 |
{han'-dul}
George Frideric Handel, one of the greatest composers of the
baroque period, was born in Halle, Germany, on Feb. 23, 1685.
He died in London on Apr. 14, 1759 and was buried in Westminster
Abbey. In his later years the composer preferred the anglicized
form of his name (used in this article) rather than the original
form, Georg Friedrich Handel. Handel is best known for his
English oratorios , particularly the Messiah.
At the age of 12, Handel became the assistant organist at
the cathedral of Halle, where the principal organist was his
teacher, the excellent composer Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau (1663-1712).
In 1703, Handel moved to Hamburg, one of the principal musical
centers of Germany. There he played violin in the opera orchestra,
directed by the eminent composer Reinhard Keiser. Handel composed
two operas for the Hamburg theater, Almira (1705) and Nero
(1705).
About 1706, Handel went to Italy, where he remained until
1710. His Italian travels took him to Florence, Venice, Rome,
and Naples. Among the works that he composed for some of the
most important patrons of those cities are his first two oratorios,
Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (1707, later rev. and
trans. as The Triumph of Time and Truth) and La Resurrezione
(1708), and the opera Agrippina (1709). These works reveal
Handel's growing mastery of Italian style.
In 1710, Handel returned to Germany and became musical director
to the elector of Hanover. Late in the same year he visited
England, where his opera Rinaldo was performed in 1711 with
great success. After another brief stay in Hannover, Handel
received a leave of absence to return to London; he never
resumed his Hannover position. In 1714 his former Hannover
employer became King George I of England, and the new king
bestowed special favors on Handel, who made London his permanent
home and, in 1727, became an English citizen.
In England Handel continued to compose in the Italian style,
but he also absorbed the characteristics of English music,
especially English CHORAL MUSIC. As musical director of the
Royal Academy of Music from 1719 to 1728 and of the so-called
Second Academy from 1728 to 1734--both organizations for the
performance of Italian opera--Handel became London's leading
composer and director of Italian operas. In fact, he was among
the most important opera composers of the baroque period.
Most of the texts of his approximately 40 operas are based
on stories about heroic historical figures, but some are fantasies
with magical scenes, and others are light "antiheroic"
works. Musically, Handel's operas are outstanding for their
imaginative use of the conventions of serious opera. A number
of his operas have been recently revived, among them Giulio
Cesare (1724), Tamerlano (1724), Orlando (1733), Alcina (1735),
and Serse (1738).
Today Handel is far better known as a composer of English
oratorios than of Italian operas. Of his 17 English oratorios,
the earliest date from the period in which he was still composing
Italian operas: Esther (1718; rev. 1732), Deborah (1733),
Athalia (1733), Saul (1738), and Israel in Egypt (1738). From
1740 on, however, he abandoned Italian opera and concentrated
on English oratorio. From this later period dates Messiah
(first performed in 1742), the most influential and widely
performed oratorio of all time. Among his other outstanding
oratorios of this period are Samson (1741), Belshazzar (1744),
Solomon (1748), Theodora (1749), and Jephtha (1751). Mostly
based on Old Testament stories, Handel's oratorios are three-act
dramatic works, somewhat like operas but performed in concert,
without staging or action. The Messiah is exceptional, for
it is not so much dramatic as meditative. Handel's English
oratorios are unusual for their time in their prominent use
of the chorus.
A prolific composer in many other genres, Handel is well known
for his outstanding contributions to English church music,
secular vocal music, and instrumental music of various types,
particularly the CONCERTO.
 |
 |
|
- 
