Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum (HWV 278) received its first performance in St Paul’s Cathedral on 7 July 1713 during the celebrations for the Treaty of Utrecht. It is among his first compositions for the Anglican Church, and accordingly he set the words of the Te Deum, an ancient ecclesiastical hymn of obscure origins, in English translation (‘We praise thee, O God’). The score, though richly orchestrated as befitted the occasion, dispenses with timpani, which, like the harpsichord, were probably omitted from the première owing to shortage of space.
