Keyboard Works, Volume 4

The Suites Nos. 1 and 2 may well be Handel’s earliest surviving keyboard works; we may reasonably assume that they were written in his boyhood in Halle. The early period, which ended with his departure from Hamburg for Italy in 1706, possibly covers Nos. 1–18. Handel earned his living in Hamburg partly by giving harpsichord lessons and may have written some or all of those pieces for his pupils. The present volume contains all of Handel’s harpsichord works which survive only in contemporary manuscript copies. In the absence of autographs, there is little direct evidence about dates of composition. The pieces are arranged in what the editor believes is their approximate chronological order: there being no historical evidence, the order has been determined on stylistic comparison.