Geroge Frideric Handel

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Geroge Frideric Handel

• 1685-1759

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George Frideric Handel

• German Composer
• Master of Italian opera and English oratorio
• Started as violinist and harpshichordist in opera
  house
• Also worked as court music director

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George Frideric Handel

• Took a leave of absence from employer to go to
  England for the production of one of his operas
• He stayed in England for 47 years
• His employer eventually moved to England also
• And was, indeed, one of Handels bosses again
• Englands most important composer
• Director of commercial opera company
• Composer, and performer
• One of the few wealthy composers we will encounter

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Handels Music

• Wrote a great deal of instrumental music
• Most of his output was Italian opera and English
  oratorio
• Oratorios mostly based on the Old Testament,
  but not church music
• Written for paying audiences
• Plots and characters but no acting or scenery

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Handels Music

• Oratorio
• Chorus is focus of Handels oratorios
• Imaginative combination with the orchestra
• Many changes of texture much more than Bachs
  music
• Polyphonic texture is prominent in Handels music
  too

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The Oratorio

• Major development in baroque vocal music
• Large-scale composition (often 2 hours long)
• A lot of movements
• Chorus
• Vocal soloists
• Orchestra
• Set to narrative text
• Tells a story, or has a plot
• No acting, scenery, or costumes
• Just a concert which tells a story

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Oratorio

• Often based on Old Testament stories
• Not intended for church performance
• Today often performed in churches
• Operas were not performed during Lent
• This was a way of getting entertainment without
  breaking church rules
• This was also a way for opera composers and
  performers like Handel to make money during Lent

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Messiah (1741)by G. F. Handel

• Written to benefit people in debtors prisons
• People in Ireland were so looking forward to the
  first performance, that they had to increase the
  usual concert hall space
• Women were asked not to wear hoop skirts
• Men were asked not to bring swords

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Messiah

• Unusual oratorio
• Not narrative, no plot or characters
• New testament as well as old

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Messiah

• 2 ½ hours long
• Over 50 movements
• Today often performed at Easter and Christmas
• Often by very large orchestras and choruses
• Unlike Handel would have heard