George Frideric Handel, certainly one of the greatest composers of the 16th century, took Europe by storm with his compositions, arias, and operas. A master of his trade by the time of his death, Handel was not handed his fortune and fame. With rivalry, odds, and sickness stacked against him, Handel overcame hardships to reach his dreams. Hard work and preservation through even the darkest of days led to hundreds of works of musical art by Handel. Through his knowledge of many musical styles from Germany, Italy, and England, Handel rose to greatness and became a well-known artist of his time, despite adversity. Before one learns of Handel’s life it is important to know his music genre and methods. Handel’s musical collection has been placed in the style of Baroque. A term used generally, Baroque has many different origins and definitions. The word in Portuguese is defined as odd pearls and in English simply means strange or different (Buelow 1). Defined in The Oxford Dictionary of Music by Michael Kennedy as Bizarre, Baroque was a term applied to German and Austrian architecture in the 17th and 18th century. Only later was the term borrowed to describe music (51). Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell and Handel have all had works classified in the Baroque set. The Baroque style eventually began to describe a large portion of musical styles in the late 16th century, which ultimately added even more vagueness to an already imprecise term. Not a lot of things tied pieces of the time together; every piece seemed to be different in style (Buelow 1-5). Contrary to the information put forth by Buelow, Baroque was described in The Complete Book of Classical Music as having a fairly uniform style. Most of the works of th... ... middle of paper ... ...f he found a specific singer unfit. He would even change portions of the oratorio to match the voices of different singers (TIME Magazine; Thompson 881; Vickers). Despite many additions, each version of Messiah contains at least a shred of Handel’s talent. As luck would have it, Handel died performing his greatest piece of art in 1753. After a long stint of sickness in the late 1740s, George went blind composing as piece called Jeptha and his health only worsened. George continued to write and carried out his musical duties despite his blindness. Previous works of Handel were completed with the help of his friend J.S. Schmitt and with around three-thousand people in attendance, his burial was held in Westminster Abbey. Handel died a hero and his pieces continued to be performed by the likes of notable composers such as Mozart and Haydn (Arnold 806; Thompson 881).
Bach had and an unsuccessful eye operation in 1749 which resulted to total blindness. This did not deter him from music as he continued to compose music by dictating the composition to his pupil. He died of a stroke in July 1750 and was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Thomas Church. However his body was later exhumed and reburied in Johanniskirche (Baroque Music).
Word painting, a “musical representation of specific poetic images”, was a fairly common characteristic of music in the European Baroque period. Composers would often set words like “heaven” on a high note and “hell” on a lower note or set depressing lyrics to a descending chromatic scale. One of the most well-known pieces of the European Baroque period is Messiah by George Frideric Handel, which is an oratorio telling the story of Christ’s birth. Since an oratorio lacked costumes, sets, or acting, Handel used a lot of word painting to give the sacred text an ...
Boynick, Matt. "Georg Friedric Handel." Classical Music Pages. 1 Feb. 1996. 13 July 2005 .
This book by John Rupert Martin is a good introductory book in the understanding of Baroque artists and their tremendous variety. Martin defines the Baroque characteristics, but only very broadly leaving a significant amount of room for the reader to make his own deductions. In general, Martin believes that the typical definitions of the Baroque are "too restrictive and hence likely to create more problems of classification and interpretation than it solves." Even the time of the Baroque is left open to the reader when Martin says the Baroque is roughly comprehended by the seventeenth century. It is important to note at the outset that this is only a convenient approximation; for epoch as a whole can certainly not be fitted into such a strait-jacket." This helps to define the Baroque much more generally as a gradual change which can much easily be noticed from the present than the past.
There are several famous Western Composers in History, but the one composer that I wanted to know more about is George Frideric Handel. He was born on February 23, 1682 and he was a German- born British Baroque composer. He studied at the University of Halle before moving to Hamburg in 1703, where he served as a violinist in the opera orchestra. He was born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach. He spent most of his life in London and he was well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel was a son of a barber- surgeon and Handel’s dad wanted him to become a lawyer, but he was into music. Handel’s father didn’t want to by Handel an instrument because he didn’t want him to be a composer. His mom and his aunt was the only one that supported him. Handel started playing the violin,
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,
Alexander Hamilton was a founding father that is often forgotten in American history. All the glory goes to men like George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and others of that sort. Alexander Hamilton was one of the most influential individuals in the formation of the United States economy, and one of the greatest intellectuals, politicians and founding fathers in history.
“[T]he man on the ten-dollar bill is the father of the American treasury system, a signer of the Constitution, one of the primary authors of the Federalist Papers, and the loser of the infamous duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Alexander Hamilton's earlier career as a Continental Army officer is less well known. Yet Hamilton's first experience in public service is important, not only because it was the springboard to his later career, but because it also deeply influenced his values and thinking” (Hamilton).
Alexander Hamilton was a great man that will be remembered for being a great major general of the armed forces of the United States of America. As well as the secretary of the treasury. In 1769, at twelve years old he had a job as a clerk in a general store and Alexander dreaded spending the rest of his life there. He wanted something more for his future. He wished for a war to occur. He wanted to prove himself to be more worthy then a clerk. To his thinking, only some brilliant and heroic act on the battle field would give me a chance to achieve his hopes. He seemed to be doomed to a life of clerking. For one thing, he was at the bottom of a social ladder. His parents, who never married, separated when Hamilton was nine, and his mother was forced to support her two sons by running a grocery from one of the rooms in their tiny home. When she died two years later, the boys were all alone. There was not even a cousin who could afford to take them in.
The oratorio Esther uses a combination of musical techniques to portray the action occurring in this highly dramatic plot. The uses of contour, melisma, instrumental accompaniment, and sequence create a kind of word painting that accentuates both the emotional qualities of the songs and what the songs are actually about. The significance of these musical characteristics shows the implementation of Handel’s techniques in underlining important parts of a work and creating commonality. While not obtaining the fame of Messiah, these attributes relate this work to the compositional finesse of a work by Handel.
George Frideric Handel was born musically inclined. As a child he was deprived of musical instruments because his father wanted him to pursue the law profession. However, George was allowed to take music lessons from a local organist, by the name of Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, after Handel had impressed the Duke when he played the organ at the chapel. In his following years, Handel would travel to many places, accepting many different musical occupations. As Handel traveled, he was introduced to many of his musical influences. He wrote operas, oratorios, anthems, secular cantatas, and also wrote scarred music. Throughout his life, Handel would become famous for his compositions, particularly for his English Oratorios, however the most popular ones today include: “Messiah”, “The Water Music”, and “Royal Fireworks.”
The Baroque period was filled with the new idea that every issue had two sides. Great thinkers and masterminds left behind the idea that the world was either god- influenced or science-influenced. Most people embraced this notion, with the exception of a few. Johann Sebastian Bach was one of these few people. Bach, although the greatest composer of the Baroque period, led a life based on tradition and past influence, which left him virtually ignored for many years after his death.
Baroque era covers the period between 1600 and 1750 beginning with Monte Verdi (birth of opera) and ended with deaths of Bach and Handel. The term baroque music is borrowed from the art history. It follows the Renaissance era (1400-1600). It was initially considered to be a corrupt way of Renaissance by conservatives. The dominant trends in Baroque music correspond to those in Baroque art and literature. Some features of Baroque art included a sense of movement, energy, and tension (whether real or implied). Strong contrasts of light and shadow enhance the effects of paintings and sculptures. Opera is one of the types of music in the Baroque era. It represented melodic freedom. Baroque era was usually referred to as the thorough-bass period. In early Baroque era no tonal direction existed, but experiments in pre-tonal harmony led to the creation of tonality. [1] Baroque genre included instrumental suite, ritornello, Concerto grosso and chant. There were important composers of the Baroque period such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi William Byrd Henry Purcell and George Phillip Telemann. Starting in northern Italy, the hierarchical state -- led by either the urban bourgeoisie or despotic nobles -- replaced the fluid and chaotic feudal system of the middle Ages. [2] For this reason, some historians refer to the Renaissance as the Early Modern Era. Sculptors, building on the techniques of artists such as Giovanni Bernini (1598-1680), found ways to create the illusion of energetic and even violent movement in their works. Painters created larger and more crowded canvases. Virtuosity was used in all the arts. The arts became an important measure of learning and culture. Music moved from the science of number to an expressive art viewed as an equal to rhetoric.
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.
I listened to Messiah composed by George Frideric Handel. This music is well- known as the one of greatest oratorios in the world. In order to listen to this piece deeply, I needed to research about this piece and the composer of Handel. In the research, I could find that Messiah is English –language oratorio that composed in 1741. At that time, most music or oratorios was composed in an ancient language, which is Latin. Therefore, my assumption is that there were only few selected people, who learned the Latin, were able to listen to and enjoy it. However, now, Messiah is translated to many different languages.