Introducing Handel's Tenor 

Some more on the interesting history of the Tenor voice (which I hope I'm remembering correctly): when counterpoint first took off in the Late Medieval era, it was usually composed by taking an old Plainchant song and composing an opposing voice or voices along side it. The voice that "held down" the original plainchant was called the Tenor. The other voices were then named in respect to the Tenor: a voice written in a higher pitch then the Tenor was called the "Altus", Latin for "high", while a voice written below was called the "Bass" which means "low". Finally, a voice that was written above all of these was called either the Super (not in the sense of 'better' but rather 'above all others') or the Cantus, which means "singing" (as in "singing above the other voices"). Note that while 'Altus' and 'Supra' are where we get the terms "Alto" and "Soprano", these were originally all men's parts since women were not allowed to sing in Church at the time. Also, these voices didn't refer to voice _types_ , but rather their relative position: often the "Tenor" part would be sung in the modern day Baritone or even Bass range while the Altus might be in the modern day Tenor range; however, the Altus was always the voice that occurred between the Tenor and Soprano, regardless of range. Now, if you've ever heard plainchant, you'll know that it can be fairly "drony" on its own, and composers slowed the chant way down to allow for complex polyphony on top of it, which led to it in the Medieval era often being a drone voice as Bosteridge mentions in the video. Going into the Renaissance, the Tenor was no longer a drone and didn't necessarily carry the Plainchant; however, the voices where still named in respect to the Tenor, and still referred to their relative position rather then a particular voice type. Eventually though, the 4-part SATB stack became so standard that those names naturally got applied to the voices that often sang them comfortably. Also, as it became more common for men and women to sing together in formal situations, the Soprano and Alto parts that were originally sang by castrati or (what we would call today) Countertenors got picked up by women. Once the SATB framework was standardized, additional voices where then named in respect to it: Baritone, Mezzo-Soprano, Countertenor, etc. (Originally, a fifth voice was always called 'Quintus' or "fifth" regardless of where it occurred, and similarly for a sixth voice 'Sextus'). Funnily enough, while in most modern harmony the top voice sings the main melody and the other voices harmonize underneath it, this idea of 'holding' the melody in the middle range and padding it with harmony voices on both sides occurs (presumably by sheer coincidence) in American folk and traditional music: Bluegrass-esque harmony is done by having a one or two voices immediately above the melody and one immediately below, the same order as the Medieval choirs; Barbershop quartets have four voice parts, 'Bass', 'Baritone', 'Lead', and 'Tenor', in that order; and similar things can be seen in Sacred-Harp, early Gospel, and other places. My guess for why it's this way is that it has something to do with trying to create thick harmony with a lot of voices in similar vocal ranges.

I love his scarf!

So beautifully put. I loved the inset photographs too. It took a lot of help from BBC Radio 3 to help me over my resistance to florid 'da capo' arias and the recitative but I have come to love them dearly, much preferring baroque opera to the 'verismo' tradition. I would like to Add to Mr. Bostridge's list of Handel walks, the foundling museum, where the spirit of Handel is altogether present for me and the magnificent terracotta version of his bust is so close to the visitor that it is possible to whisper words of admiration into his ear.

All ears thank you ✌️❤️🇦🇺🦘🙏🎻

I love Handel's music.

The Leggero Tenor voice certainly didn’t go unused during the baroque period either. Counter-tenors in England and Haute-contres were both likely today’s Leggero Tenors. In Italy, Tenors weren’t much favoured, especially during the 17th century. Notable exceptions were Giuseppe Scaccia (fairly standard range), Antonio Borosini (« Baritenor », father of Francesco Borosini, with an extensive register up to B4 but at the end of his career je sung as a Baritone) and the most famous, Giovanni Buzzoleni, arguably a Leggero who often played primi uomini. The Italian Tenor voice’s stardom was however well illustrated right at the beginning of the 18th century (no doubt thanks to the three former names), starting with Francesco Guicciardi (Giuliano in Haendel’s « Rodrigo »), continuing with Giovanni Paita, Gaetano Borghi, Giovanni Francesco Costanzi, Francesco Maria Cignoni, Annibale Pio Fabbri, Francesco Borosini, Silvio Garghetti, &c…. up to the newer generation of Antonio Barbieri, Francesco Tolve, Giovanni Battista Pinacci, Filippo Giorgi, Gregorio Babbi, Angelo Amorevoli, Johann Baptist Anton Berberich, &c… who passed the baton to Gaetano Pompeo Basteris, Ottavio Albuzzi, &c… later on…. Having read the incredibly numerous surviving airs for the above mentioned Tenors, I’d have to say that they all had rather spectacular vocal differences. Some were possibly Baritones, others Leggeros, some with a massively extensive range, &c….

Sometimes I wonder myself if I love Bach and Monteverdi's works or just the voice of this man 😂

French has the word "tenir," also meaning "to hold."

Very disappointed. Only six minutes long but wanting sixty.

Mmmm... Italian pronunciation should be revised, it's far from plausible.