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MOS Composer of the Month: Previous Page, Next Page, Index |
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Composer of the Month - December, 2005 George Frideric Handel,1685-1759
Handel was born near Halle, Germany, to a barber-surgeon who intended that he study law. But Handel discovered a harpsichord and against his father's wishes taught himself to play it. On a visit to his step-brother, who was a valet to the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, Handel discovered the organ in the Duke's chapel. The Duke overheard him playing and insisted that Handel receive a proper musical education. At the ripe old age of seven years, Handel's formal career in music began. After spending one year accommodating his late father's desire that he study law, Handel finally abandoned the pretense and devoted himself to music. At the age of 18 he was fulltime harpsichordist for the Hamburg opera company. Within three years he had written two operas and a Passion. After a four-year tour of Italy, where he established himself as a master of the Italian operatic style, he returned to Germany in 1709 under the aegis of the Elector of Hanover, later to become King George I of England. After a series of visits to England, he established permanent residence there in 1712, and became an English citizen in 1726, just a year before the accession of George II. For this event, Handel composed four Coronation Anthems; at least one of the four has been performed at every British coronation since then. Beginning in 1741, Handel devoted himself almost exclusively to the genre for which he is best known, the oratorio. Although his most famous, Messiah, focuses on the central New Testament figure, most of his oratorios are from the Old Testament (Samson, Israel in Egypt, Saul, Belshazzar, Joshua, Solomon) or from secular sources (Judas Maccabaeus, Theodora). The music world is indeed fortunate that Handel bequeathed many of his manuscripts to his secretary, Johann Christian Schmidt. Schmidt's son, himself a pupil of Handel's, presented them to King George III. They are preserved in the library of Buckingham Palace, comprising an 88-volume collection of opera, oratorio, odes, sacred music, cantatas, and instrumental music. There is much debate today as to what constitutes the "authentic" Messiah. In fact, it is an oversimplification of history to even debate the question. While Handel was alive, the work was performed under such different circumstances, with performers of different musical skills, and with Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens constantly at odds over interpretation, that Handel frequently rewrote passages and entire numbers to deal with the immediate needs of the particular performance. Consequently, there are still today variant arrangements of essentially the same piece of music. It is not enough for a performer to say "I can sing Hallelujah from memory;" one must say which version one has memorized. Although they never met, George Frideric Handel shares a remarkable common event with Johannes Sebastian Bach beyond the fact that they were born the same year: they had cataract surgery by the same oculist, John Taylor. The procedure was primitive by today's standards, and he eventually became fully blind. But his fate was better than Bach, who died from an infection caused by poor hygiene in the surgery. Handel himself remained active in music virtually all his life: he was at the organ accompanying a performance of Messiah one week before he died at age 74. He is buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London. For further reading on G. F. Handel: Click here for more information about the MOS Composer of the Month feature.
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