Handel's uses of themes from Muffat's Componimenti musicali fall into three categories: (1) the themes are taken as "mere suggestions" by Handel; (2) the ideas are adopted with little or any alteration; (3) the themes are freely treated to the point that they take on an independent life of their own. Examples of each type of usage may be found in Handel's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day and elsewhere. Unlike Giovanni Bononcini, who was discredited for claiming another's music as his own, Handel's musical borrowings were accepted because the materials he appropriated were so well known that there was no pretense to originality.

Works: Handel: Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (149-51), Joshua (151), Samson (151).

Sources: Muffat: Componimenti musicali (149-51).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Felix Cox