J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

The Adagio of John Stanley’s Voluntary in G, op.5/3 (1748) shows an authentic
Handelian breadth (Ex.2.5), while Ex.2.6 from John Bennett’s Voluntary in F (1757-
58) might have come out of one of Handel’s organ concertos.
John Stanley and John Bennett were among the leading organists of mid-
century London, but there were dozens of other minor composers writing in a similar
vein. The following Allegro from a voluntary by Henry Heron is a domesticated and
simplified version of Handel’s bold orchestral rhetoric, almost comical in its limited
imaginative scope (Ex.2.7). On the other hand, this fugue from a manuscript voluntary
in G minor by John Stanley (Ex.2.8) 17 makes an interesting comparison with the
Alcina fugue discussed above.
17 Now published as part of An RCO Miscellany, ed. H. Diack Johnstone (Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea:
Basil Ramsey, 1980).
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