L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato is a pastoral ode by George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of John Milton. L'Allegro was composed in the winter of 1740 and premiered on the 27th of February at the Royal Theatre of Licoln's Inn Fields. One of Handel's librettists, Charles Jennens, arranged Milton's two poems, L'Allegro and il Penseroso, interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton's poems (L'Allegro or the 'Joyful man' and il Penseroso or the 'Contemplative man'). The work is in three movements: the first two movements consist of this dramatic dialog between Milton's poems and in the third movement Milton added a new poem, il Moderato, in an attempt to unite the two poems into a singular "moral design". George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... Charles Jennens (1700-1773) assembled the text for Handels oratorios Messiah and Saul, and is thought to have done the same for Handels Israel in Egypt. ... LAllegro by Thomas Cole LAllegro (1631) is a famous pastoral poem by John Milton. ... Il Penseroso is a famous pastoral poem by Milton, written in 1633. ...

External links

• Jennens' Libretto
• Program notes by Donald Teeters, music director of Boston Cecila.
• Notes by Music with Ease