William Babell (c.1690-1723) - Sonata II in c (1725)
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Composer: William Babell (c.1690-1723)
Work: Sonata II in c (1725)
Performers: Trio BasiIiensis
Painting: Unknwon master (17th Century) - Concert (c.1700)
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2jJRsK2
Engraving: Johannes De Ram (1648-1696) & Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) - Londini Angliae Regni Metropolis Delineatio Accuratissima (c.1729)
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/24s6fbJ
Further info: https://www.amazon.es/Concerning-Babell-Son-Trio-Basiliensis/dp/B0000246V7
Listen free: No available
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William Babell [Babel]
(London?, c.1690 - Islington, 23 September 1723)
English harpsichordist, organist, violinist, composer and arranger. He received his early musical instruction from his father, Charles Babel, a bassoonist in the Drury Lane Theatre orchestra until he was 80, and later from Pepusch and possibly Handel (according to Mattheson, in Der vollkommene Capellmeister, 1739, but denied by Hawkins). Babell led an active professional life in London. As a violinist he was said to have played in the private band of George I, while as a harpsichordist, from about 1711, his name frequently appears in London concert notices, usually in conjunction with those of Corbett, Paisible and (later) Dubourg. He was also associated with Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. From November 1718 until his death he was organist of All Hallows Bread Street and was succeeded there by John Stanley. Babell was buried at All Hallows. He acquired an international reputation as a harpsichordist largely through his virtuoso arrangements of fashionable operatic arias and overtures, especially those of Handel. His keyboard style was undoubtedly influenced by his close acquaintance with Handel's playing; it has been proposed that one of the manuscript settings of ‘Vo' far guerra’ is Babell's response to a reworking and development of the material by Handel himself, but this hypothesis has found no support. These arrangements by Babell, although appearing exceptional, nevertheless give an intriguing insight into early 18th-century practices of keyboard extemporization and ornamentation. #ClassicalMusic