I decided to research the type of music that was around at the time, including his idle, Handel. Here is one of the pieces in the play which I listened to, it is still a very famous piece of music and yet one rarely hears it from a full chorus and orchestra.
The period in which the play is set is a time of great change, the period of popular Baroque music is moving towards an era now named the classical period. Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn all came in the second half of the 18th Century and changed the face of the musical world. Alexander's musical taste would have been transforming throughout his life, however the great composer of the time, Handel, remained. Christianity was in fashion at the time and music was largely joyful, this is reflected in the text and the obsession Alex has with finding his joy.
The period is also a time in which orchestra's are beginning to take shape, they are starting to gain more and more instruments all working perfectly with one another. This allows composers to have greater freedom and opportunity to really experiment and come up with, what are now deemed the greatest pieces of music ever written.
Understanding the state of music in this period and the types that most people were listening to and Alexander would have been playing and singing helped me grasp his passion. I now know what he loves so much and although personally I am not a naturally talented musician who has Synesthesia (when some one sees colours when they listen to music) I am able to use this knowledge to try and picture it.
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