Handel blog 14*
From Katherine: Hello, friends. Today is Arbor Day, a day to celebrate, nourish, and plant trees. I think it is wonderful that Handel was one of the first to have a hit song celebrating a tree—his “Ombra mia fù.” Today, people usually know it as Handel’s Largo, and it has been used as the melody for a variety of pieces. It is truly a beautiful song. It was written as an aria that opens the opera Serse, first performed in 1738. I have been much more appreciative of trees as I have been taking my short daily walks during this time of sheltering in place. Handel’s opera hero, Xerxes, sings of his love for the lovely plane tree that grows in his garden. You can hear Iestyn Davies, a countertenor, sing the aria here.
From Alison: Oh, yes, that is such a beautiful piece. I remember being struck by the simple words of the aria. I think it translates as something like: “Never was a shade of any plant dearer or more lovely or more sweet.” Xerxes addresses the song to his “beloved plane tree,” and he prays for it a blessing, asking that storms never bother its peace. I have heard another singer perform the piece—Nathalie Stutzman—and you can hear her perform it here.
From Wait: I have heard one of the pieces that use that melody, just as you said, Katherine. It is pretty well known as the song “Holy Art Thou.” One of my favorite performances of this recasting of the melody was by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. You can hear a performance here.
From Brad: So, while you have been discussing these various versions of the Handel aria, I have done a little sleuthing on just what is a plane tree. It has nothing to do with airplanes or with the making of woodworking planes—in case you wondered. No, a plane tree is a kind of sycamore tree—only one that was more common in Europe. But here in the US we would call it a kind of sycamore. So, it is like those big trees we see around here—the ones with star-like leaves, sort of like maple leaves—and with bark that peals off and leaves a kind of mottled trunk behind.
From CD: Sycamores! No wonder Xerxes was enamored of this tree. Sycamores are great. You must all know the song they always sing before the 500 race in Indy—“Back Home Again in Indiana.” It’s got this line about the candlelight “still shining bright through the sycamores for me.” I think lots of people have recorded it. You can hear the a cappella group Straight No Chaser singing it here.
From Katherine: Handel’s Xerxes was a pretty misguided character in many ways, but his love song to a tree was actually a kind of saving grace. I’m glad Handel thought it worth his effort to create a song in praise of a tree. Something to stop and think about on this Arbor Day—how much we owe the trees that give us shade and the air we breathe. “Ombre mia fù”—a lovely song.
*All posts listed as “Handel blog” are texts that use the fictional characters in my book The Handel Letters: A Biographical Conversation. As in that book, the posts will often reference things from Handel’s life or time period as starting points. And the post will cite a page or paragraph in the book when it seems relevant. Find The Handel Letters.