Twice Handeled (2018)

Five movements from the Handel Harpsichord suites arranged for wind ensemble based on the Glenn Gould recordings  - 17'

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By G. F. Handel

Arranged by David Kirkland Garner

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This arrangement began with an infatuation with Glenn Gould’s recording of the Handel harpsichord suites. While listening to the D-minor prelude one evening at maximum volume, I suddenly envisioned the music being performed by a cascading and intricate web of winds. To me, this grand, exciting, and emotional music seemed to demand larger forces. Twice Handeled presents an arrangement of five movements extracted from the A-major and D-minor Handel harpsichord suites modeled after Gould’s fascinating and sometimes eccentric interpretation of the pieces. I carefully transcribed Gould’s ornamentation and tempi for wind ensemble (though I should note the tempos are generally not as fast as Gould, but the proportions remain intact). This music was composed by Handel, interpreted by Gould, and finally handled once again by myself, where I attempted to insert my own voice through curious and ever-shifting colorful orchestration and instrumentation choices in order to highlight Gould’s character choices in this musical conversation about harmony, color, memory, and mediation.