The Roman repertoire offers us a stunning example of the practice of adding two trumpets on top of a composition originally conceived without them. The example is not from a Roman composer but from Georg Friedrich Handel who, however, composed it when he was in Rome. Indeed, the young Handel had his Italian Grand Tour between 1706 and 1709 and he spent most of this time in Rome collaborating with the main musicians active in town – in particular, Corelli. The latter, was often playing first violin on the events in which Handel himself was playing the harpsichord. While still in his early twenties, Handel, already a skilled composer, brought new elements to Rome such as the French overture's bold style. 63 At the same time, he used the opportunity to become familiar with the concerto grosso style and experiment extensively with the Italian musical language in the compositions commissioned by his patrons, in particular Marchese Ruspoli. 64 As a result, Handel's compositions written between 1706 and 1709 can be considered examples of the Roman style and practice, and can often be ascribed amongst the best repertoire composed there.
The most instructive works for the purpose of my study are two large oratorios, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno HWV 46a and La Resurrezione HWV 47, composed respectively in 1707 and in 1708, and their Sinfonie. The fortunate case that preserved these Sinfonie is probably related to the fact that Handel was both a vocal and an instrumental composer and, as such, he was responsible for providing both the Sinfonie and the Musica. Because of that, his scores are single units, and they include arias and recitativos as well as instrumental introductions and interludes. Had Corelli composed vocal music too, perhaps, we would have more examples of his Sinfonie as well. Turning now our attention to these Handel's oratorios and to their instrumental scores, we can observe that there are several similarities between them and that La Resurrezione uses a lot of material who was already included in Il Trionfo. In particular, considering the third section of the opening overture of Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, we notice that it is scored for two oboes, strings and continuo, and that it is written in concerto grosso form. 65 Exactly the same music appears in the score of La Resurrezione as well, as Introduzione to the second part of it. However, in this most sumptuous oratorio, Handel decided to add two trumpets on top of the “original” Trionfo's music! The movement is 39 bars long and the two trumpets play only in about 16 of these bars, sometimes fanfare figures, at times some isolated chords, and very rarely a small melodic line. The effect is beautiful and results in a third instrumental layer above the two pre-existing ones of the concertino and of the concerto grosso.
This example has been my main source of inspiration in the composition of the extra trumpet parts that I have added on top of Corelli’s concertos Opus 6. 66