Händel: Quel fior, HWV 192 - Kirkby, Nelson

Quel fior che all'alba ride, HWV 192

Italian duet for 2 sopranos with basso continuo

Text: -

Music: Georg Friedrich Händel

Completed score: London, 1 July 1741
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Duet: Quel fior che all'alba ride
Duet: È un fior la vita ancora
Duet: L'occaso ha nell'aurora
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In this video:

Emma Kirkby, soprano
Judith Nelson, soprano

Susan Sheppard, violoncello
Christopher Hogwood, harpsichord

Recorded in 1980
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Quel fior che all'alba ride was completed in 1741 though never published in Handel's lifetime. The cantata is a three-movement work in the pattern fast-slow-fast. The two fast outer movements display Handel's serious counterpoint writing with Italian lightness, grace and ease. The contrasts of key, mesure and tempo contribute to their success. It was Handel's particular treatment of counterpoint that made this work suitable for adaptation for use as chorus in an oratorio; namely Messiah. The two fast movements are recognizably the music in choruses of Handel's Messiah, which was also conceived and written mosty in 1741. "Quel fior che all'alba ride" became the chorus "His yoke is easy" and "L'occaso ha nell'aurora" became "And He shall purify". In both duets, the vocal writing is typical of Handel's virtuoso style, with rapid coloratura passages in abundance, supported by very energetic bass lines that are characteristically Handelian in shape and harmonic progression.
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Quel fior che all'alba ride
il sole poi l'uccide,
e tomba ha nella sera.

È un fior la vita, la vita ancora:

l'occaso ha nell'aurora,
e perde in un sol dì la primavera.
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Translation:

The flower that smiles at dawn
is slain by the sun anon
and is buried in the evening.

Life is like a flower:

declining at first light,
its verdant spring lost in a single day.
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Eser.