I would be saddened if I only succeeded in entertaining the audience with my works, I would have liked to have made them better people.
– G. F. Handel
This year, the music world commemorates the 250th anniversary of the death of composer George Frideric Handel. This German-English composer traveled to almost every music center in Europe at the time, adopted their musical achievements, and added characteristics of his own personality, creating music that radiates dignity and a zest for life. Alongside the music of J.S. Bach, Handel’s instrumental, orchestral, and vocal music is considered the most valuable expression of the high baroque style.
Biography
He was born on February 23, 1685, in the city of Halle in the eastern German province of Saxony-Anhalt, the same year that two other great Baroque masters, Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, were born.
He showed significant musical talent already in his early youth; by the age of seven, he was a skilled performer on the harpsichord and organ. At the age of nine, he starts composing. The only formal music education he received was from the renowned local organist and pedagogue Friedrich Wilhelm Zachowa, who taught him playing technique and composition, while Handel himself diligently studied harmony and contemporary musical styles.
In accordance with his father’s wishes, he begins studying law, but soon leaves and at the age of seventeen becomes a cathedral organist in his hometown. In 1704, he moves to Hamburg, where he takes a position as a musician in the opera house orchestra. Here he meets significant opera composers and theorists such as Johann Mattheson, Christoph Graupner, Reinhard Keiser, and, following the German compositional style of that time, he composes his first operas, Almira and Nero, which achieve notable success.
Traveling
Between 1706 and 1709, Handel travels to Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice), where he familiarizes himself with the Italian opera style and new trends, and meets important figures from religious and secular life who will significantly influence his future (the Medici family, Marquis Ruspoli and Cardinal Ottoboni, as well as the composers Arcangelo Corelli and Domenico Scarlatti).
In Italy, Handel composes operas in the style of Italian opera. Rodrigo, composed in 1707 in Florence, and Agrippina (1709) achieves spectacular success in Venice, showcasing his compositional maturity and laying the foundations for his reputation as an excellent opera composer.
Handel and Bach – two giants of baroque music
Bach and Handel are like two great rivers that spring up close to each other at the peak of the same mountain, but flow down opposite sides and merge into two very distant seas. With these words, German musicologist Hugo Riemann marked the differences between the two greatest representatives of baroque music.
The achievements of both represent the peaks of baroque music. As children of the same era, they are naturally connected by many common characteristics, but it is difficult to find contemporaries among artists who would be similar in character, life circumstances, and musical style. In the realization of their artistic ideals, the two of them were more distinguished.
They were born in the same year, in two neighboring towns, and never met. Both of them went blind towards the end of their lives and had to dictate their works.
Bach was calm, introverted, and modest, deeply religious. He didn’t strive for recognition or compensation for his work. On the other hand, Handel’s spirit was impulsive and combative, striving for victory or defeat. Handel traveled almost all the musical centers of Europe, socializing with rulers and princes. He became and remained popular, while Bach’s works sank into oblivion after his death. Additionally, in order to fully understand and appreciate Bach’s music, composure and spiritual preparation are needed. Handel’s music always sounds, full of rhythm, he likes clear and well-orchestrated sections, unlike Bach who intertwines, conflicts, and separates his voices in his scores. While Handel’s music is simpler and impresses more with its richness and dignity, Bach’s music is more complex, thoughtful, and to a greater extent the charm of his intimate experiences.
He also composed numerous sacred works, oratorios, and numerous secular cantatas in opera style. The famous psalm “Dixit Dominus” is from this period, as well as the oratorios “Resurrection” and “Triumph of Time”.
He returned to Germany in 1710, where he accepted the position of Kapellmeister, composer, and conductor at the court of Prince Georg Ludwig of Hannover, but soon left for London, where he achieved great success with the opera “Rinaldo”. From 1712 onwards, he permanently settled in Great Britain, which remained his home until the end of his life. By accepting British citizenship, he Anglicized his name to George Frideric Handel.
He composed music for church and court, and in 1717 he entered the service of the Duke of Chandos, under whose patronage he composed the oratorio “Esther” and the “Chandos Anthems” for choir and orchestra. In this period, under the influence of English pastoral opera, based on Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, the opera “Acis and Galatea” was created, Handel’s first dramatic work in the English language. which would become the most performed work of his lifetime.
During the 18th century, Handel composed operas in the Italian style intended for the London opera stages. As the founder and director of the Royal Academy of Music, he composed some of his best operas, mostly based on classical texts, such as Ottone, Xerxes, Radamisto, Julius Caesar, Rodelinda, Tamerlano, etc. He also collaborated with other opera houses, but faced with the decline in popularity of classical opera and temporarily incapacitated after a stroke in 1737, Handel turned to other musical forms.
He created works of a less formal character, which began to attract a new type of audience – the English middle class. Handel is considered the founder of English dramatic oratorio, with arias and grand choral sections, where his melodic talent was fully realized. Oratorios such as Athalia, Israel in Egypt, Samson, Solomon, and especially Messiah, stand out. He embraced some of England’s most beautiful musical achievements.
He was also successful in instrumental music, including some of his famous concerts: solo concerts from Opus 4 (five for organ and one for harp) and Concerti grossi from Opus 6. As the composer of the Royal Chapel, he composed many works for the royal family, such as four anthems for the coronation of King George II. One of them, Zadok the Priest, has been performed at every British coronation ceremony since then.
In old age, he lost his sight but continued to compose. He died in London on April 14, 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey with the highest state honors.
Handel never married and kept his private life secret. Unlike most composers, he acquired a relatively large fortune during his lifetime and was known as a great philanthropist. For the needs of the Foundling Hospital, a charity concert was regularly held every year until the composer’s death, and financial assistance was provided. and he helped poor musicians with their families.
Musical Legacy
Handel created under the strong influence of great composers of the Italian Baroque era, as well as the English composer Henry Purcell. His work is extensive and includes 42 operas, 29 oratorios, concerti grossi, suites, over 120 cantatas, trios and duets, numerous arias, chamber music, a large number of ecumenical works, odes and serenades, and 16 organ concertos.
Handel’s Concerti grossi reveal a master of polyphony and abound with diverse moods, especially those inspired by nature. Handel’s popular Concerti grossi Opus 3 and Opus 6, the composition “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale,” and 16 suites for keyboard instruments, among which the most popular is “The Harmonious Blacksmith.” Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks brought him exceptional popularity, a grand suite in 30 movements composed as a musical backdrop for boat rides on the River Thames of his former patron, the Hanoverian prince who became King George I of England in 1714.
Handel’s operas were written in Italian. In a similar style, but without excessive emphasis on vocal virtuosity, which Italian composers of that time were enslaved to. The content is predominantly historical in nature (Julius Caesar, Xerxes, Tamerlane). After Handel’s death, his Italian operas were forgotten, but a small number of excerpts from those operas remained popular, such as the aria “Ombra mai fù” from Xerxes.
The crown of Handel’s creations are the oratorios to which he dedicated the last period of his work: Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus, Israel in Egypt, Saul, Hercules, etc. His most famous work, the oratorio Messiah, today represents one of the most popular and most performed vocal-instrumental works.
During the first performance of Messiah in London (1743), when the choir sang “Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth,” King George III and all the guests in the audience stood up and remained standing until the choir finished. A few days later, Handel was visited by Lord Kinnout, who congratulated him on the great performance. Handel replied, “My lord, I thank you…” No, I would be sad if I only entertained them, I would like to have made them better.
After the premiere of this piece in Dublin (1724), a critic wrote: The best connoisseurs of music have deemed this oratorio as the most perfect musical work. Words are not enough to express the pleasure that the music provided to the astonished and amazed audience.
For the needs of numerous celebrations, anniversaries, weddings, coronations, Handel composed a considerable number of so-called ceremonial music, always creating exceptionally impactful works that are still almost indispensable for festive occasions today. He is also known for introducing instruments into his works that were not commonly used at that time, thus popularizing them: viola d’amore and violetta marina (Orlando), lute (Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day), trombone (Saul), clarinet and cornet (Tamerlano), theorbo, French horn (Water Music), contrabassoon, viola da gamba, bells, organ, and harp (Julius Caesar, Alexander’s Feast).
Ia Today, Händel is best known for only a few works, such as Water Music and Messiah. However, the revival of interest in Baroque music in the 1960s also brought back a fascination with Händel’s Italian operas. Agrippina, Rinaldo, Orlando, Alcina, Ariodante, and Xerxes are still performed in opera houses and concert halls today, but some consider Julius Caesar and Rodelinda to be the best, thanks to their orchestration and vocal parts, which regularly appear in opera house repertoires.
Händel’s legacy lies in the dramatic power and lyrical beauty of all his music. His ability to build a scene around a single character had a clear influence on Mozart and Rossini. Undoubtedly, Händel’s greatest legacy to future generations is his dramatic oratorio, created partially from existing operatic traditions and partially from his own musical imagination. Haydn and Mendelssohn’s oratorios owe a great deal to Händel.
His music was highly esteemed and popular. Even during his lifetime, Handel was highly esteemed among his fellow musicians, and this admiration continues to this day. For example, his work, Music for the Royal Fireworks, was attended by twelve thousand people. He was one of the first musicians to have a biography written shortly after his death, and his centenary (1785) was celebrated with the publication of his complete compositional works in forty volumes. Mozart once famously said about Handel, “Handel understands effects better than any of us. When he decides to achieve an effect, he strikes like lightning.” Beethoven considered him a master above masters… the greatest composer who ever lived… I will bow my head and knees at his grave… All composers of the world, look up to him and learn how to achieve the greatest effects with simple means!”