Biography of George Frideric Handel / Биография Георга Фридриха Генделя


Handel was born in Halle, Germany, on February 23, 1685. He showed interest in music, but was not encouraged to develop it. His father hated music, considering it a pastime that showed weakness of character. He wanted his son to have the financially secure career of a lawyer and therefore wouldn’t allow young Handel to play an instrument.

Nevertheless, Handel managed to learn to play the organ and clavichord – a small instrument that resembles a piano. One story suggests that Handel’s sympathetic mother smuggled the clavichord to him in the attic. By covering the strings with cloth, Handel was able to practice every night without being heard by his father.

Handel might never have been allowed to practice music openly if it hadn’t been for a duke who heard him play the organ. The duke persuaded Handel’s father to allow him to take music lessons.

The young boy’s first music teacher was F.W. Zachau, the organist of the Lutheran Church in Halle. Handel, who was about eight years old, made quick progress under Zachau’s direction, learning the organ, harpsichord and violin, as well as composition, harmony and counterpoint. By the time Handel was 11, Zachau admitted that there was nothing more he could teach his bright pupil.

Handel’s father wanted to stop Handel’s musical training at this point. He ordered his son to return immediately from a visit to Berlin. Handel reached his father’s house just in time to be with his 74-yearold-father when he died.

For a long time, Handel continued to feel a duty to his father and kept up with studies leading to a law career. At the same time, however, he sharpened his musical skills by writing cantatas for church services and working as a church organist.

At 18, he finally decided his destiny was in music. He left his birthplace for Hamburg, Germany, determined to improve his musical knowledge and ability. It was the start of numerous travels that greatly influenced the composer’s work.

Hungry Handel heads for Hamburg

Hamburg was the centre of German opera when Handel arrived there in 1703. Handel got a job at the city’s famous opera house as second violinist, but soon took advantage of a musician’s absence to show his tremendous talent at the harpsichord.

At the opera house, Handel became friends with Johann Mattheson who, at 22, was four years older than Handel and a composer, singer and music theorist. In December, 1704, their friendship was interrupted by a quarrel that led to a duel over how one of Mattheson’s operas should be performed. Mattheson’s sword split when it struck one of the buttons on Handel’s coat. Handel’s career came close to being over before it really began!

Prince invites Handel to Italy

From Hamburg, Handel travelled to Italy at the invitation of a prince who had heard Handel’s music and was impressed by it; Handel’s primary motivation was to gain experience, especially from the composers of Italy’s famous operas.

Italy proved to be a turning point in Handel’s musical development. He heard and met the composers and performers of some of the world’s greatest operas, oratorios and chamber cantatas, as well as the principal instrumental forms of the concerto and sonata. The experience refined Handel’s talents.

Later, in England, he was called the “great bear” because of his huge size, awkward walk and gruff manner.

Handel sets his sights on London opera house

As in Germany and Italy, Handel absorbed England’s best music and integrated it into his own works.

On his first visit to England, a 26-year-old Handel set his sights on London’s new opera house, the Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket, where he produced the first Italian opera composed specifically for London. Rinaldo was produced in February 1711. Its 15 performances were a tremendous success and a decisive influence on Handel’s later career.

Handel made several trips to Germany where his family and employers were, but he kept returning to England at every opportunity. In 1713, a commission from Queen Anne helped Handel to sever his ties with Germany and make England his permanent home.

Handel was named music director of the Royal Academy of Music when it opened in April 1720. For eight years the Academy was considered Europe’s operatic capital, with the best performers and composers. Several of Handel’s works, and his ability to convince star singers to perform in London, contributed to the Academy’s success.

The Academy’s eventual decline is attributed to the high salaries demanded by performers, as well as to conflicts among the Academy’s rival composers, singers and patrons. Handel’s quick temper and dictatorial manner did not help. He had several spats with other composers. His hot temper, however, was balanced by a cool sense of wit. Many of his friends and acquaintances praised the humorous way Handel would retell a story, often using a mix of four languages – English, French, Italian and German – to get his point across.

Handel was well known for his temper and the way he would yell at a performer who did not follow his orders. When one singer refused to sing a piece as Handel ordered, he actually held her out a window. After the Academy closed, Handel joined another opera house and continued to produce operas and rework his existing material with varying degrees of success. Handel regained his success by establishing the English oratorio as a popular form of music.

Stroke, blindness fail to stop Handel

In April 1737, Handel suffered a stroke, which temporarily paralyzed his right arm and prevented him from performing. The stroke also affected the composer’s mind. While he remained active, his efforts were scattered over the next four years. He continued to produce Italian operas, even though the public no longer favoured them. By the time he was 65, Handel also suffered from blindness in one eye. The loss of sight affected the quality of Handel’s later compositions. Soon after, he went completely blind.

The disability was a serious blow to Handel, who with age had withdrawn from most friends, social functions and politics in order to concentrate on his work. Nevertheless, he continued to play organ and concertos from memory, and later improvised musical scores. Despite his tough exterior, Handel possessed a kind spirit. He regularly gave concerts for the benefit of needy performers and charities.

Handel never married or had children. He left the bulk of his sizable estate to a niece in Germany. There were gifts to his other relations, servants and friends, as well as his favourite charities.