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George Frideric Handel history
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Works
George Frideric Handel
Handel’s compositions include some 50 operas, 23 oratorios, and a large amount of church music, as well as instrumental pieces, such as the organ concerti of which there are sixteen, including the Opus 3 and 6 Concerti Grossi, the Water Music, the Fireworks Music, and «The Cuckoo and the Nightingale,» in which the birds can be heard calling back and forth to each other during passages played in different keys representing the vocal ranges of each of the two birds.
After his death, Handel’s Italian operas fell into obscurity, save the odd fragment, such as the ubiquitous aria from Serse, «Ombra mai fu»; his reputation throughout the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth 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); King Solomon (1748), and Jephtha (1752).
Since the 1960s, with the revival of interest in baroque music and original instrument playing styles, interest has revived in Handel’s Italian operas, and many have been recorded and performed on stage. Of the 50 he wrote between 1705 and 1738, Alcina (1735), Ariodante (1735), Orlando (1733), Rinaldo (1711, 1731), and Serse (also known as Xerxes) (1738) 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 are sometimes performed on stage by small chamber ensembles.
With the rediscovery of his theatrical works, Handel, in addition to his renown as an instrumentalist, orchestral writer, and melodist, is now perceived as being one of opera’s great musical dramatists.
Handel adopted the spelling «George Frideric Handel» on his naturalization as a British citizen. His name is spelled «Händel» in Germany and elsewhere, and «Haendel» in France, which causes no small grief to catalogers everywhere. There was another composer with a similar name, Handl, who was a Slovene (without umlaut; not Händel). He was usually known as Jacobus Gallus.
Handel’s works were edited by S. Arnold (40 vols., London, 1786), and by F. Chrysander, for the German Händel-Gesellschaft (100 vols., Leipzig, 1859–1894).
Messiah was first performed in New Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin on April 13, 1742, with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of St. Patrick’s and Christ Church cathedrals participating.
Opera
Though working as a violinist, it was Handel’s skill on the organ and harpsichord that began to earn him attention and landed him more opportunities to perform in operas.
Handel also began to compose operas, making his debut in early 1705 with Almira. The opera was instantly successful and achieved a 20-performance run. After composing several more popular operas, in 1706 Handel decided to try his luck in Italy. While in there, Handel composed the operas Rodrigo and Agrippina, which were produced in 1707 and 1709 respectively. He also managed to write more than a few dramatic chamber works during this period.
Touring the major Italian cities over three opera seasons, Handel introduced himself to most of Italy’s major musicians. Unexpectedly, while in Venice, he met multiple people who expressed an interest in London’s music scene. Enticed to experiment with a freelance music career there, in 1710 Handel left Venice and set out for London. In London, Handel met with the manager of the King’s Theatre, who commissioned Handel to write an opera. Within just two weeks, Handel composed Rinaldo. Released during the 1710–11 London opera season, Rinaldo was Handel’s breakthrough. His most critically acclaimed work up to that date, it gained him the widespread recognition that he would maintain throughout the rest of his musical career.
After the debut of Rinaldo, Handel spent the next few years writing and performing for English royalty, including Queen Anne and King George I. Then, in 1719, Handel was invited to become the Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, the first Italian opera company in London. Handel eagerly accepted. He produced several operas with the Royal Academy of Music that, while well-liked, were not especially lucrative for the struggling academy.
In 1726, Handel decided to make London his home permanently and became a British citizen. (He also Anglicized his name at this time, to George Frideric.) In 1727, when Handel’s latest opera, Alessandro, was being performed, Italian opera in London took a hard hit as the result of a hostile rivalry between two female lead singers. Frustrated, Handel broke away from the Royal Academy and formed his own new company, calling it the New Royal Academy of Music. Under the New Royal Academy of Music, Handel produced two operas a year for the next decade, but Italian opera fell increasingly out of style in London. Handel composed two more Italian operas before finally deciding to abandon the failing genre.
Legacy
Figure 5. A Masquerade at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket (c. 1724)
Handel’s works were collected and preserved by two men: Sir Samuel Hellier, a country squire whose musical acquisitions form the nucleus of the Shaw-Hellier Collection, and the abolitionist Granville Sharp. The catalogue accompanying the National Portrait Gallery exhibition marking the tercentenary of the composer’s birth calls them two men of the late eighteenth century “who have left us solid evidence of the means by which they indulged their enthusiasm.”
After his death, Handel’s Italian operas fell into obscurity, except for selections such as the aria fromSerse, “Ombra mai fù.” The oratorios continued to be performed but not long after Handel’s death they were thought to need some modernisation, and Mozart orchestrated a German version of Messiah and other works. Throughout the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Anglophonecountries, his reputation rested primarily on his English oratorios, which were customarily performed by enormous choruses of amateur singers on solemn occasions. The centenary of his death, in 1859, was celebrated by a performance of Messiah at The Crystal Palace, involving 2,765 singers and 460 instrumentalists, who played for an audience of about 10,000 people.
Figure 6. A carved marble statue of Handel, created in 1738 by Louis-François Roubiliac
Since the early music revival many of the forty-two operas he wrote have been performed in opera houses and concert halls. Giulio Cesare (1724), Tamerlano (1724) and Rodelinda (1725) each on a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, stand out and are considered as masterpieces, each in a different style.
Recent decades have revived his 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 by John Dryden) and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (1713) are 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). These works have a close kinship with the sacred oratorios, particularly in the vocal writing for the English-language texts. They also share the lyrical and dramatic qualities of Handel’s Italian operas. As such, they are 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.
The original form of his name, Georg Friedrich Händel, is generally used in Germany and elsewhere, but he is known as “Haendel” in France. A different composer, Jacob Handl or Händl (1550–1591) is usually known by the Latin form Jacobus Gallus that appears in his publications.
Reception
Handel has generally been accorded high esteem by fellow composers, both in his own time and since. Bach attempted, unsuccessfully, to meet with Handel while he was visiting Halle. Mozart is reputed to have said of him, “Handel understands affect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt.” To Beethoven he was “the master of us all . . . the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb.”Beethoven 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.”
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Burrows, Donald. Handel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 019816470X
- Dent, Edward Joseph. Handel. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1419122754
- Deutsch, Otto Erich. Handel: A Documentary Biography, 1955. OCLC
- Frosch, W. A. New England Journal of Medicine 321 (1989): 765-769.
- Harris, Ellen T. (ed.). The Librettos of Handel’s Operas: A Collection of Seventy Librettos Documenting Handel’s Operatic Career. New York: Garland, 1989. ISBN 0824038622
- Hogwood, Christopher. Handel. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997 (original 1984). ISBN 0500013551
- Kavanaugh, Patrick. Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996. ISBN 0310208068
- Keates, Jonathan. Handel: The Man and his Music. London: V. Gollancz, 1985. ISBN 0575035730
- Rosen, Charles. The Classical Style. New York: W. W. Norton, 1971. ISBN 0393021467
- Schonberg, Harold C. Lives of the Great Composers. New York: W. W. Norton, 1970. ISBN 0393021467
Health Issues
Over the course of his musical career, Handel, exhausted by stress, endured a number of potentially debilitating problems with his physical health. He is also believed to have suffered from anxiety and depression. Yet somehow, Handel, who was known to laugh in the face of adversity, remained virtually undeterred in his determination to keep making music.
In the spring of 1737, Handel suffered a stroke that impaired the movement of his right hand. His fans worried that he would never compose again. But after only six weeks of recuperation in Aix-la-Chapelle, Handel was fully recovered. He went back to London and not only returned to composing, but made a comeback at playing the organ as well.
Six years later, Handel suffered a second springtime stroke. However, he stunned audiences once again with a speedy recovery, followed by a prolific stream of ambitious oratorios.
Handel’s three-act oratorio Samson, which premiered in London in 1743, reflected how Handel related to the character’s blindness through his own firsthand experience with the progressive degeneration of his sight:
By 1750, Handel had entirely lost sight in his left eye. He forged on, however, composing the oratorio Jephtha, which also contained a reference to obscured vision. In 1752 Handel lost sight in his other eye and was rendered completely blind. As always before, Handel’s passionate pursuit of music propelled him forward. He kept on performing and composing, relying on his sharp memory to compensate when necessary, and remained actively involved in productions of his work until his dying day.
Notes
- K. Adams Aileen and B. Hofestadt, «Georg Handel (1622-97): The Barber-Surgeon Father of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759),» Journal of Medical Biography 13(3) (Aug. 2005): 142-149. Abstract available online. Retrieved August 7, 2007.
- George Frederic Handel, Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary Composer Biographies.
- Otto Erich Deutsch, «Review of Handel: A Documentary Biography,» Music & Letters 36(3) (July 1955): 269-272. At JSTOR (subscription required).
- Edward Hird, «Rediscovering Handel’s Messiah,» Deep Cove Crier (April 1993). Retrieved August 7, 2007.
- Edward Joseph Dent, Handel (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1419122754), p. 63.
Oratorios
In place of operas, oratorios became Handel’s new format of choice. Oratorios, large-scale concert pieces, immediately caught on with audiences and proved quite lucrative. The fact that oratorios didn’t require elaborate costumes and sets, as operas did, also meant that they cost far less to produce. Handel revised a number of Italian operas to fit this new format, translating them into English for the London audience. His oratorios became the latest craze in London and were soon made a regular feature of the opera season.
In 1735, during Lent alone, Handel produced more than 14 concerts made up primarily of oratorios. In 1741 Dublin’s Lord Lieutenant commissioned Handel to write a new oratorio based on a biblical libretto assembled by art patron Charles Jennens. As a result, Handel’s most famous oratorio, Messiah, made its debut at the New Music Hall in Dublin in April 1742.
Back in London, Handel organized a subscription season for 1743 that consisted exclusively of oratorios. The series opened with Handel’s composition Samson, to great audience acclaim. Samson was eventually followed by a run of Handel’s beloved Messiah.
Handel continued to compose a long string of oratorios throughout the remainder of his life and career. These included Semele (1744), Joseph and His Brethren (1744), Hercules (1745), Belshazzar (1745), Occasional Oratorio (1746), Judas Maccabeus (1747), Joshua (1748), Alexander Balus (1748), Susanna (1749), Solomon (1749), Theodora (1750), The Choice of Hercules (1751), Jeptha (1752) and The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757).
In addition to his oratorios, Handel’s concerti grossi, anthems and orchestral pieces also garnered him fame and success. Among the most noted were Water Music (1717), Coronation Anthems (1727), Trio Sonatas op. 2 (1722–33), Trio Sonatas op. 5 (1739), Concerto Grosso op. 6 (1739) and Music for Royal Fireworks, completed a decade before his death.
Death and Legacy
On April 14, 1759, Handel died in bed at his rented house at 25 Brook Street, in the Mayfair district of London. The Baroque composer and organist was 74 years old.
Handel was known for being a generous man, even in death. Having never married or fathered children, his will divided his assets among his servants and several charities, including the Foundling Hospital. He even donated the money to pay for his own funeral so that none of his loved ones would bear the financial burden. Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey a week after he died. Following his death, biographical documents began to circulate, and George Handel soon took on legendary status posthumously.
During his lifetime, Handel composed nearly 30 oratorios and close to 50 operas. At least 30 of those operas were written for the Royal Academy of Music, London’s very first Italian opera company. He was also a prolific writer of orchestral pieces and concerti grossi. He is said to have made significant contributions to all of the musical genres of his generation. His most renowned work is the oratorio Messiah, written in 1741 and first performed in Dublin in 1742.
In 1784, 25 years after Handel’s death, three commemorative concerts were held in his honor at the Parthenon and Westminster Abbey. In 2001 Handel’s home on Brook Street (from 1723 to 1759) became the site of the Handel House Museum, established in memory of his legendary life and works.
QUICK FACTS
- Name: George Handel
- Birth Year: 1685
- Birth date: February 23, 1685
- Birth City: Halle
- Birth Country: Germany
- Gender: Male
- Best Known For: George Frideric Handel composed operas, oratorios and instrumentals. His 1741 work, ‘Messiah,’ is among the most famous oratorios in history.
- Industries
- Classical
- Opera
- Astrological Sign: Pisces
- Schools
University of Halle
- Nacionalities
German
- Death Year: 1759
- Death date: April 14, 1759
- Death City: London
- Death Country: United Kingdom
CITATION INFORMATION
- Article Title: George Frideric Handel Biography
- Author: Biography.com Editors
- Website Name: The Biography.com website
- Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/george-handel
- Access Date:
- Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
- Last Updated: May 27, 2021
- Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
Early Life
George Frideric Handel was born on February 23, 1685, to Georg and Dorothea Handel of Halle, Saxony, Germany. From an early age, Handel longed to study music, but his father objected, doubting that music would be a realistic source of income. In fact, his father would not even permit him to own a musical instrument. His mother, however, was supportive, and she encouraged him to develop his musical talent. With her cooperation, Handel took to practicing on the sly.
When Handel was still a young boy, he had the opportunity to play the organ for the duke’s court in Weissenfels. It was there that Handel met composer and organist Frideric Wilhelm Zachow. Zachow was impressed with Handel’s potential and invited Handel to become his pupil. Under Zachow’s tutelage, Handel mastered composing for the organ, the oboe and the violin alike by the time he was 10 years old. From the age of 11 to the time he was 16 or 17, Handel composed church cantatas and chamber music that, being written for a small audience, failed to garner much attention and have since been lost to time.
Despite his dedication to his music, at his father’s insistence, Handel initially agreed to study law at the University of Halle. Not surprisingly, he did not remain enrolled for long. His passion for music would not be suppressed.
In 1703, when Handel was 18 years old, he decided to commit himself completely to music, accepting a violinist’s position at the Hamburg Opera’s Goose Market Theater. During this time, he supplemented his income by teaching private music lessons in his free time, passing on what he had learned from Zachow.
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 16 organ concerti. His most famous work, the oratorio Messiah with its “Hallelujah” chorus, is among the most popular works in choral music and has become the centrepiece of the Christmas season. Among the works with opus numbers published and popularised in his lifetime are the Organ Concertos Op. 4 and Op. 7, together with the Opus 3 and Opus 6 concerti grossi; the latter incorporate an earlier organ concerto The Cuckoo and the Nightingale in which birdsong is imitated in the upper registers of the organ. Also notable are his sixteen keyboard suites, especially The Harmonious Blacksmith.
Handel introduced 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 cornetts (Tamerlano), theorbo, French horn (Water Music), lyrichord, double bassoon, viola da gamba, bell chimes,positive organ, and harp (Giulio Cesare, Alexander’s Feast).