By: Vivian Reynoso

Georg Friedrich Händel

BornGeorg Händel was born on February 23,

1685.He was born in Halle, Germany

Georg loved music, but he was never 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 alawyer and therefore wouldn’t allow young Handel to play aninstrument.

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ClavichordNevertheless, Handel managed

to learn to play the organ and clavichord – a small instrument that resembles a piano.

While his mother nurtured his musical gifts, his father tried to dissuade him from pursuing the dubious occupation of a musician.

Georg never got married nor had any kids.

Georg received critical musical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712) and becoming a naturalized British subject in 1727.

Within fifteen years, Handel, a dramatic genius, started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, but the public came to hear the vocal bravura of the soloists rather than the music.

InfluencesBy then he was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

By late 1706 he decided to travel independently to Italy, where he composed church, secular and theatre music for illustrious patrons in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice; he also met numerous Italian composers who significantly influenced his work, such as Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, his son Domenico Scarlatti, Giacomo Perti, Bernardo Pasquini, Francesco Gasparini, Antonio Caldara and many others.

OperasGeorg settled in permanently in Britain, writing Opera’s for Queen’s theatres.

Although for a short while he also composed music for the Earl of Carnarvon's country estate Cannons (including the delightful dramatic masque Acis and Galatea).

In 1719 Handel became the music director of the newly-founded Royal Academy of Music, a company organsied to establish Italian opera on the London stage; important operas written for this company include Radamisto, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Tamerlano and Rodelinda.

Hallelujah was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Hallelujah

Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by others.

Other Famous Works

Water musicRoyal Fireworks SuiteMessiahSix Organ ConcertosZadok the PriestRonaldo

Health Problems

Georg died in London on April 14, 1759

By 1752, he was totally blind

He had another stroke that left his right eye blind. Shortly after that his right eye degenerated.

At age 52, Händel suffered a stroke which impaired his right arm.

Recources:Googlehttp://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Handel.htmYoutubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vnmt1kZxBDI&vq=medium#t=133