George Frideric Handel - Essay Example

George Frideric Handel George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was a cosmopolitan composer of German origin who lived almost his entire lifein England. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most talented composers of his period. He lived during the Baroque period, and his contribution to the music of this period can be compared only to the contribution of his compatriot J. S. Bach, whom he never met. Being of German origin, Handel is often regarded as an English composer not only because he spent almost the entire life in England but also due to his reformation of English classical music. Not only the uniqueness of his music but peoples attitude and his popularity made him an important figure of the Baroque period. In fact, this period left a significant imprint on his life as well as career, and it can be traced both in his biography and works. First of all, it is Handels biography that shows he is a representative of a period in which he was living. During the Baroque period, there were two main factors that influenced composers and their music: location and money, with the latter being, perhaps, the most important one. In order to be able to compose music and be heard, composers needed patrons who could support and put them forward as well as sponsor them. In life and work of Handel, such sponsors performed a very important role. The first person who influenced Handels future was the Duke of Saxe-Weisenfels. Despite the fact that he did not support the future composer materially, it was he who recognized the fact that music was Handels true mission even though Handels father felt like his son becoming a lawyer. The Duke once said to the composers father, “for his own part, he could not but consider it is a sort of a crime against the public to rob the world of such a Genius!” (Kivy 40). It was after Handels visit to the court of Saxe-Weisenfels that he started taking lessons in playing the organ at Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (Kivy 40-41). Handel traveled a lot and during his traveling he met quite a significant number of influential people, many of whom were charmed by the composers talent. He spent about four years in Italy (1706-1710) as he was invited there by Prince Ferdinando de Medici of Florence. In Italy, Handel enjoyed great attention of music-loving prelates, such as Cardinal Pamphili and Cardinal Ottoboni. Not only they but other representatives of both aristocracy and clergy were eager to invite Handel to perform music at their palaces for they recognized his talent. Among such people were the Hanoverian Prince Ernst August, the Earl of Manchester, Cardinal Colonna and Marquis Francesco Ruspoli (Sadie 285). The latter became Handels patron in Rome and hired the composer as a household musician. Handel lived in his Palazzo Bonelli and was supposed to write cantatas for the evening entertainments that took place there. The terms of the composers employment were relatively free and he had an opportunity to create musical pieces commissioned by other persons of influence, such as Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani (Sadie 286). When Handel moved to London in 1712, he met one of his most important patrons there. It was a young representative of an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family the 3rd Earl of Burlington and the 4th Earl of Cork. As the composer moved to England he had no problems with finding a place to live as well as a decent position. It was Lord Burlington who provided Handel with both job and accommodation: the composer lived and worked at Burlingtons mansion at Piccadilly, which is now the Royal Academy of Arts. As Handel had practically nothing to worry about, he focused on the creation of operas, two of which he dedicated to his powerful and rich patron Lord Burlington, “Teseo” (1713) and “Amadigi di Gaula” (1715) (Sadie 286). While being under the patronage of Burlington, the composer was also engaged in other kind of work. For instance, in 1713, he prepared performances at St. Pauls Cathedral as well as an ode dedicated to Queen Anne. The latter awarded Handel with £200 pension a year for life (Sadie 287). In 1717-1718, Handel had another patron. It was James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, one of the richest men in England. Musical historians often doubt whether Brydges was a true music-lover or “perhaps his hiring of Handel wasnt the matter of personal judgment but simply of getting the best there was, since he could afford it” (Til 64). In any case, it odes not really matter as Handel had both accommodation and a perfect opportunity to work. Overall, as it is follows from the composers biography, successful acquaintances and influential and rich patrons played an important role in Handels life and career as a composer. Handels music shows that he is a representative of the period in which he was living. During the Baroque period, it was the Church that established the canons of not only of social and political life of countries but also influenced art. Due to this fact, the religious themes were among the central ones in literature, painting, architecture, and, of course, music. Handel as a representative of the Baroque period embraced the religious motifs and used them in his work. He chose themes proposed by religion in many of his compositions. One of the genres, in which Handel applied religious motifs, is oratorio. Oratorio is a large composition which bears similarity in the form to opera. However, no costumes and decorations are used in the performance of an oratorio for it is a concert piece. What is even of greater importance, is that the libretto of oratorios is usually based on sacred or semisacred themes, which makes it possible to perform them at church. One of the most significant and well-known oratorios by Handel is “La Resurezzione”, which deals with the events of the last three days of Jesus Christs life. While living and working in Italy, the composer also created pieces for Catholic liturgy, for instance, such choirs as “Laudate pueri, “Dixit Dominus”, and “Nisi Dominus”. Handel was a Lutheran and created a wide range of chorals for the Lutheran service living in Halle; but as he lived in Italy he had to adapt and, therefore, he wrote Latin peace anthems based on Psalms as well as oratorios. As he moved to England, Handel continued using religious themes in his pieces alongside with other motifs. It was in London that he wrote “Brockes Passion”, which deals with the events of four Gospels and describes Jesus Christs suffering and death in form of chorales and arias. However, Handel changed the character of an oratorio everyone was used to. In accordance with Til, “a Londoner would object to the impropriety of [Handels] Oratorios as they are now performd” due to their “boldness (of not brashness) to present the biblical texts […] not in church but the theatre” (62). The matter is that took “librettos of biblical stories, combine[d] recitatives, arias and choruses with orchestral accompaniment and mold them into oratorios in the English vernacular (Til 62). In other words, at first, the audience was not used to the unusual style of music and the place where oratorios were performed. Despite this, Handels oratorios, among which his most famous “Messiah”, have become his calling card. Handels greatest contribution to church music was not his oratorios though. His most notable contribution was the series of anthems, especially the Chandos Anthems created for a group of instrumentalists and singers. In addition to these eleven anthems, there are also four Coronation Anthems for George II which were performed by the choir comprised of forty singers and an orchestra of a hundred and sixty musicians in the Westminster Abbey in 1727. One more important feature of Handels work that proves he is the representative of the Baroque period is the fact that he followed the practice of borrowing music from other composers and using it in his pieces as the common Baroque practice. Like the majority of the Baroque musicians, Handel was taught composing by such means as playing, copying, improvising, analyzing and implementing existing compositions in his pieces. Just as any artist, such as a painter or sculptor, is taught using the examples of his famous and successful predecessors pieces, during the Baroque period, musicians were taught the same way. With the aim to develop the sense of taste as well as their own expression and style, they were exposed to well-known pieces of other composers. In fact, this method of breeding composers was generally accepted during the period of Baroque. During Handels life, this method was called “transformative imitation”. From its title, it follows that young composers did not only imitate a well-known fragment, they also had to bring some changes into it, and so did Handel. One of such examples of borrowing can be found in the composers little opera “Acis and Galatea”. In accordance with Murray, in one of the arias, one can hear a fragment taken from another aria from Reinhard Keisers opera “Janus” (5). However, Handel did not just merely copied it, he reworked the musical figure, made it more complex, which added a strong dramatic effect to it (Murray 5-6). In other words, he did not apply the method known today as “cut and paste”. In fact, Murray claims that was a truly genuine Germanic Baroque style and in this regard cites a well-known English musicologist Winton Dean who once said, “the vast majority of borrowings […] involve some reshaping of the material, nearly always to its advantage, and this reshaping is concerned with the balance and proportion of themes, phrases and whole movements” (6). Handel excelled others even in borrowings. He did not only borrowed fragments from other composers and then transformed them, he did the same thing using his own pieces. As the critics say, he did it with for he was in the constant pursuit of perfection and at the same time sometimes he aimed at making his work easier: he borrowed from his own pieces “to produce a work quickly, to produce a work that would almost certainly appeal to the audience, and, most importantly, to produce a work that could […] complete its musical journey” (Murray 7). As it has been mentioned above, the practice of borrowing was common among the composers during the Baroque period. Some researchers claim that sometimes Handel went too far and placed entire movements written by other composers into his pieces and, thus, they accuse him of plagiarism. Today, this is rarely the case because it has been proved that Handel took only the core of a fragment and then transformed it significantly. One way or another, the use of borrowings from other composers is also an evidence that Handel is the representative of a period in which he was living. George Frideric Handel is one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period whose works are remembered, studied and performed in three hundred years after his death. The period during which he was living left a noticeable imprint on his life and career as a composer. First of all, it was a typical situation for the Baroque period that to be a well-known and successful composer whose works were performed and did not gather dust it was necessary to have a patron who would support a composer, often provide with accommodation, introduce him to other people of influence and by this popularize him and his works. Handel did have patrons, and all of them were rather representatives of aristocracy or clergy. Handels music also shows he is the true representative of the period he was living. During the Baroque period, religious themes were the central ones in art, and Handel adhered to them as well as he wrote quite a great bulk of the church music. Finally, his methods of work, such as transformative imitation, were also typical of the Baroque period. Therefore, the composers life and career prove he is the representative of the period in which he was living. Works Cited: Kivy, Peter. Possessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Idea of Musical Genius. Yale University Press, 2001. 37-56. eBook. Murray, N. M. "Handel and Musical Borrowing."Wheatoncollege.edu. Wheaton College, 2009. Web. 3 Oct 2014. . Sadie, July Anne. Companion to Baroque Music. Berkeley, CA: Univesity of California Press, 2002. 285-292. Print. Til, Marian Van. George Frideric Handel: A Music Lovers Guide to His Life, His Faith & the Development of Messiah and His Other Oratorios. Youngstown, NY: WordPower Pub., 2007. Print. Read More