George frederick handel short biography. A Biography of the Composer George Frederick Handel Free Essay Example 2023-01-04

George frederick handel short biography Rating: 5,5/10 1560 reviews

George Frederick Handel was a German-born composer who is best known for his operas, oratorios, and concerti grossi. He was born on February 23, 1685, in Halle, Germany, and was the son of a barber-surgeon. Handel's father wanted him to become a lawyer, but Handel had a passion for music and began studying it at a young age.

Handel received his formal music education at the Halle Latin School and later studied composition with the famous composer Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. In 1703, he moved to Hamburg, where he worked as a violinist and harpsichordist in the opera orchestra. It was during this time that he composed his first opera, Almira.

In 1706, Handel travelled to Italy, where he studied with the composer Alessandro Scarlatti and composed several operas. He then moved to London in 1710 and became a naturalized British citizen in 1727.

In London, Handel enjoyed great success as a composer and impresario. He composed operas for the Royal Academy of Music and later for the King's Theatre. Some of his most famous operas include Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, and Alcina.

Handel is perhaps most famous for his oratorios, which are large-scale choral works that tell a religious or historical story. His most famous oratorio is Messiah, which was premiered in Dublin in 1742 and has become a Christmas tradition around the world.

In addition to his operas and oratorios, Handel composed many other works, including chamber music, instrumental concertos, and organ concertos. He was also an accomplished organist and regularly performed at concerts and recitals.

Handel was highly respected in his lifetime and was considered one of the greatest composers of his time. He was a member of the Royal Society of Musicians and was granted a royal pension by King George II. Handel died on April 14, 1759, in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Despite his German origins, he is considered one of the greatest English composers.

George Frideric Handel

george frederick handel short biography

Handel was on his way back to London from Germany in August of 1750 when he was involved in a carriage accident in which he was seriously injured. Handel's accomplishment during the last creative decade of his life seems almost miraculous when to these 20 major works are added the Italian cantatas, several concertos and concerti grossi, and other miscellaneous works. In 1742, Messiah, the work for which he is best known, was first performed in Dublin. The performance included five men and twenty-six boys from a combination of two cathedrals which were participating. Among the works that he composed for some of the most important patrons of those cities are his first two oratorios, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno 1707, later rev. The scores for Nero and Florindo and Daphne are lost.

Next

A Biography of the Composer George Frederick Handel Free Essay Example

george frederick handel short biography

His Later Years Twelve thousand people attended the first performance of Music for the Royal Fireworks, which Handel composed in 1749. Success eluded him during 30 years of Herculean labor to establish Italian opera in England until at last he turned to the creation of English oratorios, sacred and secular, which soon caught on in his adopted land and typify the English high baroque style. From August 1717 to February 1719, he lived in the country estate of Duke of Carnarvon, writing music for him. During the last few years of the 1730 's, Handels operas were not as successful. The first movement from Messiah. Unfortunately, Johann had a problem with alcohol and become alcoholic.

Next

Handel, George Frederick

george frederick handel short biography

With his opera Rinaldo, based on La Gerusalemme Liberata by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, Handel enjoyed great success, although it was composed quickly, with many borrowings from his older Italian works. Handel permanently settled in England in 1712. Six years later, Handel suffered a second springtime stroke. It came as a complete surprise to family and friends at church one day when the eight-year-old climbed up on the organ bench and began to play the postlude. A number of his operas have been recently revived, among them Giulio Cesare 1724 , Tamerlano 1724 , Orlando 1733 , Alcina 1735 , and Serse 1738. Retrieved 3 December 2011. After his newly found success Shellem 2 George Handel moved to Italy in 1706 where he gained a wealth of knowledge on setting Italian lyrics to voice.

Next

Biography of George Frederick Handel

george frederick handel short biography

Using scripture references, the libretto detailed the life of Jesus Christ from His birth and ministry to His crucifixion and resurrection. Handel was born February 24, 1685, in Halle, Germany, to a family of no musical distinction. Most music lovers have encountered George Frederick Handel through holiday-time renditions of the Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus. As if to test a possible market for dramatic compositions in English, Handel revived Acis and Galatea without choruses in a performance at Lincoln's-Inn-Fields Theatre in 1731. His most famous work, the oratorio Messiah, complete with handwritten annotations. Played from a barge close to the Royal Barge, King George was apparently so taken by the music that he insisted that they played it again…and again.

Next

George Frideric Handel Biography

george frederick handel short biography

This could largely be related to the reason why Handel is so underrated. During a second visit to Venice in the season of 1709-1710 Handel met several persons interested in England who no doubt influenced his decision to try his luck as a free-lance musician in London. The performance was considered a great success and was followed by annual concerts that continued throughout his life. Scipio, from which the regimental slow march of the British Grenadier Guards is derived, was performed as a stopgap, waiting for the arrival of Faustina Bordoni. The university was fairly new, having only been founded in 1964.

Next

Short Biography: George F. Handel

george frederick handel short biography

Messiah: Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 56. Sadly, Handel suffered from an apparent stroke at the age of fifty-two years old in April of 1737. Handel told the sponsors of the premier performance of Messiah in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1742, that the proceeds from the performance should be donated to prisoners, orphans and the sick. However, he only produced two more over the next eleven or so years, with the last one being Esther, in or around 1718, although it was relatively unknown at the time and the date may even be off a bit. Beethoven showed interest in music as it ran in the family. Thus, in 1703 he traveled to Hamburg, the operatic center of Germany; here, in 1704, he composed his own first opera, Almira, which achieved great success the following year.

Next

George Frideric Handel: A Brief History

george frederick handel short biography

Buch 4: Übergang zum Oratorium. Handel failed to compete with the Despite the problems the Opera of the Nobility was causing him at the time, Handel's neighbour in Brook Street, I had Lady Rich and her daughter, Lady Cath. Handel died in London on April 14, 1759; the last musical performance he heard, on April 6, was of his own Messiah. He also managed to write more than a few dramatic chambers works during this period. Zakok the Priest, one of the commissioned works, has actually been played ever since at every British ceremony of Coronation. Apparently, a clavichord was smuggled into the attic of their house and young Handel practised it unbeknown to his father. Handel and King George It was also reported that during this time, 1710 specifically, that Handel was received at the home of Anna Marie de Medici and Dusseldorf, her husband, while on his way to London.

Next

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

george frederick handel short biography

His ability to build large scenes around a single character was further extended in the dramatic scenas of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Italian Gioacchino Rossini. In 1727 Handel became a naturalized British citizen; in 1728 the academy collapsed. Handel was forced to face his truancy when in 1714 the elector at Hannover, his former employer, became King George I of England. Handel found great success in his opera. In Italy, Handel composed operas, oratorios, and many small secular cantatas; he ended his Italian visit with the stunning success of his fifth opera, Agrippina 1709 , in Venice. Handel continued composing oratorios at the rate of about two a year, including such masterworks as Samson 1743 and Solomon 1749 , until 1751, when his eyesight began to fail. In the spring and summer of 1707 and 1708 he traveled to Rome, enjoying the backing of both the nobility and the clergy, and in the late spring of 1707 he made an additional short trip to Naples.

Next