performers, scholars and collectors, as well as subject files,
including articles by Hall and material relating to Handel festivals and
societies, especially the Deal and Walmer Handelian Society which he founded in
1946.
For a more descriptive look at the collection, see: Knapp, J. Merrill. “The Hall
Handel Collection,” Princeton University Library
Chronicle, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 [Autumn, 1974], pp. 3-18.
Collection Creator
Biography
James S. Hall (1899-1975) was a surgeon by profession but an ardent Handel scholar
and collector by avocation. In addition to the Handel scores and libretti the
Princeton University Library acquired Hall's correspondence with performers,
composers, conductors, scholars and other collectors of his heyday, the 1950s and
60s. As the founder and manager of the Deal and Walmer Handelian Society, Hall was
responsible for arranging performances of Handel's works, for public celebrations of
Handel's achievements, such as the mounting of the plaque in Dublin on the hall
where Messiah received its world premiere, and for
representing English Handel lovers at festivals in honor of Handel's memory,
especially those in the Handel town of Halle in the former East Germany. At the time
of those festivals, travel to East Germany was complicated by Communist bureaucracy,
the paper trail of which is preserved in the collection. Hall was also consulted
during work on the Hallesche Handelausgabe, the
standard edition in German of Handel's works, because of his authority as a Handel
scholar. Because of these connections with Handel scholars in Germany, some of the
material in the collection is in German. A Roman Catholic, Hall was interested in
Handel's knowledge of Latin Church music and his use of it in his own compositions,
especially during the period he was known to have spent in Italy. Hall published on
this topic as well as on Handel's use of grace notes, in the context of his larger
interest in the history of Handel performance.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research use.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication
of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University
Library does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the
collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare
Books and Special Collections. The library has no information on the status of
literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for
determining any questions of copyright.
Preferred Citation
James S. Hall Collection of George Frideric
Handel; 1714-1968 (mostly 1946-1968), Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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