George Frideric Handel

Composer

Georg Friderich (or Frederich) Handel was born in 1685. He was the second son of 60-year old physician Georg Handel who was distinguished in Halle and the court of Saxe Weissenfels, and acquainted with many court musicians. Even though young Georg exhibited much talent at an early age, his father insisted that he pursue the legal profession and refused to support any musical training at all.

Fortunately, at the age of seven, he was heard trying out the organ by the duke and his Kapellmeister Johann Phillip Krieger while visiting the court at Weissenfels. Both pressed the senior Handel to provide musical training for his young son. When they returned to Halle, Georg was enrolled in the municipal school for regular studies, but his father did allow him to take harpsichord lessons. However, he remained true to his father’s wishes and continued his legal studies. He entered the university in February of 1702, and in March was appointed temporary organist in the cathedral. Handel became more involved in Halle’s musical scene, and in March 1703, left his legal studies and moved to Hamburg.

While in Hamburg, Handel successfully produced two operas in 1705. He also worked as a violinist in the opera orchestra. Unfortunately, the theater experience difficulties and he left for Italy in 1706 to try his luck there, where he traveled extensively and built a reputation as a composer and keyboard virtuoso. He produced the opera Rodrigo at Florence in 1706 and Agrippina at Venice in 1709. Shortly thereafter he accepted the post of Kappelmeister at the court at Hanover. After obtaining a leave from the court, he arrived in London in December 1710, where he wrote the Italian opera Rinaldo in 15 days. With its success he was granted a second leave from Hanover, during which he composed, by the order of Queen Anne, his Te Deum to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Handel stayed in England in the household of Lord Burlington until the sudden death of Queen Anne in August 1714, and George, Elector of Hanover, was crowned George I. Handel regained favor with the crown with the success of Amadigi and was invited to accompany the king on a visit to Hanover in July 1716. During this period, Handel became a naturalized British subject and changed his name to George Frideric Handel.

From 1717 to 1720 George directed the private chapel of the duke of Chandos. From 1720 to 1728 he was involved in the Royal Academy of Music at the Haymarket Theatre, for the performance of Italian opera. Quarrels, rivalries, and disputes between the actors ended the group at the completion of the 1728 season. During this troubled period, Handel wrote the four anthems for the coronation of George II, including Zadok the Priest, which has been performed at every British coronation since.

While in Venice to recruit singers for a joint venture with the Haymarket Theatre manager, Handel was called to the side of his ailing mother in Halle where he spent a year. Upon returning to London, he began the fight for the acceptance of Italian opera, writing two or three operas a year in competition with the ‘Opera of the Nobility’ sponsored by the Prince of Wales. During this period, he struggled with illness and bankruptcy trying to impose Italian opera on a mostly hostile public. But he also produced two oratorios, Esther and Deborah, and returning to this style he completed Messiah which was first heard at Dublin in April 1742.

For four more years, he endured London’s hostility. But Handel triumphed with the Occasional Oratorio written in 1746 ‘to encourage the English resistance’ to the Stuarts, and Judas Maccabaeus written in 1747 to celebrate the Battle of Culloden. In 1748 after completing the last act of Jephtha Handel submitted to three cataract operations in an unsuccessful attempt to stem his worsening blindness. His last seven years were spent mostly in solitude and contemplation. He would occasionally play an organ concerto during the intermission of a performance of one of his oratorios.

Following his last performance on April 6,1759 where he played the harpsichord at a performance of Messiah, he became bedridden and said in his final hours, “I wish I may die on Good Friday, in the hope of meeting my dear Lord and Savior on the day of His Resurrection”.

Handel died on Saturday, April 14, 1759, at the age of 74. He is buried in the Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey in London.

Bibliography:

The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music, Published by the World Publishing Company

Library of Congress catalog card number: 70-147888