Setting Up Our Handel Discussion

In the blog entries, Those Handel Friends, I am bringing some of the characters from my book The Handel Letters to life again, along with some newer characters, in a continuing endeavor to see what our thinking about Handel and his times might inspire in us today.

From Katherine: Recently I gave you a little information on this endeavor. My hope is that we can encourage our former discussion landscape to reemerge—with script-like dialogue text submitted by our various participants.  In The Handel Letters, our editor indicated who was speaking with the usual dialogue tags just as writers do in novels or play scripts.   But this activity is different. We will be writing emails to each other, or rather to our group. So, we will want to identify whose commentary we are reading for the benefit of the entire group. Sorry, there I am going into professor mode again. But, after all, I am the one initiating this new or continuing dialogue. So, I think it will be helpful to have this fairly basic house rule: Identify yourself by name and then write whatever you wish.

I will arrange with our former editor to send things out to our collective.  She agrees not to sanitize, cut, or otherwise edit anyone’s writing. All she asks is that each post represent only one person’s commentary. She will include the name of the writer, but other than that, it is up to each of you. In addition, she may also post these entries on some social media outlet. We’ll see. Meanwhile, to get things rolling, I have agreed to be the first writer, maybe even for several posts.  I’ll try to model what I have in mind, but, as I said, after an initial bit of personal catching up, what or how you write is up to you.  I hope each of you do enter into this little renewal and refurbishing of our Handel Seminar. And here is a further note: please consider, if you wish, inviting a spouse, friend, relative, or colleague to join us if you think that person would be an active and interesting addition to our mix.

Thank you, and all the best.