As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams

After arriving in London with a grand reputation as an opera composer, Handel soonproved that he was no less skilled as a composer of church music on a smaller scale. Handel's socalled Chandos Anthems were written as part of his duties as composerinresidence at Cannons, the opulent mansion of the first Duke of Chandos, between 1717and 1718. This intimate chorus in three voice parts is Handel at his simplest and most expressive. The middle voice part can be sung by either altos, tenors or perhaps best a mixture of thetwo. All the Chandos Anthems were composed for strings (without viola) and solo wind instruments, here solo oboe.