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George Frideric Handel

(Redirected from Georg Friedrich Händel)
George Frideric Handel, 1733
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George Frideric Handel, 1733

George Frideric Handel (or Georg Friedrich Händel in German) (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a German Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. He lived most of his life in Great Britain. His most famous piece is Messiah, an oratorio set to texts from the King James Bible; other well-known works are Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. He deeply influenced many of the composers who came after him, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and his style helped lead the transition from the Baroque to the Classical era.

Contents

Biography

Handel was born at Halle in Saxony in 1685, coincidentally in the same year that both Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti were born. He displayed considerable musical talent at an early age, by the age of seven he was a skilful performer on the harpsichord and organ, and at nine he began to compose music. However his father, a barber-surgeon to the court of Saxe-Weissenfels, opposed George Frideric pursuing a musical career, preferring him to study law. Nevertheless, the young Handel was permitted to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard techniques from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, the organist of Liebfrauenkirche, Halle.

Handel as a boy
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Handel as a boy

In 1702, in obedience to his father's wishes, he began the study of law at the University of Halle, but after his father's death the following year, he abandoned law for music, becoming the organist at the Calvinist Cathedral. The following year he moved to Hamburg, accepting a position as violinist in the orchestra of the opera-house at Hamburg. Here his first two operas, Almira and Nero, were produced early in 1705. Two other early operas, Daphne and Florindo, were produced at Hamburg in 1708. During the years 1707-1709 Handel traveled and studied in Italy. When opera was banned by local authorities, Handel found work as a composer of sacred music and wrote some pieces in operatic style. The famous Dixit Dominus (1707) is from this era. His Rodrigo was produced at Florence in 1707, and his Agrippina at Venice in 1708. Two oratorios, La Resurrezione and Il Trionfo del Tempo, were produced at Rome in 1709 and 1710, respectively.

In 1710 Handel became Kapellmeister to George, Elector of Hanover, who would soon be George I of Great Britain. He visited London in 1710 and settled there permanently in 1712, receiving a yearly income of £200 from Queen Anne. In 1726 Handel's opera Scipio (Scipione) was performed for the first time, the march from which remains the regimental slow march of the British Grenadier Guards. He was naturalised a British subject in the same year.

In 1727 Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for the coronation ceremony of King George II. One of these, Zadok the Priest, has been played at every coronation ceremony since. Handel was director of the Royal Academy of Music 1720-1728, and a partner of J. J. Heidegger in the management of the King's Theatre 1729-1734. Handel also had a long association with the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, where many of his Italian operas were premiered. Handel gave up operatic management entirely in 1740, after he had lost a fortune in the business. In 1751 he became blind, and died some eight years later in London. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

He never married. His personal life was very private.

Works

George Frideric Handel
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George Frideric Handel

Handel's compositions include some fifty operas, twenty-three oratorios, and a large amount of church music, not to speak of his superb instrumental pieces, such as the organ concerti, the Opus 6 Concerti Grossi, the Water Music, and the Fireworks Music.

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 19th century and first half of the 20th 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 (1720); Saul (1739); Israel in Egypt (1739); Messiah (1742); Samson (1743); Judas Maccabaeus (1747); 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 onstage. Of the fifty he wrote between 1705 and 1738, Alcina (1735), Ariodante (1735), Orlando (1733), Rinaldo (1711, 1731), Rodelinda (1725), and Serse (also known as Xerxes) (1738) stand out and are now performed regularly in opera houses and concert halls. Arguably the finest, however, is Giulio Cesare (1724) which, thanks to its superb orchestral and vocal writing, has 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 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.

Handel House at 25 Brook Street, London
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Handel House at 25 Brook Street, London

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 cataloguers everywhere. There was another composer with a similar name, Handl, who was a Slovene (without umlaut; so 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).

Handel lived at 25 Brook Street, London from 1723 until his death in 1759. It was here that he composed Messiah, Zadok the Priest, and Fireworks Music. In 2000 the upper stories of 25 Brook Street were leased to the Handel House Trust, and, after an extensive restoration program, the Handel House Museum opened to the public on 8 November 2001.

This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.

List of works

Operas

HWV Title Premiere Venue Notes
1 Almira 8 January 1705 Theater am Gänsemarkt, Hamburg
2 Nero 25 February 1705 Theater am Gänsemarkt, Hamburg Music lost
3 Florindo 1708 Theater am Gänsemarkt, Hamburg Music lost
4 Daphne 1708 Theater am Gänsemarkt, Hamburg Music lost
5 Rodrigo 1707 Florence
6 Agrippina Late 1709/Early 1710 Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, Venice
7a/b Rinaldo 24 February 1711 Queen's Theatre, London
8a/b/c Il pastor fido 22 November 1712 Queen's Theatre, London
9 Teseo 10 January 1713 Queen's Theatre, London
10 Lucio Cornelio Silla June 1713? London? Music reused in Amadigi
11 Amadigi 25 May 1715 King's Theatre, London
12a/b Radamisto 27 April 1720 King's Theatre, London
13 Muzio Scevola 15 April 1721 King's Theatre, London only Act 3 by Handel
14 Floridante 9 December 1721 King's Theatre, London
15 Ottone 12 January 1723 King's Theatre, London
16 Flavio 14 May 1723 King's Theatre, London
17 Giulio Cesare 20 February 1724 King's Theatre, London
18 Tamerlano 31 October 1724 King's Theatre, London
19 Rodelinda 13 February 1725 King's Theatre, London
20 Scipione 12 March 1726 King's Theatre, London
21 Alessandro 5 May 1726 King's Theatre, London
22 Admeto 31 January 1727 King's Theatre, London
23 Riccardo Primo 11 November 1727 King's Theatre, London
24 Siroe 17 February 1728 King's Theatre, London
25 Tolomeo 30 April 1728 King's Theatre, London
26 Lotario 2 December 1729 King's Theatre, London
27 Partenope 24 February 1730 King's Theatre, London
28 Poro 2 February 1731 King's Theatre, London
29 Ezio 15 January 1732 King's Theatre, London
30 Sosarme 15 February 1732 King's Theatre, London
31 Orlando 27 January 1733 King's Theatre, London
32 Arianna 26 January 1734 King's Theatre, London
33 Ariodante 8 January 1735 Covent Garden Theatre, London
34 Alcina 16 April 1735 Covent Garden Theatre, London
35 Atalanta 12 May 1736 Covent Garden Theatre, London
36 Arminio 12 January 1737 Covent Garden Theatre, London
37 Giustino 16 February 1737 Covent Garden Theatre, London
38 Berenice 18 May 1737 Covent Garden Theatre, London
39 Faramondo 3 January 1738 King's Theatre, London
40 Serse 15 April 1738 King's Theatre, London
A 14 Giove in Argo (Pasticcio) 1 May 1739 King's Theatre, London
41 Imeneo 22 November 1740 Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London
42 Deidamia 10 January 1741 Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London

Odes and Masques

HWV Title Premiere Venue
49a/b Acis and Galatea probably 1718 London
74 Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne 6 February 1713 Royal Palace in London
75 Alexander's Feast 19 February 1736 King's Theatre, London
76 Ode for St. Cecilia's Day 22 November 1739 Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London

Oratorios

HWV Title Premiere Venue
46a/b Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno/
Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità		 June 1707 Rome
47 La Resurrezione 8 April 1708 Rome
48 Brockes-Passion 1709? Hamburg
50a/b Esther probably 1718 London
51 Deborah 21 February 1733 King's Theatre, London
52 Athalia 10 July 1733 Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
53 Saul 16 January 1739 King's Theatre, London
54 Israel in Egypt 4 April 1739 King's Theatre, London
55 L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato 27 February 1740 Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London
56 Messiah 13 April 1742 New Music Hall, Dublin
57 Samson 18 February 1743 Covent Garden Theatre, London
58 Semele 10 February 1744 Covent Garden Theatre, London
59 Joseph and his Brethren 2 March 1744 Covent Garden Theatre, London
60 Hercules 5 January 1745 King's Theatre, London
61 Belshazzar 27 March 1745 King's Theatre, London
62 Occasional Oratorio 14 February 1746 Covent Garden Theatre, London
63 Judas Maccabaeus 1 April 1747 Covent Garden Theatre, London
64 Joshua 9 March 1748 Covent Garden Theatre, London
65 Alexander Balus 23 March 1748 Covent Garden Theatre, London
66 Susanna 10 February 1749 Covent Garden Theatre, London
67 Solomon 17 March 1749 Covent Garden Theatre, London
68 Theodora 16 March 1750 Covent Garden Theatre, London
69 The Choice of Hercules 1 March 1751 Covent Garden Theatre, London
70 Jephtha 26 February 1752 Covent Garden Theatre, London
71 The Triumph of Time and Truth 11 March 1757 Covent Garden Theatre, London

Instrumental music

  • 6 Organ Concertos op. 4 (HWV 289 – 294)
  • 6 Organ Concertos op. 7 (HWV 306 – 311)
  • 6 Concerti grossi op. 3 (HWV 312 – 317)
  • Concerto grosso in C major "Alexander's Feast" (HWV 318)
  • 12 Concerti grosso op. 6 (HWV 319 – 330)
  • 3 Concerti a due cori (HWV 332 – 334)
  • Water Music (HWV 348 – 350)
  • Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351)

Media

References

  • Burrows, Donald. Handel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 019816470X.
  • Keates, Jonathan. Handel, the man and his music. London: V. Gollancz, 1985. ISBN 0575035730.
  • Hogwood, Christopher. Handel. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984. ISBN 0500013551.

See also

Handel trivia

For information relating to Handel that most people don't know, see Handel trivia.

External links