George fredrick handel biography

Oratorios In Handel, as determined as ever, began yet another operatic endeavor, which ended with his last opera, Deidamia, in During the s, however, the most important directions taken by Handel were, first, the composition of English dramatic oratorios, notably Athalia and Saul ; and, second, the surge of instrumental music used in conjunction with the oratorios, including some of Handel's greatest concertos-the solo concertos of op.

In Messiah, the work for which he is best known, was first performed in Dublin. Handel continued composing oratorios at the rate of about two a year, including such masterworks as Samson and Solomon , until , when his eyesight began to fail. Handel died in London on April 14, ; the last musical performance he heard, on April 6, was of his own Messiah.

Legacy Throughout his life Handel avoided the rigorous contrapuntal techniques of his compatriot and exact contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach and achieved his effects through the simplest of means, trusting always his own innate musicianship. The music of both composers, however, sums up the age in which they lived. After them, opera took a different path; the favorite baroque genres of chamber and orchestral music, trio sonata and concerto grosso, were largely abandoned; and the development of the symphony orchestra and the pianoforte led into realms uncharted by the baroque masters.

Thus, their influence cannot be found in specific examples. The Royal Houses of Britain and Germany had always been closely inter-related, and the Act of Settlement of which secured the Protestant succession to the Crown of England, had made Handel's Hanoverian employer George Louis' mother heiress-presumptive to the throne of Great Britain.

Thus the Elector George Louis would have been anxious to have Handel spy out the land and report back to him on the London musical, social and political scene. During this first London visit, lasting eight months, Handel was favorably received at Queen Anne's court, though his eyes were largely set on Vanburgh's new opera house, the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket.

George fredrick handel biography

Rinaldo, the first Italian opera specially composed for London, was performed there in and was a sensational success. Returning only briefly to Hanover in , Handel was back in London by when he was invited to produce an English Court Ode for Queen Anne's birthday. The Queen normally took little interest in her composers, being according to the Duke of Manchester ''too busy or too careless to listen to her own band, and had no thought of hearing and paying new players however great their genius or vast their skill''.

But the Queen's health deteriorated, and by September Britain had a new monarch. One of the first engagements for the new George I was to attend morning service at the Chapel Royal where ''a Te Deum was sung, composed by Mr Handel" - and Handel's position with the new ruler appears to have been secured. In the summer of the king requested a concert on the River Thames and Handel was commissioned to write 'Water Music', for wind and strings.

With members of the court and musicians accommodated in barges, the evening's entertainment went on until the early hours of the morning. From Royalty to Opera. Handel's great love of opera, its flamboyant singers and the challenge of inciting and maintaining the interest of a fickle public audience began to draw him away from the fairly constricted circle of the court and its music.

Handel took an appointment as resident composer with the Earl of Carnarvon from the Duke of Chandos who maintained a complement of singers and instrumentalists for use in his two houses, one in central London, the other in the then! Handel would have been pleasantly surprised, as would any composer, at the quality of the Duke's musical establishment.

As Paymaster General during the reign of Queen Anne, the Duke appears to have made good use of his position in directing a substantial portion of the nation's finances into his private purse, drawing considerable scandal in the process. His musical establishment was of the highest order; directed by Pepusch, it included such names as Francesco Scarlatti, brother of Alessandro, and Johann Christoph Bach, cousin of J.

The Duke wrote to his friend and court physician Dr Arbuthnot, that "Mr Handel has made me two new Anthems, very noble ones Over the next two years Handel composed eleven anthems, a Te Deum, and two masques - Acis and Galatea and Esther. At the same time, during the winter of members of the nobility created an Italian opera company in London, initially funded by an eight-year subscription, calling it, with the king's permission, 'The Royal Academy of Music' with Handel as its music director.

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 , after he had lost a fortune in the business. In he became blind, and died in London. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. 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.

Since the s , 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 and , Alcina , Ariodante , Orlando , Rinaldo , , Rodelinda , and Serse also known as Xerxes stand out and are now performed regularly in opera houses and concert halls.

English audiences took to his opera Rinaldo, and several years later Handel moved to England permanently. He impressed King George early on with the Water Music of , written as entertainment for a royal boat outing. Through the s Handel composed Italian operatic masterpieces for London stages: Ottone, Serse Xerxes , and other works often based on classical stories.

In the s and s Handel turned to the oratorio which displayed to maximum effect Handel's melodic gift and the sense of timing he brought to big choral numbers.