Messiah - A Sacred Oratorio

Basso Continuo Part

By Watkins Shaw

Nice edition but I was surprised to see that the whole thing was hand-written! No Finale used here!

While there is little to argue about as to the scholarship of Mr. Watkins work, I have two problems with this continuo book. First is while it is indeed possible that a couple of the recitatives would have been accompanied only by strings in Handel's time, it is impossible...

to say that certain ones always were performed thusly and therefore the absence of realised figured bass continuo for those few (instead a simple "tacet" in their place) creates more work for those wanting to add the keyboard part. Much easier to subtract something you have, than add what you have not. But more importantly, in this age of excellent and easy to use computer engraving programs, it is really unnecessary to have a contiuo/organ part that is a barely legible hand-written job that has been photostatically reprduced into a book. Really, Novello should have this re-engraved for future editions.

Bought this item specifically for a performance. It's very straight forward and a great framework to work from. The indication of harpsichord and organ is helpful in deciding tone colours for each song, but can still be adjusted according to personal taste. We had both organ and harpsichord for...

our performance in some choruses. So nice to be playing from a continuo part instead of the orchestral reduction! It really fills out the harmony in some of the recits and arias. Well worth it.

This continuo part for Handel's Messiah is incredibly useful in performances with orchestra and organ/harpsichord. I've used it 3 times before, and find the creativity in the continuo realization quite satisfying, even when practicing alone. It works very well in ensemble, and is very useful when the...

organist may not have much experience realizing continuo from full printed score.