The compositions in this volume cover a wide span of Handel’s creative life, from his Hamburg years until about 1750; but most of them were written before 1720, the date when he seems virtually to have given up composing for the harpsichord except for special commissions such as the two Suites for the Princess Louisa (nos 6 and 7, c. 1739). There are Autograph MSS of all but eight pieces (2–5, 19–22), supplemented in some cases by contemporary copies, and twelve of them appeared in contemporary printed editions; nos 9–12, 15 and 16 are here printed for the first time.
