George Frideric Handel

German composer and musician

• Born: February 23, 1685
• Birthplace: Halle, Brandenburg (now in Germany)
• Died: April 14, 1759
• Place of death: London, England

One of the most gifted composers in music history, Handel gave to the world some of the most beautiful music ever written, including the Messiah, Water Music, and Fireworks Music.

Early Life

George Frideric Handel, the eighteenth century composer to whom the world owes thanks for some of its best-known and most beloved music, both sacred and secular, was born in Halle, Brandenburg. His father at times must have seemed more like a grandfather to his young son, since he was sixty-three years old when the future composer was born. His first wife had died after many years of marriage and several children, and he had then married a daughter of the Lutheran pastor in Halle, Dorothea Taust.

George’s aunt, Anna Taust, introduced the young George to good music. She took him regularly to the Liebfrauenkirche (the Lutheran church), where he loved to listen to the wonderful organ played by a competent musician, Friedrich Zachow. Anna apparently also helped George smuggle a small clavichord into his attic, where, against his father’s wishes, he played quietly, often late at night.

The father was the barber-surgeon at the court of Saxe-Weissenfels, and George’s half brother, thirty-six years older than George, was also an employee of the duke. George often visited the court chapel, and the organist, realizing that the child was intelligent and had unusual musical talent, allowed him to play the organ. One Sunday service, George played a voluntary at the end of the service and so amazed the duke that he pressured the father into giving George a musical education. “To ignore gifts like these in a child is to fly in the face of God,” the duke argued.

While attending school in Halle, George was tutored by Zachow, the organist at the Liebfrauenkirche. Zachow was a conscientious musician, capable of playing all the instruments then in general use, especially the organ, harpsichord, violin, and oboe. In three years he taught Handel everything he knew, including part of his style, counterpoint, and harmony.

At eleven years of age, George and his father journeyed to Berlin to the Prussian court. The future King Frederick I of Prussia offered Handel a lifetime musical position, but his father did not want him to live so far from home, and they returned to Halle. Still, George Frideric Handel’s reputation as a composer and musician was already being established. The next year his father died at the age of seventy-five.

Handel enrolled at the University of Halle and just after his seventeenth birthday was appointed organist at the Schlosskirche, the Calvinist cathedral there. His duties gave him valuable experience. He played the organ at all services and kept it in good working order. He also composed and directed tunes for psalms and cantatas for all Sundays and festivals at the church.

An accomplished musician, Handel left Halle for Hamburg, an important commercial and cultural center, with the only regular opera company in Germany outside the royal courts. Handel played second violin and later harpsichord. Supplementing that income by giving private music lessons, he managed to support himself and even occasionally sent home a little money to his widowed mother. He lived a frugal life and busied himself in his work, ignoring the frivolities of such a bustling university town. He was sociable, however, and attracted the notice of many. Once he fought a duel with a friend over who was to play the harpsichord at an opera. Handel’s life and career could suddenly have ended with a sword thrust, but as his friend later explained, “By God’s mercy my sword [broke] . . . on a hard metal button.” Handel himself escaped unscathed.

It was at Hamburg that Handel wrote his earliest important work, the St. John Passion, in 1704. His first two operas, Almira and Nero, he wrote in 1705—the first a success, Nero a failure. He also wrote many sonatas, arias, and cantatas. In Halle and Hamburg, the foundation was laid for one of the greatest musical lives in all history. The development of Handel’s style, however, was yet to come—in Italy, in the greatest musical centers of the world.

Life’s Work

While he was still in Hamburg, George Frideric Handel met the son of the grand duke of Tuscany, Prince Ferdinand de’ Medici, who invited him to visit Italy. In his beautiful villa at Pratolino, the prince had built a magnificent theater for operatic performances. The love of Italian nobility for opera was well known, and with such high-ranking support Handel could expect an audience immediately. Thus Handel, at the age of twenty-one, went to Florence in the autumn of 1706. There he wrote and produced Rodrigo, his first Italian opera. From Florence he went to Rome and played the organ before enthusiastic listeners in the Church of St. John Lateran.

By that time Handel was becoming well known in Italy. The Marquess Francesco Ruspoli employed the young man as household musician at his palace in Rome and his country estates, from 1707 to 1709. Handel had flexibility to compose and move about as he pleased, but he was expected to write cantatas for weekly performance on Sundays. In this period Handel wrote some fifty cantatas, mostly with Spanish and French words. His most famous production for Ruspoli was the oratorio La Resurrezione, celebrating the resurrection of Christ, produced at Ruspoli’s palace in Rome in April, 1708. A theater with scenery and a curtain were constructed in the palace, and a very large orchestra (for the time) was assembled, performing with at least forty-five players. The conductor was Arcangelo Corelli, one of the most famous violinists and composers of the period. Fifteen hundred copies of the libretto were printed; the audiences must have been substantial.

The Italian years were particularly significant in Handel’s career. He learned much of opera, oratorio, and cantata as well as concerto and sonata forms. In Florence, Rome, Naples, and Venice he became closely acquainted with the great Italian composers and musicians, including not only Corelli but also Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, and Antonio Vivaldi. Handel arrived in Italy a gifted but inexperienced composer. He left as a mature artist in command of his own rich, melodic style, having mastered the techniques for writing for voice. His writing was relaxed and flexible. He was ready for his distinguished English career.

Handel left Italy in February, 1710, to return briefly to Germany. The elector of Hanover (heir to the English throne) appointed him as Kapellmeister at a substantial salary, with the understanding that Handel would spend the next several months in England. Handel was favorably received at Queen Anne’s court and in the new opera house, the Queen’s Theatre in London. Rinaldo, his first Italian opera composed for London, was first performed in 1711 and was a sensational success, performed fifteen times. Handel returned to his duties in Germany for a year, writing chamber and orchestral music and giving lessons to Princess Caroline of Ansbach (later Queen Caroline of England).

Back in London in 1712, Handel took up residence at Burlington House in Piccadilly, composing during the day and performing in the evenings. He continued his opera career and began writing English church and ceremonial music on the direct commission of the queen, who gave him an annual salary. On August 1, 1714, Queen Anne died, to be succeeded by Handel’s other royal employer, the elector of Hanover, now King George I of England.

In 1719, Handel became the musical director of the Royal Academy of Music, a new enterprise designed to establish Italian operas in England. Squabbling among singers and disagreements within the directorship finally caused the venture to collapse after nine years, but Handel saw many spectacular successes in opera performances. In working for excellence, Handel tended to be forceful and somewhat dictatorial; rehearsals were often stormy, but performances were excellent. Typical of Handel’s management style was a most unusual incident when his two prima donnas engaged in a shouting match before a crowded house, including many of the nobility and the princess of Wales. Some of the audience joined in the battle, tearing down part of the scenery as the two women tore at each other’s hair.

As composer to the Chapel Royal, it fell to Handel to write four anthems for George II’s coronation, considered some of the most spectacular such pieces ever written. He used forty-seven singers and an exceptionally large orchestra of 160 members. The archbishops of Canterbury and York sought to supply the words for the anthems, but Handel told them, “I have read my Bible very well and shall choose for myself.”

Handel’s magnum opus was the Messiah, written in the summer of 1741. The libretto, compiled by Charles Jennens, is entirely from Scripture. It includes several prophesies of the Old Testament concerning the coming of the Messiah, such as “Unto Us a Child Is Born,” followed by the announcement by the angels of the birth of Christ, “Glory to God in the Highest.” Arias, recitatives, and choruses depict the life and crucifixion of Christ followed by his resurrection and ultimate triumph, especially “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” “Worthy Is the Lamb,” and the chorus known popularly as the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Handel wrote the stirring music that is so perfectly tuned to the words of Scripture in only twenty-four days, working day and night, hardly stopping to eat. Handel wrote of his experience in composing the Messiah, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!” First performed in Dublin in April, 1742, for the benefit of three charitable institutions, the Messiah was an instant success in Ireland (though less so initially in England) and has been performed every Christmas season throughout the English-speaking world. Indeed, the “Hallelujah Chorus” is probably the most widely performed Easter piece.

After nine months in Ireland, Handel returned to his work in London, work that included the preparation of ceremonial music for the English court. The most spectacular example was probably the writing of Fireworks Music for the Green Park celebration of April 27, 1749, commemorating the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. A huge building more than 100 feet high was specially constructed for the event, and 101 brass cannon sat nearby for the royal salute. Handel put together a band such as is seldom seen: forty trumpets, twenty French horns, twenty-four oboes, sixteen bassoons, eight pairs of kettledrums, and one bass cornet eight feet long. The crowd of many thousands was enchanted with the music, and the celebration went well until the fireworks were lit and burned the pavilion. Given the huge crowd, there were surprisingly few injuries.

By 1751, it was clear that Handel was going blind; by 1753, he had completely lost his sight. He continued to work steadily, though, dictating his work to his secretary, Christopher Smith. He played his harpsichord by the hour and continued his habit of attending St. George’s Church in Hanover Square. His last season began in March, 1759, and ended with a last performance of the Messiah. Friends came to see him, including the staunchly Methodist countess of Huntington, who wrote, “I have had a most pleasing interview with Handel. . . . He is now old, and at the close of his long career; yet he is not dismayed at the prospect before him [because of] the comforts and consolations which the Gospel affords. . . .”

“I want to die on Good Friday,” he told his friends, “in the hope of rejoining the good God, my . . . Lord and Saviour, on the day of His resurrection.” One day he bade farewell to his friends and told his servant not to admit anyone else to his chambers, saying, “I have now done with the world.” He died on April 14, 1759, and was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. The marble statue above his monument shows Handel writing part of the Messiah, depicting the music and words of “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.” Handel left œ20,000 and, as always, was generous to his servants, relatives, friends, and charities.

A large, portly man, Handel was rather ungraceful in his walk but dignified and kindly in his appearance. Somewhat quick and impetuous, he was also of good humor and sharp wit. He had great vitality and was an energetic worker. He had a reputation for absolute integrity and paid his singers and orchestra well. He was exceptionally generous, especially to charities, widows, and orphans, and although he never married, no aspersions were therefore cast on his morals. Handel was a devout Christian, a pious Lutheran who attended church regularly and was very familiar with his Bible. He was quick-tempered, but he quickly recovered as well. He never carried a grudge and was quick to admit that he was wrong when the occasion warranted. He was somewhat awkward in English at first, but later in life he wrote well. His fame as a composer has obscured the fact that he was as accomplished a musician as any of his contemporaries, particularly on the organ and harpsichord.

Handel lived for thirty-four years on Brook Street, Hanover Square, with two servants. His rugged simplicity was reflected in his plain furniture (in contrast to the ornateness of much of his music). His collection of paintings by Rembrandt was worth œ8,000. His workroom was furnished with a few tables, half a dozen old chairs, his harpsichord, and a wall desk. He dressed modestly but well, typically in a gold-laced coat, ruffles, and a three-cornered hat.

Significance

Melody, harmony, and beautiful sound (euphony) were always George Frideric Handel’s goals in his music. He consciously sought to express the meaning and tone of his librettos musically. He complained occasionally of an inappropriate libretto, saying, “How is a musician to create anything beautiful if he has no beautiful words? . . . There is no spirit in the verse, and one feels vexation in setting such to music.” One of the reasons the Messiah was and is so successful is the majesty of the words so appropriately chosen from the King James Bible. Handel’s music seems to capture perfectly the meaning and grandeur of the lyrics. The medium captures the message.

Characterized by the ornate style of the Baroque and given to the splendor of Italian opera, Handel’s music nevertheless reveals the sublimity of the simple things of life. That simplicity captured the hearts of his world. Handel delighted in wandering through art museums, and it is not surprising that Rembrandt was his favorite artist. Both he and Handel celebrate the goodness and joy of the simple things of life. Another secret of his art is the use of contrast, at which Handel excelled: Majestic choruses, dramatic silences, and sublime, simple melodies all contribute to the rich diversity within the unity of a Handel composition. Handel’s music is international in scope, both in its sources—German, Italian, French, and English influences are all clear to the discerning listener—and in its appeal.

Bibliography

Burrows, Donald. Handel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. An examination of Handel’s life and music. Burrows describes Handel’s transition from a church-trained musician in Germany to an opera composer in London, and the evolution of his theater career from opera to oratorio composition.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Handel. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. A collection of essays that explore the musician’s life and music, including discussions of the political, social, and cultural life of Handel’s London, and the composer’s arias, oratorios, and concertos.

Cudworth, Charles. Handel: A Biography, with a Survey of Books, Editions, and Recordings. Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1972. Part of the series The Concertgoer’s Companions, designed to provide background information for greater appreciation of a concert. Consists of a brief survey of Handel’s life, an annotated bibliography, an exhaustive list of Handel’s music, and a dozen pages of recordings of his music.

Dean, Winton. The New Grove Handel. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982. The best brief technical analysis of Handel’s compositions. Strives to be more analytical than historical, but contains six excellent pages describing Handel’s character and personality.

Deutsch, Otto Erich, ed. Handel: A Documentary Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1955. A collection of documents by and about Handel. Includes excerpts from John Mainwaring’s biography of 1760.

Flower, Newman. George Frideric Handel: His Personality and His Times. London: Cassell, 1923. Reprint. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948. The most readable, entertaining biography of Handel. Well written. Includes much anecdotal material.

Hogwood, Christopher. Handel. 1984. Reprint. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996. A comprehensive biography by a musician and conductor. Includes about one hundred illustrations, reprints of contemporary documents, and a chronological table of Handel’s life.

Myers, Robert Manson. Handel’s “Messiah”: A Touchstone of Taste. New York: Macmillan, 1948. Reprint. New York: Octagon Books, 1971. An analysis of Handel’s most famous composition and its place in history.

Smith, Jane Stuart, and Betty Carlson. A Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence. Westchester, Ill.: Cornerstone Books, 1978. An entertaining and thought-provoking book on twenty of the great composers in Western civilization, including Handel. Includes recommended reading and listening for each chapter.

Streatfeild, Richard A. Handel. New York: New Library of Music, 1907. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1960. A standard scholarly work that is arranged chronologically.

Weinstock, Herbert. Handel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946. Another carefully researched, carefully written biography.