The solo sonatas of George Frideric Handel, with particular reference to the sonatas for flute and recorder.

Despite the popularity of Handel’s solo sonatas, up-to-date information about their history and authenticity is not always easy for performers to access. Background information about Handel’s orchestras and the musicians who played in them is presented in Chapter 1 to give context to the solo sonatas, the majority of which were written and published in London during the 1720s and 1730s respectively. Chapter 2 brings together and examines the existing scholarly research on the sources, chronology and authenticity of the solo sonatas. The autographs, eighteenth-century manuscript sources, and early published editions are listed and summarised. The format of the modern collected editions and the HWV system of identification are critically considered. The music itself is examined in Chapter 3 with reference to the range, key, and movement types present in Handel’s solo sonatas. The sonatas for recorder and flute are discussed in more detail in Chapters 4- 7, with the focus on the four solo sonata chosen for the PhD recital (HWV 378, HWV 369, HWV 365, and HWV 359b). The instruments of the time and place are considered, and their influence on Handel’s idiomatic writing for the recorder and flute. New borrowings have been discovered in the course of this research, which are presented in the dissertation and were illustrated in the PhD recital. Aspects of performance practice are discussed with particular reference to Handel’s writing for flute and recorder, such as use of articulation marks, and possible models of ornamentation for the solo sonatas. Inauthentic sonatas for the flute published by Walsh, and Walsh and Hare, as works by Handel are also discussed. A thematic catalogue of the sixteen authentic solo sonatas is presented as an appendix. Appendix 2 contains the PhD recital programme