Ex. 5-2: Behold, Behold and Listen

Gambarini published this song in 1748, when she was seventeen. It comes from her Op. 2, a collection called Lessons for the Harpsichord Intermix’d with Italian and English Songs. As the title says, keyboard pieces and songs alternate through the book.

In the same year she also published her Op. 1, a set of harpsichord pieces. She was the first woman in Britain to publish a collection of keyboard music.

Handel auditioned her at his London house when she was fifteen. She then sang in his oratorios, among them Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah.

She dedicated the Op. 2 collection to Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. At that time music was printed by subscription: buyers paid in advance, and their names were printed in the book. Her subscribers included Handel, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, William Pitt, and Horace Walpole. The book opens with an engraved portrait of Gambarini by the painter Nathaniel Hone.

The song is written for a voice and continuo, with the harpsichord filling in the harmony. The words tell the listener to watch and listen while a beautiful woman fills the air with sweet sound. The author of the words is not known. Gambarini herself may have written them.

She died in 1765, less than a year after she married.

From the album Donne Barocche (Baroque Women) by Gabriella Di Laccio, David Wright and the Audacium Baroque Ensemble (2019)
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