Gli strumenti a fiato nella produzione italiana di Händel

Händel’s ability to use the musical resources at his disposal at the Roman courts, combined with his desire to meet the requests of his highly cultured patrons, who thought of music in close symbolic relationship with the poetical word, explains his use of a style strongly characterized by allegorical and descriptive references as well as the extensive presence of wind instruments, and especially of the flute and the recorder. This theatrically highlighted the dramatic and textual situations where a specific timbre and an adequate writing corresponded, by analogy, to the meaning of the text, contributing to magnify the effect of the overall musical expression. This is indeed a small tessera of a wider mosaic which sees the composer’s work converge into a cultural and social scenario strongly influenced by Arcadian ideology.