{"id":848,"date":"2015-07-30T18:09:12","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T18:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/musicappreciation\/?post_type=chapter&p=848"},"modified":"2015-09-11T18:56:47","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T18:56:47","slug":"g-f-handel","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/music-app-rford\/chapter\/g-f-handel\/","title":{"raw":"G. F. Handel","rendered":"G. F. Handel"},"content":{"raw":"

Introduction<\/h2>\r\n\"Marble<\/a>\r\n\r\nGeorge Frideric (or Frederick) Handel, born Georg Friedrich H\u00e4ndel (<\/span>23 February 1685\u201314 April 1759)\u00a0<\/span>was a German-born, British baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Born in a family indifferent to music, Handel received critical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712), and became a naturalized British subject in 1727.\u00a0He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.\r\n\r\nWithin fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. MusicologistWinton Dean writes that his operas show that \"Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order.\"\u00a0As\u00a0Alexander's Feast<\/i> (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah<\/i> (1742) he never performed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honors, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.\r\n\r\nBorn the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the baroque era, with works such as Water Music<\/i>, Music for the Royal Fireworks<\/i> and Messiah<\/i> remaining steadfastly popular.\u00a0One of his four Coronation Anthems, Zadok the Priest<\/i> (1727), composed for the coronation of George II of Great Britain, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign's anointing. Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and historically informed musical performance, interest in Handel's operas has grown.\r\n

Early years<\/h2>\r\nHandel was born in 1685 in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg H\u00e4ndel and Dorothea Taust.\u00a0His father, 63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg.\u00a0According to Handel's first biographer, John Mainwaring, he \"had discovered such a strong propensity to Music, that his father who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed. He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey'd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep\".\u00a0At an early age Handel became a skilful performer on the harpsichord and pipe organ.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\"]\"\" H\u00e4ndel-Haus (2009) \u2013 birthplace of George Frideric Handel[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHandel and his father traveled to Weissenfels to visit either Handel's half-brother, Carl, or nephew, Georg Christian, who was serving as valet to Duke Johann Adolf I.\u00a0On this trip, young Handel was lifted onto an organ's stool, where he surprised everyone with his playing.\u00a0This performance helped Handel and the duke to convince his father to allow him to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist of Halle's Marienkirche. Zachow composed music for the Lutheran services at the church, and from him Handel learned about harmony and counterpoint, copying and analysing scores, and gained instruction on the oboe, violin, harpsichord and organ. In 1698 Handel played for Frederick I of Prussia and met Giovanni Bononcini in Berlin.\r\n

From Halle to Italy<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"224\"]\"\" The Hamburg Opera am G\u00e4nsemarkt in 1726[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 1702, following his father's wishes, Handel started studying law under Christian Thomasius at the University of Halle.\u00a0He earned an appointment for one year as the organist in the former cathedral, by then an evangelical reformed church. Handel seems to have been unsatisfied, and in 1703 he accepted a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the Hamburg Oper am G\u00e4nsemarkt.\u00a0There he met the composers Johann Mattheson, Christoph Graupner and Reinhard Keiser. His first two operas, Almira<\/i> and Nero<\/i>, were produced in 1705.\u00a0He produced two other operas, Daphne<\/i> and Florindo<\/i>, in 1708. It is unclear whether Handel directed these performances.\r\n\r\nAccording to Mainwaring, in 1706 Handel traveled to Italy at the invitation of Ferdinando de' Medici. Other sources say Handel was invited by Gian Gastone de' Medici, whom Handel had met in 1703\u20131704 in Hamburg\u00a0De' Medici, who had a keen interest in opera, was trying to make Florence Italy's musical capital by attracting the leading talents of his day. In Italy Handel met librettist Antonio Salvi, with whom he later collaborated. Handel left for Rome and, since opera was (temporarily) banned in the Papal States, composed sacred music for the Roman clergy. His famous Dixit Dominus<\/i> (1707) is from this era. He also composed cantatas in pastoral style for musical gatherings in the palaces of cardinals Pietro Ottoboni, Benedetto Pamphili and Carlo Colonna. Two oratorios, La resurrezione<\/i> and Il trionfo del tempo<\/i>, were produced in a private setting for Ruspoli and Ottoboni in 1709 and 1710, respectively. Rodrigo<\/i>, his first all-Italian opera, was produced in the Cocomero theatre in Florence in 1707.\u00a0Agrippina<\/i> was first produced in 1709 at Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, owned by the Grimanis. The opera, with a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, ran for 27 nights successively.\u00a0The audience, thunderstruck with the grandeur and sublimity of his style,\u00a0applauded for Il caro Sassone<\/i> (\"the dear Saxon\"\u2014referring to Handel's German origins).\r\n

Move to London<\/h2>\r\nIn 1710, Handel became Kapellmeister<\/i> to German prince George, the Elector of Hanover, who in 1714 would become King George I of Great Britain and Ireland.\u00a0He visited Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici and her husband in D\u00fcsseldorf on his way to London in 1710. With his opera\u00a0Rinaldo<\/i>, based on La Gerusalemme Liberata<\/i> by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, Handel enjoyed great success, although it was composed quickly, with many borrowings from his older Italian works.\u00a0This work contains one of Handel's favorite arias, Cara sposa, amante cara<\/i>, and the famous Lascia ch'io pianga.\r\n\r\nIn 1712, Handel decided to settle permanently in England. He received a yearly income of \u00a3200 from Queen Anne after composing for her the\u00a0Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate<\/i>, first performed in 1713.\r\n\r\nOne of his most important patrons was The 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, a young and incredibly wealthy member of an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family.\u00a0For the young Lord Burlington, Handel wrote Amadigi di Gaula<\/i>, a magical opera, about a damsel in distress, based on the tragedy by Antoine Houdar de la Motte.\r\n\r\nThe conception of an opera as a coherent structure was slow to capture Handel's imagination\u00a0and he composed no operas for five years. In July 1717 Handel's Water Music<\/i> was performed more than three times on the Thames for the King and his guests. It is said the compositions spurred reconciliation between the King and Handel.\r\n

Cannons (1717\u201318)<\/h3>\r\nIn 1717 Handel became house composer at Cannons in Middlesex, where he laid the cornerstone for his future choral compositions in the twelveChandos Anthems<\/i>. Romain Rolland stated that these anthems were as important for his oratorios as the cantatas were for his operas.\u00a0Another work, which he wrote for The 1st Duke of Chandos, the owner of Cannons, was Acis and Galatea<\/i>: during Handel's lifetime it was his most performed work. Winton Dean wrote, \"the music catches breath and disturbs the memory.\"\r\n\r\nIn 1719 the Duke of Chandos became one of the composer's important patrons and main subscribers to his new opera company, the Royal Academy of Music, but his patronage declined after Chandos lost money in the South Sea bubble, which burst in 1720 in one of history's greatest financial cataclysms. Handel himself invested in South Sea stock in 1716, when prices were low and sold before 1720.\r\n

Royal Academy of Music (1719\u201334)<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"200\"]\""London Handel House at 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, London[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn May 1719, The 1st Duke of Newcastle, the Lord Chamberlain, ordered Handel to look for new singers. Handel traveled to Dresden to attend the newly built opera. He saw Teofane<\/i> by Antonio Lotti, and engaged members of the cast for the Royal Academy of Music, founded by a group of aristocrats to assure themselves a constant supply of baroque opera or opera seria. Handel may have invited John Smith, his fellow student in Halle, and his son Johann Christoph Schmidt, to become his secretary and amanuensis.\u00a0By 1723 he had moved into a Georgian house at 25 Brook Street, which he rented for the rest of his life.\u00a0This house, where he rehearsed, copied music and sold tickets, is now the Handel House Museum.\u00a0During twelve months between 1724 and 1725, Handel wrote three outstanding and successful operas, Giulio Cesare<\/i>, Tamerlano<\/i> and Rodelinda<\/i>. Handel's operas are filled with da capo arias, such as Svegliatevi nel core<\/i>. After composing Silete venti<\/i>, he concentrated on opera and stopped writing cantatas.\u00a0Scipio<\/i>, from which the regimental slow march of the British Grenadier Guards is derived, was performed as a stopgap, waiting for the arrival of Faustina Bordoni.\r\n\r\nIn 1727 Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for the Coronation ceremony of King George II. One of these, Zadok the Priest<\/i>, has been played at every British coronation ceremony since. In 1728 John Gay's The Beggar's Opera<\/i> premiered at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the longest run in theatre history up to that time. After nine years the Royal Academy of Music ceased to function but Handel soon started a new company.\r\n\r\nThe Queen's Theatre at the Haymarket (now Her Majesty's Theatre), established in 1705 by architect and playwright John Vanbrugh, quickly became an opera house.\u00a0<\/span>Between 1711 and 1739, more than 25 of Handel's operas premi\u00e8red there.\u00a0<\/span>In 1729 Handel became joint manager of the theatre with John James Heidegger.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\"]\"The The Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket in London by William Capon[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHandel traveled to Italy to engage new singers and also composed seven more operas, among them the comic masterpiece Partenope<\/i> and the \"magic\" opera Orlando<\/i>.\u00a0After two commercially successful English oratorios Esther<\/i> and Deborah<\/i>, he was able to invest again in the South Sea Company. Handel reworked his Acis and Galatea<\/i> which then became his most successful work ever. Handel failed to compete with the Opera of the Nobility, who engaged musicians such as Johann Adolph Hasse, Nicolo Porpora and the famous castrato Farinelli. The strong support byFrederick, Prince of Wales caused conflicts in the royal family. In March 1734 Handel composed a wedding anthem This is the day which the Lord hath made<\/i>, and a serenata Parnasso in Festa<\/i> for Anne of Hanover.\r\n\r\nDespite the problems the Opera of the Nobility was causing him at the time, Handel's neighbor in Brook Street, Mary Delany, reported on a party she invited Handel to at her house on 12 April 1734 where he was in good spirits:\r\n
I had Lady Rich and her daughter, Lady Cath. Hanmer and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Percival, Sir John Stanley and my brother, Mrs. Donellan, Strada [star soprano of Handel's operas] and Mr. Coot. Lord Shaftesbury begged of Mr. Percival to bring him, and being a profess'd friend of Mr. Handel (who was here also) was admitted; I never was so well entertained at an opera! Mr. Handel was in the best humor in the world, and played lessons and accompanied Strada and all the ladies that sang from seven o'clock till eleven. I gave them tea and coffee, and about half an hour after nine had a salver brought in of chocolate, mulled white wine and biscuits. Everybody was easy and seemed pleased.<\/blockquote>\r\n

Opera at Covent Garden (1734\u201341)<\/h3>\r\nIn 1733 the Earl of Essex received a letter with the following sentence: \"Handel became so arbitrary a prince, that the Town murmurs\". The board of chief investors expected Handel to retire when his contract ended, but Handel immediately looked for another theatre. In cooperation with John Rich he started his third company at Covent Garden Theatre. Rich was renowned for his spectacular productions. He suggested Handel use his small chorus and introduce the dancing of Marie Sall\u00e9, for whom Handel composed Terpsichore<\/i>. In 1735 he introduced organ concertos between the acts. For the first time Handel allowed Gioacchino Conti, who had no time to learn his part, to substitute arias. Financially, Ariodante<\/i> was a failure, although he introduced ballet suites at the end of each act, his last opera with a magic content, and Alexander's Feast or the Power of Music<\/i> based on John Dryden's Alexander's Feast<\/i> starred Anna Maria Strada del P\u00f2 and John Beard.\r\n\r\nIn April 1737, at age 52, Handel apparently suffered a stroke which disabled the use of four fingers on his right hand, preventing him from performing.\u00a0In summer the disorder seemed at times to affect his understanding. Nobody expected that Handel would ever be able to perform again. But whether the affliction was rheumatism, a stroke or a nervous breakdown, he recovered remarkably quickly . To aid his recovery, Handel had travelled to Aachen, a spa in Germany. During six weeks he took long hot baths, and ended up playing the organ for a surprised audience.\u00a0It was even possible for him to write one of his most popular operas, Serse (including the famous aria Ombra mai f\u00f9, better known as \"Handel's largo\", he wrote for the famous castrato Caffarelli), just one year after his stroke.\r\n\r\nDeidamia<\/i>, his last opera, was performed three times in 1741. Handel gave up the opera business, while he enjoyed more success with his English oratorios.\r\n

Oratorio<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"170\"]\"Portrait Handel by Philip Mercier[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIl trionfo del tempo e del disinganno<\/i>, an allegory, Handel's first oratorio\u00a0was composed in Italy in 1707, followed by La resurrezione<\/i> in 1708 which uses material from the Bible. The circumstances of Esther<\/i> and its first performance, possibly in 1718, are obscure.\u00a0Another 12 years had passed when an act of piracy caused him to take up Esther<\/i> once again.\u00a0Three earlier performances aroused such interest that they naturally prompted the idea of introducing it to a larger public. Next came Deborah<\/i>, strongly colored by the Coronation Anthems\u00a0and Athaliah<\/i>, his first English Oratorio. In these three oratorios Handel laid the foundation for the traditional use of the chorus which marks his later oratorios.\u00a0Handel became sure of himself, broader in his presentation, and more diverse in his composition.\r\n\r\nIt is evident how much he learned from Arcangelo Corelli about writing for instruments, and from Alessandro Scarlatti about writing for the solo voice; but there is no single composer who taught him how to write for chorus.\u00a0Handel tended more and more to replace Italian soloists by English ones. The most significant reason for this change was the dwindling financial returns from his operas.\u00a0Thus a tradition was created for oratorios which was to govern their future performance. The performances were given without costumes and action; the singers appeared in their own clothes.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"224\"]\"Caricature Caricature of Handel by Joseph Goupy (1754)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 1736 Handel produced Alexander's Feast<\/i>. John Beard appeared for the first time as one of Handel's principal singers and became Handel's permanent tenor soloist for the rest of Handel's life.\u00a0The piece was a great success and it encouraged Handel to make the transition from writing Italian operas to English choral works. In Saul<\/i>, Handel was collaborating with Charles Jennens and experimenting with three trombones, a carillon and extra-large military kettledrums (from the Tower of London), to be sure \"...it will be most excessive noisy\".\u00a0Saul<\/i> and Israel in Egypt<\/i> both from 1739 head the list of great, mature oratorios, in which the da capo aria became the exception and not the rule.\u00a0Israel in Egypt<\/i> consists of little else but choruses, borrowing from the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline<\/i>. In his next works Handel changed his course. In these works he laid greater stress on the effects of orchestra and soloists; the chorus retired into the background.\u00a0L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato<\/i> has a rather diverting character; the work is light and fresh.\r\n\r\nDuring the summer of 1741, The 3rd Duke of Devonshire invited Handel to Dublin, capital of the Kingdom of Ireland, to give concerts for the benefit of local hospitals.\u00a0His Messiah<\/i> was first performed at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street on 13 April 1742, with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals participating.\u00a0Handel secured a balance between soloists and chorus which he never surpassed.\r\n\r\nIn 1747 Handel wrote his oratorio Alexander Balus<\/i>. This work was produced at Covent Garden Theatre, on March 23, 1748, and to the aria\u00a0Hark! hark! He strikes the golden lyre<\/i>, Handel wrote the acccompaniment for mandolin, harp, violin, viola, and violoncello.\r\n\r\nThe use of English soloists reached its height at the first performance of Samson<\/i>. The work is highly theatrical. The role of the chorus became increasingly important in his later oratorios. Jephtha<\/i> was first performed on 26 February 1752; even though it was his last oratorio, it was no less a masterpiece than his earlier works.\r\n

Later years<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"170\"]\"George George Frideric Handel in 1733, by Balthasar Denner(1685\u20131749)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn 1749 Handel composed Music for the Royal Fireworks<\/i>; 12,000 people attended the first performance.\u00a0In 1750 he arranged a performance ofMessiah<\/i> 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 copy of Messiah<\/i> to the institution upon his death.\u00a0His 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<\/i>. In addition to the Foundling Hospital, Handel also gave to a charity that assisted impoverished musicians and their families.\r\n\r\nIn 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.\u00a0In 1751 one eye started to fail. The cause was a cataract which was operated on by the great charlatan Chevalier Taylor. This did not improve his eyesight, but possibly made it worse.\u00a0He died eight years later in 1759 at home in Brook Street, at age 74. The last performance he attended was of Messiah<\/i>. Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey. More than three thousand mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state honors.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"170\"]\"Senesino, Senesino, the famous castrato from Siena[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHandel never married, and kept his personal life private. His initial will bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his niece Johanna, however four codicils distributed much of his estate to other relations, servants, friends and charities.\r\n\r\nHandel owned an art collection that was auctioned posthumously in 1760.\u00a0The auction catalogue listed approximately seventy paintings and ten prints (other paintings were bequeathed).\r\n

Works<\/h2>\r\n