Dr. Ryan F. Smith
Classical music can help students learn classical texts imaginatively.
Music enlivens poetry in magical ways. When great classical composers and poets collaborate, the results can be exquisite. Such was the case when the eminent eighteenth-century composer G. F. Handel composed a now unfamiliar oratorio using the poetry of John Milton, entitled L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed Il Moderato, HWV 55.
Some hundred years earlier, Milton penned two companion poems, L’Allegro (The Happy, or Cheerful, Man) and Il Penseroso (The Pensive Man). He treated them as rhetorical exercises debating whether it is more virtuous to be happy and carefree, or pensive and cautious. Charles Jennens, the Messiah librettist, would later add the appeal to moderation found in Handel’s oratorio.
How can a student benefit from studying classical poetry or narratives through the lens of classical music? L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed Il Moderato provides a useful case study. This article illustrates how to interpret “Haste thee, Nymph,” an aria from Handel’s oratorio, followed by teaching exercises for students to deepen their understanding of L’Allegro. As a result of completing these exercises, students will enhance their comprehension of Milton’s poetry while gaining an appreciation for Handel’s craft.
The Doctrine of Affections
Historical context is the first component necessary to understand a composer’s aesthetic principles. During both Milton’s and Handel’s careers, the Doctrine of the Affections informed the creation of art forms, particularly music and the visual arts. Properly understood, music–whether instrumental or vocal–must arouse appropriate emotions in the audience. The composer must elicit the emotion that is best suited to the text or instrumental form without confusing it with another emotion. Through the process, composers developed numerous tropes that audiences easily recognized.
As with other Baroque aesthetics, this thinking was rooted in ancient Greece. The Doctrine of Affections relies somewhat on Hippocrates’ concept of the four humors–the relationship between one’s blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm–which he considered to determine one’s temperament. From this theory, we derive terms that describe different personalities: sanguine, melancholy, choleric, or phlegmatic.
During Milton’s lifetime, a modernized description of the humors appeared in Descartes’ On the Passions of the Soul, which expanded the number of passions, or affects, from the earlier theories. (One can also explore Descartes’ fascinating theory behind how these bodily fluids and spirits interacted!)
Baroque composers believed that music’s transcendent qualities could arouse one’s humors to create a particular affect simply by using the compositional tools at their disposal. As with J. S. Bach, the Doctrine of the Affections was central to Handel’s thinking. When he sets any text to music, Handel emphasizes the affective elements rather transparently. Through tempo, orchestration, key areas, imitation, and various musical figurations, Handel amplifies the text before him–in this case, Milton’s poems.
“Haste thee, Nymph” from L’Allegro
Listen to this example from L’Allegro, “Haste thee, Nymph,” beginning at Here Milton summons the goddess Mirth to engage in a moment of unbridled, ecstatic joy along with the personified attributes of Jest, Jollity, Care, and Laughter.
Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful Jollity,
Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles
Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Once you listen to the excerpt, consider the following features of this aria. After reading my analysis, re-listen to it, paying more attention to the craftsmanship.
Key Choices
The Baroque composer began by choosing his keys carefully. Theorists such as Rameau and Mattheson catalogued the associated affects with each key, suggesting that composers always carefully considered a key’s inherent qualities. For this aria, Handel harnesses the inherent jollity found in F major, the key for his similarly spirited chorus from Messiah, “All We Like Sheep.” Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto no. 2 in F Major mimics that same energy in an instrumental setting. F major is the Baroque “carefree key,” well suited for Milton’s Mirth.
Rhythm and Tempo
The quick tempo, in 4/4 time, supplies the aria’s vitality. This rhythmic energy contrasts with its surrounding pieces. The previous aria is a sarabande-like dance in slow, triple meter in the brooding key of D minor. In this way, Handel appeals to “divinest Melancholy” (from Il Penseroso). In the subsequent minuet-style dance in 6/8, Handel evokes the darkness of C minor. Sandwiching “Haste thee, Nymph” between these two slower, minor-mode arias provides the affective clarity that Baroque audiences expected.
Motives
Handel is a master of short, well-defined motives that accentuate each thought within a text. For example, the rhetorical force of the opening descending tonic triad reinforces the poet’s summoning of the nymph. Handel’s more hurried repeat of the phrase “haste thee, nymph” with eighth notes, rather than quarters, intensifies the insistence of Milton’s opening charge:
Milton’s subsequent list of desired attributes offers much to the composer with its dynamic pulse: “Quips and cranks and wanton wiles, / Nods and becks and wreathed smiles.” Milton uses troichaic tetrameter, that is, alternating strong/weak accents. Handel mimics that meter by means of an ornamented, dotted-quarter-note figure followed by an eighth note. Even when Handel expands the intervals from simple steps on “quips and cranks and wanton wiles” to larger, expansive intervals on “nods and becks and wreathed smiles,” he maintains this rhythmic pattern. (Musicians call this internal pattern macrometer.) Thus, Handel uses rhythm to ensure that the audience pays close attention to each item on Milton’s humorous list.
After this, Handel introduces a seductive, descending four-note motive to correspond with “Hebe’s cheek” and “dimple sleek.” Most noticeably, Handel de-emphasizes the poetry’s meter by placing every syllable–both weak and strong–on a beat. The close intervals, rhythmic regularity, and consistent four-note groupings reinforce the text while contrasting with the preceding pattern:
In the following phrase, Handel hilariously depicts Laughter, which Milton personified in the text. By exploiting the syllable “ho-” in “holding,” Handel extends the single syllable into a comical phrase marked by both the tenor and strings’ staccato articulation. Baroque composers often ornamented single syllables over extended periods of time, but rarely to such humorous effect. Handel conjures a large, jolly man, reminiscent of Santa Claus, holding his sides while laughing uproariously. 
Handel’s Overall Effect
The desired result of Handel’s compositional flare is to ensure that his audience internalizes the comic nature of Milton’s text. It is nearly impossible to hear this performance without experiencing jollity. Handel gives care to make each playful idea in the text correspond with a distinctive musical motive. In this way, Handel’s appeal to contrast as a compositional technique helps the listener hear Milton’s poetry with greater specificity.
One must acknowledge that Handel composes without Milton’s approval, subject to his own interpretation. But that does not diminish the value of Handel’s imagination any more than it does when Milton explores Creation in Paradise Lost. Handel provides a commentary on Milton that expands one’s sensory experience.
Sample Exercises for Further Study
The objective for these exercises is to learn how a composer (Handel) sets the text of the poet (John Milton). Students will experience how the Baroque concept of the Doctrine of the Affections is the operating principle behind Handel’s setting of these poems. Use the score posted here for reference.
Note: Choir directors might have students perform the choruses from L’Allegro in conjunction with their
study of Milton in literature courses. Many of these choruses are accessible to high school choirs.
This type of exercise can also be completed with the numerous seventeenth-century opera texts set to Greek tragedies or the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works that depict narratives from the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, or Dryden.
Your parent/teacher will pick five or more adjacent pieces within Handel’s L’Allegro & Il Penseroso. Once you have selected them, complete the following exercises to immerse yourself in the music and text.
- What do the Italian words “allegro” and “penseroso” mean? (Hint: allegro does NOT mean fast, as many music teachers suggest!) Propose reasons why Milton used Italian titles for English poems.
- Background: Identify the allusions so that you are conversant with the argument in each stanza. (Do not confuse Milton’s personification of particular attributes with mythological persons.) What classical literary form(s) do these two poems best represent?
- Structure: Notice carefully how Handel arranges these two poems in the oratorio. (With the complete poems in front of you, mark where each aria starts and ends. The texts are provided here: L’Allegro and Il Penseroso.)
What is the effect of breaking the poetry up into small units?
Why does Handel alternate stanzas from the two poems?
How does that technique contribute to, or detract from, Milton’s rhetorical exercise? - Observation: With your teacher/parent, listen to your excerpts. Then create and complete a chart with the following columns. These objective criteria will help you understand the tools Handel used to communicate Milton’s texts.
- Poem, line numbers
- Key (tonic, major/minor)
- Tempo (marking if available)
- Notable instruments (added or given solo parts)
- Notable motives or figures (refer to the score)
- Resulting Affect
- Critical Thinking: Notice how each movement evokes a single affect. What is the effect on the listener when each movement is contrasts with another? Discuss how this approach to contrast creates musical interest over a long period of time.
- For further study, Judy Tarling’s book, The Weapons of Rhetoric: A Guide for Musicians and Audiences, is an outstanding guide to musical rhetoric, particularly in the Baroque era. Tarling relates classical rhetoric to musical practice in a scholarly but approachable manner.