The Tradition of Transcription: Handel Aria Arrangements in the Fifth Book of The Ladys Banquet

Eighteenth-century London was a hotbed for instrumental arrangements, and many of these works were derived from the operas of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Thirty-one of his operas, in whole or in part, were arranged for recorder or flute, and there were over seventy keyboard transcriptions of the overtures to these operas. While the transcriptions of Handel overtures have been thoroughly examined, opera aria transcriptions have never received an appropriate level of study and analysis. The Ladys Banquet or The Lady’s Entertainment provides an excellent starting point. Not only does it include numerous opera aria arrangements, but its volumes were re-issued several times, suggesting a wide circulation. Its study raises a number of issues, including publication and authorship of Handel transcriptions, gendered music of the eighteenth century and analysis of opera transcriptions. The Ladys Banquet or The Lady’s Entertainment is a collection of six volumes of keyboard music published by John Walsh in the first half of the eighteenth century. The first two books were issued in 1704 and 1706 respectively, and included many undemanding pieces by fashionable composers such as Jeremiah Clarke (c.1674-1707) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The Third and Fourth Books followed in circa 1715 and 1716 and contain predominantly dance tunes and popular songs revised for the keyboard. When, in the early 1730s, the Fifth and Sixth Books appeared, the original four volumes were revised, and included wholly different material than the first editions. The publications of John Walsh are notoriously confusing owing to their lack of publication dates, repeated use of title pages, and misleading advertisements. The Ladys Banquet, as a whole, is especially bewildering because of the reissues of the collection and the changing repertoire. My research focuses on the Fifth Book of The Ladys Banquet, first printed around 1734, due to its abundance of opera aria transcriptions and consistency of content within editions. This document compiles relevant background information and offers a lucid guide to The Ladys Banquet. It provides historical context, examination and discussion of the contents of each volume, with specific details about the music in the Fifth Book, as well as analysis of the Handel aria transcriptions.Ph