German-British Baroque composer (1685–1759)
"Handel" redirects here. For other uses, see Handel (disambiguation).
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (HAN-dəl;[a] baptised Georg Fried[e]rich Händel,[b]German:[ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈhɛndl̩]ⓘ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759)[c] was a German-BritishBaroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Metropolis and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy once settling in London in 1712, where he spent the enlargement of his career and became a naturalised British subject buy 1727.[5] He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German music choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. Comport yourself turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of rendering "high baroque" style, bringing Italian opera to its highest get up, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, good turn introducing a new style into English church music. He anticipation consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age.[6][7]
Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the Spin nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a carnal breakdown, changed direction creatively, addressed the middle class and sense a transition to English choral works. After his success be level with Messiah (1742), he never composed an Italian opera again. His orchestral Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks linger steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok description Priest, has been performed at every British coronation since 1727. He died a respected and rich man in 1759, great 74, and was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.
Interest in Handel's music has grown since the mid-20th hundred. The musicologist Winton Dean wrote that "Handel was not sole a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of interpretation first order." His music was admired by Classical-era composers, exceptionally Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.
Handel was born in 1685 (the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti) in Halle, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, then part end Brandenburg-Prussia. His parents were Georg Händel, aged 63, and Dorothea Taust, daughter of priest Georg Taust.[10] His father was program eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and description Margraviate of Brandenburg.[d]
Halle was a relatively prosperous city, home clone a salt-mining industry, a centre of trade, and a participant of the Hanseatic League.[13] The Margrave of Brandenburg became rendering administrator of the archepiscopal territories of Mainz, including Magdeburg when they converted, and by the early 17th century held his court in Halle, which attracted renowned musicians.[e] Even the less important churches all had "able organists and fair choirs",[f] and study and the letters thrived (Shakespeare was performed in the theatres early in the 17th century). The Thirty Years' War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. However, since the middle of the war the yield had been under the administration of the Duke of Sachsen, and soon after the end of the war he would bring musicians trained in Dresden to his court in Weissenfels.
The arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata (not only in Halle but throughout Germany), of which Handel's family was not a part. Georg Händel (senior) was foaled at the beginning of the war and was apprenticed draw near a barber in Halle at the age of 14 afterward his father died.[g] When he was 20, he married picture widow of the official barber-surgeon of a suburb of Metropolis, inheriting his practice. With this, Georg determinedly began the operation of becoming self-made; by dint of his "conservative, steady, frugal, unadventurous" lifestyle, he guided the five children he had become infected with Anna who reached adulthood into the medical profession (except his youngest daughter, who married a government official). Anna died huddle together 1682. Within a year Georg married again, this time comprise the daughter of a Lutheran minister, Pastor Georg Taust manipulate the Church of St. Bartholomew in Giebichenstein,[20] who himself came from a long line of Lutheran pastors. George Frideric was the second child of this marriage; the first son was stillborn. Two younger sisters arrived afterwards: Dorthea Sophia, born mould 6 October 1687, and Johanna Christiana, born on 10 Jan 1690.[22]
Early in his life, Handel is reported to keep attended the Gymnasium in Halle, where the headmaster, Johann Praetorius [de], was reputed to be an ardent musician.[24] Whether Handel remained there, and if he did for how long, is unidentified, but many biographers suggest that he was withdrawn from high school by his father, based on the characterization of him saturate Handel's first biographer, John Mainwaring. Mainwaring is the source courier almost all information (little as it is) of Handel's youth, and much of that information came from J. C. Explorer Jr., Handel's confidant and copyist.[25] Whether it came from Adventurer or elsewhere, Mainwaring frequently relates misinformation.[h] It is from Mainwaring that the portrait comes of Handel's father as implacably disparate to any musical education. Mainwaring writes that Georg Händel was "alarmed" at Handel's very early propensity for music,[i] "took now and then measure to oppose it", including forbidding any musical instrument superimpose the house and preventing Handel from going to any scaffold where they might be found.[27] This did nothing to oppose young Handel's inclination; in fact, it did the reverse. Mainwaring tells the story of Handel's secret attic spinet: Handel "found means to get a little clavichord privately convey'd to a room at the top of the house. To this coach he constantly stole when the family was asleep".[28] Although both John Hawkins and Charles Burney credited this tale, Schoelcher crumb it nearly "incredible" and a feat of "poetic imagination" remarkable Lang considers it one of the unproven "romantic stories" dump surrounded Handel's childhood. But Handel had to have had wearying experience with the keyboard to have made the impression compel Weissenfels that resulted in his receiving formal musical training.
Sometime between the ages of seven and nine, Handel accompanied his father to Weissenfels, where he came under the notice rot one whom Handel thereafter always regarded throughout life as his benefactor,Duke Johann Adolf I.[j] Somehow Handel made his way equal the court organ in the palace chapel of the Blessed Trinity, where he surprised everyone with his playing.[35] Overhearing that performance and noting the youth of the performer caused picture Duke, whose suggestions were not to be disregarded, to advise to Georg Händel that Handel be given musical instruction.[36] Handel's father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, description young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel. Zachow would verbal abuse the only teacher that Handel ever had. Because of his church employment, Zachow was an organist "of the old school", revelling in fugues, canons, and counterpoint. But he was additionally familiar with developments in music across Europe and his synopsis compositions "embraced the new concerted, dramatic style".[k]
When Zachow discovered picture talent of Handel, he introduced him "to a vast mass of German and Italian music, which he possessed, sacred direct profane, vocal and instrumental compositions of different schools, different styles, and of every master". Many traits considered "Handelian" can fleece traced back to Zachow's music.[38] At the same time Music continued practice on the harpsichord, and learned violin and part, but according to Burney his special affection was for interpretation hautbois (oboe).[39] Schoelcher speculates that his youthful devotion to description instrument explains the large number of pieces he composed sustenance the oboe.
With respect to instruction in composition, in addition succeed to having Handel apply himself to traditional fugue and cantus firmus work, Zachow, recognising Handel's precocious talents, systematically introduced Handel support the variety of styles and masterworks contained in his broad library. He did this by requiring Handel to copy designated scores. "I used to write like the devil in those days", Handel recalled much later.
Much of this copying was entered into a notebook that Handel maintained for the rest call up his life. Although it has since disappeared, the notebook has been sufficiently described to understand what pieces Zachow wished Composer to study. Among the chief composers represented in this meet book were Johann Krieger, an "old master" in the fugue and prominent organ composer, Johann Caspar Kerll, a representative depart the "southern style" after his teacher Girolamo Frescobaldi and imitated later by Handel,[l]Johann Jakob Froberger, an "internationalist" also closely wellthoughtout by Buxtehude and Bach, and Georg Muffat, whose amalgam try to be like French and Italian styles and his synthesis of musical forms influenced Handel.
Mainwaring writes that during this time Zachow had begun to have Handel assume some of his church duties. Zachow, Mainwaring asserts, was "often" absent, "from his love of band, and a cheerful glass", and Handel, therefore, performed on element frequently.[44] What is more, according to Mainwaring, Handel began arrangement, at the age of nine, church services for voice submit instruments "and from that time actually did compose a let every week for three years successively".[45] Mainwaring ends this prop of Handel's life by concluding that three or four eld had been enough to allow Handel to surpass Zachow, roost Handel had become "impatient for another situation"; "Berlin was rendering place agreed upon."[46] Carelessness with dates or sequences (and deo volente imaginative interpretation by Mainwaring) makes this period confused.[m]
Handel's father died on 11 February 1697.[47] Give you an idea about was German custom for friends and family to compose inhumation odes for a substantial burgher like Georg, and young Composer discharged his duty with a poem dated 18 February most important signed with his name and (in deference to his father's wishes) "dedicated to the liberal arts."[49] At the time Composer was studying either at Halle's Lutheran Gymnasium or the Dweller School.
Mainwaring has Handel travelling to Berlin the next year, 1698.[46] The problem with Mainwaring as an authority for this undercurrent, however, is that he tells of how Handel's father communicated with the "king"[n] during Handel's stay, declining the Court's carry on to send Handel to Italy on a stipend[51] and dump his father died "after his return from Berlin."[52] But since Georg Händel died in 1697, either the date of description trip or Mainwaring's statements about Handel's father must be pigs error. Early biographers solved the problem by making the day of the trip 1696, then noting that at the confederacy of 11, Handel would need a guardian, so they possess Handel's father or a friend of the family accompany him, all the while puzzling over why the elder Handel, who wanted Handel to become a lawyer, would spend the whole to lead his son further into the temptation of euphony as a career. Schoelcher for example has Handel travelling extremity Berlin at 11, meeting both Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti slender Berlin and then returning at the direction of his paterfamilias. But Ariosti was not in Berlin before the death model Handel's father,[55] and Handel could not have met Bononcini clear up Berlin before 1702.[56] Modern biographers either accept the year whilst 1698, since most reliable older authorities agree with it,[o] bid discount what Mainwaring says about what took place during rendering trip or assume that Mainwaring conflated two or more visits to Berlin, as he did with Handel's later trips pause Venice.[57]
Perhaps to fulfil a promise to his father or only because he saw himself as "dedicated to the liberal arts", on 10 February 1702 Handel matriculated at the University depict Halle.[58] That university had only recently been founded. In 1694, the Elector of Brandenburg Frederick III (later Prussian King Town I) created the school, largely to provide a lecture assembly for the jurist Christian Thomasius who had been expelled evade Leipzig for his liberal views. Handel did not enrol gravel the faculty of law, although he almost certainly attended lectures.[59] Thomasius was an intellectual and academic crusader, who was depiction first German academic to lecture in German and also denounced witch trials. Lang believes that Thomasius instilled in Handel a "respect for the dignity and freedom of man's mind prosperous the solemn majesty of the law", principles that would maintain drawn him to and kept him in England for bisection a century. Handel also there encountered the theologian and university lecturer of Oriental languages August Hermann Francke, who was particularly considerate of children, especially orphans. The orphanage he founded became a model for Germany and undoubtedly influenced Handel's own charitable vigor when he assigned the rights of Messiah to London's Ragamuffin Hospital.
Shortly after commencing his university education, Handel (though Lutheran[p]) set to rights 13 March 1702 accepted the position of organist at picture Calvinist Cathedral in Halle, the Domkirche, replacing J. C. Leporin, for whom he had acted as assistant. The position, which was a one-year probationary appointment, showed the foundation he confidential received from Zachow, for a church organist and cantor was a highly prestigious office. From it, he received 5 thalers a year and lodgings in the run-down castle of Moritzburg.
Around this same time, Handel made the acquaintance of Telemann. Quaternary years Handel's senior, Telemann was studying law at Leipzig boss was assisting cantor Johann Kuhnau (Bach's predecessor at the Thomaskirche there). Telemann recalled forty years later in an autobiography target Mattheson's Grundlage: "The writing of the excellent Johann Kuhnau served as a model for me in fugue and counterpoint; but in fashioning melodic movements and examining them Handel and I were constantly occupied, frequently visiting each other as well whereas writing letters."[65]
Although Mainwaring records that Handel wrote weekly when assistant to Zachow and as probationary organist at Domkirche substance of his duty was to provide suitable music,[q] no blest compositions from his Halle period can now be identified. Mattheson, however, summarised his opinion of Handel's church cantatas written monitor Halle: "Handel in those days set very, very long arias and sheerly unending cantatas which, while not possessing the suitable knack or correct taste, were perfect so far as unity is concerned."[68]
Early chamber works do exist, but it is tricky to date any of them to Handel's time in Metropolis. Many historians until recently followed Chrysander and designated the hexad trio sonatas for two oboes and basso continuo as his first known composition, supposedly written in 1696 (when Handel was 11). Lang doubts the dating based on a handwritten chestnut of a copy (1700) and stylistic considerations. Lang writes ditch the works "show thorough acquaintance with the distilled sonata accept of the Corelli school" and are notable for "the comforting security and the cleanness of the texture." Hogwood considers cunning of the oboe trio sonatas spurious and even suggests ditch some parts cannot be performed on the oboe. That bona fide manuscript sources do not exist and that Handel never recycled any material from these works makes their authenticity doubtful. Assail early chamber works were printed in Amsterdam in 1724 tempt opus 1, but it is impossible to tell which stature early works in their original form, rather than later re-workings by Handel, a frequent practice of his.
Handel's probationary appointment to Domkirche expired in March 1703. By July[r] Handel was in Hamburg. Since he left no explanation in line for the move[s] biographers have offered their own speculation.
Donald Burrows believes that the answer can be found by untangling Mainwaring's confused chronology of the trip to Berlin. Burrows dates that trip to 1702 or 1703 (after his father's death) bracket concludes that since Handel (through a "friend and relation" livid the Berlin court) turned down Frederick's offer to subsidise his musical education in Italy (with the implicit understanding that noteworthy would become a court musician on his return), Handel was no longer able to expect preferment (whether as a composer, lawyer or otherwise) within Brandenburg-Prussia. Since he was attracted disparagement secular, dramatic music (by meeting the Italians Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti and through the influence of Telemann), Hamburg, a transfer city with an established opera company, was the logical choice.
The question remains, however, why Handel rejected the King's offer, obtain that Italy was the centre of opera. Lang suggests ensure influenced by the teachings of Thomasius, Handel's character was specified that he was unable to make himself subservient to anyone, even a king. Lang sees Handel as someone who could not accept class distinctions that required him to regard himself as a social inferior. "What Handel craved was personal release to raise himself out of his provincial milieu to a life of culture." Burrows notes that, like his father, Music was able to accept royal (and aristocratic) favours without bearing in mind himself a court servant; and so, given the embarrassed monetarist condition of his mother,[52] Handel set off for Hamburg delude obtain experience while supporting himself.
In 1703, he accepted a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of representation Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt.[79] There he met the composers Johann Mattheson, Christoph Graupner and Reinhard Keiser. Handel's first two operas, Almira and Nero, were produced in 1705.[80] He produced flash other operas, Daphne and Florindo, performed in 1708.
According stalk Mainwaring, in 1706 Handel travelled to Italy at the request of Ferdinando de' Medici. (Other sources say Handel was invitational by Gian Gastone de' Medici, whom Handel had met sight 1703–04 in Hamburg.) Ferdinando, who had a keen interest return opera, was trying to make Florence Italy's musical capital emergency attracting the leading talents of his day. In Italy, Music met librettistAntonio Salvi, with whom he later collaborated. Handel maintain equilibrium for Rome and since opera was (temporarily) banned in rendering Papal States, composed sacred music for the Roman clergy. His famous Dixit Dominus (1707) is from this era. He further composed cantatas in pastoral style for musical gatherings in say publicly palaces of duchess Aurora Sanseverino (whom Mainwaring called "Donna Laura")[82] one of the most influential patrons from the Kingdom sunup Naples, and cardinals Pietro Ottoboni, Benedetto Pamphili and Carlo Colonna. Two oratorios, La resurrezione and Il trionfo del tempo, were produced in a private setting for Ruspoli and Ottoboni look onto 1709 and 1710, respectively. Rodrigo, his first all-Italian opera, was produced in the Cocomero theatre in Florence in 1707.[83]Agrippina was first produced in 1709 at Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo affluent Venice, owned by the Grimanis. The opera, with a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, ran for 27 nights successively.[84] Interpretation audience, thunderstruck with the grandeur and sublimity of his style,[85] applauded for Il caro Sassone ("the dear Saxon" – referring to Handel's German origins).
In June 1710, Handel became Kapellmeister to German prince George, the Elector of Hanover, but left at the end of the year.[86] It is probably he was also invited by Charles Montagu the former plenipotentiary in Venice to visit England. He visited Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici and her husband in Düsseldorf on his scrap to London. With his opera Rinaldo, based on La Gerusalemme Liberata by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, Handel enjoyed aggregate success, although it was composed quickly, with many borrowings get out of his older Italian works.[87] This work contains one of Handel's favourite arias, Cara sposa, amante cara, and the famous Lascia ch'io pianga.
Handel went back to Halle twice, to go to the wedding of his sister and the baptism of come together daughter, but decided to settle permanently in England in 1712. In the summer of 1713, he lived at Mr. Mathew Andrews' estate in Barn Elms, Surrey.[24][88] He received a year after year income of £200 from Queen Anne after composing for haunt the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, first performed in 1713.[89][90]
One of his most important patrons was the 3rd Earl light Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, a young and exceedingly wealthy member of an Anglo-Irisharistocratic family.[91] While living in rendering mansion of Lord Burlington, Handel wrote Amadigi di Gaula, a "magic" opera, about a damsel in distress, based on say publicly tragedy by Antoine Houdar de la Motte.
The conception deadly an opera as a coherent structure was slow to suppress Handel's imagination[92] and he composed no operas for five eld. In July 1717, Handel's Water Music was performed more elude three times on the River Thames for King George I and his guests. It is said the compositions spurred conciliation between Handel and the king, supposedly annoyed by the composer's abandonment of his Hanover post.
Main article: Handel funny story Cannons
In 1717, Handel became house composer at Cannons in Middlesex, where he laid the cornerstone for his future choral compositions in the Chandos Anthems.Romain Rolland wrote that these anthems (or Psalms) stood in relation to Handel's oratorios, much the equal way that the Italian cantatas stood to his operas: "splendid sketches of the more monumental works."[95] Another work, which prohibited wrote for The 1st Duke of Chandos, the owner rule Cannons, was Acis and Galatea: during Handel's lifetime, it was his most performed work. Winton Dean wrote that "the sound catches breath and disturbs the memory".[96]
In 1719, the Duke innumerable Chandos became one of the composer's important patrons and a primary subscriber to his new opera company, the Royal Institution of Music, though his patronage declined after Chandos lost substantial sums of money in the South Sea Bubble, which take into custody in 1720 in one of history's greatest financial cataclysms. Composer himself invested in the South Sea Company in 1716 when its share prices were low[97] and sold them before rendering "bubble" burst in 1720.[98] In 1720, Handel invested in interpretation slave-tradingRoyal African Company (RAC), following in the steps of his patron (the Duke of Chandos was one of the chief investors in the RAC). As noted by music historian King Hunter, 32 per cent of the subscribers and investors drain liquid from the Royal Academy of Music, or their close family branchs, held investments in the RAC as well.[99][100][101]
Main article: Royal Academy of Music (company)
In May 1719, Description 1st Duke of Newcastle, the Lord Chamberlain, ordered Handel show accidentally look for new singers.[102] Handel travelled to Dresden to go to the newly built opera. He saw Teofane by Antonio Lotti, and engaged members of the cast for the Royal Establishment of Music, founded by a group of aristocrats to stabilize themselves a constant supply of baroque opera or opera seria. Handel may have invited John Smith, his fellow student prickly Halle, and his son Johann Christoph Schmidt, to become his secretary and amanuensis.[103] By 1723 he had moved into a Georgian house at 25 Brook Street, which he rented on the rest of his life.[104] This house, where he rehearsed, copied music, and sold tickets, is now the Handel Villa Museum.[t] During twelve months between 1724 and 1725, Handel wrote three successful operas, Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano and Rodelinda. Handel's operas are filled with da capo arias, such as Svegliatevi door core. After composing Silete venti, he concentrated on opera predominant stopped writing cantatas. Scipio, from which the regimental slow tread of the British Grenadier Guards is derived,[105] was performed introduce a stopgap, waiting for the arrival of Faustina Bordoni.
In 1727, Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for depiction Coronation ceremony of King George II. One of these, Zadok the Priest, has been played at every British coronation ceremonial since.[106] The words to Zadok the Priest are taken pass up the King James Bible.[107] In 1728, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, which made fun of the type of Italian oeuvre Handel had popularised in London, premiered at Lincoln's Inn Comedian Theatre and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the longest sprint in theatre history up to that time.[108] After nine age the Royal Academy of Music ceased to function but Composer soon started a new company.
The Queen's Theatre at rendering Haymarket (now His Majesty's Theatre), established in 1705 by engineer and playwright John Vanbrugh, quickly became an opera house.[109] Mid 1711 and 1739, more than 25 of Handel's operas premièred there.[110] In 1729, Handel became joint manager of the amphitheatre with John James Heidegger.
Handel travelled to Italy to grip new singers and also composed seven more operas, among them the comic masterpiece Partenope and the "magic" opera Orlando.[111] Abaft two commercially successful English oratorios Esther and Deborah, he was able to invest again in the South Sea Company. Music reworked his Acis and Galatea which then became his get bigger successful work ever. Handel failed to compete with the Theatre of the Nobility, who engaged musicians such as Johann Adolph Hasse, Nicolo Porpora and the famous castrato Farinelli. The muscular support by Frederick, Prince of Wales caused conflicts in description royal family. In March 1734 Handel composed a wedding song of praise This is the day which the Lord hath made, viewpoint a serenataParnasso in Festa for Anne, Princess Royal.[112]
Despite rendering problems the Opera of the Nobility was causing him mock the time, Handel's neighbour in Brook Street, Mary Delany, tale on a party she invited Handel to at her council house on 12 April 1734 where he was in good spirits:
I had Lady Rich and her daughter, Lady Cath. Hanmer put up with her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Percival, Sir John Stanley very last my brother, Mrs. Donellan, Strada [star soprano of Handel's operas] and Mr. Coot. Lord Shaftesbury begged of Mr. Percival fall prey to bring him, and being a profess'd friend of Mr. Composer (who was here also) was admitted; I never was middling well entertained at an opera! Mr. Handel was in say publicly best humour in the world, and played lessons and attended Strada and all the ladies that sang from seven o'clock till eleven. I gave them tea and coffee, and reflect on half an hour after nine had a salver brought interleave of chocolate, mulled white wine, and biscuits. Everybody was uncomplicated and seemed pleased.[113]
In 1733, the Peer of Essex received a letter with the following sentence: "Handel became so arbitrary a prince, that the Town murmurs." Say publicly board of chief investors expected Handel to retire when his contract ended, but Handel immediately looked for another theatre. Elaborate cooperation with John Rich, he started his third company have emotional impact Covent Garden Theatre. Rich was renowned for his spectacular productions. He suggested Handel use his small chorus and introduce picture dancing of Marie Sallé, for whom Handel composed Terpsicore. Bind 1735, he introduced organ concertos between the acts. For picture first time, Handel allowed Gioacchino Conti, who had no securely to learn his part, to substitute arias.[114] Financially, Ariodante was a failure, although he introduced ballet suites at the bring to a halt of each act.[115]Alcina, his last opera with a magic content, and Alexander's Feast or the Power of Music based means John Dryden's Alexander's Feast starred Anna Maria Strada del Pò and John Beard.
Early 1737 he produced Arminio and Giustino, completed Berenice, revived Partenope, and continued with Il Parnasso confined Festa, Alexander's Feast, and the revised The Triumph of Throw a spanner in the works and Truth which premiered on 23 March.[116] In April Music suffered a mild stroke, or rheumatic palsy, resulting in transitory paralysis in his right hand and arm. After brief signs of a recovery, he had a relapse in May, familiarize yourself an accompanying deterioration in his mental capacities. He had amusing competition from John Frederick Lampe; The Dragon of Wantley was first performed at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket establish London on 16 May 1737. It was a parody line of attack the Italian opera seria.
In Autumn 1737 the fatigued Composer reluctantly followed the advice of his physicians and went criticize take the cure in the spa towns of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Aix-la-Chapelle (Burtscheid) in September.[116] All the symptoms of his "disorder" vanished by November. On Christmas Eve Handel finished description score of Faramondo, but its composition was interrupted by renounce of the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. On Boxing Existing he began the composition of Serse, the only comic theatre that Handel ever wrote and worked with Elisabeth Duparc.
A harp and organ concerto (HWV 294) and Alexander's Feast were published in 1738 by John Walsh. He composed music hire a musical clock with a pipe organ built by River Clay; it was bought by Gerrit Braamcamp and was hem in 2016 acquired by the Museum Speelklok in Utrecht.[117][118]Deidamia, his last few opera, a co-production with the Earl of Holderness,[119] was performed three times in 1741. Handel gave up the opera flop, while he enjoyed more success with his English oratorios.
Further information: List of compositions by George Frideric Handel § Oratorios
Il trionfo icon tempo e del disinganno, an allegory, Handel's first oratorio was composed in Italy in 1707, followed by La resurrezione of great consequence 1708 which uses material from the Bible. The circumstances take possession of Esther and its first performance, possibly in 1718, are obscure.[123] Another 12 years had passed when an act of plagiarisation caused him to take up Esther once again.[124] Three under performances aroused such interest that they naturally prompted the solution of introducing it to a larger public. Next came Deborah, strongly coloured by the coronation anthems[125] and Athaliah, his ordinal English Oratorio. In these three oratorios Handel laid the bottom for the traditional use of the chorus which marks his later oratorios.[127] Handel became sure of himself, broader in his presentation, and more diverse in his composition.[128]
It is evident accumulate much he learned from Arcangelo Corelli about writing for instruments, and from Alessandro Scarlatti about writing for the solo speak, but there is no single composer who taught him county show to write for the chorus.[129] Handel tended more and author to replace Italian soloists with English ones. The most paltry reason for this change was the dwindling financial returns free yourself of his operas.[130] Thus a tradition was created for oratorios which was to govern their future performance. The performances were agreedupon without costumes and action; the singers appeared in their weary clothes.
In 1736, Handel produced Alexander's Feast. John Beard appeared send for the first time as one of Handel's principal singers lecturer became Handel's permanent tenor soloist for the rest of Handel's life.[132] The piece was a great success and it pleased Handel to make the transition from writing Italian operas preserve English choral works. In Saul, Handel was collaborating with Physicist Jennens and experimenting with three trombones, a carillon and extra-large military kettledrums (from the Tower of London), to be agree with "...it will be most excessive noisy".[133]Saul and Israel in Egypt, both from 1739, head the list of great, mature oratorios, in which the da capo aria became the exception roost not the rule.[134]Israel in Egypt consists of little else but choruses, borrowing from the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. Trim his next works, Handel changed his course. In these complex he laid greater stress on the effects of orchestra direct soloists; the chorus retired into the background.[135]L'Allegro, il Penseroso inharmonious il Moderato has a rather diverting character; the work assay light and fresh.
During the summer of 1741, the Ordinal Duke of Devonshire invited Handel to Dublin, capital of representation Kingdom of Ireland, to give concerts for the benefit near local hospitals.[137] Composed in London between 22 August and 14 September 1741, Handel's Messiah was first performed at the Spanking Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin on 13 April 1742, with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals participating.[138] Handel secured a balance between soloists and chorus which he never surpassed. In 1746 and 1747, Handel wrote a series of force oratorios - Judas Maccabaeus (Handel), Joshua and Alexander Balus - which celebrate the British monarchy's victories over the Jacobites. Hinder 1747, Handel wrote his oratorio Alexander Balus. This work was produced at Covent Garden Theatre in London, on 23 Pace 1748, and to the aria Hark! hark! He strikes depiction golden lyre, Handel wrote the accompaniment for mandolin, harp, fiddle, viola, and violoncello. Another of his English oratorios, Solomon, was first performed on 17 March 1749 at the Covent Garden Theatre.[140] The text for Solomon is thought to have back number penned by the English Jewish poet and playwright Moses Mendes, based on the biblical stories of the wise king Solomon.[141]Solomon contains a short and lively instrumental passage for two oboes and strings in act 3, known as "The Arrival sustenance the Queen of Sheba".[142]
The use of English soloists reached corruption height at the first performance of Samson. The work crack highly theatrical. The role of the chorus became increasingly indispensable in his later oratorios. Jephtha was first performed on 26 February 1752; even though it was his last oratorio, take a turn was no less a masterpiece than his earlier works.[143]
Further information: Will of George Frideric Handel
In 1749, Handel composed