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Music 105 paper on George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach
George frideric handel life essay
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Known for his amazing works such as Water Music and his famous Messiah, the German composer Handel created avant-garde works. Living during the Baroque time, he made his music swell with extravagance. "What a wonderful thing it is to be sure of one's faith. How wonderful to be a member of the evangelical church, which preaches the free grace of God through Christ as the hope of sinners. If we were to rely on our works--my God, what would become of us?" His faith carried him through some of the toughest times. His early, middle, and late life all took different paths and formed a beautiful picture never forgotten.
The life of George Frideric Handel resembled one has come to expect of a composer. Born as a son of a barber-surgeon on February 23, 1685, he showed musical skills from a young age. However, his father did not see why Handel should study music and pushed the study of law onto him instead. However, during a chance encounter, the Duke of Weissenfels urged Handel’s father to provide a musical education for the young man. Left with no other choice, the father followed the Duke’s suggestion and by age 12, Handel had become a proficient organ player as well as finishing his first composition. The prodigy continued in his studies conquering various instruments right and left. Although he enrolled in the University of Halle in 1702 to please his father by studying law, he soon gave up all legal ambitions. His focus now landed on musical studies
Continuing his exposure to the arts, he filled his life of some travel. After staying in Hamburg for some while, he moved to Italy, where he lived for four years. Rome saw him composing The Resurrection in which religious themes appeared for the first time in his pieces. While there ...
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... his life fully until the end, he had one last wish. He would like to die on Good Friday “in hopes of meeting his good God, his sweet Lord and Savior, on the day of his Resurrection.” However his wish did not get granted and he passed away on Good Saturday instead at age 74. Buried in Westminster Abbey, his funeral ended up well attended and people praised his accomplishments.
Handel had great perseverance in both times hard and not. His life seemed destined to be full of encounters in which every single one changed the direction of his life. After his meeting with Jennens, the exposure to the Gospel affected his life ever after. It gave him a different outlook on life with a reason for living. Because of this change, we now have one of most well-known pieces in classical music, Messiah. The music world changed forever after this talented man had graced the Earth.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer, a musician, teacher, and organist who later became a specialist in construction of organs. Bach learnt to play the violin, the orchestra, and the organ from his father and his famous uncle and twin brother to the father, Johann Christoph at a young age. The organ was his chosen instrument. He also achieved success in the art of Fugue, choral polyphone, instrumental music and dance forms. In Eisenach he attended Old Latin Grammar School, the same school that Martin Luther had attended. He sang in the schools choir. His parents died before Bach was 10 years old. His mother died when Bach was nine years old, his father’s death followed nine months later (Sherrane, 2011). After the parents death Bach was taken in by his older brother Johann Christoph who had already established himself as an organist in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph had a great influence in Bach’s success in music as he taught him and encouraged him to study music composition. At the same time Bach was attending the Gymnasium grammar school in Ohrdruf where he studied theology, Latin...
During the night of the 15th and the early hours of the 16th, he wrote one last letter to his mother and received the last finances. At 8:00 a.m., he climbed the stairs to the stage for his execution.
Josef was born on March 19, 1888 in Bottrop, Germany. At the age of 17 he became an elementary school teacher. By 25 he studied in Berlin to expand his skills and become a certified art teacher. Through the years he continued to build his education attending several art academies; The School of Arts and Crafts, Munich Academy, and Franz von Stuck. In 1922 he enrolled to Bauhaus, a teaching institution in Weimar, Germany. Here at Bauhaus is where his achievements began and where he met his lifetime partner, Anni. In 1925 he was the first student invited to join the faculty staff and pronounced “Jungmeister” or “Young Master”. Josef taught various art classes and developed his own techniques as a figurative artist studying printmaking, stain glass, furniture as well as writi...
Beethoven’s early life was one out of a sad story book. For being one of the most well-known musicians one would think that sometime during Beethovens childhood he was influenced and inspired to play music; This was not the case. His father was indeed a musician but he was more interested in drinking than he was playing music. When his father saw the smallest sliver of music interest in Beethoven he immediately put him into vigorous musical training in hopes he would be the next Mozart; his training included organ, viola, and piano. This tainted how young Beethoven saw music and the memories that music brought. Nevertheless Beethoven continued to do what he knew and by thirteen he was composing his own music and assisting his teacher, Christian Neefe. Connections began to form during this time with different aristocrats and families who stuck with him and became lifelong friends. At 17 Beethoven, with the help of his friends, traveled to Vienna, the music capitol of the world, to further his knowledge and connection...
Boynick, Matt. "Georg Friedric Handel." Classical Music Pages. 1 Feb. 1996. 13 July 2005 .
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
George Frideric Handel was born February 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany, being born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach. His father was 73 years old at the time of his birth. George, at a young age, had a passion for music, but his father wanted him to pursue a career in civil law. George’s father believed that music would not provide a real source of income and he would not even allow his son to own an instrument. Although his father objected, George’s mother, Dorothy, supported his love for music and encouraged him to practice. With the help of his mother, he would practice secretly to develop his skill and talent. When George was seven, he had the opportunity to play the organ for a duke’s court and there was where he met Freidrich Zachow,
However, this fascination that Georg had for music was opposed by his mother and relatives, who prohibited any musical activities. Consequently, this led to further determination as Telemann had to compose and study music in secret. At the young age of 12, Telemann created his first opera, Sigismundus. He modeled his works after great composers such as, Agostino Steffani, Johann Rosenmüller, Corelli and Antonio Caldara. Telemann eventually self-taught himself the flute, violin, viola, oboe, trombone, double bass, and several keyboard instruments. Telemann knew J.S. Bach very well, as they both were candidates for being a musical director at the St. Thomas Church. Telemann was picked over Bach; yet, Telemann rejected as he wanted to make productions at the Hamburg Opera house. At the age of 20, Telemann was sent away to Leipzig by his mother, to study law at Leipzig University; however, he met young Georg Handel at a meeting, who drove him back to music. As a result, Telemann began to study music, instead of law. His musical talent flourished, leading him to graduate as a professional musician, which allowed him to be able to compose on a regular basis for
...ts of fever and general ill-health. And in his last ten years in Vienna, the constant need to write commissioned work - for he was the first of the composing freelances, with no regular patrons or court salaries - had worn him down to the point where one bout of fever was sure to finish him off. In July he'd had the anonymous commission to write a Requiem for the Dead; but that had been progressing slowly, because he'd been busy with two operas - La Clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute - and two cantatas at the same time. Thirty-five years of artistic, social and personal pressure was taking its toll.
Handel became a proficient composer of oratorio in part to his early success in composing opera. To elaborate on the histological influences on Handel, his career and education path must be noted. Born in Halle, Germany in 1685, Handel began his career in music as an organist, studying under Friedrich Zachow, one of the most renowned organists of his time. In 1702, he began attending the University of Halle while taking on the position as Organist at Calvinist church, Domkirche. After only a year, he tired of this and decided to travel to Hamburg to study opera. To support this endeavor, while in Hamburg, he played in orchestras as a harpsich...
On January 31, 1797, Franz Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund, Austria. He was the fourth surviving son of Franz Theodor and Elisabeth Schubert. His musical gift was demonstrated ever since his youth. His family’s love of music influenced Schubert from early on. As a child, he already had the ability to play the “piano, organ, and violin.” (Thompson) He also had excellent talent as a singer. And because of his father’s occupation as a schoolmaster, he was able to receive a comprehensive musical education.
George Frideric Handel made an incredible impact on several other well known musical composers. “He has generally been accorded high esteem by fellow composers, both in his own time and since. Bach apparently stated, “ He is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach.” Mozart is reputed to have said of him, “Handel understands effect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt,” and to Beethoven he was “the master of us all…the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb.” (Classic Cat, Legacy)
Though born in a turmoil-ridden Germany and ignored during his life and nearly 80 years after his death, Bach was the greatest and most influential composer from the Baroque period. His music has come to life and will likely never die. Johann Sebastian Bach will remain in the top of his class of composers.
German-English composer, George Frederick Handel, is one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period if not of all time. His work, Messiah, is one of the most famous and beloved works of music in the world. During his career in music, Handel composed Italian cantatas, oratorios (like Messiah), Latin Church Music, and several operas. Handel moved around from country to country writing, composing, and producing music for royalty such as Queen Anne and George of Hanover. In his life, Handel mastered several instruments including the violin and the harpsichord.
In 1829, he left his hometown and started his music tour to Italy, France and England. During this period of time, he published many significant compositions, which included the overture Die Hebriden (1829), the Reformation Symphony (1830) and the Italian Symphony (1832) etc.