Everything about H Ndel totally explained
George Frideric Handel (Friday,
23 February 1685 – Saturday,
14 April 1759) was a
German-born
Baroque composer who is famous for his
operas,
oratorios and
concerti grossi. Born as
Georg Friedrich Händel in
Halle, he spent most of his adult life in England, becoming a subject of the British crown on
22 January 1727. His most famous works are
Messiah, an oratorio set to texts from the
King James Bible;
Water Music; and
Music for the Royal Fireworks. Strongly influenced by the techniques of the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the English composer
Henry Purcell, his music was known to many significant composers who came after him, including
Haydn,
Mozart, and
Beethoven.
Biography
Handel was born in
Halle in the
Duchy of Magdeburg (province of Brandenburg-Prussia) to Georg and Dorothea (née Taust) Händel in 1685, the same year that both
Johann Sebastian Bach and
Domenico Scarlatti were born. Handel displayed considerable musical talent at an early age; by the age of seven he was a skilful performer on the
harpsichord and
pipe organ, and at nine he began to compose music. However, his father, a distinguished citizen of Halle and an eminent
barber-surgeon who served as valet and barber to the Courts of
Saxony and
Brandenburg, was opposed to his son's wish to pursue a musical career, preferring him to study law. By contrast, Handel's mother, Dorothea, encouraged his musical aspirations.
Nevertheless, the young Handel was permitted to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique from
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, the organist of the Liebfrauenkirche, Halle. His aunt, Anna, had given him a
spinet for his seventh birthday, which was placed in the attic so that Handel could play it whenever he could get away from his father.
In 1702, following his father's wishes, Handel began the study of law at the
University of Halle, but after his father's death the following year, he abandoned law for music, becoming the organist at the Protestant Cathedral. In 1704, he moved to
Hamburg, accepting a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the opera house. There, he met
Johann Mattheson,
Christoph Graupner and
Reinhard Keiser. His first two operas,
Almira and
Nero, were produced in 1705. Two other early operas,
Daphne and
Florindo, were produced in 1708.
During 1706–09, Handel travelled to Italy on the invitation of
Gian Gastone de' Medici, and met Medici's brother
Ferdinando, a musician himself. While opera was banned by the pope, Handel found work as a composer of sacred music; the famous
Dixit Dominus (1707) is from this era. He wrote many
cantatas in operatic style for gatherings in the palace of
Pietro Ottoboni (cardinal). His
Rodrigo was produced in
Florence in 1707, and his
Agrippina at
Venice in 1709.
Agrippina, which ran for an unprecedented 27 performances, showed remarkable maturity and established his reputation as an opera composer. Two
oratorios,
La Resurrezione and
Il Trionfo del Tempo, were produced in Rome in 1709 and 1710, respectively.
In 1710, Handel became
Kapellmeister to George, Elector of
Hanover, who would soon be King
George I of Great Britain. He visited
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici on his way to London in 1710, where he settled permanently in 1712, receiving a yearly income of £200 from
Queen Anne. During his early years in London, one of his most important patrons was the young and wealthy
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, who showed an early love of his music. Handel had a happy time and wrote a few of his best pieces for the Earl.
In 1723 Handel moved into a newly built house in 25
Brook Street, London, which he rented until his death in 1759. This house is now the
Handel House Museum, a restored
Georgian house open to the public with an events programme of
Baroque music. There is a
blue commemorative plaque on the outside of the building. It was here that he composed
Messiah,
Zadok the Priestand
Music for the Royal Fireworks. (In 2000, the upper stories of 25 Brook Street were leased to the Handel House Trust, and after an extensive restoration program, the
Handel House Museum opened to the public on
8 November 2001.)
In 1726 Handel's opera
Scipio (Scipione) was performed for the first time, the
march from which remains the regimental slow march of the British
Grenadier Guards. He was naturalised a British subject in the following year.
In 1727 Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for the coronation ceremony of
King George II. One of these,
Zadok the Priest, has been played at every British coronation ceremony since. Handel was director of the Royal Academy of Music 1720–1728, and a partner of
J.J. Heidegger in the management of the
King's Theatre 1729–1734. Handel also had a long association with the
Royal Opera House at
Covent Garden, where many of his Italian operas were premiered.
In April 1737, at age 52, he suffered a
stroke or some other malady which left his right arm temporarily
paralysed and stopped him from performing. He also complained of difficulties in focusing his sight. Handel went to
Aix-la-Chapelle, taking hot baths and playing organ for the audience. Handel gave up operatic management entirely in 1740, after he'd lost a fortune in the business.
Following his recovery, Handel focused on composing oratoria instead of opera. Handel's
Messiah was first performed in New Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin on
13 April 1742, with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of
St Patrick's and
Christ Church cathedrals participating.
In 1749 he composed
Music for the Royal Fireworks; 12,000 people came to listen. Three people died, including one of the trumpeters on the day after.
In 1750 Handel arranged a performance of
Messiah to benefit the
Foundling Hospital. The performance was considered a great success and was followed by annual concerts that continued throughout his life. In recognition of his patronage, Handel was made a governor of the Hospital the day after his initial concert. He bequeathed a fair copy of
Messiah to the institution upon his death. His involvement with the Foundling Hospital is today commemorated with a permanent exhibition in London's
Foundling Museum, which also holds the
Gerald Coke Handel Collection.
In August 1750, on a journey back from Germany to London, Handel was seriously injured in a carriage accident between
The Hague and
Haarlem in the
Netherlands. In 1751 his eyesight started to fail in one eye. The cause was unknown and progressed into his other eye as well. He died some eight years later, in 1759, in London, his last attended performance being his own
Messiah. More than three thousand mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state honours, and he was buried in
Westminster Abbey.
Handel never married, and kept his personal life very private. Unlike many composers, he left a sizable estate at his death—worth £20,000 (an enormous amount for the day), the bulk of which he left to a niece in Germany—as well as gifts to his other relations, servants, friends and to favourite charities.
Works
Handel's compositions include 42 operas; 29 oratorios; more than 120
cantatas,
trios and
duets; numerous
arias;
chamber music; a large number of ecumenical pieces;
odes and
serenatas; and sixteen organ
concerti. His most famous work, the
Messiah oratorio with its "Hallelujah" chorus, is among the most popular works in
choral music and has become a centerpiece of the Christmas season. Also popular are the Opus 3 and 6
Concerti Grossi, as well as "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale", in which birds are heard calling during passages played in different keys representing the vocal ranges of two birds. Also notable are his sixteen keyboard suites, especially
The Harmonious Blacksmith.
Handel introduced various previously uncommon musical instruments in his works: the
viola d'amore and
violetta marina (Orlando), the
lute (Ode for St. Cecilia's Day), three
trombones (Saul),
clarinets or small high
cornets (Tamerlano),
theorbo,
French horn (
Water Music),
lyrichord,
double bassoon,
viola da gamba,
bell chimes,
positive organ, and
harp (Giulio Cesare, Alexander's Feast).
Handel's works have been catalogued and are commonly referred to by a
HWV number. For example, Handel's
Messiah is also known as
HWV 56.
Legacy
After his death, Handel's Italian operas fell into obscurity, save for selections such as the ubiquitous aria from
Serse, "
Ombra mai fu". His reputation throughout the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Anglophone countries, rested primarily on his English oratorios, which were customarily performed by enormous choruses of amateur singers on solemn occasions. These include
Esther (1718);
Athalia (1733);
Saul (1739);
Israel in Egypt (1739);
Messiah (1742);
Samson (1743);
Judas Maccabaeus (1747);
Solomon (1748); and
Jephtha (1752). His best are based on a libretto by
Charles Jennens.
Since the 1960s¸, with the revival of interest in baroque music,
original instrument playing styles, and the prevalence of
countertenors who could more accurately replicate
castrato roles, interest has revived in Handel's Italian operas, and many have been recorded and performed onstage. Of the fifty he wrote between 1705 and 1738,
Agrippina (1709),
Rinaldo (1711, 1731),
Orlando (1733),
Alcina (1735),
Ariodante (1735), and
Serse (1738, also known as
Xerxes) stand out and are now performed regularly in opera houses and concert halls. Arguably the finest, however, are
Giulio Cesare (1724) and
Rodelinda (1725), which, thanks to their superb orchestral and vocal writing, have entered the mainstream opera repertoire.
Also revived in recent years are a number of secular
cantatas and what one might call
secular oratorios or
concert operas. Of the former,
Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (1739) (set to texts of
John Dryden) and
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (1713) are particularly noteworthy. For his secular oratorios, Handel turned to classical mythology for subjects, producing such works as
Acis and Galatea (1719),
Hercules (1745), and
Semele (1744). In terms of musical style, particularly in the vocal writing for the English-language texts, these works have close kinship with the above-mentioned sacred oratorios, but they also share something of the lyrical and dramatic qualities of Handel's Italian operas. As such, they're sometimes performed onstage by small chamber ensembles.
With the rediscovery of his theatrical works, Handel, in addition to his renown as instrumentalist, orchestral writer, and melodist, is now perceived as being one of opera's great musical dramatists.
Handel has generally been accorded high esteem by fellow composers, both in his own time and since. Bach apparently said "[Handel] is the only person I'd wish to see before I die, and the only person I'd wish to be, were I not Bach." Mozart is reputed to have said of him, "Handel understands effect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt", and to Beethoven he was "the master of us all". The latter emphasized above all the simplicity and popular appeal of Handel's music when he said, "Go to him to learn how to achieve great effects, by such simple means."
He is commemorated as a musician in the
Calendar of Saints of the
Lutheran Church on July 28, with
Johann Sebastian Bach and
Heinrich Schütz.
Handel's works were edited by
Samuel Arnold (40 vols., London, 1787–1797), and by
Friedrich Chrysander, for the German
Händel-Gesellschaft (100 vols., Leipzig, 1858–1902).
Handel adopted the spelling "George Frideric Handel" on his naturalization as a British subject, and this spelling is generally used in English-speaking countries. The original form of his name (Georg Friedrich Händel) is generally used in Germany and elsewhere, but he's known as "Haendel" in France, which causes no small amount of grief to cataloguers everywhere. There was another composer with a similar name, Handl, who was a
Slovene and is more commonly known as
Jacobus Gallus.
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