Music Monday: George Frideric Handel

Keith Chaffee, Librarian, Collection Development,
a graphic that contains a painting of George Handel

On February 23, 1685, George Frideric Handel was born. Handel was one of the great composers of the Baroque era, particularly noted for his operas and oratorios. His oratorio Messiah has become a standard part of the Christmas season, with annual performances in many large cities.

Handel was born in Halle, in what is now Germany, but was at the time the Duchy of Magdeburg. He was somewhere around eight years old when Duke Johann Adolf heard him playing the organ and recommended to Handel's father that the boy be given the chance to study music. Handel's father hired the Halle church organist, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, as an instructor. (Zachow was a composer in his own right; his music isn't often heard these days, but a few of his organ pieces are available for streaming here.) Zachow introduced his student not only to the fugues, canons, and counterpoint that were popular in German music at the time but to the more dramatic and theatrical music that younger composers were writing. Handel learned quickly and was composing music for the weekly church service by the time he was ten.

Handel was drawn to opera, which was still a relatively new form at the time, and took a position in the orchestra of a Hamburg opera company in 1703; they produced his first operas in 1705. But opera was truly flourishing in Italy, and Handel went there in 1706. He spent time in Florence and Rome, and in 1709, premiered what most critics consider his first great opera, Agrippina (streaming, DVD).

In 1710, Handel accepted a position as director of music in the Hanover court of the German Prince George, who would become King George I of England in 1714. He left that position fairly quickly, and moved to London in 1712; it would be his home for the rest of his life. George was not happy about Handel's departure from Hanover, but the two men reconciled a few years later, when now-King George threw a large party on a riverboat and entertained his guests with several performances of the orchestral suite Water Music (streaming, CD ), which Handel had written for the occasion. The Great Courses series "Music as a Mirror of History" includes a lecture on the political history behind Water Music (e-video).

Between 1719 and 1741, Handel directed three different opera companies in London, and his operas, written in Italian, were great successes. Among the most popular were Orlando (streaming, CD); Alcina (streaming, DVD); and Serse (streaming, DVD), which includes one of his most popular arias, "Ombra mai fu." His 1718 opera Acis and Galatea (streaming) was particularly successful and was Handel's most frequently performed work during his lifetime.

He wasn't only a composer of opera during these years. He composed a set of harpsichord suites in 1720 that included a popular air and variations which came to be known as "The Harmonious Blacksmith" (it's part of the E Major suite: streaming). In 1727, he was commissioned to write four anthems (streaming, CD) for the coronation of King George II. One of these anthems, "Zadok the Priest," has been performed at the coronation of every British monarch since then.

The success of Handel's oratorio Alexander's Feast (streaming) in 1736 marked the beginning of a shift away from writing operas in Italian for theatrical performance, and a new focus on writing English-language oratorios for the concert hall. The last decade of Handel's compositions would be focused on oratorio, including the holiday standard Messiah (streaming, DVD, CD), and Solomon (streaming), which included the memorable instrumental passage, "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba." The Great Courses devotes two lectures to Messiah in the series "The Great Works of Sacred Music" (e-video) and Jonathan Keates' Messiah (e-book) tells the history of the work from its composition to the present.

Handel's major instrumental work during this period was Music for the Royal Fireworks (streaming, CD), commissioned by King George II to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession; at the King's request, the piece is written for winds, brass, and percussion only, with no strings.

Handel began to lose his eyesight in 1751 and was completely blind by 1752. He died in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey with full state honors. More than 3,000 mourners attended his funeral.

Christopher Hogwood's Handel (print) is a thorough biography. In addition to the pieces linked above, more of Handel's music is available for streaming at Freegal and Hoopla.


 

 

 

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