HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

George Frideric Handel

Birth of Classical Music: George Handel

George Handel

Painting: Balthasar Denner

Born on 5 March 1685 in Halle, Germany, George Frideric Handel was a young man in his early twenties when England and Scotland forging the Treaty of Union in 1706 to become the United Kingdom in 1707. Handel joins Johann Sebastian Bach as a major composer at the height of Baroque. He was ten years of age when England's baroque Henry Purcell died, for whom he would become a tardy replacement when he became an English subject in 1723. The triad of major players in the baroque at Handel's time were Italy where it began and maintained eminence, followed by Venice and Germany. Baroque definitely flourished in Catholic France as well, though France, an empire decidedly in of and to itself, was at odds against the Holy Roman Empire throughout the baroque period. The first Holy Roman Emperor had been French per Charlemagne in 800 AD, a complex weave for the next eleven centuries to the point of becoming its adversary toward Napoleon's final vanquishing of the Empire in 1806. Handel's Germany a century earlier was sway to the Holy Roman Empire.

Returning to England, the baroque had taken a little longer to catch on in a place already set apart, as an island, from the Continent. England had its own ways, such as the highest literacy rate of the general population in Europe, and its long-developed love of song with which baroque instrumentation was hard-pressed to compete. To visit England was more like a trip to a foreign country than to Poland. Even Spain, now a monarchy for the last couple hundred years since Isabella and Ferdinand, was overall more baroque, and very much so, than England, the latter a European odd ball during a period when France didn't intend to play second fiddle to the Holy Roman Empire. Excepting Purcell, England occupies frugal space on the map of the elaborate baroque in comparison to its continental centers, making its acquisition of Handel all the more significant, bearing witness to the alliance between England and Germany as Protestant nations as well.

Handel's father had been a barber-surgeon to the courts of both Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Despite being groomed for a career in law and being forbidden to tinker with musical instruments, Handel is said to have learned to play harpsichord and organ as a child in secret. An early performance for Duke Johann Adolf I of Saxe-Weissenfels was thus surprising: he wasn't supposed to be able to play at all, much less well enough for his father to relent and agree that Handel study under Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow at the Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen in Halle.

At this point I'll no more the insistent dare that I've heard in my head to go as far as possible without referring to 'Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis' written by Bernd Baselt from 1978 to 1986, the thematic catalogue which supplies the numbers HWV 1 through HWV 612 which are seen with Handel. Compiled by genre rather than date, HWV 1 is not the first, which would be for opera through HWV 42. Nor does HWV 612 represent Handel's last work, though it would be for keyboard since HWV 425.

By age 13 Handel was skilled enough to perform for Frederick I of Prussia. He began to study law at the University of Halle in 1702 while working as an organist, but quit in 1703 to play harpsichord and violin in the orchestra at the Oper am Gänsemarkt theatre in Hamburg. Handel premiered his first two operas, 'Almira' HWV 1 and 'Nero' HWV 2, in January and February of 1705. 'Nero' is entirely lost Handel's later opera of 1708, 'Florinda' HWV 3, of which only scraps exist.

'Sanerà la piaga un dì' ('He'll Heal the Sore One Day') Handel

From the opera 'Alvira' HWV 1 Premiere 8 January 1705 Hamburg

Libretto: Friedrich Christian Feustking after G. Pancieri

Soprano: Ann Monoyios backed by the Fiori Musicali

In 1706 Handel took a trip to Italy to compose for the Medicis, especially opera. He composed his first oratorio in 1707, 'Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno' ('The Triumph of Time and Disillusion') HWV 243a, with libretto by Benedetto Pamphili. Handel revised that in 1737 as 'Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità' ('The Triumph of Time and Truth') HWV 46b. He was blind by the time of its 1757 revision, so his participation in that was minimal. Handel's 'La Resurrezione' HWV 47 followed in 1708, performed in Rome on Easter Sunday of 8 April.

In 1710 Handel became Kapellmeister to German Prince George, Elector of Hanover, who would become King George I of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. But Handel preceded George I in England when he took his opera, 'Rinaldo', to London for its premiere on 24 February 1711, that the most frequently performed opera during his lifetime. IMSLP shows that as HWV 7a (1711) HWV 7b (1731). In 1712 Handel was earning £200 (about $300) a year from Queen Anne. He also found patronage in Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork.

'Water Music' HWV 348-350 w 'Suite No.5' in E major HWV 430 Handel

'Water Music' premiere for George I on 17 July 1717

'Suite No.5' for keyboard published 1720

Paul Kuentz Orchestra Harpsichord: Chantal Perrier-Layec

St. Etienne du Mont in Paris 1991

Handel served as composer to the Duke of Chandos at his Cannons estate from August 1717 to February 1719. The Cannons was a project begun by the Duke in 1713 to the purpose of architectural, artistic and landscaping splendor at a cost of £200,000, equivalent to £27,220,000 today (nigh 41 million dollars). Forty years later it ceased to exist, being demolished and even its bricks sold, due to twists of fortune with the South Sea Company that left its owner, the Duke's son, Henry, in ruins as well.

In the meantime Handel founded the Royal Academy of Music at Cannons in 1719 (not to be confused with the latter Royal Academy of 1822). Handel became an English subject in 1923, beginning to rent his place at 25 Brock Street in Mayfair, London, where he stayed the remainder of his life. He found time to write settings for several texts by B. H. Brockes in 1724-26, resulting in nine German arias catalogued as HWV 202-210. Handel later put a few texts by Charles Wesley to music about 1747, HWV 284-286, perhaps for Priscilla Rich.

Handel composed his anthem, 'Zadok the Priest' HWV 258, for the 1727 coronation of King George II. With text from 1 Kings 1:38–40 employed, concerning the anointing of King Solomon, that has been performed at every British coronation ever since. Earlier settings for 'Zadok the Priest' used in coronation anthems had been composed by Thomas Tomkins for King Charles I in 1626 and Henry Lawes for King Charles II in 1661.

'Zadok the Priest' HWV 258 Handel

Coronation anthem for King George II Premiere at Westminster Abbey 11 Oct l727

BBC Symphony C & O conducted by Sir Andrew Davis at Buckingham Palace 2002

'Minuet in G minor' HWV 434:4 Handel

From 'Suite de pièce Vol. 2' for keyboard HWV 434 -442 Published 1733

Piano: Cubus Elteknik

Handel's 'Alexander's Feast' HWV 75 arrived in 1736, that an ode in honor of St. Cecilia, patron of music, with libretto by Newburgh Hamilton borrowed from John Dryden's 'Alexander's Feast' of 1697 with music by Jeremiah Clarke (score now lost). Dryden had been England's first poet laureate, a station he occupied from April 1668 to January 1688, that an an official honor created by Charles II.

Handel's oratorio, 'Saul' HWV 53, premiered in London in 1739. Come his opera 'Imeneo' HWV 41 on 22 November 1740 with an Italian libretto by Rolli. It was 10 January 1741 when his last opera to be performed in public appeared in London per 'Deidamia' HWV 42.

In the summer of 1941 Handel went to Dublin to perform hospital benefits for Duke William Cavendish of Devonshire where he began work that same year on his oratorio, 'Messiah' HWV 56, that premiering in Dublin in 1742.

'Messiah' HWV 56 Oratorio by Handel

Premiere 13 April 1742 at the New Music Hall in Dublin

Libretto: Charles Jennens

This performance at the Theater an der Wien 2009

Arnold Schoenberg Choir directed by Erwin Ortner

Ensemble Matheus conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi

On 17 March 1749 Handel presented his oratorio, 'Solomon' HWV 67. After a rehearsal on 21 April 1949 Handel's suite for wind instruments, 'Music for the Royal Fireworks' HWV 351, was officially performed on 14 April 1749 for George II. Handel omitted violins from that debut since George II preferred winds and drums only as a military man.

'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' Handel

From the oratorio 'Solomon' HWV 67

Premiere 17 March 1749 at the Covent Garden Theatre in London

This performance by the Budapest Strings directed by Béla Bánfalvi

'Music for the Royal Fireworks' HWV 351 Handel

Premiere 27 April 1749 at Green Park in London

This performance by the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard

A carriage accident in 1750 at age 65 saw Handel notably faltering into old age, that soon followed by going blind. He was working on his oratorio, 'Jeptha' HWV 70, when he couldn't continue beyond 13 Jan of 1751, as noted by himself on his score. Handel underwent cataract surgery, which may have done more harm than good, as he is thought to have been completely blind by the time 'Jeptha' saw delayed performance at the Covent Garden Theatre (Royal Opera House) on 26 February 1752. Handel was blind the last seven years of his life before dying on 14 April 1759. He was buried in Westminster Abbey with more than 3000 attending his funeral.

Handel had run three commercial opera houses until 1741. He'd never married, leaving behind a collection of seventy paintings rather than progeny. Along w 42 operas, 29 oratorios and the ten hymns mentioned above Handel composed 120 cantatas amidst a host of other works. His trips had made him the most important musical link between England, Ireland, Germany and Italy during high Baroque. Handel's fame today is due much to the esteem of major composers during his time and continuing to this day.

Sources & References for Handel:

Bach Cantatas

GF Handel (chronology)

Handel Haus (chronology)

VF History (notes)

Audio of Handel:

Individual Works:

Künft'ger Zeiten eitler Kummer (Hymn HWV 202 / 1724-26)